Behaviourist Approach Flashcards
Who made it?
Watford
What do behaviourists believe?
Only observable behaviours should be studied in controlled and objective settings
What is classical conditioning
Learning by association
Dog experiment (Ivan Pavlov)
1) dog salivate (UCR) at treat (UCS)
2) no reaction to bell ringing (NS)
3) ring bell before feeding dog
4) dog salivate at sound of bell (CR)
Operant conditioning
Learning by consequence: Skinner’s Box
1) rats given electric shock
2) rats must press lever to stop shocks
3) rats press lever (neg reinforcement)
1) rats bump into lever
2) receive food pellet
3) rats push lever to receive more food pellets (POS reinforcement)
Advantages of behaviourist approach
1) highly controlled research - focus on measurable observable behaviours in a controlled environment.
- smaller stimulus-response units
- establish cause and effect relationship
- high scientific credibility
2) widely applicable
- token systems in mental institutions and prisons, good behaviour is rewarded with tokens for privileges (positive reinforcement)
- systematic desensitisation to help treat phobias
- these systems wouldn’t exist without the behaviourist approach
Limitations of behaviourist approach
1) oversimplifies the learning process
- behaviourists reduce the learning process to basic components which ignore mental processes/conscious human thought
- SLT and humanists take internal processes into consideration
- learning is more complex than observable behaviours
2) believes that all behaviour is a result of previous conditioning
- skinner believed that all behaviours are the total of your reinforcement history
- ignores the concept of free will, all past conditioning determines the outcome
- deterministic, ignores conscious decision-making
