**L3 - Behaviourist Approach (Operant Conditioning) Flashcards
what was the basic idea behind SKINNER’S THEORY OF OPERANT CONDITIONING?
The basic idea behind SKINNER’S theory of OPERANT CONDITIONING is that organisms SPONTANEOUSLY PRODUCE DIFFERENT BEHAVIOURS and these behaviours produce CONSEQUENCES for that organism.
Some of these consequences may be positive and some may be negative, if the consequence is positive then the behaviour is more likely to be repeated and vice versa.
what is OPERANT CONDITIONING?
OPERANT CONDITIONING is different to classical conditioning, responses are REINFORCED in OPERANT CONDITIONING but not in classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning explains the ACQUISITION OF A RESPONSE (e.g a phobia) while operant conditioning explains the MAINTENANCE OF A RESPONSE.
what is REINFORCEMENT?
REINFORCEMENT is something in the ENVIRONMENT that STRENGTHENS a PARTICULAR BEHAVIOUR - making it more likely to be repeated.
There are TWO TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
what is POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT?
positive reinforcement occurs when one behaviour produces a CONSEQUENCES THAT IS SATISFYING OR PLEASANT for the organism.
what is NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT?
negative reinforcement occurs when behaviour REMOVES SOMETHING AVERSIVE (unpleasant) and returns the organism to the PRE AVERSIVE STATE. E.g turning off the alarm clock allows a person to escape the unpleasant ringing noise
what is PUNISHMENT?
PUNISHMENT occurs when a behaviour LEADS TO AN UNPLEASANT CONSEQUENCE - this decreases the likelihood of the behaviour reoccurring.
There are two types of punishment: positive and negative
what is positive punishment?
positive punishment is when something UNPLEASANT IS ADDED to a person’s life that WAS NOT THERE BEFORE (e.g giving a student a detention)
what is negative punishment?
negative punishment is when SOMETHING PLEASANT IS REMOVED from a person’s life - e.g confiscating a student’s phone
what was SKINNER’S EXPERIMENT?
SKINNER conducted a study on RATS in a device called SKINNER BOX. The box was a CAGE which had SPEAKERS, LIGHTS, A LEVER, A DOOR AND A FLOOR which could be ELECTRIFIED.
One hungry rat would be placed in the skinner box and allowed to run around, the rat might accidentally press the LEVER and be REWARDED by a FOOD PELLET which would drop into the box (POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT). The rat would then continue to press the lever to keep receiving food pellets as they learnt that pressing the lever led to a reward.
The rat could also learn that by pressing the lever they could AVOID SOMETHHING UNPLEASANT, by pressing the lever the rat could avoid receiving an electric shock - this is an example of NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT.
(evaluation of the behaviourist approach) + ENHANCED SCIENTIFIC STATUS
+ the behaviourist appraoch ENHANCED THE SCIENTIFIC STATUS OF PSYCHOLOGY by using STRICT SCIENTIFIC METHODS, being OBJECTIVE, and producing VERIFIABLE FINDINGS
(evaluation of the behaviourist approach) + PREDICT AND CONTROL BEHAVIOUR
+ the behaviourist approach has devloped LAWS AND PRINCIPLES that have enabled psychologists to PREDICT AND CONTROL BEHAVIOUR. However, it also raises ETHICAL CONCERNS because the approach could be used to CONTROL PEOPLE AGAINST THEIR WILL
(evaluation of the behaviourist approach) + LED TO USEFUL TREATMENTS
+ The behaviourist approach has led to several USEFUL TREATMENTS such as SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION (classical conditioning) and TOKEN ECONOMY (operant conditioning). However, focusing solely on behaviour NEGLECTS THE WHOLE PERSON.
Treatments using conditioning dont get to the ROOT CAUSE OF A PATIENT’S PROBLEM, and so it is likely that when the therapy ends the patient will return to their original behaviour
(evaluation of the behaviourist approach) - ENVIRONMENTALLY REDUCTIONIST
- the behaviourist approach is ENVIRONMENTALLY REDUCTIONIST because it focuses on a LOWER LEVEL OF EXPLANATION than other approaches. Stimulus response associations LACK MEANING when attempting to explain COMPLEX HUMAN BEHAVIOURS, such as attachment.
The behaviourist approach is also ENVIRONMENTALLY DETERMINISTIC, according to behaviourism human behaviour is entirely determined by the environment, there is no account taken of a person’s free will to decide how to behave.
(evaluation of the behaviourist approach) -NON HUMAN ANIMALS
- The behaviourist approach has been criticised because it uses NON HUMAN ANIMALS IN RESEARCH. Critics claim that this tells us little about human behaviour because humans have COGNITIVE FACTORS and EMOTIONAL STATES that INFUENCE THEIR BEHAVIOUR
