Approaches in Psychology - The Behaviourist Approach Flashcards
Who founded the Behaviourist Approach?
J.B Watson
When was the Behaviourist Approach founded?
1915
What did the Behaviourist Approach reject?
The vagueness of introspection and instead focused on how we are a product of learning, experience and environment
Who are other important contributors to the Behaviourist Approach?
Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner
What is behaviourism primarily concerned with?
Observable behaviour which can be objectively and scientifically measured
What is our mind when we are born?
A blank slate
What is behaviour a result of?
Stimulus - response
What is all behaviour learn from?
The environment
When does positive reinforcement occur?
When a behaviour produces a consequence that is rewarding
When does negative reinforcement occur?
When a behaviour removes an unpleasant consequence
Tabula rasa
You are born as a clean slate
Stimulus
Anything that brings about a response
Response
Any reaction in the presence of a stimulus
US
Unconditioned stimulus
UR
Unconditioned response
NS
Neutral stimulus
CR
Conditioned response
CS
Conditioned stimulus
Reflex
Automatic response
What did Pavlov win in 1904?
A Nobel prize
Classical conditioning
Learning by association
What does classical conditioning refer to?
The conditioning of reflexes and involves associating a new stimulus with an innate bodily reflex
Process of Pavlov’s classical conditioning dog experiment
- Pavlov established that food causes dogs to salivate
- Pavlov established that a tone does not cause a dog to salivate
- He presented the tone with some food causing the dog to salivate
- After several pairing the dog started to salivate just by hearing the tone
What is the Unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response when Pavlov established that food causes dogs to salivate?
US - The food
UR - Saliva
What was the US, NS and UR when the dog salivated over the tone paired with the food?
US - Food
NS - Tone
UR - Saliva
What was the CS and the CR when Pavlov found that the dog salivated over just the tone?
CS - Tone
CR - Salivation
Watson and conditioning a rat phobia in ‘little Albert’
Before conditioning Albert had no fear of rats. Albert had a fear of a loud bang. The rat paired with the loud bang caused fear until just the rat caused fear as he associated it with the loud bang.
Operant conditioning
Learning by consequences
What did B.F Skinner claim?
All behaviour is learnt as a result of consequences in our environment
Reinforcement
Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated
Punishment
Anything which has the effect of decreasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated
Skinner’s box
-Animal learns to press a button or lever in order to get food
-If the animal moves close to the lever the food appears to encourage pecking on the lever itself
-Animal has control over its environment
What is the positive consequence of Skinner’s box?
Food
How does Skinner’s box show positive reinforcement?
The food that is released is a positive reinforcement as it is a reward which increases the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated
How does Skinner’s box show negative reinforcement?
The rat receives a number of electric shocks when it does press the lever over a certain time period so therefore the rat continues to press the lever in order to stop the negative consequence of being shocked
Strengths of behaviourist approach
-Very scientific
-Helps to establish causes and effects
-Replicable
-Quantitive data - east to analyse
-Useful applications to education
Limitations of behaviourist approach
Most of the data has been obtained from animals
Vicarious reinforcement
Learners observe role models receiving either positive or negative reinforcement. This means that because the learner has observed the consequences of the behaviour they are more (or less) likely to imitate it, depending on what those consequences were
