Behaviourism Flashcards
Behaviourism
all behaviour is learnt and influenced by the environment
Behaviourists are only interested in studying what type of behaviour
Observable and measurable behaviour
Classical conditioning
Learning through association- Pavlov
Pavlov Dog study
Found dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell and show a NS can come to elicit a new learned response
Neutral stimulus
An event that produces no response
Unconditioned stimulus
Produces an unlearned reflex response
Unconditioned response
Innate unlearnt reflex behaviour that is produced from a UCS
Conditioned stimulus
Event that produces a learned response
Conditioned response
Learned behaviour that is produced when exposed to a conditioned stimulus
Timing (feature of CC)
if NS cant predict UCS= no conditioning
Stimulus generalisation(feature of CC)
When animal is conditioned= response to similar stimuli
Extinction(feature of CC)
CR is not permanently established, after presented many times without UCS, ability is lost
Spontaneous recovery
if UC and UCS paired after extinction, link is made quicker
Operant conditioning
Learning by consequences
Positive and negative reinforcement
positive- add something pleasant so behaviour is more likely to occur
negative= removing unpleasant experience so behaviour is more likely to occur
Positive and negative punishment
positive- adding an unpleasant experience so behaviour is less likely to be repeated
negative- removing a pleasant experience so undesirable behaviour is less likely to be repeated
Strengths of behaviourism
Focuses on observable behaviour- stimulus-response units
Real life application- treatments especially in systematic desensitisation of phobias
Weaknesses of behaviourism
Reductionist- oversimplifies and ignores other important influences
All nature- ignores free will/ biological
Ethics- animals used in studies
Applicability- animals are not humans, can the same strategy by applied?
