Behaviourist and Social Learning Theory Approach

Question 1

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 1

a form of learning through association. takes place when we associate two stimuli together.

Question 2

Who studied classical conditioning?

Answer 2

Ivan Pavlov

Question 3

What is the stimulus theory?

Answer 3

that individuals are conditioned to behave the way they do.

Question 4

What is the unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 4

a stimuli that triggers an unlearned response eg a dog salivating when it sees food (the stimulus)

Question 5

What is an unconditioned response?

Answer 5

an unlearned response to a stimulus eg a dog salivating (unconditioned response) at the sight of food.

Question 6

What is a neural stimulus?

Answer 6

a stimulus that does not produce a wanted response eg the sound of a bell will not make a dog salivate before conditioning

Question 7

How did Ivan Pavlov condition his dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell?

Answer 7

Ivan repeatedly exposed his dogs to the unconditioned stimulus (food) and the neutral stimulus (bell) at the same time so the dogs eventually learned to associate the neutral stimulus (bell) with the unconditioned stimulus (food). After enough pairings, the neutral stimulus (bell) on its own produces the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (food). This means that the neutral stimulus (bell) is now a conditioned stimulus and the response it produces (salivation) is called an unconditioned response.

Question 8

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 8

when we form links between a behaviour (the operant) and its consequences (the response)

Question 9

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 9

occurs when behaviour is followed by a pleasant consequence. could be tangible eg food or money or it could be intangible eg a smile or a nice compliment.

Question 10

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 10

occurs when behaviour is followed by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus eg the removal of pain.

Question 11

What is positive punishment?

Answer 11

when a behavior is followed by an unpleasant consequence eg a slap or harsh words.

Question 12

What is negative punishment?

Answer 12

occurs when behaviour is followed by the removal of something pleasant eg being fined or grounded.

Question 13

What does reinforcement do?

Answer 13

makes the behaviour more likely to be repeated.

Question 14

What does punishment do?

Answer 14

makes it much less likely that the behaviour will be repeated.

Question 15

What two experiments were conducted for classical conditioning in our spec?

Answer 15

Ivan Pavolv and his dogs.
Watson and Raynor and Baby Albert.

Question 16

What experiment did Watson and Reynor do in 1920? What did they do and what did they find?

Answer 16

The baby Albert fear experiment. They tested baby Albert for fear reactions, they presented him with a white rat, rabbit, cotton wool, dog etc and no fears were noted. They then banged a steel bar and he started to cry showing a fear response. Then 2 months later they presented him with the same animals and when he reached out to touch the white rat, they banged the steel bar and he showed a fear reaction by jumping. He then reached out again and the bang happened again and he started to whimper. A week later they continued the experiment and he wouldn’t touch the white rat and even attempted to get away from it. This shows that fear can be s learned response.

Question 17

Give some positives and some negatives foe the baby Albert experiment by Watson and Reynor.

Answer 17

+good experiment controls
-poor generalisability as he was the only participant and did not show representations of other babies
-ethical issues, they caused a huge amount of stress for a young child

Question 18

What experiment did Skinner carry out in 1932?

Answer 18

Skinner box and rats

Question 19

What was discovered because of the Skinner box experiment and what did they do? What type of conditioning is it?

Answer 19

4 rats individually spent time in a Skinner box. To begin with, food was dispensed to ensure the rats knew thar it was food. After this the lever was released. Upon pressing the lever, a piece of food was released. For 2 rats, it took one press of the lever for them to start pressing it at a higher rate meaning they had learned that it dispensed food. It took one rat two presses for it to start pressing it at a higher rate and it took the last rat 5 times with 2 hours between the 1st and 5th press. In conclusion, the rats were reinforced into pressing the lever. This is operant conditioning.

Question 20

Give some positives and negatives about the Skinner box experiment.

Answer 20

+it was controlled
+it was repeatable to get the same results
+very scientific approach
-not a complete explanation of learning
-not generalizable to humans
-not a naturalistic experiment
-unethical

Question 21

What type of conditioning is motivation a part of?

Answer 21

Operant conditioning

Question 22

What is motivation?

Answer 22

motivation is the desire to achieve your goal or satisfy your needs, it is driven through rewards.

Question 23

What is intrinsic motivation? Give some examples…

Answer 23

motivation that originates from within yourself such as your own enjoyment or pleasure. Eg hobby for a challenge, volunteering because you support the charity. It is more fulfilling and rises self esteem.

Question 24

What is extrinsic motivation? Give some examples…

Answer 24

Motivation that usually comes from the environment and other people such as teachers and parents. It is by gaining reward and avoiding punishment, eg writing an essay to gain a grade or avoid being told off.

Question 25

What is the self-determination theory?

Answer 25

A theory of human motivation that suggests that people become more self determined when their needs for happiness and reaching goals is fulfilled. People become more motivated when persuing things along with their own goals.

Question 26

What does self determination mean?

Answer 26

the ability of an individual to make choices and determine their own actions.

Question 27

Give a positive and a negative about the motivation theory…

Answer 27

+it has practical applications meaning the theory can be useful in highlighting several ways to increase motivation in a variety of situations.
-simplistic approach, it only focuses on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation alone when there are many more types of motivation.

Question 28

What is the social learning theory?

Answer 28

how learning often occurs without direct reinforcement and instead by observing or imitating other individuals behaviour that has been reinforced.

Question 29

What is modelling?

Answer 29

when a behavior is demonstrated by another person.

Question 30

What is observation?

Answer 30

the observer completely focuses their attention on the models behaviour and watches how it is performed.

Question 31

What is imitation, what makes it more likely to take place?

Answer 31

when the observer copies the models behaviour, it is more likely to happen if the observer identifies with the model.

Question 32

What is vicarious reinforcement?

Answer 32

the behaviour is only imitated if the learner is motivated to do so. Also, when the observer sees a model performing an action that is being reinforced, they are more likely to repeat it.

Question 33

Who came up with the social learning theory?

Answer 33

Albert Bandura

Question 34

What experiment did Bandura do?

Answer 34

The Bobo doll experiment.

Question 35

What did Bandura do in the Bobo doll experiment? what did they find?

Answer 35

he got 36 boys and 36 girls to take place in an experiment (mean age of 4.5) where the children were taken to two rooms where one half watched an adult play nicely with the bobo doll and the other half watched the adult display violent behaviour towards the doll. The children were then taken to another room where they were allowed to play with some attractive toys however their play was disrupted abruptly so the children felt frustrated. The children were then taken into another room with a bobo doll where the children who observed the aggressive adult displayed violent behaviour towards the doll and the children that observed the adult play nicely with the doll also did the same. Boys were also discovered to imitate male adult models more than female.

Question 36

Give some positives and negatives about the Bandura Bobo doll experiment…

Answer 36

+shows that children can learn aggressive behaviours
+lab experiment meaning it could be repeated to get the same result
-its not a complete explanation
-unethical
-not all the same age
-unnaturalistic