Behavioursit Approach Flashcards
behaviourist approach
Behaviour that can be observed and measured, usually experimented using animals
Classical conditioning
- learning through association
- creates a learnt behaviour
Pavlov’s dogs
- dog salivated at food
- dog didn’t salivate at bell
- dog salivated at food and bell
- Dog salivated at bell- learnt response
Bell- neutral stimulus
Food- unconditioned stimulus
Dog- unconditioned response
Operant conditioning
Learning behaviour that is shaped through consequences
Positive reinforcement
Receiving a reward
Negative reinforcement
avoiding a punishment
Punishment
Consequence
Skinners box
Operant conditioning
- skinner used rats or pigeons within a box and every time rat activated lever, a food pellet would come out of box
- the box would give rat a electric shock and every time the rat pressed lever- electric shock stopped
- rats and pigeons can be conditioned the same way
Positive evaluation- classical conditioning
- real life application- helps treat phobias - treatments
- Little Albert experiment - shows that phobias can be learnt which helps pave the way for treating phobias
Limitation of classical conditioning
- not all species are biologically prepared to learnt he same way
- animals learn associations that are significant to survival needs but unprepared to learn to learn associations that are not significant enough- suggests that behaviourist approach is incorrect- highlights all species learn through same association
Positive evaluation operant conditioning
- real life application
- token economy system at prisons e.g rewarding prisoners with good behaviour for certain privileges - positive reinforcement - effective shows that explaining behaviour has contributed to real life app.
Weakness operant conditioning
- skinners research
- used non-human animals rather than humans- reliance on rats and pigeons- tell us little about behaviour- humans have free-will non-like humans don’t - lacks external validity
