The Behaviourist Perspective Flashcards
What are the strengths of the behaviourist perspective?
Shows environment is important influence on behaviour
Practical application
Scientific credibility
What are the weaknesses of the behaviourist perspective?
Ignores nature
Lacks EV as favours lab experiments
What are the core principles of the behaviourist perspective?
People are born as ‘blank slates’ and human behaviour comes from learning from the environment
What are the applications for the behaviourist perspective?
Aversion Therapy using classical conditioning to treat people with addictions. By creating a learned association between the addictive behaviour and a negative experience
What is classical conditioning?
The idea that we learn by associating things in the world around us (stimuli) with bodily reactions (responses)
What is social learning theory?
States that we learn things through OBSERVING and IMMITATING the behaviour from role models
What are the two main concepts of operant conditioning?
Punishment
Reinforcement
What is punishment used for?
Used to discourage a behaviour
What is positive punishment?
doing something unpleasant to stop someone repeating a behaviour - being placed on the naughty step, having to write lines etc
What is negative punishment?
Taking away something like to discourage a negative behaviour - eg no video games for a week
What is reinforcement used for?
To encourage a behaviour
What is positive reinforcement?
Providing a positive reward t make a behaviour more likely to be repeated - eg giving them a toy, chocolate, stickers
What is negative reinforcement?
Removing something unpleasant in order to encourage a behaviour - eg having to do fewer chores if you eat your vegetables
