Behaviourist Approach

Question 1

What does the behaviourist approach claim is all we have at birth?

Answer 1

The capacity to learn

Question 2

What is the focus of this approach?

Answer 2

Observable behaviour

Question 3

Where is all behaviour learned from in this approach?

Answer 3

The environment

Question 4

How does psychology influence how the behaviourist approach is tested?

Answer 4

As psychology is a science, behaviour must be measured in highly controlled environments to establish cause and effect

Question 5

Why can research be carried out on animals and humans in this approach?

Answer 5

There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and animals

Question 6

What does this approach claim behaviour is primarily concerned with?

Answer 6

Your observable behaviour

Question 7

What is your behaviour the result of?

Answer 7

A stimulus-response mechanism

Question 8

What is a stimulus?

Answer 8

Anything, internal/external, that brings about a response

Question 9

What is a response?

Answer 9

Any reaction in the presence of a stimulus

Question 10

What is reinforcement?

Answer 10

The process by which a response is strengthened

Question 11

What are all the abbreviations in this approach?

Answer 11

Unconditional stimulus = US/UCS
Unconditioned response = UR/UCR
Neutral stimulus = NS
Conditioned stimulus = CS
Reflex = automatic response (uncontrolled)

Question 12

Describe Thorndike’s experiment

Answer 12

Made cats escape a box through trial and error like a puzzle. A reward was on the other side once the cats got out. As the cat continuously claimed the reward, it became more able to solve the puzzle each time

Question 13

What does Thorndike’s experiment show?

Answer 13

Behaviour is learned by your environment. If we manipulate the environment, we can shape and manipulate behaviour

Question 14

Who discovered the process of classical conditioning?

Answer 14

Ivan Pavlov

Question 15

Outline Pavlov’s research (Pavlov’s dogs)?

Answer 15

. Was investigating salivary reflexes of his dogs when he realised that the dogs were salivating when presented with stimuli that were associated with food
. He used a neutral stimulus of a bell (doesn’t usually provide a response) and paired it with the unconditioned (natural) stimulus of food.
. When these two stimuli were repeatedly paired together, a conditioned response of salivation was created simply when the bell was rung, even if the food wasn’t present
. The new conditioned stimulus was the bell

Question 16

How is timing important in classical conditioning?

Answer 16

If the neutral stimulus cannot be used to predict the presence of the unconditioned stimulus e.g the Neutral stimulus occurs after the UCS, then conditioning won’t take place

Question 17

What did Pavlov find out about the permanence of classical conditioning?

Answer 17

He proposed the idea of extinction: if the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus too many times, the conditioned response will be lost as the CS isn’t a natural stimulus like the UCS

Question 18

Although extinction occurs in classical conditioning, what did Pavlov find about the ease of getting the conditioning back?

Answer 18

Spontaneous recovery: after extinction occurs, if the UCS and CS are paired together, there are less pairings needed for the conditioned response to return

Question 19

What is the idea behind Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning?

Answer 19

Organisms make spontaneous behavioural decisions and face consequences for their behaviour which can be positive or negative. Whether or not the organism repeats this behaviour heavily depends on the nature of the consequence (learning through consequences)

Question 20

What is reinforcement in operant conditioning and what are the two types?

Answer 20

Something in the environment that strengthens a behaviour, making it more likely to happen again
- Positive and negative reinforcement

Question 21

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 21

When an individual is rewarded as a consequence of their behaviour, creating a pleasurable response for the individual that encourages them to repeat that same behaviour

Question 22

How does negative reinforcement work?

Answer 22

When an individual has an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus and response removed that puts them back to a pleasant state, and the behaviour that caused the removal of the aversiveness is repeated

Question 23

What are schedules of reinforcement in operant conditioning?

Answer 23

After establishing a response and training a behaviour through continuous reinforcement, a partial reinforcement schedule is more effective in maintaining that response as continuous reinforcement once a behaviour has been taught is at risk of extinction

Question 24

What is the idea of punishment in operant conditioning?

Answer 24

When an individual experiences an unpleasant consequence as a result of their behaviour, decreasing the chance of that behaviour reoccurring.

Question 25

What is the difference between positive and negative forms of punishment?

Answer 25

Positive: adding an unpleasant experience as a consequence
Negative: removing something pleasant as a consequence