behaviourist approach

Question 1

according to behaviourists, experimental psychology should be based on?

Answer 1

empirical evidence

Question 2

Wilhelm Wundt tried to apply the scientific process to psychology but he used….

Answer 2

introspection

Question 3

for psychology to be an experimental science it must be based on empirical evidence, which means…..

Answer 3

it is not possible to study mental processes

Question 4

what do the behaviourist approach believe we should focus on instead of mental processes.

Answer 4

instead focusing on observable behaviour.

Question 5

what are the assumptions of the behaviourist approach ?

Answer 5

• the first assumption is that we should study observable behaviour only, so that psychology is based on on empirical evidence.
• the second assumption is that most behaviour is learned
• the third is that research can use animals, to reach conclusions about human behaviour

Question 6

what does it mean when changes in the environment cause changes in behaviour?

Answer 6

the behaviour is learned

Question 7

what was behaviourist John Watson interested in?

Answer 7

observable behaviour

Question 8

due to the belief that humans and animals share the same learning mechanisms, behaviourists believe that

Answer 8

it doesn’t matter whether we use humans or animals in research

Question 9

what are the two learning mechanisms ?

Answer 9

classical and operant conditioning

Question 10

why do behaviourists assume that we can use animal research?

Answer 10

because animals and humans share the same learning mechanisms

Question 11

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 11

something neutral becomes associated with that already makes you feel a certain way

Question 12

what is the term used to describe something we perceive in the environment ?

Answer 12

a stimulus

Question 13

what is a neutral stimulus?

Answer 13

when a stimulus doesn’t cause us to feel or respond a certain way

Question 14

what is an unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 14

when a stimulus does naturally make us feel a certain type of way

Question 15

what is an unconditioned response?

Answer 15

the response we get from an unconditioned stimulus

Question 16

what happens before classical conditioning?

Answer 16

there is a neutral stimulus which causes no response . and an unconditional stimulus which causes an unconditional response

Question 17

what happens during classical conditioning?

Answer 17

neutral stimulus becomes associated with the unconditional stimulus

Question 18

what happens after classical conditioning?

Answer 18

the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus through repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus

Question 19

who was the first person to study classical conditioning ?

Answer 19

Ivan Pavlov

Question 20

what happened before Pavlov’s experiment

Answer 20

before the experiment the neutral stimulus was the bell. the unconditional stimulus was the food and the dogs salivation in response to the food was an unconditional response .

Question 21

what happened during Pavlov’s experiment ?

Answer 21

as the bell was paired with the food the dogs formed an association between the bell and the food

Question 22

what happened after the experiement?

Answer 22

as a result to classical conditioning the dogs would salivate as soon as they heard the bell. the bell became a conditioned stimulus because it caused a conditioned response.

Question 23

what is operant conditioning ?

Answer 23

when a person learns to associate their action with an outcome

Question 24

what do operant and classical conditioning have in common?

Answer 24

both operant and classical conditioning involve learning an associatinon between two things

Question 25

what is reinforcement?

Answer 25

is when the outcome of someone’s action make them more likely to repeat a behaviour

Question 26

what is positive reinforcement ?

Answer 26

when your actions are reinforced by receiving a reward

Question 27

what is negative reinforcement?

Answer 27

you are more likely to repeat a behaviour because something is being take away

Question 28

what is the difference between punishment and negative reinforcement?

Answer 28

punishment is when a negative outcome makes you less likely to repeat a behaviour and negative reinforcement is when a negative outcome is removed, making you more likely to repeat the behaviour

Question 29

what is punishment ?

Answer 29

when a negative outcome makes you less likely to repeat a behaviour

Question 30

why did Skinner use animal research ?

Answer 30

As a behaviourists, skinner was not interested on testing mental processes. skinner believed that humans and animals learned through the same mechanisms

Question 31

what was skinner’s experiment

Answer 31

skinner conducted research on animals. skinners rats were experimented on using a class box, a food dispenser , electrified floor.

Question 32

what did skinners research help support

Answer 32

the idea reinforcement

Question 33

what were the results of skinner’s experiment

Answer 33

he found that if the rats received food whine they pressed the lever they learned to associate their action with a reward.- support for learning through positive reinforcement, he also found that if pressing the lever temporally stopped the electric current in the floor, they learned to associate their action with stopping the pain. this support for learning through negative reinforcement

Question 34

what does using an artificial setting allow the researcher to do?

Answer 34

manipulate the independent variable. control all extraneous variables, measure the dependent variable

Question 35

strengths of the behaviourist approach?

Answer 35

• the use of lab experiments means that the researcher can apply scientific method to the research, the use of lab experiments means the research has a high degree of control over extraneous variables meaning that it it has high validity and reliability. the reliance on empirical methods means that the theories are falsiable. findings from behaviourist research have been consistently replicated
• learning mechanisms can be used can be sued to develop psychological treatments. for instance classical conditioning can be used to treat anxiety. By replacing a negative association with a positive associations

Question 36

what do behaviourists choose not to study and why?

Answer 36

mental processes as they are not directly observable

Question 37

how do behaviourist explain behaviour ?

Answer 37

purely in terms of stimulus and response

Question 38

what does the behaviourists approach assume about behaviour?

Answer 38

that it is learned from experience. sometimes we are born with certain behaviours because we inherited them through our parents. our behaviours are partially determined by our genes

Question 39

what side of the nature-nurture debate does behaviourism focus on?

Answer 39

behaviourism only focuses the nurture of the nature nurture debate

Question 40

what are the limitations of the behavioural approach?

Answer 40

• it may be overly reductive. for instance the approach ignores the role of mental processes and biological factors in explaining behaviour
• reliance on animal studies can be a limitation because the results may not generalise to humans and there may be ethical issues with the research.

Question 41

what was the theory that skinner developed to show how all animals learned?

Answer 41

operant conditioning

Question 42

according to the behaviourist approach how is our behaviour determined?

Answer 42

our behaviour is determined by stimuli and outcomes in our environment

Question 43

what do behaviourist suggest about free will?

Answer 43

according to behaviourist, our behaviour is caused by stimuli and outcomes in our environment, which means we do not have free will to choose how to behave

Question 44

psychic determinism

Answer 44

the behaviour is being caused by a repressed fixation.

Question 45

what type of determinism does behaviourist approach assume

Answer 45

environmental determinism behaviour is determined by environmental factors. this means that we don’t have free will.

Question 46

what do behaviourist psychologists believe that we can only study?

Answer 46

observable behaviour

Question 47

what does the behavioural approach assume our behaviour is determined by?

Answer 47

environmental factors. This is called environmental determinism