The Behaviourist Approach

Question 1

What was the behaviourist attitude towards introspection?

Answer 1

rejected the vagueness of introspection, focusing instead on observable events, i.e. stimuli and responses and the conditions under which learning would be most likely to occur.

Question 2

How did behaviourist believe human behaviour could be explained?

Answer 2

through the basic form of learning known as conditioning

Question 3

What is conditioning?

Answer 3

the formation of learned associations between stimulii in the environment and an organism’s responses

Question 4

Give an example of a natural reflex?

Answer 4

salivation

Question 5

Who is credited for discovering the process of classical conditioning?

Answer 5

Pavlov

Question 6

How did Pavlov discover the process of classical conditioning?

Answer 6

whilst he was investigating the salivary reflex in dogs he noticed that the animals not only salivated when food was placed in their mouths, but also reacted to stimuli that coincided with the presentation of food, such as the presence of a food bowl or the person who fed them.
This led him to then explore the conditions under which this type of learning was most likely to occur

Question 7

What is the natural stimulus in any reflex referred to?

Answer 7

the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Question 8

What is the natural response to the natural stimulus called?

Answer 8

the unconditioned response (UCR)

Question 9

Outline Pavlov’s experiment

Answer 9

1. The dog would be strapped in a harness with an apparatus that allowed precise measurement of the amount of saliva it produced.
2. A bell would be rung and the amount of saliva measured.
3. Food would be presented and the amount of saliva measured.
4. Then the bell and food would be presented at the same time and the amount of saliva measured.
5. This would be repeated a set number of times, then the bell would be rung without presentation of the food, and the amount of saliva would be measured to test the strength of the conditioned response that had been learned.

Question 10

What is the neutral stimulus?

Answer 10

An event that does not produce a response

Question 11

What is the unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 11

An event that produces an innate, unlearned reflex response

Question 12

What is the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 12

An event that produces a learned response

Question 13

What is the unconditioned response?

Answer 13

An innate, unlearned reflex behaviour that an organism produces when exposed to an unconditioned stimulus

Question 14

What is the conditioned response?

Answer 14

A learned physical reflex behaviour that an organism produces when exposed to a conditioned stimulus

Question 15

In Pavlov’s experiment, what was the neutral stimulus?

Answer 15

the bell

Question 16

In Pavlov’s experiment, what was the unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 16

the food

Question 17

In Pavlov’s experiment, what was the unconditioned response?

Answer 17

the salivating

Question 18

What factors affect classical conditioning?

Answer 18

1. timing
2. extinction
3. spontaneous recovery
4. stimulus generalisation

Question 19

How does timing affect classical conditioning?

Answer 19

if the NS cannot be used to predict the UCS (e.g. if it occurs after the UCS or the time interval between the two is too great), then conditioning does not take place

Question 20

How does extinction affect classical conditioning?

Answer 20

Pavlov discovered that unlike the UCR, the CR does not become permanently established as a response. After a few presentations of the CS in the absence of the UCS, it loses its ability to produce the CR

Question 21

How does spontaneous recovery affect classical conditioning?

Answer 21

following extinction, if the CS and UCS are then paired together once again, the link between them is made much more quickly

Question 22

How does stimulus generalisation affect classical conditioning?

Answer 22

Pavlov discovered that once an animal has been conditioned, they will also respond to other stimuli that are similar to the CS

Question 23

Who is credited for discovering the process of operant conditioning?

Answer 23

Skinner

Question 24

What is Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning?

Answer 24

learning through reinforcement or punishment. If a behaviour is followed by a desirable consequence then that behaviour is more likely to occur again in the future

Question 25

What influences whether or not an organism repeats a particular behaviour?

Answer 25

depends on whether the consequences are reinforced

Question 26

Why did Skinner develop the ‘Skinner box’?

Answer 26

to investigate operant conditioning in rats

Question 27

What happened in Skinner’s box?

Answer 27

1. the rat moves ariounf the cage, and when it accidentally presses the lever, a food pellet (the reinforcer) falls into the cage
2. in no time at all the hungry rat begins pressing the lever in order to obtain food
3. if the food pellets stop, the rat presses the lever a few more times and then abandons it (extinction).

Question 28

In Skinner’s box, what was the reinforcer?

Answer 28

the food pellet

Question 29

What does reinforcement mean?

Answer 29

something in the environment that strengthens a particular behavior and so makes it more likely to reoccur

Question 30

What are the 2 main types of reinforcer?

Answer 30

positive and negative reinforcers

Question 31

When does positive reinforcement occur?

Answer 31

when behaviour produces a consequence that is satisfying or pleasent for the organism, making them more likely to repeat this behaviour in the future

Question 32

Give 2 examples of positive reinforcement

Answer 32

1. food to a hungry animal

2. praising a child after they do something good

Question 33

How do negative reinforcers work?

Answer 33

because they remove something unpleasant and so restore to organism to its ‘pre-aversive’ state.

Question 34

Give an example of a negative reinforcer

Answer 34

the act of hitting the ‘off’ button on an alarm clock allows a person to escape the unpleasant ringing and restores the restful pre-alarm state

Question 35

What is punishment?

Answer 35

refers to the circumstance whereby a behaviour is followed by a consequence that is undesirable or unpleasant for the organism, and therefore decreases the likelihood of a behaviour reoccurring

Question 36

Do reinforces increase/decrease the likelihood of a behaviour reoccurring?

Answer 36

INCREASE

Question 37

Does punishment increase/decrease the likelihood of a behaviour reoccurring?

Answer 37

DECREASE

Question 38

What are the 5 PEEL evaluation paragraphs for the behaviorist approach?

Answer 38

1. classical conditioning has been applied to therapy
2. classical conditioning is only appropriate for some learning
3. operant conditioning based on experimental work
4. overreliance on non-human animals in research
5. a limited perspective on behavior

Question 39

What is the PEEL paragraph for the behaviourist approach evaluation point; classical conditioning has been applied to therapy?

Answer 39

P - classical conditioning has been applied in the development of treatments for the reduction of anxiety associated with various phobias
E - systematic desensitisation is a therapy based on classical conditioning. It works by eliminating the learned anxious response (CR) that i associated with a feared object or situation (the CS).
E - it is then possible to eliminate one learned response (anxiety) by replacing it with another (relaxation) so the patient is no longer anxious in the presence of the feared object or situation
L - this classical conditioning-based approach has been found to be effective for a range of phobias such as fear of spiders and fear of flying

Question 40

What is the PEEL paragraph for the behaviourist approach evaluation point; classical conditioning is only appropriate for some learning

Answer 40

P - because different species face different challenges to survive, some relationships between CS and UCS are more difficult (and others easier) to establish
E - Seligman (1970) proposed the concept of preparedness to explain this. Animals are prepared to learn associations that are significant in terms of their survival needs (e.g. associating the smell of meat with the presence of food), yet unprepared to learn associations that are not significant in this respect (e.g. associating the sound of a bell with food)
L - this suggests that classical conditioning may be more appropriate in the learning of specific types of association (i.e. those important to survival), something that is linked to a species’ evolutionary history

Question 41

What is the PEEL paragraph for the behaviourist approach evaluation point; operant conditioning based on experimental work?

Answer 41

P - a particular strength of Skinner’s research was his reliance on the experimental method, using controlled condition to discover a possible casual relationship between variables
E - Skinner’s reliance on the Skinner box was a good example of this approach in practice.
E - by manipulating the consequences of behaviour (the independent variable), he was able to accurately measure the effects on the rat’s behaviour (the dependent variable)
L - this allowed him to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the consequences of a behaviour (i.e. positive or negative) and the future frequency of its occurrence

Question 42

What is the PEEL paragraph for the behaviourist approach evaluation point; over-reliance on non-human animals in research?

Answer 42

P - Skinner’s research has recieved some criticism because his experiments involved the study of non-human animals rather than humans
E - critics claim that his reliance on rats and pigeons means that Skinner’s studies can’t tell us about human behaviour.
E - they claim that, unlike non-human animals, human beings have free will rather than having their behaviour determined by positive and negative reinforcement
L - however, Skinner argued that free will is merely an illusion and what we believe are behaviours chosen through free will are actually the product of external influences that ‘guide’ our behaviour on a daily basis

Question 43

What is the PEEL paragraph for the behaviourist approach evaluation point; a limited perspective on behaviour?

Answer 43

P - behaviourists have been accused of ignoring other levels of explanation such as those that emphasise the importance of cognitive factors or emotional states
E - treating human beings as a product of their conditioning alone ean that we ignore the evidence for the role of these other factors in shaping behaviour
E - however, Skinner rejected this claim, arguing that these internal states are scientifically untestable
L - Skinner argued that even complex behaviours, such our interactions with the opposite sex or pathological behaviour, could be better understood by studying the reinforcement history of the individual