Neo-Behaviourism

Question 1

Outline the key assumptions of the neo-behaviourist approach.

Answer 1

Behaviour is learned from the environment, so therefore it does not regard genetic influence in behaviour.

Tabula rasa -> ‘blank slate’ idea.

Social Learning Theory (SLT). Behaviour is learned from observing, and the reinforcement/ punishment the model receives.

Social learning theorists say that things take place within the organism that mediate between the stimulus and the response.

They believe a person’s mental processes (mediating processes) are extremely important.

Observational learning plays a key role - vicarious reinforcement and punishment.

Question 2

Who was Bandura?

Answer 2

A learning theorist but not strictly a behaviourist because his theory considers the thought processes (cognitive) that underlie our behaviour.

Question 3

Who did Bandura challenge?

Answer 3

He challenges Skinner’s ideas that reward and punishment will prompt or stop behaviour automatically.

Question 4

What did Bandura believe?

Answer 4

He believes that reinforcers and punishments only inform the individual of the likely consequences and it is down to the individual as to whether is affected by the potential consequences.

Question 5

What is the behaviourist theory sometimes referred to as?

Answer 5

Social cognitive/ learning theory.

Question 6

What does SLT state?

Answer 6

We learn behaviour by observing the positive and negative consequences of someone else’s behaviour; this means we learn the behaviour vicariously.

Question 7

What are the 4 processes in SLT?

Answer 7

Imitation.

Identification.

Modelling.

Vicarious reinforcement and punishment.

Question 8

Outline imitation as a process in SLT.

Answer 8

Describes how an individual observes a behaviour from a role model and copies it.

Question 9

Outline identification as a process in SLT.

Answer 9

When the individual is influenced by another because they are in some ways similar or wish to be like them.

Question 10

Outline modelling as a process in SLT.

Answer 10

When someone is influential in some way, they are referred to as a model (according to SLT).

Question 11

Outline vicarious reinforcement and punishment as a process in SLT.

Answer 11

Used to describe the reinforcement the observer sees the model receiving.

They do not receive the reward themselves; they see someone else get it (secondary).

Question 12

What are the 4 mediational processes?

Answer 12

Attention.

Retention.

Reproduction.

Motivation.

Question 13

Outline attention as a mediational process.

Answer 13

When a person pays attention to someone else’s behaviour.

Question 14

Outline retention as a mediational process.

Answer 14

When someone memorises the behaviour they have observed.

Question 15

Outline reproduction as a mediational process.

Answer 15

When someone practises the behaviour they have observed.

Question 16

Outline motivation as a mediational process.

Answer 16

When someone is given a reason to execute the behaviour, they may use it.

Question 17

What was the aim of Bandura, Ross, and Ross’ 1961 study?

(Bandura et al, 1961)

Answer 17

To examine the effect of the continual influence of the model.

To examine if the sex of the model influenced same-sex and opposite-sex participants to a differing degree.

Question 18

Outline the procedure of Bandura’s 1961 study?

(Bandura et al, 1961)

Answer 18

Half the groups observed an aggressive role model and the other half saw non-aggressive behaviour from their role model.

Participants were put into a room one at a time and observed the adult role model’s behaviour (either aggressive or non-aggressive).

The aggressive model had to hit the Bobo doll with a hammer and shout abuse at it at the same time.

Initially there was aggression arousal, whereby the participants were taken straight to a room where they were told they couldn’t play with the toys (mild stress situation) as they were being saved for other children, but that they could play with the toys in a neighbouring room.

They were then allowed to go into that room with the experimenter (about 2 minutes later), that contained a range of toys: the 3ft Bobo doll, a mallet, dart guns etc. as well as ‘non-aggressive’ toys such as a doll, crayons and a plastic farm.

The participants were observed in that room for 20 minutes and rated for the extent they imitated the behaviour they had just seen.

Question 19

How many PPs were in Bandura’s study?

(Bandura et al, 1961)

Answer 19

There were 36 male and 36 female participants in the study.

Two adults, a male and a female, served in the role of model for the experiment.

Question 20

What was found from Bandura’s study?

(Bandura et al, 1961)

Answer 20

Children who had observed aggressive behaviour acted more aggressively when observed and that boys acted more aggressively than girls.

There was also a greater level of imitation of behaviour if the role model was the same gender as the girl.

Question 21

What was concluded from Bandura’s study?

(Bandura et al, 1961)

Answer 21

It seems then that there is a behavioural effect from observing aggressive behaviour and that this behaviour continues after delay.

Question 22

Evaluate Bandura’s study.

(Bandura et al, 1961)

Answer 22

The effects of social learning are still only short term in this experiment and it is difficult to see whether there are any long-term effects on the children.

There are issues with interpreting the behaviour as all being influenced by social learning, as most people would hit a Bobo doll as it is designed for this purpose; this affects the validity of the experiment.