Behaviourism & Humanism Flashcards
Who was the father of behaviourism?
- John Watson –> the founder of the ‘Second Force’
What was Watson’s main premise?
- that it is ‘behaviour’ rather than ‘personality’
What is behaviourism?
- the study of what ppl do
What did Watson describe as ‘personality’?
- learned habit systems
How did Watson differ from Pavlov?
- he proposed that behaviour and emotions can be conditioned
What did the Little Albert Study show?
- after 7 pairings of a rat and loud noise, Albert reacted with crying when the rat was presented without the loud noise.
What are some limitations of Watson’s ‘Little Albert B’ study?
- reliance on only one subject
- lack of followup
- insufficient experimental stimuli to test for generalisation effects
- technology that did not permit a reliable assessment of emotional responses.
What are some problems with behaviourism?
- we have shown strong genetic components
- we aren’t just a ‘blank slate’
- biological limits, species -specific behaviour
What was Skinner’s contemporary behaviourism?
- ## the learning of new behaviours, or personality is almost independent of the learner - it is environmentally driven
What was a distinct difference between Skinner and Watson?
- Skinner considered the possibility of THOUGHT but it was secondary to the fundamental importance of the environment
- Skinner believed that human behaviours are VOLUNTARY
- voluntary behaviour must occur BEFORE the reinforcement for it to be reinforcing
- the key features of a reinforcement is that it must be contingent on the response
- introduced ‘private events’- remembering etc. that are not observable
What were the differences between Watson and Skinner’s take on environmental impacts?
WATSON: the environmental stimulus causes automatic or involuntary behaviour (CLASSICAL CONDITIONING)
SKINNER: the consequences of the behaviours affect the frequency of that VOLUNTARY behaviour (OPERANT CONDITIONING)
What is the basis of human psychology?
- any person contains within him or herself the potentialities for healthy and creative growth
- humans make free choices
- the person or the self are active determiners
How do humanists argue against psychoanalysis?
- individual’s personality develops due to a pulling towards goals rather than a pushing by instinctual drives
What did Maslow say about the hierarchy of needs?
- the before a person can fn in response to B needs/beings/Growth needs, they must satisfy lower-level or deficit/D needs.
- if you have a deficit need, you are motivated to achieve that need, deficit needs stop being motivating once they have been satisfied.
What are some assumptions of Maslow’s hierarchy?
- only a few ppl ever reach Self actualisation but many embark on the journey
- the more a lower level need is satisfied, the greater the emergence of the next-level need.
- occasionally, the satisfaction of needs is reversed
- lack of satisfaction of any of the levels of needs leads to some kind of pathology
- satisfaction of needs leads us to psychological health
what is some empirical support for Maslow’s theory?
-Personal Orientation Index has been found to be negatively correlated for those highly self actualised vs. those less self- actualised (providing discriminant validity)
What did Rowan (1998) suggest for 3 emendations to Maslow’s hierarchy?
- clear distinction btw need for self esteem from others and need for ‘self-esteem’
- include the ‘need for competence’ btw safety needs and need for love
- eradicate the triangle or pyramid
What was Carl Rogers’s approach to humanism?
- client- centred therapy
- believed the individual has within themselves vast resources for self-understanding- can be tapped if only a definable climate of facilatative psychological attitudes can be provided
What are the six conditions of personality change?
- the client and therapist
- client in state of incongruence, vulnerable
- therapist congruent and genuine
- therapist give unconditional positive regard
- therapist has empathic understanding and attempts to communicate this to their client
- the communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding must be minimally achieved.
What are the three necessary and sufficient qualities needed for an effective therapist?
- congruence
- empathy
- unconditioned positive regard
What are the basic assumptions of person centred therapy?
FULLY FUNCTIONING PERSON: lives life in an existential way, increased trust in themselves.
FORMATIVE TENDENCY: simpler to more complex forms
ACTUALISING TENDENCY: individuals have within themselves the power to become increasingly self-directed
What are Rogers’s constituent of the self?
- ‘self’ emerges at infancy (becomes personalised as ‘i’ or ‘me’ experiences
- ‘self-concept’: all those needs that are in awareness e.g. hard-working, honest
- ‘ideal- self’: one’s view of self as one wihes to be containing all attributes
How do Rogers’s and Maslow’s theory differ from one another?
- Maslow goes beyond Rogers in that ppl can beyond self-actualisation and pursue B-values
- Rogers’ clinical work produced empirically testable strategies
- Maslow’s SA person appears more autonomous, doesn’t need the help of the psychologist so much
- Rogers based his theory on his experience in psychotherapy
What were some similarities between Rogers’ and Maslow’s theories?
- self actualisation as the driving force in personality
- a lack of self-work was what guided their theories
- both argued that maladjustment occurs when the inner self is blocked
- both saw human agency as about the uniqueness of the individual
