Assumptions

Question 1

What are the 3 assumptions of the Behaviourist approach?

Answer 1

Humans are born as a blank slate

Behaviour is learned through conditioning

Humans and animals learn in similar ways

Question 2

What are the two types of conditioning?

Answer 2

Classical and opperant

Question 3

Explain the assumption that humans are born as a blank slate

Answer 3

Behaviourists believe that we are born as a tabula rasa (blank slate) , meaning that we are born with no built in content , this means that the aproach doesnt account for nature or nurture

Question 4

Explain classical conditioning?

Answer 4

We learn through association , meaning that we associate a stimulus with a certain response (e.g Pavlov’s dog)

Question 5

What was Pavlovs dog experiment?

Answer 5

Salivation and food are conditioned responses together , Pavlov rang a bell (a neutral stimulus) whenever the dog was eating , the dog associated the bell with food and started drooling whenever it was rang

Question 6

What is opperant conditioning?

Answer 6

The idea of reinforcement (either positive or negative) that will shape behaviour

(E.g dog sitting because they get a treat)

Question 7

Explain the assumption that humans and animals learn similarly

Answer 7

They belive that both humans and animals learn by conditioning , Due to this belief , Behaviourist research conducted on animals can generalised to humans