Approaches(the behaviourist approach) Flashcards
The behaviourist approach focuses on what? -
Ignores the thoughts of introspection and only focuses on observable experiences
What is a behaviourist?
Someone who believes that behaviour can be explained through conditioning and in an observable experience, they believe it should be measured empirical.
Ian Pavlov and classical conditioning,what did he explore with dogs? (1927)
-Investigated salivary reflexes in dogs, and noticed that they did not only salivate when food was placed in their mouth but when also reacting with a stimuli (like the person that fed them). Leading him to explore the conditions of what was most likely to occur. (this is known to be classical conditioning as the dog has learnt to associate the idea of being fed with the feeder and every time the dog sees the feeder it gets the idea of food)
What is the UCS?
Food
What is the UCR?
Salivation
What is the NS?
Bell
What is the phase called where the pairing of the NS and UCS take place?
Acquisition phase - this allows the bell to bring about the same response of being fed.
What is the CS?
Bell after conditioning
What is the CR?
Salivation
The process of classical conditioning through the involvment of all stimuli - what happens?
The natural stimulus in any reflex is referred to as the uncoditioned stimulus (UCS) and this brings about a uncoditioned response (UCR). During the acquistion phase, a neutral stimulus (NS) which doesnt elict the UCR is presented shortly before the UCS. After many pairings of NS and UCS this changes and now the NS is no able to reproduce the same response in the absence of the UCS. The once neutral stimulus is now referred to as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and this brings about a conditioned response (CR). Ringing a bell (NS) shortly before food (UCS) is being presented to animals will eventually after the acquisition phase means that the bell will produce salivation as a conditioned response from the bell becoming a conditioned stimulus.
Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning (Statements on how organisms react) -
Organisms respond differently to different behaviours and they produce consequences for the organism. They learn to associate their actions with an outcome.
Skinner’s research (1938) Learning through punishment and reinforcement. (Study with rats)
Skinner developed a special cage to investigate operant conditioning with rats to see whether they learnt to associate their actions with an outcome. When it accidentally presses one lever a food pellet produces food and the rat continues to press the lever to get more food. The rat learns that the behaviour is a desirable consequence and therefore this reinforces the behaviour. He keeps pressing the lever until there is no more food entering the cage and then abandons it. (extinction)
What is reinforcement?
Something in an environment that strengthens a behaviour, there are 2 types:
Positive reinforcement -
When a consequence produces something that is pleasant e.g food
Negative reinforcement -
Occurs when a consequence removes something that is unpleasant e.g electric shock
What is punishment?
Punishment is a circumstance followed after a behaviour that is undesirable or unpleasant. Leading the behaviour to be less likely to be repeated. There are two types.
Positive punishment -
Refers to something that is added to an environment that is unpleasant/undesirable.
Negative punishment -
Something that is taken away something that is desirable (luxury)
Very scientific methods - strength
Due to skinners method of operant conditioning being used with rats, in his own special cage. He could control all variables and measure the dependant variable, with high internal validity and external reliability, it allows a cause and effect relationship between the consequence of the behaviour and outcome.
Over-reliance on non-human animals in research - limitation
These animals may not generalise to humans and therefore be criticised for the population used, critics tell us that non-human animals tell us little about human behaviour as humans have the choice of free will and don’t have their behaviour determined by positive and negative reinforcement
Classical conditioning has useful applications of being applied to therapy -
Classical conditioning has been applied in the development of treatments, where it eliminates the learnt feared response that is associated with fear, it is used to associate to change the perception of anxiety to relaxation or something pleasurable, the classical conditioning-based approach has been found to be successful for a range of phobias such as the fear of spiders or heights and therefore has useful relevance in everyday situations.
