behaviourist approach/ SLT

Question 1

what are the key assumptions of behaviourism?

Answer 1

all behaviour is determined by environmental stimuli (through operant and classical conditioning)

Question 2

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 2

learning by association - if a new stimulus was paired many time with an existing stimulus-response, an association was made between the two stimuli.

pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus will create an association with the unconditioned response. after regular pairing, the neutral stimulus will become a conditioned stimulus, and will lead to its own conditioned response

Question 3

describe Pavlov’s salivating study

Answer 3

he paired the sound of a bell with the presentation of food and eventually could stimulate salivation by simply sounding the bell (he had conditioned the bell to the response of salivation)

• An unconditioned stimulus (the food) leads to an unconditioned response (salivation)
• a neutral stimulus (ringing bell) produces no response
• pairing a neutral stimulus (bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (food) will create an association with the unconditioned response (salivating)
• after regular pairing, the neutral stimulus (bell) will become a conditioned stimulus, and will lead to its own conditioned response (salivating)

Question 4

what is stimulus generalisation?

Answer 4

pavlov found that once an animal has been conditioned, they can respond to other similar stimuli in the same way. (e.g. bells of a different tone)

Question 5

what is extinction?

Answer 5

pavlov discovered that unlike the UCR (salivating due to food), the CR (salivating due to bell) doesn’t become permanently established as a response. after a few presentations of the CS (bell) in the absence of the UCS (food), it loses its ability to produce the CR (salivating)

Question 6

what’s spontaneous recovery?

Answer 6

following extinction, if the CS (bell) and UCS (food) are paired together once again, the link between them is made much more quickly.

Question 7

why is temporal contiguity important in this?

Answer 7

the unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus have to be paired together at or around the same time for the association to be created.

Question 8

evaluate classical conditioning

Answer 8

👍 supporting research of Pavlov - support is as he found that salivation becomes associated with new stimuli which were unrelated to food and concluded that the learning link is likely to be made is the brain between a UCS and the NS that occurs before the UCR is elicited.
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however, Pavlov used a sample of 34 dogs of a variety of breeds that were bred in kennels. sample is clearly not representative of humans (dogs are psychologically and behaviourally different to us), so the generalisability of the sample is very low and we cannot assume the same findings of classical conditioning will be found in humans too.
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However, Watson and Rayner conducted an experiment that showed it can be applied to humans too.
they experimented a 9 month old boy called little Albert who was ‘scared only by loud noises’
little Albert was unafraid of the stimuli shown to him at the start (e.g. white rat, rabbit)
went through seven pairings of white rat followed by the startling sound of a steel bar being struck with a hammer.
after this, he reacted with crying when rat was presented with loud noise.

👍- can be used as a treatment for mental illnesses such as systematic desensitisation to treat phobias which had found to be very effective - (gradually exposing the individual to the feared object or situation in a controlled and relaxed environment, allows an individual to replace the fear with a relaxation response to the CS using counter conditioning)

👎- reductionist - ignores the role of biology in behaviour and suggests that everything stems from stimulus-response learning.

Question 9

what is operant conditioning?

Answer 9

learning from the consequences of behaviour.

positive reinforcement- a reward as a positive consequence of the action

negative reinforcement- removing something unpleasant as a positive consequence of an action

punishment- negative consequence of an action.

pos and neg reinforcement mean we are more likely to repeat a behaviour, whilst punishment tends to prevent behaviour being repeated.

Question 10

describe Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning

Answer 10

placed rats in a cage that was specifically designed to deliver food only when a lever was pressed by the rat. he found the rats quickly learned to press the leaves and would continue to do this until they were full.

variation:
box that administered a continuous electric shock under the rats feet until the leaver was pressed. the rats quickly learned that pressing the leaver would lead to the most positive consequence and repeated that behaviour.

Question 11

describe schedules of reinforcement.

Answer 11

reinforcing every instance of desired behaviour (continuous reinforcement) is a useful way of learning a particular response, but is difficult to maintain over time. (quicker extinction)

partial reinforcement schedule - reinforce regularly (e.g. every 10th time they show the response) and is more easily maintained over time.

Question 12

evaluate operant conditioning

Answer 12

👍- skinners research suggests that operant conditioning is an effective way for both humans and animals to learn. e.g. schools use operant conditioning to shape students behaviour through rewards and punishment.

👎 however, skinners research on rats does show conditioning taking place, it can be criticised due to its poor generalisability as rats and humans don’t have the same brain structure of cognitive ability. this means that we might not find the same results using reinforcement and punishment in a human population.

👎 also his research was done on animals and exposed them to unpleasant stimuli such as electric shocking, this can be seen to breach ethical guidelines.

👍- application to real life - token economies, a form of therapy based on operant conditioning, have been shown to be effective for treating many problematic behaviours such as aggressive behaviour in prisoners.
when an individual demonstrates the desired behaviour, they are rewarded.

highlights effectiveness of positive reinforcement in increasing the desired behaviour put that we want.

👎 however, operant conditioning can be used in a negative way. e.g. Hitler used positive reinforcement by giving medals to women who had a certain number of children to promote the reproduction of the Arian race. this shows that operant conditioning can be seen as a violation of our human rights and can be used for dictatorships, genocide, discrimination etc.

👎- reductionist - states that behaviour is solely learned through nurture rather than nature. there have been biochemical studies that prove that biological factors are very important in explaining human behaviour. e.g. over-production of testosterone has been shown to cause high rates of aggression in men. for females, PMT and lactation. certain genes such as the MAOA gene can increase violent behaviour, leading to possible psychopathic behaviour. This proves that operant conditioning only partially explains human behaviour.

Question 13

describe the social learning theory.

Answer 13

Human behaviour is learned by observing others. If we see the behaviour of other people being reinforced (vicarious reinforcement), we’re influenced to imitate the behaviour. We pay particular attention to role models and learn from their behaviour as these are the people we identify with most (e.g. based on similar characteristics, attractiveness, status)

they are more likely to imitate the role models behaviour if they have self efficacy (an individuals belief in their capacity to execute behaviours)

mediational processes:
behaviour is noticed by others (attention) and remembered (retention). then, if there’s a reward (motivation) the behaviour may be copied later (reproduction)

Question 14

describe Bandura’s study

Answer 14

36 boys, 36 girls ages 3-6, USA, opportunity sampling. Children matched on aggressiveness (matched pairs). half the children observed an aggressive adult model (male or female) and the other half a non-aggressive adult model (male or female) interacting with a bobo doll.

procedure:
watched either an adult role model being aggressive towards the bobo doll, or a demonstration of non-aggressive behaviour towards the doll. the children were then left in a room with a bobo doll. this room had a one way mirror. there was also a 3rd condition where no model was used.

results:
children who observed the aggressive model imitated more of the models physical and verbal behaviours. children in the non-aggressive group displayed free aggressive behaviours (70% didn’t imitate any behaviour).

gender effect:
boys copied their same sex role model rather than opposite sex and also imitated more physical aggression than girls. male adult models had a greater influence over both boys and girls behaviour.

Question 15

describe a variation of Bandura’s study that tests vicarious reinforcement

Answer 15

One group saw models aggression being rewarded, and another group saw it being punished. 3rd group - no consequences.

children in the reward and control conditions imitated more aggressive actions of the model than in the punishment condition.

boys showers more aggressive tendencies than girls

Question 16

evaluate the social learning theory.

Answer 16

👍- lots of research support (Bandura)
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👎however STL relies too heavily on evidence from lab studies. these are criticised for their contrived nature where ppts may respond to demand characteristics. for example, it was suggested that the main purpose of the Bobo doll was to strike it, so they could have been behaving in the way they thought was expected.
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👍also they were observed using a one way mirror, so they didn’t actually realise they were being observed. this increases the validity of the research as it decreases the demand characteristics.

👍- emphasises on the importance of cognitive factors rather than just automatic processes. neither classical nor operant conditioning can offer a fully comprehensive account of human learning on their own due to them not taking into account the mediational processes. Humans and animals store info about other and use this to make judgements about when it’s appropriate to perform certain actions.
this shows that SLT provides a more complete explanation of human learning than the behavioural approach.
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👎however, it does ignore the role of biological factors in shaping behaviour. Bandura consistently found that boys were more aggressive than girls. This can be explained by hormonal factors such as higher testosterone levels, which are scientifically linked to aggressive behaviour.

👎can’t explain why people act differently when exposed to the same role models and behaviours. e.g. why vicarious reinforcement of offending behaviour leads to one personal becoming an offender, but another not. also cant account for all behaviour - e.g. why someone might become a criminal when they haven’t been associated with criminal models.

👍useful real like applications. in forensic psychology, social skills training uses the SLT by aiming to model positive behaviour to reduce criminal behaviour.
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Also can account for how children learn from other people around them, which can explain how cultural norms are transmitted through societies. this explains why some behaviour, such as the gender role, varies between cultures.
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👎however, underestimates role of bio factors - some behaviours are universal across different cultures, suggesting they’re innate - men tend to be more aggressive largely due to higher testosterone levels.