Behaviourist Approaches

Question 1

What is Behaviourism

Answer 1

• Behaviours are a result of the environment
• Observation of behaviours

Question 2

What Is radical behaviourism

Answer 2

• Sometimes don’t believe in mental illness

Question 3

Behaviour Therapy

Answer 3

Maladaptive behaviour stems from:
1) Failure to learn adaptive responses
2) The learning of maladaptive responses
- Trying to unlearn bad behaviours and learn good ones but this is assuming that the abnormal behaviours are learnt the same way that you would learn good behaviour.
- Direct treatment of behaviour in order to change behaviour

Question 4

What is classical conditioning

Answer 4

• Learning through association
• Discovered by pavlov

Question 5

Classical Conditioning Pavlov Dog

Answer 5

• Pavlov conditioned the dog to produce saliva when he rang the bell.
• He did this by showing a treat when the bell rang
  -Eventually the dogs would produce saliva without the treat being present and just the ring of a bell

Question 6

Needle association

Answer 6

• May associate needles with pain
• Although can be rewarding too i.e. no illness

Question 7

Fetishes

Answer 7

• Freud says fetishes are as a result of the mother not having a penis
• Behaviourists would say that fetishes are not intentional and they are as a result of a abnormal stimulus being associated with arousal

Question 8

Phobias: Little Hans (Freud, 1909)

Answer 8

Freud - Phobias happen because of unconscious anxieties being projected onto a neutral object
- Hans was terrified of his father and then he projected this onto horses

Question 9

Phobias: Little Albert (Watson and Rayner,1920)

Answer 9

• Albert Was conditioned to associate a loud noise (fear) with a rat
• He then developed a phobia of rat and other fluffy animals and a santa clause mask

Question 10

Phobia Treatment:
Exposure therapy
Flooding

Answer 10

Exposure therapy: Patients are slowly exposed to the stimulus which produces fear. Hierarchy of fears. Works through being exposed slowly to fear and how to stay calm throughout exposure.
Flooding: Can be traumatic, full exposure. The calm after the fear helps the patient. May take a few sessions.

Question 11

Treatment: Aversion therapy

Answer 11

• Helps someone to give up bad habits or unwanted behaviours
• An example of this would be giving nausea medication after drinking alcohol
• Horrible liquid to stop thumb sucking

Question 12

Conversion Therapy

Answer 12

• In the DSM homosexuality used to be seen as a mental disorder
• Trying to change someone’s sexuality
• Positive conditioning with certain images of the opposite sex and relaxation

Question 13

What is operant conditioning

Answer 13

• Learning through being punished but also being rewarded
  Example: Reinforcement (promotes) , Punishment (decrease) Extinction (not rewarding to stop behaviour)

Question 14

Mowrer’s (1947) two factor theory of phobia acquisition/maintenance.

Answer 14

1) Classical: Loud noise paired with a rat causes fear
2) Operant: avoids rats because avoidance is reinforcement of the fear and if there is consistent avoidance this may lead to resistance to extinction

Question 15

Learned helplessness

Answer 15

When a dog was given shocks and couldn’t escape it affected the way it acted when it could escape. For example, it lay there helplessly.
- linked to depression

Question 16

Treatment: Systematic use of reinforcement

Answer 16

• Taking yourself away from environments which reinforce behaviour.
  Example, environments where there is alcohol may reinforce smoking habits

Sticker charts

Question 17

What is observational Learning/modelling

Answer 17

• Bandura- no reinforcement needed, children just watched someone hit the bobo doll and they copied the behaviour
• New skills can be learnt through imitation, can be used for educational purposes i.e. reactions to bullying

Question 18

Evaluation of behaviour therapy

Answer 18

• Results achieved in short period of time
• Mainly used to treat anxiety disorders
• Only useful for well defined problems