Lesson 2&3- Behavioural Apprach Flashcards
classical conditioning
-Pavlov’s dogs, learned to associate sound of bell with food
-food=unconditioned stimulus, salivating=unconditioned response, bell=neutral stimulus
-food repeatedly paired with salivating, bell=conditioned stimulus, salivates=conditioned response, associated established
classical conditioning key terms
stimulus generalisation- stimuli similar to original conditioned stimuli wll cause conditioned response
discrimination-stimuli similar to original conditioned stimuli will not produce conditioned response, can be done by witholding the unconditioned stimulus
extinction- conditioned response is not produced because of the bell being rung, occurs when conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus of food
timing- if neutral stimulus cannot be used to predict the unconditioned stimulus, if it happens after the ucs or time interval between the two is too long then conditioning does not take place
spontaneous recovery- following extinction if conditioned stimulus and ucd are paired together once again the link between them is made much more quickly
classical conditioning key terms
stimulus generalisation- stimuli similar to original conditioned stimuli wll cause conditioned response
discrimination-stimuli similar to original conditioned stimuli will not produce conditioned response, can be done by witholding the unconditioned stimulus
extinction- conditioned response is not produced because of the bell being rung, occurs when conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus of food
timing- if neutral stimulus cannot be used to predict the unconditioned stimulus, if it happens after the ucs or time interval between the two is too long then conditioning does not take place
spontaneous recovery- following extinction if conditioned stimulus and ucd are paired together once again the link between them is made much more quickly
classical conditioning strengths
-research evidence to support development of learning and phobias, pavlovs dogs and little albert by watson and Rayner, successful in explaining learning in animals and young children
-helped apply classical conditioning to treatments of psychological disorders eg flooding, sd
classical conditioning weaknesses
-studies were conducted in lab setting and might find different results from different setting, findings might be weak and lack ecological validity when considering how important and effective classical conditioning is
-not strong in explaining how adults learn new behaviours, limited to only explaining learning in young children and animals
-menzies studied people with hydrophobia and found only 2% had encountered a negative experience with water, 98% had phobia of water but never had negative experience, meant they had not learnt to become frightened, so how?
-can be viewed as deterministic as ignores the role of free will in peoples behavioural responses, anticipates an individual will response to a conditioned stimulus with no variation, inaccurate, people are not passive states and have some control over how they might respond to an association between two stimuli, incomplete and inconsistent
operant conditioning
-B F Skinner 1953 proposed that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment
-reinforcement-consequence that makes behaviour more likely to occur
-punishment-consequence that makes behaviour less likely to occur
reinforcement and punishment
positive reinforcement- receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
primary/secondary reinforcement- meets natural needs, meeting all needs
negative reinforcement- occurs when we avoid something unpleasant
punishment- refers to circumstances whereby a behaviour is followed by a consequence that is undesirable/unpleasant for organism
positive-adding something unpleasant as a consequence
negative- taking something away
skinners box
-conducted on rats and pigeons, cage with loud speakers, lights, lever, door, floor that could be electrocuted
-one hungry rat placed in box to freely run around
-rat might accidentally press lever and rat would be rewarded by a food pellet which would drop into box, pr
-rat continue to press lever in order to receive food pellet, learns pressing lever leads to reward
-rat could also learn that pressing lever avoids something unpleasant, electric shock, nr
operant conditioning terms
extinction- rat presses lever and no longer receives reward, soon learns pressing lever does not lead to rewards, stops pressing lever
spontaneous recovery- following extinction, rat presses lever and suddenly receives food pellet, learns this link very quickly and recovers what he previously learnt
schedueles of reinforcement- continuous reinforcement;everytime rat presses lever will always receive food pellet, fixed interval;rat presses lever and only receives food pellet during a fixed time only, fixed ratio;rat must press lever fixed number of times and then will receive food pellet
operant conditioning strengths
-real life applicable, token economy in institutions act as form of behaviour modification, rewards appropriate behaviour with tokens exchanged for privileges, paul and lentz used token economy for sz patients and behaviour became more appropriate
-skinner box relies on experimental method, uses highly controlled conditions to discover relationship between variables to establish cause and effect
-nurture side of debate, states that learning occurs due to environmental factors and external stimuli rather than nature and biology, manipulating factors in environment can have effect on learning and behaviour supported by nurture
operant conditioning weaknesses
-ignores concept of free will, suggests past experiences involving operant conditioning will affect future behaviour and people/animals have no control over actions/behaviours, deterministic view does not account for free will and choices humans/animals have over behaviour
-ethical issues, rats and pigeons placed in stressful and aversive conditions, negative effect upon psychological and physical health, hard to generalise to humans, animals are very different, results not applicable
-rooted in behaviourist approach, ignores biological approach, states behaviour cannot be learnt but instead heavily influence by the role of genes, hormones, biochemical/neural mechanisms, other approaches should be considered when examining influences upon behaviour, does not explain all behaviours
behavioural approach evaluation
-scientific credibility;language and methods of natural sciences,scientific processes, objectivity, behaviourism was influential in development of psych as a scientific discipline
-real life application;token economy
-mechanistic view of behaviour;passive and machine like, little or no conscious thought or free will
-environmental determinism
-ethical and practical issues in animal experiments
-criticised by biological approach;ignores genes, hormones, neural mechanisms, evolution, unlikely someone would learn certain behaviours
