LT - behaviourism AO3

Question 1

It gave psychology scientific reliability/ credibility

Answer 1

• Controlled observable behaviour within controlled lab settings
• Behaviourists emphasised the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replication
• by breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus-response units all other extraneous variables were removed = cause and effect
• e.g. skinner was able to clearly demonstrate how reinforcement influenced animals’ behaviour

Question 2

The laws of learning developed by behaviourists have real-life application - token economy

Answer 2

• Token economy systems reward appropriate behaviour with tokens that are exchanged for privileges (operant conditioning) → used in prisons and psychiatric wards
• Treating phobias uses the concepts of reversing classical and operant conditioning
• develop therapies = systematic desensitisation = that attempt to re-condition a patient’s fear response

Question 3

shows how phobias occur

Answer 3

• Watson and Rayner (1920) ‘Little Albert’ generalised a fear to all fluffy things when a white rat (neutral stimulus) was paired with a loud noise (unconditioned stimulus) → this shows classical conditioning can explain phobias

Question 4

environmental determinism

Answer 4

sees all behaviour as determined by past experiences that have been conditioned and ignore any influence of free will may have on behaviour
- skinner said free will is an illusion

Question 5

Research has ethical issues

Answer 5

• The animals and ‘Little Albert’ could not consent
• They became distressed and they were psychologically harmed

Question 6

Animal research has practical issues

Answer 6

• The research on animals assumes that it also applies to humans
• animals = gives experimenters more control over the process = no demand characteristics or individual differences influencing findings
• But we are different to animals so this research may not apply to humans
• using animals = unethical as there is less concern about protection from harm

Question 7

The behaviourist approach is reductionist

Answer 7

• takes the view that all behaviour, no matter how complex, can be broken down into the fundamental processes of conditioning
• doesn’t take into account biological factors
• ignores human thought which has an influence on learning