Paper 2- Behaviourist Approaches Flashcards
Who is William Wundt and how did he study the human mind?
-often regarded as the father of psychology
-studied the mind using INTROSPECTION.
-Wundt believes in reductionism
What is introspection?
Examining ones own mind and their feelings.
What are the basic assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
-behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned
-they only study behaviour that is observable and measurable
-most of the research is conducted in controlled scientific labs
-research conducted on animals is also valid as they sear the same principles
-we are born with blank states of mind- no genetic influence on behaviour
What was Pavlov’s research to do with classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is learning through association and was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov.
Pavlov showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time that they were given food.
First the dogs were presented with the food, they salivated. The food was the unconditioned stimulus and salivation was an unconditioned (innate) response.
Then Pavlov sounded the bell (neutral stimulus) before giving the food.
After a few pairings the dogs salivated when they heard the bell even when no food was given. The bell had become the conditioned stimulus and salivation had become the conditioned response.
The dogs had learnt to associate the bell with the food and the sound of the bell and salivation was triggered by the sound of the bell.
Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) > Unconditioned Response (Salivate)
Neutral Stimulus (Metronome) > No Conditioned Response
Conditioned Stimulus (Metronome) > Conditioned Response (Salivate)
What was Skinners research on operant conditioning?
Skinner developed “Skinners Cage” to investigate operant conditioning in rats.
The rats more around the cadge and accidently press a leaver. The hungry rats continue to press the leaver to obtain food, this highlights how they have been conditioned. If the food pellets stop the rats continue but then give up- this is called extinction.
Skinner- What is positive/ negative reinforcement/ punishment?
Positive is the addition of something.
Negative is the process of taking something away.
Punishment is the aim that it wont happen again.
Reinforcement has the aim that it will happen again.
Evaluation of Classical Conditioning?
STRENGTHS
-led to the development of treatments for reduction in anxiety associated with phobias (real world application)
The therapy works by limiting anxious learned anxious responses that are associated with a featured stimuli, therapist determine the response and replace it with a calmer one e.g. breathing techniques.
- The approach is also scientific and based off empirical evidence and has controlled experiments to back it up.
LIMITATION
-Deterministic, doesn’t follow any degree of free will with the individual. Says a person has no control over the reaction that they have .
-Classical conditioning emphasised the importance of learning through the environment and therefor supports nature over nurture, this makes the approach more limited when it attempts to explain human behaviour.
Evaluation of operant conditioning?
Strengths
-The process can desire a wide range of behaviours and have a real life application: process of learning/ education, addiction and language.
-Have been applied in real life situations e.g. token economy systems (school merit systems)
-Study’s have high controls over extraneous variables increasing the validity.
LIMITATIONS
-Uses animals not humans, meaning the research has experienced some criticism because of this. They argue it tells us more
about animals in comparison to humans so might reduce the generalisability.
-Unlike animals humans have free will rather than having behaviours determined by positive and negative reinforcement. COUNTER ARGUMENT- Skinner argues that freewill is a delusion of our minds, he thinks our behaviours is chosen through external influences that act as a “guide”.
-Ethical implications need to be considered linked to stress on the animals during testing.
