behavourist approach

Question 1

what are the 3 behavourist assumptions

Answer 1

1. Behaviour is learnt through conditioning operant (reward and punishment skinners box)or classical conditioning(accociation e.g pavlovs dog)
2. Animals and humans live in similar ways e.g skinners box
3. Humans are born with a blank slate (tabula rasa nature nurture)

Question 2

what is the study for the behavourist approach? what was their aims?

Answer 2

watson and raynor completed the study of little albert. they aimed to see whether fear could be induced on an object. they also wanted to see if fear could be taught through classical conditioning and if fear could be removed from an object

Question 3

what was the procedure of little albert?

Answer 3

• Albert was shown a white fluffy ratand albert showed no fear
• Session 1- shown rabbit followed by a loud metal bar struck. He jumped and fell forward and the second time he cried
• Session 2- one week later shown rat alone, then rat and noise and the last time he saw rat alone he started to cry.
• Session 3- 5 days later, given building blocks and he didn’t cry but then other white objects he showed the fear response
• Session 4- shown rat on own, not as strong fear but still there so they freshened up his response with dog&rabbit. He was also moved location to a less small space = less fear response
• Session 5- one month later he showed lots of white fluffy stimuli and he showed the fear response but to a lesser degree

Question 4

what is the evaluation on the study of watson and raynor?

Answer 4

EVALUATION

1. Usefulness tells us how we can learn to reduce fear
2. Ethics
3. Controls used controls to reduce extraneous variables
4. Ecological validity

Question 5

what is the therapy for the behavourist approach?

Answer 5

THERAPY- systematic desensitisation
5 steps-
1. Patient taught relaxation techniques
2. Patient and therapist conduct hierarchy
3. Works through hierarchy with relaxation techniques
4. They move to most feared situation while being relaxed
e.g. hierarchy. 1. Picture of spider 2. Toy spider 3. Hold toy spider 4. Real spider 5. Hold real

Question 6

what is the contempory debate for the behavourist approach?

Answer 6

DEBATE- USING CONDITIONING TECHNIQUES TO CONTROL THE BEHAVIOUR OF CHILDREN
Theme 1 at home FOR- pocket money can enforce good behaviour
AGAINST- naughty step can have long term effects e.g. isolation

Theme 2 at school
FOR- giving rewards can be positive reinforcement for good behaviour
AGAINST- can interfeir with learning

Theme 3 vunerble groups
FOR- tokens as a reward for reading and vocab AGAINST- doesn’t solve the underlying problem

Question 7

what are some strength and weaknesses for the behavourist approach as an explanation for behaviour

Answer 7

S- uses scientific methods of research because the experiements are objective and measurable

sucsessfully looks at both operant and classical conditioning

identifies comparisons between human and animals e.g pavlov and little albert

W- ethical issues raised e.g. pavlovs dog, watson and raynor

ignores any other factors such as biological

reductionist

experiments low ecological validity