The Behaviourist Approach

Question 1

Outline the main assumptions of the Behaviourist Approach.

Answer 1

• behviour is learned
• concerned with observable behaviour
• believe psychology is a science
• believe our mind is born a blank state
• study animals and apply it to humans

Question 2

Who was John Locke?

Answer 2

An empiricist who believed that we were born a blank slate and had the oppourtunity to learn skills and everything we know

Question 3

Outline classical conditioning.

Answer 3

• a basic form of learning in which a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with another stimulus known as the unconditioned response
• the neutral stimulus becomes associated with the conditioned stimulus and has the same response

Question 4

Outline what happened in Pavlov’s Dog study.

Answer 4

• classical conditioning
• neutral stimulus: bell
• unconditioned stimulus: food
• unconditioned response: salivation
• conditioned stimulus: bell
• conditioned response: salivation

Question 5

Outline operant conditioning.

Answer 5

learning due to the consequences of voluntary behaviour, through positive and negative reinforcement and punishment

Question 6

What are the 4 types of reinforcement?

Answer 6

• positive reinforcement
• negative reinforcement
• positive punishment
• negative punishment

Question 7

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 7

a reward for behaviour

Question 8

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 8

The removal of negative consequences to increase the likelihood of a behaviour

Question 9

What is positive punishment?

Answer 9

recieving something unpleasant for behaviour

Question 10

What is negative punishment?

Answer 10

removing something desirable as punishment

Question 11

Outline Skinner’s rat study.

Answer 11

• hungry rat is placed into a box
• inside the box is a lever which delivers a pellet of food when pressed
• the rat soon learned that pressing the lever would result in a reward (positive reinforcement)
• Skinner then started giving the rat small electric shocks
• the rat pressed the lever and the shocks stopped
• it repeated this every time the shocks happened (negative reinforcement)

Question 12

Outline the strengths of the Behaviourist Approach.

Answer 12

• it’s theories are testable and supported by rigorous experimental research
• influences all areas of psychology
• replicable which makes it reliable
• mainly quantitative data which is easy to analyse
• explanations easy to apply to the real world to explain everyday behaviour (phobias)
• useful applications to education
• provides strong counter argument to the nature side of the ‘nature-nuture’ argument

Question 13

Outline the limitations of the Behaviourist Approach.

Answer 13

• many forms of learning can’t be properly explained by classical and operant condictioning
• ignores important mental processes involved in learning
• reductionist and rules out anything other than nurture
• lack of ecological validity due to highly controlled experiments
• can’t be generalised
• ethical issues
• lack of qualitative data
• much data obtained from animals and can’t be applied to humans