behavourist approach Flashcards
what does the behaviourist approach come under
learning theories along with social learning theory
what did John Watson say about human behaviour
he said “men are built not born … psychology is purely objective, and a experimental branch of natural science”
what does the behaviourist approach say
- behaviour should be observable and measured
- animal behaviour is comparable to human behaviour
- all behaviour is learned from the environment
what do behaviourists refer humans to as
“tabula rasa” which is latin for blank state
human mind especially at birth is viewed as having innate ideas
what is behaviourism broken down into
classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
operant conditioning (BF Skinner)
what is Ivan Pavlov famous for
he recieved the nobel prize for discovering the digestive system of dogs and how much saliva they produce
what did pavlov discover about dogs
he noticed that dogs started to salivate and drool before any food was presented to them. they salivated at the sound of footsteps as food was brought to them or the sight of the white lab coat of the person bringing the food.
what did pavlov want to further discover
he wanted to investigate how we can learn to associate one thing with another
what is classical conditioning
learning through association
what is the main idea of classical conditioning
a given stimulus should predict the response thats given
how did pavlov use classical conditioning
he wanted to see if he could associate dog food with a bell to see if dogs could salivate not when food was presented but just at the sound of a bell
what is a neutral stimulus and what does it result in
a stimulus that initially does not cause the traget reaction or response
the bell was the neutral stimulus because in and of itself it doesnt produce a response other than to look at it when it rings.
the neutral stimulus by itself does not produce a response
what is an unconditioned stimulus
a stimulus that has not been learnt. this naturally/automatically causes a response.
in this case the dog has been presented with food
what does an unconditioned stimulus result in
an unconditioned response (a response that has not been learnt). in this case the dog salivates naturally at the sight of the food. the dog doesnt learn to produce saliva in response to food
what is an unconditioned response
a natural reaction to a stimulus
what happens if a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are paired together/associated together
it produces an unconditioned response. the dog salivates
what happens if the NS and UCS are repeatedly paired together
the UCS is removed and you are left with the bell. however, because of the previous pairing is no longer a neutral stimulus.
what is a conditioned stimulus and what does it result in
when the neutral stimulus causes the same response as the UCS on its own bcause they have become paired. it is a learnt stimlus.
it produces a conditioned response. in this case the CS is the bell and CR is the dog salivating even though there is no food present
what happens when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together
they become associated with one another. the response that results from one stimulus is now associated with another stimulus
what does classical conditioning only apply to
involuntary reflex behaviours
what is generalisation
when the conditioned stimulus (bell) could be generalised to other sounds. the volume or tone can change yet still produce salivation
what is discrimination
when the sound becomes too different from the original stimulus (bell) that no salivation occurs
what is extinction
the gradual weakening of a response. if the CS continues to be presented but the real UCS never appears, the association eventually weakens and becomes extinct
what is spontaneous recovery
the sudden display of behaviour thought to be extinct. this is less strong than the original response given that the extinction has already occured.
what did BF Skinner do
his pioneering work led him to teach pigeons how to play ping pong using operant conditioning. he had read John B Watsons “behaviourism” and Ivan Pavlov “conditioned reflexes”
what did skinner believe about the understanding of human behaviour
the stimulus receieving a particular response was not enough when it came to understanding human behaviour
what did skinner say about human behaviour
“human behaviour is determined by its consquences.. shaped and maintained by its consequences.”
what is operant conditioning
learning through consequences
what was the main idea of operant conditioning
when we want to increase the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated, we want to reinforce that behaviour more.
however they might be some behaviours that we dont want others to repeat. we want to decrease the likelihood of certain behaviours happening and we tend to do this through punishing
what is reinforcement
a consequences that increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour being repeated. this strengthens behaviour
what is punishment
a consquence that decreases the likelihood of a particular behaviour being repeated. this weakens behaviour
what did skinner create
he created a highly controlled setting to carefully study the effects of punishment and reinforcement on the behaviour of animals particularly pigeons and rats. he did this using the skinner box.
what was the reinforcement in the skinner box
when the rat was placed in the box it moved around and would eventually accidentally press the lever which would release a food pellet. the rat leanred the behaviour of pushing the lever because of the reward. this strengthened the behaviour as the rat quickly learned to push the lever quickly
what was the punishment in the skinner box
if the rat pressed the lever they would recieve an electric shock. this decreased the likelihood of the rat pressing the lever again. this weakened the behaviour and rat would quickly learn to stop pushing the lever
what are the types of punishment and reinforcement
positive and negative reinforcement
positive and negative punishment
what is positive and negative reinforcement
positive (add something)
negative (take something away)
what is positive and negative punishment
positive (add something)
negative (take something away)`
what does operant conditioning only apply to
voluntary response
what is extinction
behaviour that was reinforced stops being reinforced. this makes it less likely that the behaviour will be repeated and may eventually cease to continue.
what can schedules of reinforcement have an impact on
how resistant a behaviour is to being extinguished
what is continuous reinforcement
when behaviour is reinforced everytime it occurs
what is partial reinforcement
when behaviour is reinforced some of the time
what is the problem with continuous reinforcement
eventually over time, the reinforcement has less of an impact
which is more resistant to extinction
partial reinforcement
when would we use partial reinforcement
when we want to increase the likelihood of a behaviour occuring
what are the types of partial reinforcement schedules
fixed ratio schedule
variable ratio schedule
fixed interval schedule
variable interval schedule
what does fixed and variable mean
fixed = stays the same
variable = does not stay the same
what does ratio and interval mean
ratio = number of response
interval = time
what is a fixed ratio schedule
reinforcement is given after a fixed number of response/behaviours has occurred. the number required stays the same
what is a variable ratio schedule
reinforcement is given after a varying number of response/behaviours has occured. the number required changes after each reward is given
what is a fixed interval schedule
reinforcement is given after a fixed amount of time elapses following the behaviour being performed. the time required stays the same
what is a variable interval schedule
the reinforcement if given after a varying amount of time elapses following the behaviour being performed. time changes after each reward is given
which is more resistant to extinction
variable ratio schedule leads to more of the same behaviour occuring and is most resistant to extinction. if the reward is unpredicable it will lead you coming back for more
what is the behaviourist approach praised for
its highly scientific research methods
how is the behaviourist approach considered to be more scientific
they moved away from the subjective methods of introspection proposed by Wilhelm Wundt
what does behaviourism focus on
the measurement of objective behaviour within highly controlled laboratory settings
what did skinner’s research use
controlled conditions with the Skinner box where he was able to accurately measure the effects of reinforcement and punishment on the rats behaviour. it allowed him to establish cause and effect between consequences and future behaviour
what does it mean by cause and effect
how certain consequences affect the likelihood of certain behaviours
what value does the behaviourist approach have
using this scientific process, it gives psychology scientific credibility
give one criticism of the behaviourist approach
Pavlov and Skinner’s work were based on animals - animal behaviour is different to human behaviour in several ways. some argue that human behaviour is more complex and different.
how is human behaviour more complex
human behaviour is more complex and different in areas such as emotion, conciousness and social behaviour. humans have a level of consciousness that includes worries of what people might think of us if we say or do certain things. it can also involve weighing up the consequences of our behavious in the future.
why does the social learning theory and the cognitive approach not study animal behaviour
they have emphasised the importance of mental processes during learning so do not study animal behaviour
why is behaviourism limited
because of the difficulty in generalising the findings of the results from animals to humans
what did Watson and Rayner do in 2000
they did the first test on a human. involved investigating classical conditioning in Little Albert
what did the test on LA involve (9 months)
At 9 months, they were presented with a range of objects to see what his emotional reaction was to them - this included various animals (one was a white rat)
what was albert’s reaction to the objects at 9 months
he had normal reactions and didnt display any signs of fear
what did they do differently with Albert at 11 months
when Albert was 11 months old, he was presented with the white rat and reached out to play with it. but this time W&R struck a steel bar with a hammer to make a loud noise right behind his head.
what was Albert’s reaction (11 months)
he was frightened by the noise to the point that he cried and moved away from the white rat. they repeated this pairing
what eventually happened with LA after repeating this pairing
eventually albert learned to associate the white rat with the unpleasant noise and would show fear and cry
what did the W&R experiment show
how a new behavaiour can be learned though the association of one stimulus with another
why does classical conditioning have real world application
classical conditioning can be used in the treatment of phobias through the process of systematic desentisisation
what is systematic desentisisation
a patient is gradually exposed to their feared object and is engaged in a relaxing activity such as deep breathing at the same time. it helps them associate their fear with a more pleasant stimulus.
how does operant conditioning have real world application
it has been applied to prisons and schools. prisoners or children are rewarded with tokens if they behave in the required way.
what is token economy
reward appropiate behaviour with tokens that are exchanged for privileges (operant conditioning) successfully used in prisons and psychiatric wards
what is the benefit of token economy
the reward strengthens desirable behaviour and makes it more likely to be repeated
what is environmental determinism
all behaviour is caused by external forces so we have no free will to choose our behaviour - it is outside our control
what does BF Skinner say about free will
he believed it was an illusion. we think we are making free choces but actually we are unaware of all previous reinforcements that have shaped us to behave the way we do.
why is behaviourism considered to be environmentally deterministic
our behaviour is because of the way we have been conditioned. the environment is to be blamed. all behaviours are determined by past experiences that have been conditioned and ignores any influence that free will may have on behaviour
why is the belief that behaviourism is environmentally deterministic a limitation
it removes repsonsibilty for people’s actions because if behaviour is caused by some external environmental factor outside of them, then this means its not down to them.
what do humanists have to say about free will
they argue we have free will to choose our behaviour. we have responsibility for our behaviour. we are active and can make choices to improve and change
what are the ethical issues with behaviourism
procedures such as the skinner box allowed behaviourists to maintain a high degree of control over their experiment subjects. however, the animals were housed in harsh, cramped conditions and deliberately kept below their natural weight so they were always hungry. this brings the questions of benefits versus costs. some would argue that there have been enormous benefits which offsets the harm the animals experienced.
give another criticism of the research conducted on animals
it only offers a mechanistic diew of human behaviour. it treats humans as machine-like responders to the environment who have no conscious thought or insight into their behaviour
what do the other approaches emphasise
the role of thoughts in learning. these thoughts mediate between stimulus and response. this suggest humans play a much more active role in their own learning. they are not simply learning robots.
