Approaches: The Behavioural Approach

Question 1

What is the behavioural approach and when was it founded?

Answer 1

It was founded by JB Watson in 1915, emerging at the beginning of the 20th century. It rejected the vagueness of introspection and instead focuses on how we are a product of our learning, experience and environment

Question 2

What are some assumptions of the approach?

Answer 2

Behaviourism is primarily concerned with observable behaviour, opposed to internal events such as emotion

Psychology is a science so behaviour must be measured in highly controlled environments to establish cause and effect

When born, the mind is a blank slate

There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals

All behaviour no matter how complicated is the result of stimulus - response

All behaviour is learnt from the environment, we learn new behaviour through classical or operant conditioning

Question 3

What is a stimulus

Answer 3

Anything internal or external, that brings about a response

Question 4

What is a response?

Answer 4

Any reaction in the presence of a stimulus

Question 5

What is reinforcement?

Answer 5

The process by which a response is strengthened

Question 6

What was the little Albert Watson and Rayner study (1920)?

Answer 6

11 month old, no fear of white fluffy objects such as rats or rabbits. Researchers tried to create a conditioned response to these objects. A white rat was placed in front of LA, as he reached out to it, a metal bad was struck loudly behind his head. This was repeated twice at first, then five more times a week later.

Question 7

What were the findings of the little Albert Watson and Rayner study (1920)?

Answer 7

When he was shown a rat, he would start to cry. This also extended to other white fluffy objects such as a White Santa beard.

Question 8

What can we conclude from the little Albert Watson and Rayner study (1920)?

Answer 8

A fear response to white fluffy objects had been conditioned to LA, showing that abnormal behaviour can be learned

Question 9

What are the positive evaluations of the little Albert Watson and Rayner study (1920)?

Answer 9

The results supported Pavlov’s idea of classical conditioning.

It was a very significant experiment in the field of psychology because it demonstrates that associating a stimulus or behaviour with an unrelated one can be done

Question 10

What are the negative evaluations of the little Albert Watson and Rayner study (1920)?

Answer 10

The experiment was unethical and could not be repeated today

Not everyone goes on to develop a fear or phobia following a negative situation, so learning theory cannot be the full story

It was a lab study, so it lacks ecological validity as the situation was artificial

Question 11

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 11

Learning by association. It refers to the conditioning of reflexes and involves associating a new stimulus with an innate bodily reflex. It involves pairing a response naturally caused by one stimulus with another, previously neutral stimulus

Question 12

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 12

The stimulus that causes the reflex response before conditioning. It naturally produces the response

Question 13

What is a conditioned stimulus?

Answer 13

The stimulus which after repeated parings with the unconditioned stimulus, produces the response

Question 14

What is an unconditioned response?

Answer 14

The innate reflexive response to a stimulus that has not been conditioned yet

Question 15

What is a conditioned response?

Answer 15

The response that occurs after exposure to the conditioned stimulus

Question 16

What were the stages of Pavlov’s dogs experiment?

Answer 16

First he established the meat caused the dog to salivate (unconditioned stimulus (food) = unconditioned response (saliva)

He found the tone did not cause salivation

He then presented the tone with the food (unconditioned stimulus (food) + neutral stimulus (bell) = unconditioned response (saliva))

After several pairings of food + tone, Pavlov found that the dog would salivate to the tone presented alone (conditioned stimulus (bell) = conditioned response (saliva))

Question 17

What is Operant conditioning (BF Skinner)?

Answer 17

Skinner claimed that all behaviour is learnt as a result of consequences in our environment (operant conditioning). This involves learning through the consequences (positive and negative) of behavioural responses. Associations between responses and consequences have to be made close together for learning to occur

Question 18

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 18

Increases the likelihood of a response occurring because it involves a reward for behaviour e.g. rewards for good work

Question 19

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 19

Increases the likelihood of a response occurring because it involves the removal of, or escaping from, unpleasant consequences, e.g. escaping an electric shock

Question 20

What is punishment?

Answer 20

The consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour being repeated, e.g. an electric shock or smacking

Question 21

What was Skinner’s (1938) rat experiment?

Answer 21

Created a Skinner box, in which he placed a rat at a time. Each box contained a variety of stimuli, such as a speaker, lights, a floor which gave an electric shock and a food dispenser which dispensed when a lever was pressed. A hungry rat was placed in the box, the time taken for ears to learn that the levee would release food was recorded. Initially, the rat would run about until ur accidentally pulled the lever and it was rewarded with food. The more the rat was put in the box, the Whicker they got at learning where the lever was. Skinner also tested negative reinforcement with rats pressing the lever as the light came on (which prevented an electric shock)

Question 22

What can we conclude from Skinner’s (1938) rat experiment?

Answer 22

Rats can learn behaviour through operant conditioning. A behaviour such as pressing a lever can be reinforced by receiving food

Question 23

What are the positive evaluations of Skinners (1938) rat experiment?

Answer 23

Skinners experiment has been highly influential in promoting the idea of behavioural psychology

Question 24

What are the negative evaluations of Skinner’s (1938) rat experiment?

Answer 24

The experiment used animals, which means results might not be generalisable to humans

The sample size was small, which reduces reliability

Question 25

What are the positive evaluations of the behavioural approach?

Answer 25

It’s very scientific, as theories are testable and supported by rigorous experimental research. It uses the experimental method which helps to establish cause and effect. Objective Influences all areas of psychology Replicable, can be repeated due to high control so has reliability Useful real world applications e.g. education, token economy Useful for treatment of phobias Quantitative data, so easy to analyse

Question 26

What are the negative evaluations of the behavioural approach?

Answer 26

It applies less to humans as it does to animals It’s a mechanistic view of behaviour Process mediates between stimulus and response, suggesting that people play a much more active role in their own leading then approach suggests Environmental determinism as it states all behaviour is determined by past experiences that have been conditioned Ethical and practical issues in experiments with testing on animals Many forms of learning can not be satisfactory explained by classical and operant conditioning, e.g. insight learning. Reductionist as it only takes into account nurture. Lacks ecological validity due to highly controlled experiments, so lacks generalisability Lack of qualitative data, so no thoughts or feelings measured / known