Definitions and Approaches Flashcards
What is the behaviourist approach?
The idea that all behaviours are learned through interaction with the environment. Focuses on observable behaviour only and not what goes on in the mind.
What is the cognitive approach?
How we think. It focuses on our mental processes, information processing and how information is retrieved and stored.
What is the biological approach?
Behaviour is a consequence of our genetics and physiology.
Introspection
The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes.
Classical conditioning
Behaviours are learned by connecting a neutral stimulus with a positive one.
Operant conditioning
The method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behaviour.
Reinforcement
The process of encouraging or establishing a belief or pattern of behaviour.
Social learning
Social behaviour is learned by observing and imitating the behaviours of others.
Schemas
Cognitive frameworks that help us to organise and interpret information.
Theoretical models
Diagrammatic representations of the steps involved in internal mental processes.
Information processing
The acquisition, recording, organisation, retrieval, display and dissemination of information.
Determinism
The belief that our behaviour is controlled by forces other than an individual’s free will.
Nature and nurture
The idea that behaviour is primarily the result of genes and biology (nature) or a result of interactions with the environment (nurture)
Reductionism
The belief that our behaviour is best understood by reducing it down into simpler explanations.
Scientific methods
This refers to the extent to which the approach uses scientific methods to explore behaviour.
