Behaviourist approach Flashcards
What are the key assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
Behaviour is completely learned from the environment and is a result of stimulus
When humans are born they have a tabula rosa
Very scientific
There are no distinctions between humans and animals
What are the three ways we learn from the environment?
Classical conditioning (learning by making associations), operant conditioning and social learning
Describe Pavlov’s dog experiment 1890’s
Pavlov established that meat caused a dog to salivate
A bell alone did not cause a dog to salivate
Meat (unconditioned stimulus) = saliva (unconditioned response)
meat + bell = saliva
After several pairings of this, the dog salivated to the sound of the bell
conditioned stimulus = bell
What is operant conditioning?
Two branches: reinforcement and punishment. Positive and negative for each
What was Skinner’s experiment
Pigeon experiment
he put a hungry pigeon in a box with a ‘peck’ sign. If the pigeon pecked it got a treat
then another sign saying ‘turn’, if the pigeon turned it got a treat
The pigeons learned these words
What are the advantages of using animals in research?
They are similar to humans in many ways and there are not the same ethical issues to consider
What are the disadvantages of using animals in research?
Animals are very different to humans and make poor test subjects. There are still ethical issues. Animals are killed and held in captivity
What are the issues with human research?
Deception, physical and psychological harm, no true consent
What are the 5 schedules of reinforcement?
Continuous reinforcement, fixed interval, variable interval, fixed ratio, variable ratio
What is social learning?
Much behaviour is learnt by watching role models
When was Bandura’s experiment?
1986
What idea did Bandura propose?
Phobias develop through observational learning
How did Bandura say children learn?
Through vicarious reinforcement - if their role model gets praised and rewarded for their behaviour, they are more likely to imitate
What was Bandura’s Bobo doll study?
There were 2 groups of children
1 group were shown a video of an aggressive role model being aggressive to a doll
the other group were shown the role model with non-agressive behaviour
36 females and 36 males aged 37-69 months
The children who watched video 1 acted more aggressively
greater level of imitation if the role model was the same age as the child
