behaviourism

Question 1

what is the core belief?

Answer 1

all behaviour is learned

Question 2

what is the basic assumption?

Answer 2

behaviourism operates on the principle of ASSOCIATION. reflexes are made of a stimulus which triggers a response.

Question 3

what was B.F Skinner’s study?

Answer 3

he did a study on to investigate operant conditioning. he saw rats ran around the box accidentally pressing the lever which generated food. from this he realised that rats would continue pressing the lever if food kept coming out and would be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid consequences.

Question 4

what is operant conditioning?

Answer 4

a theory of learning where behaviour is influenced by its consequences and reinforcements.

Question 5

what did Watson & Rayner conduct?

Answer 5

they demonstrated that fear could be developed through classical conditioning. the little albert study consisted of a child (albert) originally showing no fear to a white rat however, a fear towards a loud bang was shown. the experimenters combined these two stimulus showing albert developing a fear of white rats.

Question 6

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 6

classical conditioning is learning through association and was discovered by Pavlov. essentially, two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal.

Question 7

what are the basic terms for classical conditioning?

Answer 7

Unconditioned stimulus e.g. food
unconditioned response e.g. salivation
neutral stimulus e.g. a tuning fork
conditioned stimulus e.g. tuning fork
conditioned response e.g. salivation

Question 8

Ian Pavlov’s study for CC

Answer 8

he discovered that dogs salivate not just to the presence of food but also to a stimulus being a tuning fork. happened through the process of association.

Question 9

one strength of behaviourism

Answer 9

P: there are real life applications for classical conditioning
E: one is systematic desensitization to treat anxiety through the principles of CC it aims to eliminate fear with an object.
T: this strengthens the application of CC to real life situations.

Question 10

one weakness of behaviourism

Answer 10

P: the study was conducted on animals
E: by using animals it implies that human behaviour is more complicated to understand. concept of free-will is undermined and role of reinforcement has been applied.
T: it undermines the potential non observable mental processes that guide human behaviour. proves it is a reductionist approach.