P2 Approaches 2. Behaviourists Approach Flashcards
What is classical conditioning?
Learning through association
What was Pavlov’s experiment on classical conditioning?
Pavlov used classical conditioning :
1. Put food (unconditioned stimulus) in front of the dog and it salivated (unconditioned response).
2. He then rung a bell (neutral stimulus) in front of the dog and he didn’t salivate
3. Pavlov then rung the bell at the same time the food was presented (neutral stimulus being paired with unconditioned stimulus) which creates dog to salivate (unconditioned response)
4. Now whenever the bell is rung (conditioned stimulus) the dog salivates (conditioned response)
What is a behaviourist?
People who believe that human behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without the need to consider thoughts or feelings.
What is stimulus generalisation?
When a conditioned response is generated when exposed to similar stimuli to the conditioned stimulus (but not exactly the same - e.g. Little Albert being afraid of Rabbits / all furry objects though his conditioned stimulus was a rat)
What is a behaviour extinction?
When a conditioned response is no longer active for the conditioned stimulus (goes back to being a neutral stimulus)
What is a strength of classical conditioning?
It causes the development of anxiety based phobias and it allows for therapy of those phobias. For example systematic desensitisation which replaces the learned response (anxiety) with another response (relaxation).
What is a criticism of classical conditioning?
Seligman suggests that some associations are more readily learned than others. For example animals learn associations based on their survival needs and different animals survive in different ways.
What is operant conditioning?
Learning through consequence
What was Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning?
Skinner’s theory was that organisms spontaneously produce different behaviours.
These behaviours produce consequences for that organism, some which may be positive and some may be negative.
1. The rat pressed the lever and a food pellet came down (the reinforcer).
2.The rat continued to press the lever a few more times and if the food stops coming then the rat will eventually stop (extinction)
What is positive reinforcement?
It occurs when someone is given a positive reward for their behaviour (praise given to a child)
What is negative reinforcement?
It occurs when something unpleasant is removed to act as a reward. For example an alarm is turned off this allows the person to escape from the unpleasant ringing.
What is a strength of operant conditioning?
The use of experimental methods (Skinner’s methods used controlled conditions to discover the relationship between two or more variables.)
What is one weakness of the behaviourist approach?
Skinner used animals instead of humans.
Human beings have their own free will that’s not necessarily dependent on negative or positive reinforcement.
What is another weakness of the behaviourist approach?
it ignores other psychological explanations.
Humans are far more complicated than a simple stimulus - reinforcement relationship.
