learning approaches - the behaviourist approach

Question 1

classical conditioning - pavlov

Answer 1

• classical conditioning is learning through association
• pavlov showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell, if this sound was continuously produced when food was present
• his dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell (stimulus) with the food (another stimulus) and would produce the salvation response whenever they heard it
• therefore pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus came to elicit a conditioned response through association

Question 2

operant conditioning - skinner

Answer 2

• suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate based on their environment
• positive reinforcement is receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
• negative reinforcement occurs when a human or animal avoids something unpleasant, so the outcome is a positive experience
• punishment is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour, and so finding a way to avoid this is negative reinforcement

Question 3

primary vs secondary reinforcers

Answer 3

primary - motivate behaviour, satisfy basic survival needs (food, water, money etc.)

secondary - stimulus that reinforces behaviour after being associated (stickers or tokens you get)

Question 4

application - the skinner box

Answer 4

• skinner conducted experiments with rats in these boxes called skinner boxes
• every time the rat activated a lever in the box, a pellet of food was dispensed
• the rat would then continue to perform this behaviour in order to continue receiving food

Question 5

application - systematic desensitisation

Answer 5

• designed to reduce unwanted repsonse such as anxiety
• uses hierarchy of anxiety-provoking situations related to person’s phobic stimulus
• teaches them to relax whilst moving up hierarchy of phobic situations
• rating fear on scale of 1-10, if you get too high on the scale then you are taught relaxation techniques before moving on

Question 6

application - flooding

Answer 6

• exposure therapy
• person exposed to extreme form of phobic stimulus
• works to reduce anxiety triggered by this stimulus
• takes place across small number of long therapy sessions

Question 7

evaluation - well-controlled research

Answer 7

• strength is that its based on well-controlled research
• behaviourists focused on measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings, testable methods
• breaking down behaviour into simple stimulus-response units, all other extraneous variables were removed, allowing cause and effect to be established
• scientific credibility

Question 8

evaluation - counterpoint to well-controlled research

Answer 8

• behaviourists may have oversimplified learning process by reducing behaviour to such simple components, perhaps ignoring influence of human thought on learning
• other theories such as SLT or cognitive approach draw attention to mental processes used in learning
• learning more complex than observable behaviour alone

Question 9

evaluation - real-world application, token economy

Answer 9

• principles have been applied to real world behaviours and problems
• operant conditioning is basis of token economy systems that have been used in institutions such as prisons, works by rewarding appropriate behaviours with tokens that can be used to gain privileges, can apply to children with reward charts, or consumerism, training animals (guide dogs, police dogs, dolphins etc.)
• increases value of behaviourist approach, has widespread application

Question 10

evaluation - environmental determinism

Answer 10

• limitation is it sees all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences
• skinner suggested that everything we do is total of our reinforcement history, he said our past conditioning history determines the outcome of something
• ignores any influence that freewill may have on behaviour
• ignores influence of conscious decision-making processes on behaviour (as suggested by cognitive approach)

Question 11

evaluation - support from little albert, watson and rayner

Answer 11

UCS - loud noise
UCR - fear
NS - rat
CS - rat
CR - fear

• conditioned him to become scared of the rat
• played loud sound behind him every time he played with the rat
• developed phobia of rat
• established stimulus-response relationship
• observed development of new behaviour

Question 12

evaluation - determinism

Answer 12

• hard determinism
• no thinking involved, we don’t choose to be scared of something
• past conditioning determines future outcomes
• being deterministic allows us to test, can measure stimulus-response