Behaviourist approach Flashcards
Who are the three main psychologists in the behaviourist approach
- Ivan Pavlov- Pavlov’s dogs
- B.F. Skinner- Skinner boxes
- John Watson- Father of behaviourism, Little Albert
Key assumptions
- all behaviour is learned
- known as the learning thoery
- we are born as a blank slate (tabula rasa)
- expereince and interactions with our environment make us who we are
- animals and humans learn in the same way
- mind is irrelevant
What is classical conditioning
-learning through association
What is classical conditioning
- learning through association
- when a repsonse is produced, the stimulus becomes associated
- Pavlov stumbled across this while conducting experiments on dogs
Classical conditioning- before conditioning
Food (unconditioned stimulus) = salivation (unconditioned response)
Bell (neutral stimulus) = no response
Classical conditioning- during conditioning
Food (unconditioned stimulus) + bell (neutral stimulus) = salivation (unconditioned response)
Classical conditioning- after conditioning
Bell (conditioned stimulus) = salivation (conditioned response)
What is operant conditioning
- learning through reinforcement (reward or punishment)
- any reponse followed by a positive effect will be strengthened (stamping in)
- any response followed by a negative effect (punishment) will result in stamping in
Rewards- positive reinforcement
- pleasurable
- increases likelihood of behaviour occurrinf again
Rewards- negative reinforcement
- avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus
- decreases likelihood of behaviour occurring again
Punishment- positive punishment
- adding something negative to decrease likelihood of repeating behaviour
- e.g. smacking a child
Punishmenet- negative punishment
- removing a pleasant stimulus decreases the likelihood of a behaviour
- e.g. being grounded for staying out past curfew
Who is B.F. Skinner and what was his work
- influenced by Thorndike and developed the Skinner box
- work in laboratories on animals, investigating the role of rewrd and punishment in shaping behaviour
- Skinner’s box allowed him to observe animal’s responses
Explain how the Skinner box worked
- conditioning behaviour (lever pressing) through reinforcement by using stimuli of levers/lights/electrified floors and rewards
- lever promoted release of pellet
- loud speakers and lights indicated the hatch open to get pellet
- floor was metal and could be electrified. Pressing lever took current away
- B.F. Skinner conducted a number of variations to see how behaviour could be shaped using reinforcement e.g. positive then reinforcement
Types of reinforcement in the Skinner Box
- pressing the lever to receive pellet- positive
- pressing lever to take electric current away- negative
Little Albert- Watson- aim/procedure
- to see if they could condition fear in children
- Albert was shown a number of stimuli such as a fire, mokey, dog and rabbit
- Albert liked rat and wasn’t scared of any of the stimuli
- everytime rat was introduced a bar was struck
- this made him cry andit frightened him
Little Albert- Watson- findings
- Albert was scared of anything to do with similar characteristics to the rat
- after one month, he was still scared of the objects
Little Albert- Watson- conclusions and evaluation
- phobias were likely conditional responses and can condition emotional responses
- nowadays, ethical issues would prevent this experiment from taking place
Strengths of behaviourist approach
- replicate results because of scientific methods used- can establish cause and effect
- produces objective data that can be analysed
- helps to aid our undertanding of human behaviour- real life application, can be used in schools
- research support e.g. Pavlov
Weaknesses of behaviourist approach
- doesn’t consider genetics
- only focuses on “observable” behaviour so doesn’t consider thought processes
- assumes animals and humans are the same
- is reductionist as focuses on stimulus-response and ignores other factors
- deterministic- environment shapes our behaviour not free will
- doesn’t take into accord individual differences
- different species have different capacities for learning so some may learn by observation, with no reinforcement
