The Behaviourist Approach And SLT Flashcards
William Wundt
A German scientist who was the first person to be referred to as a psychologist. He wrote a famous book called “Principles of Physiological Psychology” in 1873.
What was Wundt’s view of Psychology?
A scientific study of conscious experience.
Two goals of psychology (Wundt)
- To identify components of consciousness
- To identify how those components combined to result in our conscious experience
Introspection
- Referred to by Wundt as “internal perception”
- A process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible.
- The process makes the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observes
The two requirements of Wundt’s introspection
Trained observers and repeatable stimuli.
Trained observers
The observers can immediately observe and report reactions.
Repeatable stimuli
The subject can expect the reaction and be fully attentive to it.
Structuralism
The attempt to understand the structure and characteristics of the mind. It was investigated by Wundt in his laboratory, but lost popularity in the early 1900s.
When did Wundt establish his psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig?
1879
An example of an experiment Wundt and his students conducted in his lab
- An experiment on the variable of reaction times
- A student would receive a stimulus such as a light, image or sound.
- The subject would be told to push a button in response to the stimulus and their reaction time would be measured to one-thousandth of a second
When did structuralism die?
When Wundt’s student, Edward Titchener, died in 1927.
Problems with introspection
- The data is unreliable - not very valid as most psychologists accept the claim the we have very little knowledge of the causes of and processes underlying our behaviours and attitudes challenging the value of introspective reports
- There is little agreement between individuals
- The process is subjective - We cannot measure a person’s responses because they are unobservable responses
Nisbett and Wilson (1977)
- Found that participants were remarkably unaware of factors that had influenced their choice of a consumer item
- The problem is particularly acute in the study of implicit attitudes i.e. attitudes that are unknown to us
- A person may be implicitly racist, which influences the way they react to members of different ethnic groups, yet because such attitudes exist outside conscious awareness, self-reports through introspection would not uncover them.
Reductionism
An approach that reduces a complex phenomenon such as human behaviour to the simplest explanation possible. Often, this means looking for a biological basis for behaviour.
The advantage of the reductionist approach
It can give a greater understanding of something by revealing evidence for a cause of behaviour.
The disadvantage of the reductionist approach
Humans and their environments are so complex that the reductionist explanation falls short of giving the whole explanation of the behaviour.
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
- An American psychologist
- A behaviourist
- Concentrated on how behaviour was affected by its consequences
- Believed that behaviour is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behaviour: the reinforcements and punishments
Skinner’s research device
- Skinner developed a chamber that allowed the careful study of the principles of modifying behaviour through reinforcement and punishment
- Known as an operant conditioning chamber or a Skinner box
- Still a crucial resource for researchers studying behaviour
The Skinner box
- A chamber that isolates the subject from the external environment and has a behaviour indicator such as a lever or a button
What can the box deliver when the animal pushes the button or lever?
- A positive reinforcement of the behaviour (such as food)
- A punishment (such as an electric shock)
- A token conditioner (such as light)
Token conditioner
A stimulus that is neither pleasant nor unpleasant (light) and can be used to test learning.
Operant conditioning
Organisms learn to associate a behaviour and its consequence. Operant conditioning looks at the interaction between positive and negative reinforcement and punishment.
Positive (in terms of operant conditioning)
It means you are adding something.
Negative (in terms of operant conditioning)
It means you are taking something away.
Reinforcement
Increasing a behaviour
Punishment
Decreasing a behaviour
What do all reinforcers do?
Increase the likelihood of a behavioural response.
What do all punishers do?
Decrease the likelihood of a behavioural response
Positive reinforcement
You add a desirable stimulus to increase a behaviour.
Negative reinforcement
You remove an undesirable stimulus to increase a behaviour.
Positive punishment
You add an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behaviour.
Negative punishment
You remove an aversive stimulus to decrease a behaviour.
An example of a positive punishment
An electric shock
An example of a negative punishment
Taking away water
An example of a negative reinforcement
Loud noise stops
An example of a positive reinforcement
Food
Skinner rat experiment
- Put a rat in a Skinner box
- Every time the rat activated a lever within the box it was rewarded with a food pellet
- The animal would continue to perform the behaviour
Who proposed social learning theory?
Albert Bandura
Why does social learning differ from the ideas of strict behaviourists?
Because social learning theory takes cognitive processes into account.
Bandura’s ideas
- Pure behaviourism could not explain why learning can take place in the absence of external reinforcement
- He felt that internal mental states must also have a role in learning and that observational learning involves much more than imitation
- In imitation, a person simply copies what the model does
- In observational learning, we learn by watching others and then imitating or modeling, what they say or do
- The individuals performing the imitated behaviour are called models
Bandura’s 3 models
Live
Verbal
Symbolic
Live model
Demonstrates a behaviour in person, as when Ben stood up on his surfboard so that Julian could see how he did it.
Verbal instructional model
Does not perform the behaviour, but instead explains or describes the behaviour, as when a football coach tells his young players to kick the ball with the side of the foot, not with the toe.
Symbolic model
Can be fictional characters or real people who demonstrate behaviours in books, movies, television shows, video games, or internet sources
4 necessary steps for learning
Attention
Retention
Reproduction
Motivation
Step 1 (attention)
You must be focused on what the model is doing - you have to pay attention.
Step 2 (retention)
You must be able to retain, or remember, what you observed.
Step 3 (reproduction)
You must be able to perform the behaviour that you observed and committed to memory.
Step 4 (motivation)
You need to want to copy the behaviour, and whether you are motivated or not depends on what happened to the model.
Vicarious reinforcement
If you saw that a model was reinforced for their behaviour, you will be more motivated to copy them.
Vicarious punishment
If you observed the model being punished, you would be less motivated to copy them.
Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment
- A five-foot inflatable doll that he called a Bobo doll
- Children’s aggressive behaviour was influenced by whether or not the teacher was punished for her behaviour
- In one scenario, a teacher acted aggressively with the doll, hitting, throwing, and even punching the doll, while a child watched
Children’s responses (Bobo doll experiment)
- When the teacher was punished for her bad behaviour, the children decreased their tendency to act as she had.
- When the teacher was praised or ignored (not punished) the children imitated what she did and even what she said, punching, kicking and yelling at the doll.
Conclusions of Bandura’s Bobo doll study
We watch and learn and this learning can have both pro social and antisocial effects.
Prosocial effects
- Prosocial (positive) models can be used to encourage socially acceptable behaviour
- Children observe and learn from their parents, even their parents’ morals, and children tend to copy what parents do instead of what they say.
Many public figures such as MLK are viewed as Prosocial models who are able to inspire global social change
Antisocial effects of observational learning
- May help to explain why 30% of abused children become abusive parents
- Abused children, who often grow up witnessing their parents deal with anger and frustration through violent and aggressive acts often learn to behave in that manner themselves
What are the principles of classical conditioning?
Generalisation
Discrimination
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Higher order conditioning
Watson’s Behaviourist manifesto (1913)
- Behaviour is a response to environmental stimulus
- Behaviourism is only concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviours
- This can be studied in a systematic, objective way
Generalisation
Occurs when a conditioned response (CR) is elicited by a stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus (CS)
Discrimination
This occurs when the person or animal learns to differentiate between similar conditioned stimuli (CS) and a conditioned response no longer occurs to a similar stimulus.
Extinction
When the conditioned stimulus (CS) is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), eventually the conditioned response (CR) will cease.
Spontaneous recovery
After extinction, it only takes a few pairings of the UCS and CS for the CR to reappear.
Higher order conditioning
Also known as second order conditioning. This occurs when a previously neutral stimulus elicits a conditioned response.
Strengths of conditioning
- Scientific approach (objective)
- Practical applications e.g. therapies
Limitations of conditioning
- Mechanistic view of human behaviour - ignore cognition and free will
- Environmental determinism
- Ethics of animal experiments
- Ethics of some therapeutic approaches to changing behaviour
- Ignores biology (nature/nurture) - there are genetic influences that could cause different people to have different responses to conditioning
Ivan Pavlov
- Russian Physiologist
- Interested in the digestive system
- Came to his conclusions about how learning happens by accident
- Performed a series of very famous experiments on dogs to investigate classical conditioning
What responses to the environment did Pavlov realise an organism has?
Unconditioned responses, or reflexes
Conditioned responses
Unconditioned responses
Unlearned
Conditioned responses
Learned
Unconditioned responses (UCR)
Also known as a reflex. A natural reaction to a stimulus e.g. a dog’s salivation response when they see food.
Unconditioned response (UCR)
Also known as a reflex. A natural reaction to a stimulus.
E.g. a dog’s salivation response when they see food (it is natural)
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
A stimulus that causes a reflexive response (a UCR) in an organism.
E.g. food that causes dogs to salivate when it is presented to them
Neutral stimulus (NS)
A stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response.
E.g. a tone that would ordinarily be ignored by a dog as it has no association.
What can a neutral stimulus be paired with to cause a response?
An unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
A stimulus that elicits a response after it has been paired with a UCS.
A CS was once a NS but has become a CS from having an association with a stimulus that elicits a UCR.
Conditioned response (CR)
A behaviour caused by the conditioned stimulus.
E.g. a salivation response when a dog hears a tone - they anticipate being fed through learning that a tone indicates that they are about to be fed.
How did Pavlov discover classical conditioning by accident?
His dogs responded to the sound of laboratory assistant’s footsteps, which they wouldn’t normally react to.
What was the UCS in Pavlov’s experiment?
Meat powder
What was the dogs’ UCR in Pavolv’s experiment?
Salivation
What was the NS in Pavlov’s experiment?
The tone
Summary of Pavlov’s experiment
- Pavlov would sound a tone (like a ringing bell) and then give the dogs the meat powder
- When Pavlov paired the tone with the meat powder repeatedly, the previously neutral stimulus (the tone) also made the dogs salivate
- The neutral stimulus became the conditioned stimulus
- Eventually the dogs began to salivate to the sound of the tone alone.
Why did behaviourism commonly use animals in experiments?
Due to the assumption that what was learned using animal models could partly be applied to human behaviour.
Real world uses of behaviourism
- In behavioural and cognitive-behavioural therapy
- In classroom settings
- In informing research on environmental influences on human behaviour
What is behaviourism largely responsible for?
Establishing psychology as a scientific discipline through its objective methods and experimentation.
Who conducted the Little Albert study?
Watson and Rayner (1920)
Summary of Little Albert study
- Originally, Albert showed no fear of the white rat (CS) and played quite happily with it
- After several pairings of the loud noise (UCS) and the white rat (CS) he displayed fear (UCR) in response just to the white rat
- Albert had learnt to fear and avoid the white rat without the loud noise present.
- Little Albert generalised this fear to other white fluffy things including Dr Watson wearing a white beard.
Replicable
The procedure can be repeated accurately
Standardised
The same thing is done/said to each participant
Controlled
Other variables are removed or kept constant so that they don’t affect the results
Reductionist
Breaking down human experience into more easily measurable parts
Generalisable
The results can be applied generally, not just to the people who took part
Strengths of social learning theory
- Supported by research - Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment
- Has applications to the real world e.g. the role of the media and its influence on children
- Adds to learning theory by looking at cognitive factors
Weaknesses of social learning theory
- Relies heavily on lab based research which introduces the issue of demand characteristics and suggests a lack of ecological validity
- Ignores biological factors in behaviour e.g. boys were more likely to be violent due to higher levels of testosterone
- Reductionist (tries to explain all behaviour from a cause-and-effect style)
Strengths of Skinner’s research
- Carried out in lab settings with highly controlled conditions, reducing the impact of extraneous variables so that findings are reliable and have scientific credibility
- Findings have influenced reward programmes in schools and prisons. Token economies are where individuals are rewarded for showing desirable behaviours such as completing work and using manners. These have been extremely successful in modifying behaviour
Limitations of Skinner’s research
- Ignores the role of biological and genetic factors that can shape behaviours. It ignores the interaction of innate predisposition and the impact of the environment. His work could be restrictive and not give a complete explanation of human behaviour
- Animal studies cannot be generalised to humans
Real life example of positive reinforcement
A child completing chores to receive sweets. The sweets serve as a reward, reinforcing the behaviour.
Real world example of negative reinforcement
When a student talking in class is given a detention, intending to decrease the likelihood of talking during class happening again
Strengths of the behaviourist approach
- Provides explanations for a range of behaviours
- Focus on experimental methodology
- Provides explanations for a specified behaviour e.g. phobias
- Contributes to the nature/nurture debate
- Approach can be applied to behavioural problems e.g. token economy
Contributions of behaviourist psychologists
- Large scale data collection and generalisation allowed for developments of laws and principles
- Gave us learning theories (classical and operant conditioning)
- Gave appreciation of how behaviour is learnt and environmentally determined (strongly deterministic)
- Practical applications such as behavioural treatments of phobias and token economies - shows the usefulness of the contributions
- Use of the controlled scientific method - verifiable findings led to raised status of psychology, further developing our understanding of human behaviour
