Behaviourist approach

Question 1

1. What is the behaviourist approach?
2. Name an Early behaviourist.

Answer 1

1. It is a way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning.
2. Watson (1913)

Question 2

What are the key features of the behaviourist approach?

Answer 2

• Relied on lab experiments to maintain more control and objectivity within their research.
• Only behaviour which is observable and measurable can scientifically be studied
• Mental processes are too vague and difficult to measure.

Question 3

1. What is classical conditioning?
2. What research explores classical conditioning?

Answer 3

1. Learning through association
2. Pavlov (1927) :
   - Revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if the sound was repeatedly presented at the same time they were given food.

• Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell (a stimulus) with food (another stimulus) and would produce the salivation response every time they heard the sound.
• Pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus (the bell) can elicit a new learned response (conditioned response) through association.

Question 4

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 4

• A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences. These consequences include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement or punishment.

Question 5

Define the three possible consequences.

Answer 5

1. Positive reinforcement - receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
2. Negative reinforcement - performing a certain behaviour to avoid something unpleasant.
3. Punishment - an unpleasant consequence of performing a certain behaviour

Question 6

What research explores operant conditioning?

Answer 6

• Skinner’s Box (1953) - aimed to see how animals learn from the consequences of their actions
• Skinner demonstrated, using a rat, the mechanisms of positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement was shown when the rats pressed down on a lever to receive food as a reward, and subsequently learnt to repeat this action to increase their rewards. Negative reinforcement was shown when the rat learnt to press down on the lever to avoid the unpleasant consequence of an electric shock.

Question 7

(AO3) What is a strength of the behaviourist approach?
(1)

Answer 7

Real-life application:

• The principles of conditioning have been applied to real-world behaviours and problems.
• An example is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions, i.e. prisons. These work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can then be exchanged for privileges.
• This is a strength as it increases the value of the behaviourist approach because it has widespread application.

Question 8

(AO3) What is a strength of the behaviourist approach?
(2)

Answer 8

Well-controlled research:

• It is based on well-controlled research.
• Behaviourists focused on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings.
• Breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus-response units, all other possible extraneous variables were removed, allowing cause-and-effect relationships to be established.
• This suggests that behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility.

Question 9

(AO3) What is a weakness of the behaviourist approach?

Answer 9

Mechanistic view of behaviour:

• Behaviourists may have oversimplified the learning process.
• By reducing behaviour to such simple components, behaviourists may have ignored an important influence on learning, human thought. Other approaches, like social learning theory, have drawn attention to the mental processes involved in learning.
• This suggests that learning is more complex than observable behaviour alone and that private mental processes are also essential.