Approaches - Behaviourism Flashcards
What is the primary focus of the behaviourist approach?
The behaviourist approach focuses only on studying behaviour that can be observed and measured. It does not investigate mental processes of the mind. Early behaviourists like John B. Watson rejected introspection as it involved too many vague and difficult-to-measure concepts. Instead, behaviourists emphasized maintaining control and objectivity through lab experiments. They identified two forms of learning: classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
What is classical conditioning, and who first demonstrated it?
Classical conditioning is learning through association and was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov. He showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as food. Over time, the dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell (a stimulus) with food (another stimulus) and produced the salivation response every time they heard the sound. This demonstrates how a neutral stimulus can come to elicit a conditioned response through association.
What are the types of consequences in operant conditioning as demonstrated by Skinner?
Skinner identified three types of consequences of behaviour in operant conditioning:
Positive reinforcement: Receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed, e.g., praise for answering a question correctly.
Negative reinforcement: Occurs when an animal or human avoids something unpleasant, e.g., submitting an essay on time to avoid teacher criticism or a rat pressing a lever to stop an electric shock.
Punishment: An unpleasant consequence of behaviour, e.g., being shouted at for talking in class, reducing the likelihood of repeating the behaviour.
What is the impact of positive and negative reinforcement versus punishment on behaviour?
Positive and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood of behaviour being repeated, while punishment decreases the likelihood.
In Skinner’s experiment, what behaviours were shown by the rats?
Skinner conditioned rats to activate a lever to receive food (positive reinforcement). He also demonstrated that rats could learn to perform the same behaviour to avoid an electric shock (negative reinforcement).
What is one evaluation point regarding the scientific credibility of the behaviourist approach?
Behaviourism was able to bring the language and methods of the natural sciences into psychology. By focusing on observable behaviour in highly controlled lab settings, behaviourists emphasized objectivity and replication. This scientific rigor helped establish psychology as a scientific discipline, giving it greater credibility and status.
What is one evaluation point regarding the real-world application of behaviourist principles?
Behaviourist principles have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours and problems, such as token economy systems in institutions like prisons and psychiatric hospitals. These work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges. Classical conditioning has also been applied to treatments for phobias.
What is one evaluation point about the environmental determinism perspective of behaviourism?
The behaviourist approach sees behaviour as determined entirely by past experiences that have been conditioned, ignoring the possibility of free will. Skinner suggested that free will is simply an illusion, and all behaviour results from conditioning history.
What is one evaluation point about ethical and practical issues in animal experiments?
Behaviourist experiments, such as Skinner’s Box, raised ethical concerns about the stress and adverse conditions imposed on animals. These conditions could have affected how the animals reacted, potentially impacting the validity of the results.
