The behaviourist approach Flashcards
What do behaviourists believe?
we are born neutral - no inherited personality - the environment shapes who we are
What is assumption 1?
we are born as a blank slate “tabula rasa” - the environment then shapes us
babies are born neutral - only with the most basic responses(crying) they will then be moulded by the environment - innate - environmental determinism - behaviour determined by the environment we had grown up in
What is assumption 2?
behaviour is learnt through conditioning
2 types: classical and operant
classical conditioning - learn through association - pavlov - salivation of dogs - before conditioning - food unconditioned stimulus - salivation in the unconditioned response - during the conditioning neural stimulus (the bell) being presented alongside the unconditioned stimulus - repeated several times - this is called association - bell is now the conditioned stimulus and the salivation is the conditioned response
Operant conditioning - learning through reinforcement - reinforcement is where something will increase the behaviour from happening again - positive or negative and shapes behaviour
Positive reinforcement - if behaviour is rewarded animal is likely to do this again
negative reinforcement - strengthens the behaviour because it involves escaping something that is unpleasant, eg: getting a detention when not completed the homework
Punishment - weakens the behaviour and decreases the likelehood the behaviour will happen again - the skinners box - the rat was reinforced when it pressed the lever - shock the rat when the lever was pressed
What is assumption 3?
humans and animals learn in similar ways - learning is the same for humans and animals - we can study animals in a lab and generalise to human behaviour - pavlov theory has been applied to phobias - systematic desentilisation - client will associate the phobic object - operant conditioning - token economy system - behaviour is reinforced with tokens can be used to get rewards
What is the methodology of Watson and Rayner?
One participant - normal male infant - he is aged 9 months - “little Albert”
Not a case study as focusing on Little Albert’s response to the conditioning - case study has more in depth analysis of the individual and there life
No experiment - one condition
Investigating the effects of certain stimuli
It had been conducted within controlled conditions - in a well lit dark room - placed on a matress on the top of the table - this was a controlled observation
What was the procedures of Watson and Rayner?
- they had been recording there responses by further using a motion picture camera
Emotional tests:
- they were testing his emotional responses towards the certain stimuli - he was confronted suddenly - white rat , rabbit , dog , monkey, cotton wool, burning newspapers - (not at same time) - first time seen objects
He had been tested with a loud sound - striking hammer upon a suspended steel bar - 1 metre in length with a 2cm diameter
- One of the experimenters were getting his attention whilst the other was using the hammer to then strike the bar behind albert’s head - he had shown no fear to the stimuli except the from the bar being hit with the hammer - no fear response to the removal of support
session 1: establishing a conditioned emotional response
the emotional responses were then tested again - albert had been presented with the rat - he started to reach for it - the steel bar had been hit with the hammer - done twice - shown fear and crying each time
session 2: testing the conditioned emotional response
A week later his reaction to the rat was being tested - the rat and the loud noise was then being paired 5 more times - he was a little afraid of the rat - showed no fear of the wooden blocks - when rat was paired with the noise he was then showing fear -when paired 5 times he showed a great fear to the rats even when there was no noise
session 3: five days later - albert was then being brought into the lab - he had been presented with loads of white fluffy objects - he had shown a great deal of fear towards the rabbit,dog, fur coat, cotton wool balls, watsons hair and a santa mask then with a beard - no fear of the blocks had been shown,the room or the hair of watsons research assistants
session 4: changing of the environment
5 days later - tested again with the rat - fear response was “freshened up” to strengthen the emotional response- his fear responses were then tested in a new environment(lecture theartre)
session 5: the effect of time
a month later albert was brought back into the lab to have his emotional reactions then tested - he still showed a fear response even though the response was not as severe
What were then the findings of this experiment?
No fear response to object before conditioning - Albert’s mother and hospital attendants - never seen him having fear or rage and never cried
when the bar was first struck behind head the response was recorded by the researcher - arms were raised and then his breathing was checked - second session his lips were pucker and he was then trembling - broke into a crying fit
session 1: testing the conditioned emotional response
- tested again - white rat - bar struck and he jumped and fell forward - second time - fell forward and started to whimper
session 2: testing the conditioned emotional response
week later he returned - new response to rat - did not reach for it and stared at it
Rat placed nearer - he had reached out carefully - withdrew hand when rat was nuzzling
cautious behaviour tested - played happy - response to rat and emotional state was normal
session 3: generalisation
playing with the blocks - rat was shown - he had the responded with fear - retained his conditioned emotional response to rat - response to rabbit was as extreme as to the rat - cried and crawled away - dog or the fur coat was not producing an as violent reaction than the rabbit - cotton wall in package he was playing with - not touching but less cautious
playing with watson’s hair and showing less of a fear response
session 4: changing the environment
When he was being taken to the new environment - rat,rabbit and dog was less extreme the response - he was “freshening up” his fear response - fear response was weak - reaction always different to the building blocks that the response to the furry animals
session 5: the effect of time
responded to test object differently to the control objects(blocks) - reaction to furry objects - not as extreme - avoided them and whimpered sometimes he was crying
What were then the conclusions of this research?
- demonstrates the ease a fear response is able to be created
- two “joint stimulations” were able to create a conditoned fear response - 7 used to bring the full reaction
- conditioned responses generalise to other stimuli - fearful response to loads of furry objects
- said that “it was probable” that many phobias are acquired this way - suspected that the persistance of the earlier conditioned responses would only be found in people who were “constitutionally inferior” (someone who is unable to adapt to social norms and behaviours)
- he suggested that Albert’s fear would continue unless he would then be unconditioned - like a constant exposure then to his fear
Freudian position - Freudian’s ideas were considered as being popular - he says that sex is the principle force that shapes personality - shows fear being important separate from sex
- his thumb sucking - freudian would say this is a pleaure seeking activity whilst watson would have said it was then used to block out the fear
- watson had said that if adult Albert was to seek counselling for the phobia - psychoanalyst may say that his phobia is due to a sexual event that is involving his mother - simple explanation is classical conditioning
What was the aims of the Watson and Rayner research?
babies are simple beings - eating, crying and sleeping - rage, fear, love
The home life of a baby is a “lab” where emotional reactions are then learned
They used the neural stimulus of the rat - if fear was developed they could state it was because of the conditioning - supporting the assumption that behaviour is then learned from the environment
What were the 4 key questions that Watson and Rayner asked when trying to conduct there research?
can fear of a previously neutral stimulus be conditioned by presenting it simultaneously with an established negative stimulus?
Could the conditioned stimulus be transferred with other animals or objects?
Does this conditioned response then change over time?
if after a reasonable period the emotional responses have not died out, how might they be removed?
The evaluation of the methodology and the procedures?
- the study of Little Albert had been run under controlled conditions - conducted in a lab of sorts(dark room) the extraneous variables are able to be controlled - there was a baseline condition to show that his pre manipulation was established to show he was then not a fearful child - There was a control condition(building blocks) showing that little albert was only scared of furry objects - films were recording albert’s behaviour so findings are then being confirmed by others - the control’s then allow us to conclude the the observed effects were due to the conditioning and not other sources
- Although, a problem with the study being in a lab of sorts could then mean that the study may then be lacking ecological validity as it is being conducted within an artificial setting(dark room), this may mean that the results that are further being produced may then lack validity
- Researcher had an intention to then try and study more than one participant - they had been dismissed from the University which then meant they were not then able to achieve this - so the conclusions must be then made from this one case
