Behaviourist Approach Flashcards
Behaviourist approach
an approach explaining behaviour and suggests that all behaviour is acquired and maintained through classical and operant conditioning
Behaviourist
Believes that human behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without the need to consider thoughts or feelings.
Who researched into classical conditioning
Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov in (1927)
What was Pavlov aim of the study?
To investigate the salivary reflex in dogs when he noticed that animals not only salivate when theres food but when the stimuli was joined with the presention of food.
Classical conditioning
Combination of UCS and UCR. Pairing a NS with the UCS turns the NS into a CS and the UCR into a CR.
Key features of forming an association:
Timing
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Stimulus generalisation
Key features of forming an association:
Timing
NS needs to predict the UCS (order/interval)
Key features of forming an association:
Extinction
Without the NS the CR is lost
Key features of forming an association:
Spontaneous recovery
Spontaneous recovery – Re-pairing brings back the association
Key features of forming an association:
Stimulus generation
similar to CS
Draw the diagram of Pavlov’s research during and after conditioning.
UCS → UCR
Food Salivation
UCS + NS → UCR
Food + Bell Salivation
CS → CR
Bell Salivation
Operant conditioning
Learning through reinforcement or punishment. if a behaviour is followed by a desirable consequence then that behaviour is more likely to occur again.
Skinner 1938
interested in behaviours that are freely made rather than those that are reflex/reflexive. Created the ‘skinner box/ in order to investigate operant conditioning in rats.
Positive reinforcement (Adding)
A behaviour is followed by giving a rewarding stimulus e.g. prasing a child after they do something particular we will reinforce their good behaviour
Negative reinforcement (Taking away)
A behaviour is followed by taking away something unpleasant e.g. the act of hitting the the ‘off’ button on an alarm clock removes the unpleasant ringing sound.
Reinforcement (Strengthing)
Anything that strengths a response and increases the likelihood of it occuring again in the future
Positive punishment (Adding/giving)
A behaviour is followed by giving an unpleasant stimulus e.g. being shouted at
Negative punishment (Taking away)
A behaviour is followed by taking away a pleasant stimulus e.g. confiscating your phone
Punishment (Weakens)
Involves the application of an unpleasant consequence with the result that the behaviour is less likely to occur again in the future
One strength of classical condtioning is its application to the treatment of phobias.
E: Classical conditioning has led to the development of systematic desensitation - a treatment which reduces the anxiety associated with phobias
E: Systematic desensitation works by using the principles of classical conditioning to replace the learned response (anxiety) with another respone (relaxtion).
L; This matter bacuse systematic desensitation is an effective treatment for a range of phobias including arachnophobia (fear of spiders) an aerophobia (fear of flying)
A criticism of classical conditioning comes other theories of learning
Seligam (1970)
E: Seligam (1970) proposed the concept of prepardeness to explain why some relationship are easier to establish than others.
E: For example, animals are prepared to learn associations that are significant in terms of their survival. A dog will quickly learn to assocaite them smell of meat with food, however, it is slower to learn the association with the sound of a bell and food.
L: This suggests that species have different to learn through the process of classical condtioning.
One strength of operant conditiing is the use of experimental methods.
E: Skinners research uses controlled conditins to discover the casual relationship between two or more variables
E: Skinner’s use of the Skinner box allowed him to manipulate the consequnes or the behavour (IV) to measure the effect on the rat’s behaviour (DV)
L: This allowed him to establish a cause and effect relationship between positive and negative reinforcement and the likelihood of future behaviour.
A criticism of the behavioursit approach is the reliance on non-human animals
E: Some psychologists claim that skinner’s reliance on rats and piegons means that were are unable to draw conlusions in relation to human behavior.
E: These psychologists argue that humans have free will and that our behaviour is not shaped by classical or operant conditing
L: This matters because psychologists may be unable to generalise the findings from animals to humans
What and advantage of using scientific methods?
Able to discover a possible casual relationship between varables
A final criticism of the behavourists approach is that it ignores other psychological explanations is that it ignores other psychological explanations
E: The behaviourists approach ignores cognitive and emotional factors, suggesting that humans are a product of conditining alone.
E: However, many psychologists argue that the human interaction is far more complicated than a simple stimulus-reinforcement relationship.
L: This matters because the behaviourist explanation may not provide a complete explanation of complex human behaviours, for example ‘love’
What AO3 are you using for classical conditining
STRENGTHS
- Treatment for phobias
WEAKNESS
- Other theories of learning
What AO3 are you using for Operant conditing?
STENGTHS
- the use of experimental methods
What AO3 are you using for the behaviourist approach?
WEAKNESSES
- The reliance on non-human animals
- Ignores other psychological explnations
