Behaviourist - Assumptions Flashcards
the behaviourist approach assumes that we are
born neutral, with no inherent personality. it is the environment which shapes who you are
the behaviourist approach believes that
human behaviour should be studied scientifically. according to this approach, thoughts and feelings may exist, but because they are unobservable and unmeasurable, they are not worthy of study
the only thing we can study with any sort of scientific objectivity is
behaviour itself, hence the name of behaviourism. this is why behaviourists prefer to use controlled observations as their method of research
behaviourists believe that (1)
all behaviour comes from an individual’s interactions with their environment. we are born blank, and all that we are is conditioned into us from birth
behaviourists believe that (2)
all behaviour can be reduced down to stimulus-response relationships
a stimulus is
any external event that we respond to
a response is
a behaviour produced in response to a stimulus. behaviourists believe that stimulus-response relationships are the building blocks of all behaviour
the three assumptions of the behaviourist approach are:
1) humans are born like a blank slate
2) behaviour is learned through conditioning
3) humans and animals learn in similar ways
tabula rasa is latin for
blank slate
according to this approach, we are not born with
in-built mental content; internal events such as thinking and emotion do not drive our behaviour
behaviourists believe that behaviour is learned from
interactions with our environment. as such, we do not think about our behaviour, we respond passively to environmental stimuli
where does the behaviourist approach sit on the nature/nurture debate and why
very much on the nurture side of the debate as all behaviour comes from the environment, no room for biology or anything innate
where does the psychodynamic approach sit on the nature/nurture debate and why
closer to the determinism side because of the influence from people and places
what is environmental determinism
our behaviour is determined and shaped by the environment in which we grow
this means that people do not have any free will over their own behaviour as it has been shaped by the environment and experiences
there are two main mechanism through which behaviour is learned:
classical conditioning and operant conditioning
classical conditioning is leaning through
association, a good way to remember this is ass
classical conditioning occurs when
an association is made between a previously unlearned response and a neutral stimulus. if the two are paired enough times, eventually the neutral stimulus will produce the unlearned response
evidence for classical conditioning comes from the work of
ivan pavlov (1849-1946). he was the first person to investigate classical conditioning and discovered it by accident when performing unrelated experiments on dogs
what did pavlov notice which lead him to discover classical conditioning
the dogs would start salivating as soon as the lab assistant would walk in the room to feed them
before conditioning
ucs (food) - naturally - ucr (salivation)
ns (metronome) - no response
during condition (association)
ns (metronome) + ucs (food) - ucr (salivation)
after conditioning (learned)
cs (metronome) - cr (salivation)
operant conditioning involves learning through
reinforcement. it is more voluntary than the learning seen in classical conditioning
the idea of operant conditioning is that
when people behave in a particular way and are rewarded for it, they will repeat it
if they are punished for the behaviour, they will stop doing it
