the behaviourist approach Flashcards
what is the behaviourist approach?
a way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning
what are the main assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
•we are born a blank slate- all our behaviours are a result of learning from our environment
•we learn through classical and operant conditioning
•psychology should be scientific and focus on observable behaviours only
•psychologists should carry out controlled lab experiments
•since all species learn the same way, animals can be used in research
what is classical conditioning?
learning through association
who investigated classical conditioning?
•pavlov- dogs
•watson and rayner- little albert
pavlovs dogs method
food (UCS) - salivation (UCR)
food (UCS) + bell (NS) - salivation (UCR)
bell (CS) - salivation (CR)
what is operant conditioning?
learning through consequences
what are the 3 types of operant conditioning?
•positive reinforcement
•negative reinforcement
•punishment
who investigated operant conditioning?
skinner
what is positive reinforcement?
behaviour is rewarded- repeated- reinforced
what is negative reinforcement?
when an animal or human avoids something unpleasant, this avoidance behaviour is repeated as they avoid negative emotions. behaviour is followed by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus.
how does positive reinforcement affect the behaviour?
it increases the likelihood of it being repeated
how does negative reinforcement affect the behaviour?
it increases the likelihood of it being repeated
how does punishment affect the behaviour?
it decreases the likelihood of it being repeated
how did skinner demonstrate positive reinforcement?
when the rat pressed a lever, it received a food pellet. this led to the rat pressing the lever on future trials (the behaviour being repeated)
how did skinner demonstrate negative reinforcement?
when the rat pressed a lever, it stopped the electric shocks. this led to the rat pressing on the lever in future trials (the behaviour was repeated)
evaluation points for the behaviourist approach
+ scientific credibility
+ real-life application
- mechanistic view of behaviour
- environmental determinism
- ethical and practical issues in animal experiments
strength: scientific credibility
•focused on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings
•emphasised scientific processes such as objectivity and replication
•gave the findings greater credibility and status
strength: real- life application
•operant conditioning has been applied to bettering treatments and systems in institutions like prisons and psychiatric wards
•these ‘token economy systems’ work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens which then can be exchanged for privileges
•classical conditioning has been applied to the treatment of phobias
•these therapies and systems are useful and have positive impacts on greater society
limitation: mechanistic view of behaviour
•from a behaviourist perspective, animals and humans are seen as passive and machine-like responders to the environment, with little or no conscious insight into their behaviour
•other approaches in psychology, such as the social learning theory of cognitive approach, have emphasised the importance of mental events during learning
•these processes suggest that people may play a much more active role in their own learning
•this means the learning theory may apply less to human than animal behaviour
limitation: environmental determinism
•this approach sees all behaviour as determined by past experiences that have been conditioned
•Skinner suggested that everything we do is a sum total of our reinforcement history
•this ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour, Skinner suggested that any sense of free will is simply an illusion
•when something happens we impose a sense of having made the decision but, according to skinner, our past conditioning history determined the outcome
limitation: ethical and practical issues in animal experiments
•ethical issues occur as the rats in Skinner’s experiment may have experienced emotional harm
•the animals involved were exposed to stressful and adverse conditions, which may have effected how they reacted to the experimental situation
