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 conditio ned 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 to determine 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?
Emotional tests: Albert had been tested with various stimuli to gauge his emotional reaction
session 1: establishing a conditioned emotional response : his emotional responses were tested again - albert was presented with a rat - when reached for it a steel bar was hit with a hammer - this had then been done twice
findings: he was showing fear and was crying each time
session 2: Testing the conditioned emotional response
Week later - his reaction to the rat was then being tested again - rat and loud noise was being paired 5 more times
Findings: Albert was a little afraid of rat - showed no fear to wooden blocks - when rat was then paired with the noise he was showing fear - 5 pairings he was showing a great deal of fear towards the rat even without the noise
session 3: generalisation
- five days later he was then being brought back into the lab
What were then the findings of this experiment?
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 - Watson and Rayner had described him as being a calm and even tempered baby - they suggest that he had been emotionally unstable - might have responded with greater fear and conditioned response might have persisted for longer - there were no comparisons that were made - difficult to know whether the observed responses were then unique or not
What were the ethical and social implications of the Watson and Rayner’s research?
- Unsure whether they created excessive fear in Albert - early article “we had done him relatively little harm” - later tests - “in order to not disturb the child no tests were given for 1 week” - - they were aware what they were doing was then distressing albert
- However, psychologist’s may then determine what is and is not ethically acceptable - consider whether the researcher is experiencing greater stress than they would in everyday life - they were comforting themselves and said “attachments would arise anyway as the child left the sheltered home of nursery and the rough and tumble at home” - felt what albert was experiencing was normal - life in the hospital was further protecting him
- There is a risk of harm that is caused by creating fear in a young child - Watson and Rayner had further been making the fear worse - One of Alberts responses when he was frightened was he sucked his thumb - this calmed him down - reduced the effect of the loud noises when conditioning Albert - to observe the full effects of the fearful stimuli - removed thumb from the mouth so conditioned response is obtained - they wanted to make sure he was really scared
-They did intend to remove his learned conditioned responses - he was removed from the hospital so it was then not done - they believed the responses they created would persist within the home environment - unless there was an accidental method of removing them - they knew he would then continue being afraid of furry objects
- They should have anticipated this issue in the start of the study and ensure there are procedures that are then being put in place to stop the situation from happening - child’s mother should have been informed of the procedures and the long term consequences - should have ensured that he should have been “unconditioned”
What is a phobia?
an exaggerated fear of an object or situation
What happens if the fear is irrational?
the fear of the thing opposes a greater risk than the risked posed by the thing itself
What do behaviourists believe about phobias?
That they are learned like other behaviours
