Behaviourist - Evaluating

Question 1

Strength - Scientific

Answer 1

P - study behaviour that is observable, directly measurable.
>concepts such as feelings, thoughts are operationalised in terms of stimulus and response behaviours.
> believe that through use of scientific method = can analyse, quantify, compare behaviour
>enables to distinguish beliefs from real facts

Question 2

Strength and weakness - focus on here and now

Answer 2

P - not concerned with events in a person’s past
E - therapy doesn’t look for complicated causes - focuses on current symptoms.
Ex - SD - no attempt to understand why phobia developed only removal of symptoms.

Question 3

Strength - successful applications

Answer 3

P - successful - treats mental
Ex - classical conditioning applies in SD to help people suffering phobias
Ex - operant conditioning successful teaching strategies - +reinforcement help shape behaviour in education

Question 4

Weakness - nurture

Answer 4

P - focuses exclusively on surrounding environment.
E - role of nature ignored
Ex - behaviourist wouldn’t consider genetic make-up influence personality, behaviour
E - role of external factors exaggerated - if .. everyone could become sugeon.
L - behaviour governed by many internal factors - motivation,emotion, innate abilities

Question 5

Weakness - determinist

Answer 5

P - behaviour only influenced by associations (cc) rewards provided (opc) = controlled by external factors
E - doesn’t consider thought processes, suggest not making a choice when behaving
> environment determines how we act = undermines choice of free will. = no choices, no personal or moral responsibility for behaviour - cannot be held for wrongdoing

Question 6

Weakness - more relevant to animals

Answer 6

P - roots in experiments with non-human animals
Ex - Pavlov, Skinner. SD developed in research with animals
E - human anxiety may not respond in same way
Wolpe - created phobia in cats - used sd
treated a woman - sd did not cure her phobia