Behaviourist

Question 1

What are the 3 assumptions of the behaviourist approach?

Answer 1

1. We are born a blank state
2. We learn through conditioning
3. Humans and Animals learn in similar ways

Question 2

What is the assumption we are born a blank state?

Answer 2

-Behvaiour can be understood in terms of environmental learning, its not nature (biology) but nuture
-This means all behaviour is a result of external factors, not evolution nor genetics
-This approach suggests that humans do not actively think about our behaviour but we respond passively to the stimuli’s within our environments

Question 3

What is the example in psychology for we are born a blank state?

Answer 3

-Criminal Behaviour-
If a child has grown up around criminal behaviour, the child will observe this behaviour and there is a risk they may immitate the behaviour. This is known as observational learning. Criminal behaviour can also be learnt through positive reinforcement
For example; If a gang member receives praise for committing a crime, others within the gang may also want to engage in the same behaviour to receive the same behaviour, this is also known as vicarious reinforcement.
This also explains why people do not commit crime to avoid imprisonment

Question 4

What’s the assumption Behaviour is learnt through conditioning?

Answer 4

-There are 2 types of conditioning: Operent and Classical
Classical: Classical conditioning suggests that behaviour is learnt through assossiation. We learn to assossiate a stimulus to a response and we call this stimulus response assossiation
Operant: Operant conditioning suggests that behaviour is a result of the reinforcement received from our environments. Positive and negative reinforcement increases behaviour by either adding something desirable to taking away something desirable. Punishments can decrease a persons behaviour

Question 5

What is the example in psychology for We learn through conditioning?

Answer 5

The classical conditioning example is Watson and Rayners research on little Albert, they demonstrated that fear can be classically conditioned. Little Albert showed he had n fear response towards items such as white rabbit, rat and fur. To condition Little Albert to fear these items, a metal hammer was struck on a steel bar behaving Little Albert, this startled Albert and made him cry. Each tie ALbert touched nay of the items the hammer was hit again, this was repeated until Little Albert assosiated the object to the sound that startled him. This resulted in Little Albert crying when he was show the items without the hammer. This is because he had leaned a stimulus response assossiation

Question 6

What is the assumption Humans and animals learn in simular ways?

Answer 6

-Pavlov’s research into classical conditioning of dogs, has been applied to how humans learn phobias and fears. They are learnt through stimulus response assossiation.
Skinners also used rats to demonstrate the effect of positive and negative reinforcement. They’ve been useful in understanding human behaviour and developing treatments

Question 7

What is the example in psychology for Animals and Humans learn in similar ways?

Answer 7

Classical Conditioning has been applied to aversion therapy, the aim of aversion therapy is to condition the patient to associate the unpleasant habit with an unpleasant feeling like being sick. For example someone who is addicted to alcohol, may be put in aversion therapy and will be conditioned to associate drinking alcohol with being violently sick ect

Question 8

What is the behaviourist approach’s therapy?

Answer 8

Aversion Therapy

Question 9

What is the aim of aversion therapy?

Answer 9

> The patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort
This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate a pleasurable stimulus with unpleasant sensations
Aversion therapy is designed to cause the patient to develop an intense dislike or feeling of disgust- an ‘aversion’ to a stimulus. It can be used to treat a variety of addictions

Question 10

How does aversion therapy link to the assumption ‘we are born a blank state’?

Answer 10

This assumption points out that we are born a blank state and all behaviour is leant environmentally. The behaviourist approach point out to operant and classical conditioning when learning behaviour. This may suggest that if all behaviour is learnt can people unlearn desirable behaviours and learn how to behave in a more functional, rational way.

Question 11

How does the assumption we learn through classical conditioning relate to aversion therapy?

Answer 11

This assumption suggest that behaviour is learnt through association whereby an unconditioned stimulus becomes associated with a neutral stimulus. Aversion therapy uses the principles of classical conditioning to cause patient to reduce or avoid an undesirable behaviour pattern. A person may become addicted to alcohol through classical conditioning as they may associate drinking with pleasurable feelings. The aim of aversion therapy is therefore to condition the patient to associate alcohol with an unpleasant or aversive stimulus (like feeling sick). Leads to them not engaging in this behaviour.

Question 12

How does the assumption ‘Behaviour is learnt through operant conditioning’ link to aversion therapy?

Answer 12

According to the operant conditioning assumption, behaviour is learnt through the consequences of actions. If a behaviour is rewarded, it is more likely to be repeated, if a behaviour is punished it is less likely to be repeated. Modern forms of aversion therapy use drugs that reward patients with a feeling of calmness, which acts as positive reinforcement for the abstinence of their addiction, which increases the likelihood of a person maintaining abstinence from their addiction

Question 13

What are the main components of aversion therapy?

Answer 13

-Classical Conditioning
-Operant Conditioning
-New Developments

Question 14

What is the main comment of aversion Therapy:
Classical Conditioning?

Answer 14

Individual are repeatedly presented with an aversive stimulus whilst they engage in the desirable behvaiour being treated. Antabuse is the drug used for alcoholism, which makes a person vomit once its paired with alcohol
-The Antabuse is the UCS which produces the UCR of vomiting. When Antabuse is repeatedly paired with alcohol (the neutral stimulus) the behvaiour of drinking leads to the same consequences of throwing up. Alcohol then becomes the CS and produces the CR of vomiting, due to this a person looses interest in engaging in this behaviour

Question 15

What is the main component of aversion therapy:
Operant conditioning?

Answer 15

Aversion therapy uses principles of operant conditioning as well as classical conditioning. Once the association has been made with the once-pleasant stimulus and unpleasant response, the person tends to avoid future contact with the stimulus.Eg; an alcoholic may avoid going to a social setting where people will be drinking, this is an example of negative reinforcement, as the person avoids what is now an unpleasant situation, which motivates the individual to maintain the abstaining of the addiction

Question 16

What is the main components of aversion therapy; covert sensation?

Answer 16

This is a unique type of aversion therapy that follows the same basic principles, but the unpleasant consequences are not present. Instead the therapist relies on the individuals ability to use their imagination rather than physically experiencing the consequences. For example an alcoholic is required to images an upsetting or repulsive scene, while there drinking. This is much less commonly used then other forms of Aversion therapy

Question 17

What are he main components of aversion therapy:
New Devopments?

Answer 17

The treatment of alcoholism have refined the use of traditional aversion therapy, researchers have discovered drugs that make users sick if they mix them with alcohol, but also reward abstinence b inducing feelings of tranquility (Badawy 1999). These compounds prevent alcohol from being properly converted within the body, Turing it into alchemical that causes unpleasant effects. Unlike conventional aversion compounds, however, these also offer an incentive for staying with the treatment

Question 18

Evaluation of Aversion therapy:
Stregnth- Research Evidnace

Answer 18

Research found by Smith Et Al (1997)
He studied 249 patients addicted to alcohol. He treated them with aversion therapy using either shock treatment or nueasa inducing drugs
He found abstinence rates after a year where higher with those who had AT and councilling rather than councilling alone
-He also reported success with a group of 300 smokers

Question 19

Evaluation of Aversion therapy:
Conflicted evidence:

Answer 19

Millers 1978 compared the effectiveness of 3 types of treatments
-Aversion therapy, Counselling alone and Aversion Therapy & Councilling together
A year later he found recovery were the same in all groups, which suggests that aversion therapy offered no more benefit than councilling alone

Question 20

Evaluation of aversion therapy:
Short term effects

Answer 20

Paitents may appear to recover, these effects are not likely to transfer to the outside world, when the punishments are no longer there. Research by Pavlov showed that a conditioned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the Uncontrolled Stimulus

Question 21

Evaluation of aversion therapy:
Drop out rates

Answer 21

There was high levels of drop out rates
-Bancroft 1992 reported that up to 50% of patients either refuse treatments to drop out of a sermon therapy programme
This makes it more difficult to evaluate AT if only those willing engage in the therapy in the first place

Question 22

Evaluation of aversion therapy:
Symptom substitution

Answer 22

Behaviourist therapists do not treat the possible underlying causes, as they believe the maladptive behaviour is the disorder and there is no underlying cause, this means original symptoms may be removed but new symptoms may account in different forms, for example a person may get over their alcohol addiction, but then to gambling instead
This happens as there is underlying causes that haven’t been identified

Question 23

Evaluation of aversion therapy:
Treatment of homosexuality

Answer 23

For many years aversion therapy was a treatment to cure homosexuality, and it wasn’t until 2006 American Psychiatric association considered this method too unethical

Question 24

Evaluation of aversion therapy:
Physical and psychological harm

Answer 24

It is seriouly unpleasant, and can cause stress, anxiety and humiliation
In 1962 Billy Clegg-Hill died after he had undergone AT
Therpay can not be administrated without full patient consent
Covert sensitisation as an alternative ‘milder form of therpay

Question 25

Who are the researchers for the behaviourist classical research>

Answer 25

Watson and Rayner

Question 26

What was the aim of the research done by Watson and Rayners?

Answer 26

Investigation if our emotions can be learnt through conditioning

Question 27

What type of study was Watson and Rayners research?

Answer 27

Controlled observation

Question 28

What were the conditions of the observation?

Answer 28

It was in a well lit dark room

Question 29

Who was then participant?

Answer 29

A 9 month old male infant (little Albert)
-He was placed on a mattress on a table

Question 30

Was the research a experiment or a case study

Answer 30

It was neither, it was abservation

Question 31

What was the equipment used in Watson and Rayners research

Answer 31

-Motion picture camera
-Steel bar and Hammar
-12 Objects: Dog, Rat, Cotton Wool, Burning Newspaper, Rabbit, Fur Coat, Wooden Building Blocks, Watson hair, Santa Mask and Monkey

Question 32

What was the baseline condition in Watson and Rayners research

Answer 32

This was the 9 month emotional test
-Alberts reactions emotionally were tested to a range of objects and this was the first time he had seen the objects
-Albert was then tested with a loud bar, 1 meter in length and 2cm diameter
-One experimenter got Albert’s attention while the other struck the bar. When this happened Alberts arms were raised and his lips began to tremble and pucker
-The 3rd time the bar was hit he broke into a crying fit, this was the first lab produced fear or crying

Question 33

What were the 5 session in Watson and Rayners

Answer 33

Session 1: 11 months- establishing a conditioned emotional response
Session 2: 11months and 10 days- testing the emotiona conditioned response
Session 3: 11 months and 15 days- generalisation
Session 4: 11 months and 20 days- changing the environment
Session 5: 12 months and 21 days- the effect of time

Question 34

What were Watson and Rayners conclusions

Answer 34

-Phobias can be learned though conditioning
-2 sessions in the first week was enough to learn an emotional controlled response
-The findings can be used in treatments like aversion therapy
-However we can’t know from this study if it’s possible to decondition fears

Question 35

What is the contemporary debate?

Answer 35

Is it ethical to use conditioning to control the behaviour of children?

Question 36

What are the against points for the contemporary debate

Answer 36

-attention is a reward and shouldn’t be given to bad behvaiour
-By rewarding household chores with money, is that creating a money motivated generation
-Can punishments cause long lasting emotional effects
-Can be harmful to children’s development as they interfere with internal desire to learn
-Rewards can cause a learned sense of helplessness
-only treats symptoms, so they may reoccur, the undesirable behaviour

Question 37

What are the for arguments for the contemporary debate?

Answer 37

-Education is a major user of or at conditions eg. Teachers praise and disapproval
-Has positive outcome for Vunrable groups to children, effective for those with ADHD
-Useful in increasing the amount of time children spend working
-Useful in teaching Vunrable children life skills
-Useful to teach children to read