Psychological Determinism Flashcards
Behaviour psychology
Theory arguing all behaviour (human and animal) learnt through conditioning - interactions with environment
Psychological determinism
Hard determinism
Skinner claims all behaviour is result of genetic and environmental conditions and how we’ve been nurtured
All human actions are conditioned by good/bad consequences of previous decisions
Choices made depending on our upbringing, culture, past experiences
Skinner
All actions result of consequences of previous actions
If action produces good con then brain programmed to choose this action
If action is bad con then human learn not to repeat it
Operant conditioning and skinners box
Modify behaviour by adding consequences
Positive reinforcement- rewards encourage behaviour
Negative reinforcement - punishment to prevent repeating behaviour
SKINNERS BOX EXPERIMENT
Free will is illusion as either random or reaction to environment
Think what’s empirical is worth studying, mind can’t study so irrelevant
Pavlov dogs
Classical conditioning (association)
Norm reaction of dog is to salivate (UCR)
Rung bell when food presented (NS)
Associated bell with food
Dogs became conditioned to salivate at sound of bell (CS)
Shows conditioning is subconscious, repeating behaviour to certain environmental conditions
Can suggest human beh - conditioned responses assoc. w/ enviro of ones upbringing
Moral agents det. Brown unique enviro - culture, parents etc
May believe this is free choice but just a determined conditioned response
Evaluation
STRENGTHS:
Support from science and empiricism
Easy to understand the air-conditioned, five past experiences, so example, abuse children find it harder to have emotional attachments when they’re older
WEAKNESSES:
Chomsky projects in his behaviour experience as animals are not comparable to complex human brain and mind
And Skinner is condition, five past experiences so how can we trust him?
Behaviour is not always predicted it’s probable but not necessarily true
