Paper 2 - Approaches - Behaviourist Approach Flashcards
What are the assumptions of the behaviouralist approach?
Behaviouralism is primarily concerned with observable behaviour
Psychology is a science
We are born with our mind as a bland slate (we are who we are due to nature)
There us little difference between learning in animals and humans
Behaviour is the result of stimulus-response
All behaviour is learnt from the environment
What is a stimulus?
Anything internal or external, that brings about a response
What is a response?
Any reaction in the presence of a stimulus
What is reinforcement?
The process by which a response is strengthened
What is an unconditional stimulus?
The stimulus that causes a reflex response before the conditioning
What is a conditioned response?
The response that is of the result of a specific stimulius
Which study do you need to know about CC?
State the name of the study as well as the researchers name?
Watson and Rayner
Little Albert
What year did the Little Albert study happen in?
1920
What was the method of the Little Albert study?
The participant was an 11-month-old boy called ‘little Albert’. He showed no fear of white fluffy objects such as rats or rabbits. The researchers tried to create a conditioned response to these objects. A white rat was placed in front of little Albert. As he reached out for it, a metal bar was struck loudly behind his head. This was repeated twice at first, then five more times a week later.
What were the result of the Little Albert study?
When little Albert was shown a rat, he would start to cry. This also extended to other white fluffy objects, such as a white Santa Claus beard.
What were the conclusions of the Little Albert study?
A fear response to white fluffy objects had been conditioned in little Albert, showing that abnormal behaviour can be learned
What are the negative evaluations of the Little Albert study?
Very unethical
Not everyone. Has phobias so this can’t be the only/full explanation of phobias
Lab study - lacks ecological validity as the situation is artificial
What are the positive evaluations of the Little Albert study?
Its findings support Pavlov’s idea of classical conditioning.
Explain CC (you can include a diagram but learn it in words)
What study was done about OC?
State the name of the researchers
Skinner
When was the study about OC done?
1938
State the method of Skinners study?
What were the results of Skinners experiments?
What were the conclusions of Skinners study?
What were the positive evaluations of Skinners experiment?
What were the negative evaluations of Skinners study?
What did Skinner also test?
Negative reinforcement
What did Skinner show about negative reinforcement?
He showed that rats could learn to prevent an electric shock by pressing the lever when a light came on
What is positive reinforcement?
A way of increasing the likelihood of a response happening because it involves a reward for desirable behaviour
What is negative reinforcement?
A way of increasing the likelihood of a response occurring because it involves the removal of or escaping from unpleasant consequences
What is a punishment?
Where the consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour occurring again
What bneeds to be true in OC for it to work?
Why?
The conditioning needs to happen instantaneously so that a connection can be made between the desired event and the reward
What are the strengths of the behaviouralism approach?
It is very scientific - theory’s are developed then tested where an experimental. Method is used to try and find a cause an effect relationship
It influences all areas of psychology
]it is reliable and it can be replicated consistently
Mainly quantitive data - so it is easy to analyse
An explain phobias as well as other real world applications as well as in education and child raising
It provides a strong argument to the nurture side of the nature vs nurture argument
What are the weaknesses of the behaviouralism approach?
There is a mechanic view of behaviour
The cognitive approach and SLT shows that this isn’t entirely true
Most studies are done on animals so you can’t generalise them
It promotes Environmental Determinism
Skinner said “free will is a illusion”
What is environmental determination?
The view that all behaviours are determined by past experiences that have been conditioned
