The Behaviourist approach Flashcards
Give the key assumption of the behaviourist approach.
All behaviour is learnt from experience and therefore can be changed.
Briefly outline Pavlov’s study.
UCS (Food) = UCR (Salivation)
UCS + NS (Bell) = UCR
CS (Bell) = CR (Salivation)
What does Pavlov’s study corroborate?
Classical conditioning (learning through association).
Define Positive Reinforcement
When an individual gains something rewarding for the result of a particular behaviour.
Define Negative Reinforcement
The rewarding consequence is taking away something unpleasant.
Which type of reinforcement increase the likelihood of repeated behaviour.
Both positive and negative reinforcement
Outline Skinner’s Rat Study
The Rats would push a leaver in order to dispense a treat. (Positive reinforcement) Then the rats would press the leaver to stop an electric shock (negative reinforcement).
What does Skinner’s study demonstrate?
Operant conditioning (learning by consequence/reinforcement).
Give an advantage of the Behaviourist approach.
+Has high practical validity.
Led to the creation of many effective therapies e.g. systematic desensitisation (shown to be 60%-90% effective by Barlow). Also led to workable reward systems e.g. token economies (also shown to be effective by Gromacki).
Give 2 disadvantages of the behaviourist approach.
-Relies heavily on animal studies.
Even though it is more ethical to test on animals than it is humans, the results aren’t generalisable to the human population and human behaviour is much more complex than animals.
-It is very deterministic.
It suggests that humans have no control over their behaviour. This goes against the criminal justice system which requires some degree of personal control (free will), this approach therefore lacks application to real life.
Define temporal contiguity.
An association is only made if the UCS and NS are presented at the same time.
