Approaches: The Behaviourist Approach

Question 1

What does the behaviourist approach suggest?

Answer 1

This perspective believes that we are born a blank slate, and that we learn our behaviour as a result of out experiences in our environment.
Therefore this is a untrue explanation

Question 2

Why did early behaviourists like John B Watson reject introspection?

Answer 2

It involved too many concepts that were vague and difficult to measure.

Question 3

Who researched classical conditioning in dogs?

Answer 3

Ivan Pavlov (1927)

Question 4

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 4

Is when a stimulus creates a response, but this is a new response - one we never had before

Question 5

What is Pavlovs process of classical conditioning?

Answer 5

Before conditioning:
- Bell (NS) —> no response
- Food (UCS) —> salivates (UCR)
During conditioning:
- Bell (NS) + Food (UCS) —> Salivates (UCR)
After conditioning:
- Bell (CS) —> Salivates (CR)

Question 6

What’s a case study supporting classical conditioning?

Answer 6

Raynor and Watson carried out a famous experiment using CC to demonstrate the origins of fears and phobias.
They looked at Little Albert and found he liked this white rat (not frightened at all), yet was frightened by a loud noise that made him cry
Before the experiment:
- Rat = no fear
- noise = fear
During the experiment:
- Rat + noise = fear
After experiment:
- rat = fear

Question 7

What’s some strengths of classical conditioning?

Answer 7

+ successfully used to explain phobias
+ shows the importance of nuture and the environment influence on behaviour
+ high controls and can establish cause and effect as studied in a lab. Replicable and objective (nomothetic)

Question 8

What are some weaknesses to classical conditioning?

Answer 8

• ignore what happens between the stimulus and response (e.g. thinking)
• oversimplifies human behaviour to ‘object = response’ and ignores other possibilities (reductionist)
• no completely generalisable as the behaviour of animals and humans is very different

Question 9

Who proposed operant conditioning?

Answer 9

BF Skinner (1953) suggested that learning theory is an active process whereby humans and animals operate in their environments. There are 3 types of consequences of behaviour:
1. Positive reinforcement
2. Negative reinforcement
3. Punishment

Question 10

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 10

This is receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed - e.g. a prise or praise from your teacher for answering a question correctly in class

Question 11

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 11

Occurs when animal or humans avoid something unpleasant. When a students hands in an essay, so not be told off, the avoidance of something unpleasant is the negative reinforcement.
- e.g. a rat pressing a lever to stop being electrocuted

Question 12

What is punishment?

Answer 12

An unpleasant consequence of behaviour, e.g. being shouted at by the teacher during the lesson (finding a way to avoid that would be negative reinforcement)

Question 13

What’s the difference between reinforcement and punishment?

Answer 13

Positive and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated.
Punishment decreases the likelihood that that behaviour will be repeated.

Question 14

What is Skinners box experiment?

Answer 14

Skinner conducted an experiment with rats and sometimes pigeons in a box. Everytime the rat activated a lever, it was rewarded with a food pellet. From then on the rat would continue to perform the behaviour.
- also showed how rats can be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid an unpleasant stimulus (e.g. an electric shock)

Question 15

What is continuous reinforcement?

Answer 15

The desired behaviour is reinforced every single time it occurs, may result in a stronger response

Question 16

What is partial reinforcement?

Answer 16

The response is reinforced only part of the time, weaker effect

Question 17

What are some strengths of operant conditioning?

Answer 17

+ scientific credibility - controlled lab setting, by breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus - response units, all other extraneous variables are removed. Good credibility and status as a scientific discipline
+ real life application - e.g. token economy systems is based on OC and used in prisons and psych wards. Work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges. Phobias have also been treated quite successfully with CC techniques.

Question 18

What are some weaknesses to operant conditioning?

Answer 18

• mechanistic view of behaviour - seen that humans and animals are passive and machine-like responders to the environment, with little to no conscious insight into their behaviour. Other approaches like social, look at the importance of mental events during learning - these suggest we take much more of an active role in our learning
• ethics and animal research, critics have argued it is unethical to have animals exposed to stressful events, which might also effect the way they respond in the study
• reductionist
• deterministic