approaches to psychology Flashcards
who founded the behaviourist approach?
John B. Watson
Key Assumptions of the Behaviourist Approach
Behavior is learned from the environment.
Focuses on observable behavior, not mental processes.
Behavior is the result of stimulus-response associations.
Use of animals in experiments to generalize to humans.
Two main types of learning: Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning.
Classical Conditioning (Key Idea)
Learning through association.
Discovered by Ivan Pavlov.
Example: Pavlov’s dogs – associating a bell (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus) to produce salivation (conditioned response).
Classical Conditioning (Key Terms)
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Triggers a natural response (e.g., food).
Unconditioned Response (UCR): Natural response to UCS (e.g., salivation).
Neutral Stimulus (NS): Initially has no effect (e.g., bell).
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Previously NS, now triggers a response (e.g., bell after conditioning).
Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to CS (e.g., salivation).
Operant Conditioning (Key Idea)
Learning through consequences.
Discovered by B.F. Skinner.
Three types of consequences:
Positive Reinforcement: Adding something pleasant to increase behavior.
Negative Reinforcement: Removing something unpleasant to increase behavior.
Punishment: Adding something unpleasant or removing something pleasant to decrease behavior.
Skinner’s Box Experiment
Rats placed in a box with a lever.
Pressing the lever delivered food (positive reinforcement).
Pressing the lever stopped an electric shock (negative reinforcement).
Demonstrated the role of reinforcement in learning.
Strengths of the Behaviourist Approach
Highly scientific: Emphasizes observable and measurable behavior.
Real-life applications: Used in therapy (e.g., systematic desensitization) and education.
Replicable experiments increase reliability.
Weaknesses of the Behaviourist Approach
Ignores internal mental processes (reductionist).
Ethical concerns in experiments (e.g., with animals).
Limited ecological validity of lab experiments.
Overemphasis on nurture, neglects biological influences.
Applications of the Behaviourist Approach
Therapy: Systematic Desensitization for phobias.
Education: Use of reinforcement to encourage learning.
Parenting: Reward and punishment systems.
Behaviourist researchers use animal research. What argument do they use to justify the use of animal research to understand human behaviour?
Behaviourists use animal research because they believe animals and humans use the same learning mechanisms.
important mental processes are…
attention, perception, and memory
