Assumptions

Question 1

Tabula Rasa - definition

Answer 1

Humans are born like a blank slate.

Question 2

Tabula Rasa

Answer 2

Behaviourists believe that when we’re born our mind is a “tabula rasa”.
According to the traditional behaviourist approach, we’re not born with in-built mental content.
Internal events such as thinking, and emotion don’t drive our behaviour.
Instead, the belief is that all our behaviour is learned from interactions with the environment.
We don’t think about our behaviour, we respond passively to environmental stimuli.

Question 3

Nature VS Nurture

Answer 3

The behaviourist approach supports the view that social and environmental factors have the greatest influence on behaviour, over and above innate and biological factors.
Behaviourist theory ignores factors such as genetics, physiology and evolution in explaining behaviour.

Question 4

Environmental determinism

Answer 4

This perspective is termed environmental determinism.
Our behaviour is determined by the environment that we grew up in.
The associations we make early on in life and the early rewards / punishments provided by our environment pre-determine our later reactions to other people and situations.

Question 5

Classical conditioning - definition

Answer 5

Behaviour is learned through association.

Question 6

Pavlov (1902)

Answer 6

Before conditioning:
Food is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
Salivation is the unconditioned response (UCR).
During conditioning:
The sound of a bell is a neutral stimulus (NS).
The NS is presented alongside the UCS.
This is repeated several times.
This is where association occurs.
After conditioning:
The sound of a bell is now the conditioned stimulus (CS).
Salivation is the conditioned response (CR).

Question 7

Operant conditioning - definition

Answer 7

Behaviour is learned through reinforcement.

Question 8

Operant conditioning

Answer 8

A reinforcer is something that will increase the chance that the behaviour will occur again.
Reinforcement can be positive or negative and both will shape behaviour.

Question 9

Punishments

Answer 9

Behaviour is also learned through punishment.
Punishment weakens behaviour and should decrease the likelihood that the behaviour will reoccur again – the opposite of reinforcement.

Question 10

B.F Skinner (1938)

Answer 10

Demonstrated via the Skinner box that an animal can learn to behave in certain ways due to being rewarded with food.
As the behaviour has been reinforced (rewarded) it’s likely that the animal will repeat this behaviour again.
This is positive reinforcement.
Negative reinforcement strengthens behaviour because it involves escaping something unpleasant.

Question 11

Humans and animals learn in similar ways

Answer 11

The laws of learning are the same for both humans and non-human animals.
We’re able to study animal learning in a lab environment and make generalisations about human behaviour.

Question 12

Pavlov and systematic desensitisation

Answer 12

Pavlov developed the principles of classical conditioning with dogs.
He showed how they could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell, applying the principles to humans.
These same principles have been applied in behaviourist therapies, to help people overcome problems such as phobias.
For example:
In systematic desensitisation, the client will learn to associate the phobic object with feelings of relaxation, instead of anxiety.