behaviourist approach evaluation Flashcards
Scientific credibility
Behaviourism was able to bring language and methods of the natural sciences into psychology by using highly controlled lab settings. By using scientific processes such as objectivity and replication, behaviourism was influential in the development of psychology as a science. Thus giving it greater credibility and status.
Real life applications
The principles of conditioning has been applied to real life behaviours and problems. For example token economy systems have had a huge impact on institutions such as prisons. They work by rewarding good behaviour with tokens that can be used to exchange for privileges. Also the behaviourist approach has been used to explain how phobias come about and how they can be treated. This supports the behaviourist approach as such therapies are also suitable for patients who lack insight because patient doesn’t have to think of anything.
Bring in links to economical implications
Mechanistic view of behaviour
From a behaviourist perspective animal(including humans) are seen as passive and machine like responders with little or no conscious insight into their behaviour. Other approaches such as SLT and the cognitive approach have emphasised the importance of mental events during learning. As a result these approaches suggest that humans play a mor active role in their own learning. This is a limitation as it means that humans are more active and less passive so the learning theory may apply less to human than to animal behaviour
Environmental determinism
This approach sees all behaviour as determined by past experiences that have been conditioned. This ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour. Skinner says that free will is an illusion. This is a problem as skinner says that our past conditioning history determines the outcomes of our behaviour and totally ignores free will.
Ethical and practical issues in animal experiments
Although Skinner’s study maintained high control over their experimental ‘subjects’ many critics have questioned the ethics of conducting such investigations. Animals were exposed to stressful and aversive conditions, which may have affected how they reacted to the experimental situation. This is a problem as cognitive psychologists say that humans are so complex and cognitive factors mediate between stimulus and response so you cannot generalise the findings. However the good thing is that animals are less prone to demand characteristics so act in a more natural way than if humans were used.
