behaviourist approach Flashcards
what are the key assumptions of this approach?
Behaviourist approach = learning theory
- all behaviour is learned from our environment
- ‘tabula rasa’ - we all start as a blank slate
- only observable behaviour is measurable scientifically
- animals and humans learn in the same way so experiments are carried out on animals and results are extrapolated to humans
- mainly use lab experiments to achieve scientific and objective results
- experience and interactions with our environment make us what we are
what is meant by classical conditioning? who discovered this? what is the formula?
Ivan Pavlov was researching dogs digestive systems and accidentally stumbled across this type of conditioning
classical conditioning means learning by association
Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) = unconditioned response (e.g. salivation) neutral stimulus (e.g. bell) = no response
unconditioned stimulus + neutral stimulus = unconditioned response
conditioned stimulus e.g. bell = conditioned response e.g. salivation
describe little albert study?
A - provide empirical evidence that human emotional responses could be classically conditioned
P - Watson introduced 6 month old Albert to a number of stimuli including fire, dogs, rabbits and rats.
UCS clanging noise, UCR crying fear NS = rat
when he was then shown the animals, a loud clanging noise was played
F - they had successfully conditioned a fear response to the white rat but also other fluffy object that were white
C - he had empirical evidence that it was possible to classically condition a child
what were the evaluative points of the little albert study?
- Brought him back after a month and he still showed the same response proving that it was still apparent
- controversial - couldn’t reverse the response
- there was a cutoff point where a stimulus was too different from the original stimulus e.g. large brown dog
- Pavlov also found if the time lapse between presentation (US + NS) was too great then no association was made
what is meant by operant conditioning?
what are the assumptions?
learning through reinforcement
any response followed by a positive effect will be strengthened (stamping in)
any response followed by a negative effect will result in the stamping out of a behaviour
what is meant by positive reinforcement, positive punishment? what is meant by negative reinforcement and negative punishment?
positive reinforcement is pleasurable and increases the likelihood of behaviour occurring again
positive punishment - adding something negative e.g. smacking a child
negative reinforcement - refers to the avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus but the result is also pleasurable
negative punishment - removing a pleasant stimulus decreases the likelihood of a behaviour e.g. being grounded for staying out past your curfew
what did Skinner do?
He was influenced by Thorndike and was a major force in the behaviourism approaches movement, developing thorndike’s work into his skinner box
what was Skinner’s skinner box?
A box that contained the potential to condition behaviour (lever pressing) through reinforcement by using stimuli of levers/lights/electrified floors and rewards
A lever prompted the release of a pellet
loudspeakers and lights indicated hatch open to get pellet
the floor was metal and had capacity to be electrified, pressing lever took current away
explain how skinner used the box to investigate operant conditioning?
Skinner carried out a controlled experiment in which he conducted a number of variations looking at how behaviour could be shaped e.g. pos reinforcement and then negative reinforcement but not at the same time
what are strengths of both conditioning types and behaviourist approach in general?
-we can see real-life examples e.g. school/prison
-uses scientific methods to study human behaviour objectively, developed wundts work by using controlled env.
research to support e.g. albert, pavlov,
- ideas widely used to help change behaviour which is seen to be negative and encourage positive behaviour
-nurture side of nature/nurture debate
what
