Behaviourist A03

Question 1

Strength of the Behaviourist approach (Scientific Credibility)

Answer 1

The behaviourist approach only focuses on observed behaviour and is backed up by research - Little Albert, Skinner’s Box and Pavlov’s Dogs.

Question 2

Strength of the behaviourist approach (Real life application)

Answer 2

The approach has been applied to real life situations - token economy (where prisoners behave better when they receive tokens to buy things - positive reinforcement)

Question 3

Weakness of the Behaviourist approach (Mechanistic)

Answer 3

Has a mechanistic view of behaviour - it makes the approach less accurate because behaviourists assume that all humans will behave this way, without regard of humanity. For example, using animals (dogs) and assuming humans are the same.

Question 4

Weakness of behaviourist approach (Environment)

Answer 4

Guilty of environmental determinism - the fact that humans will behave only due to their environment and they can not control these behaviours.

Question 5

Weakness of the Behaviourist approach (ethics)

Answer 5

The experiments are ethically questionable. Little Albert being basically mentally tortured for research.