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Psychology C1 > Behaviourist Approach > Flashcards

Behaviourist Approach Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the three asumptions of the behaviourist approach?

A
  • Humans are born like a blank slate
  • Behvaiour is learned through conditioning
  • Humans and animals learn in similar ways
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2
Q

What does ‘tabula rasa’ mean?

A

A blank slate

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3
Q

What does born like a blank slate mean?

A

Everything you are is a result of experiance, nothing is innate
Only born with the most basic of responses and will be molded by the environment

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4
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

Learning through association

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5
Q

What are the two types of conditioning?

A

Classical and operant

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6
Q

How does classical conditioning happen?

A

An association is made between a previously unlearned response and a neutral stimulus. Eventually the neutral stimulus will produce the unlearned response

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7
Q

What is an example of classical conditioning?

A

Pavlov’s dogs

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8
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

Learning through consequences

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9
Q

What was the neutral stimulus and the unconditoned response in Pavlolv’s dogs experiment?

A

NS~A bell sound
UCR~Salivation

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10
Q

What does operant conditioning focus on?

A

Reward and punishment

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11
Q

What are the two types of reinforcement?

A

Positive and negative

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12
Q

Does punishement and reinforcement strengthen or weaken behaviiour?

A

Reinforcement~Strengthens
Punishment~Weakens

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13
Q

What is positive reinforcement?

A

Reward or pleasant consequence is offered as a response to a desired behaviour

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14
Q

What is a negative reinforcement?

A

An unpleasant experiance is removed as a result of a desired behaviour being presented

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15
Q

What is a punishment?

A

An unpleasant stimulus which is given as a result of an undesired behaviour, so we try to avoid it

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16
Q

What is an example of operant conditioning?

A

Skinner’s box

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17
Q

What is meant by ‘humans and animals learn in similar ways’?

A

Behaviourists are able to use lab studies. This is because they belive humans and animals learn in similar ways, this means they can generalise their findings from animals and apply them to human behvaiour~human behaviour is determined by stimulus-response relationships

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18
Q

What’s the therapy of the behaviourist approach?

A

Aversion Therapy

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19
Q

What are the components of aversion therapy?

A
  • Classical conditioning
  • Covert sensatisation
  • Operant conditioning
  • New developments
20
Q

How is classical conditioning used in aversion therapy?

A

Aversion therapy aims to pair the unwanted behaviour with an unpleasant stimulus (UCS), to reduce this behaviour
* UCS produces an UCR
* Aversive stimulus is paired with unwanted behaviour, the behaviour now leads to the same consequences
* This is done repeatedly, the outcome of the unwanted behaviour (NS) is now a CS

21
Q

Give an example of new developments in aversion therapy

A

A drug which makes the person sick if mixed with alcohol, but rewards abstinence with feelings of tranquility and well-being

22
Q

What’s a consequence of new developments in aversion therapy?

A

Patients may become reliant of the feeling of tranquility provided by the drugs and becomes addicted/dependent of these drugs to be happy

23
Q

Describe covert sensitisation

A

This process encourages the patient to imagine unwanted scenarios that progressively get worse when the undesired behaviour is shown

24
Q

Give an example of covert sensitiastion

A

A patient who wants to stop drinking alcohol would be asked to imagine repulsive scenes ,e.g. being sick, when they consume alcohol

25
Q

How is operant conditioning used in aversion therapy and how does it work?

A

Once the association is made between the undesired behaviour and a conditioned response, the person tends to avoid futurecontact with the stimulus
Negatuve reinforcement is now motivating the individual to continue to avoid the stimulus

26
Q

Give an example of operant conditioning in aversion therapy

A

An alcoholic may avoid going to pubs or other scenarios where people may be drinking

27
Q

What are the effectiveness strengths and limitations of aversion therapy?

A

Strengths:research to support
Limitations:patient dropout and treating the symptoms not the cause

28
Q

What is the research support for aversion therapy and why is it a strength?

A

Smith(1997):found that alcoholics who were treated with aversion therapy has higher abstinence rates than those who were treated with counselling alone
There is research to highlight to success of this therapy

29
Q

What is the example for patient dropout for aversion therapy and what does it suggest?

A

Bancroft:found 50% of patients either reduse their treatment or dropped out of the treatment programmes
This suggests that only willing participants are participating in the therapy

30
Q

What are the ethical issues of aversion therapy?

A
  • Level of control over patient
  • Used in the treatment of homosexuality
31
Q

Describe the level of control over patient paragraph of aversion therapy evaluation

A
  • Aversion therapy can have serious physical/psychological unpleasant impacts on the patient
  • Example:In many cases aversion therapy would involve electrical shocks when the undesired behaviour is shown
  • This is a weakness as it may cause additional trauma to the patient
32
Q

Describe the use of aversion therapy for homosexuality paragraph for aversion therapy?

A
  • Up till 2006 both the USA and Uk used electric shock aversion therapy to treat homosexuality
  • For example:Billy Clegg-Hill (1962) died after he had undergone aversion therapy to ‘cure’ homosexuality
  • This is an ethical issues as aversion therapy has an unethical history and if brought back into use it may lead people to believ that it can infact ‘cure’ homosexuality
33
Q

What is the classical research for the behaviourist approach?

A

Watson and Rayner (1920)
Conditioned emotional reactions

34
Q

What is the debate for the behaviourist approach and what are the three themes?

A

Conditioning techniques on children
1. Conditioning at home
2. Conditioning in school
3. Conditioning on vulnerable groups

35
Q

Describe the methodology of Watson and Rayner’s research

A
  • Participant was little albert~selected as they believed that they would only cause relatively little harm to little albert as he was on the whole solid and unemotional
  • Not case study=research is not an in-depth analysis of little albert’s life/Not an experiment=no manipulation of IV to see the effect on DV
  • It is a controlled observation
36
Q

What stages were included in each

What were the three phases of Watson and Rayner’s research?

A
  • Establishing an emotional response:Stage one and two
  • Transfering a conditioned response to another stimuli:Stage four
  • The effect of time on conditioning:Stage five
37
Q

Describe the procedure of Watson and Rayner’s research

A
  1. Presented white rate (NS) and a bar was struck behind albert’s head~no further tests for a week (age 11m 3d)
  2. Rat presented agaon but closer,blocks given as a distraction,repeated joint presentation og the rate&loud noise (age 11m 10d)
  3. Rabbit&Dog with blocks between,fur coat&cotten alone,Watson put his hair infront of albert(age 11m 15d)
  4. Change location(large well lit room with 4ppl)~rat,rabbit&dog,joint presentation of rat and bar~Dog made to bark at albert
  5. Rat placed on albert’s arm then chest,rabbit placed in his lapp,dog pushed closer to him
38
Q

Describe the findings of Watson and Rayner’s research

A
  1. Rat:fell foward
    2.Rat:fell,cried instantly,crawled away
    3.Rat:fell over/Rabbit:wimpered,cried/Cotton wool:kicked away/Watson’s hair:ignored
  2. Rat:bent over crying/Rabbit:leaned as far as possible/Changed location/Rat:hands up/Dog:fell over when it barked
  3. SC:whimpered,cried/Fur coat:withdrew/Rat:leaned back/Rabbit:shuddered/Dog:cried with both hands over face
39
Q

What were the incidental findings of Watson and Rayner’s research?

A

Albert often sucked his thumb for comfort,fear response dissapeared when he did so. Behaviour-it was believed he did so to block out his fear response

40
Q

Four conclusions

What are the conclusions of Watson and Rayner’s research simplified?

A
  1. Fear of a previously neurtal stimulus can be conditioned by presenting it simultaneously with an established negative stimulus
  2. A conditioned response can be transfered to other animals or objects-stimulus generalisation
  3. The conditioned response changes over time~remained after a period of 1wk 1month later it transfered to other stimuli~response will persist and modify personality over time
  4. The emotional reponse may not be able to be removed~unclear as little albert left the hsopital so the CR couldn’t be removed
41
Q

What are the two methodolgical evaluation points of Watson and Rayner’s research?

A

High levels of control and sample

42
Q

How did Watson and Rayner ensure high levels of control and why is it a strength??

A
  • Took place in a controlled environment and EVs were controlled for
  • Baseline test done with Albert to see his reponses to stimulu before the study
  • Study was filmed
  • Increases the validity and makes it easier to draw conclusions on whether fear can be conditioned
43
Q

Give an example of high levels of control within the experiment

Why might high levels of control always be a strength?

A

Artificial and unnatural environment for a baby to be in and exhibit certain behaviours~decreases the ecological validity of the study
For example:W&R used builidng blocks as a control condition to use as a comparison to other stimuli

44
Q

Why is the sample of Watson and Rayner’s research a weakness?

A

The research only has one participant
Watson conclueded that Albert developed a phobia due to classical conditioning~without a control group this can not be said conclusively and it cannot be generalised (can be solved using other participnats)
This decreases the population validity of the study

45
Q

What are three ethical issues and describe how they’re present in Watson and Rayner’s research?

A
  • Protection from harm:little albert was conditioned to have a phobia~Watson never unconditioned the fear
  • Confidentiality:little albert was a fake name but enough information was included to allow people to discover his identity
  • Right to withdraw:little albert was too young to talk and could only cry if he was unhappy,stressed or upset, which may have been taken as findings to support the research
46
Q

What are the scientific benefits of Watson and Rayner’s study?

A

Demonstrated that phobias can be learnt through conditioning
Understanding of phobia development can be incorporated into treatments of this form of behaviour throught the use of systematic densentisiation
However,scientific benefits don’t outweight the ethical costs as the study could have used a consenting adult

47
Q

What is the alternative evidence for Watson and Rayner’s research?

A

Another study proposed that operant conditioning could explain the maintenance of phobias that have been formed of a result of classical conditioning
Once a fear is conditoned the individual will avoid the situation,avoidance of the phobia stimulus reduces the fear and thus the reinforcing

This is known as the two-process theory

Psychology C1 (5 decks)

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