The Behaviourist School of Thought in Psychology Flashcards
What period did the Behavirourist Movement occur in?
1900s (1904-1971).
Name three of the key ideas in Watson’s Behaviourist Manifesto.
Prediction and control of behaviour.
Behaviourism is an objective, experimental branch of natural science.
No dividing line between man and brute.
Name three of the key ideas in Behaviourism.
Observable behaviour.
Animal subjects.
Blank slate theory.
What was Ivan Pavlov a Nobel prize winner for?
For his work on digestion.
He developed surgical skill and created fistula which allowed for new observations of digestion.
His experiment showed the importance of secretin to the salivation response.
What is a conditioned reflex (Pavlov)?
Salivation is a naturally-occurring unconditioned response.
By pairing the unconditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus, the neutral stimulus becomes conditioned and therefore a conditioned stimulus.
Why was timing important in Pavlov’s theory?
The conditioning only works if the neutral stimulus is presented before the unconditioned stimulus.
State what higher-order conditioning, generalisation and differentiation are (Pavlov).
Higher-order conditioning: a conditioned stimulus can be used for conditioning a second higher-order stimulus.
Generalisation: conditioned response generalises to similar stimuli.
Differentiation: a conditioned response does not generalise to a similar stimulus. It is differentiated from it.
What is Experimental Neurosis (Pavlov)?
A seemingly aversive state where the stimulus is close to differentiation.
What did Pavlov’s findings later lead him too?
His theory of brain organisation.
State the 3 key ideas in Pavlov’s Theory of Brain Organisation.
Conditioned stimuli are represented in the cortex.
Excitation is caused by reinforcement.
Inhibition is caused by a lack of reinforcement.
What was Pavlov’s opinion on dogs?
He believed they should be offered as a sacrificed to science but not with unnecessary suffering.
What were the three emotions that Watson considered to be unconditioned emotional reactions?
Fear, rage and love.
All other emotions were considered to be learned by conditioning.
Briefly explain the aim of Watson’s Little Albert Experiment.
The aim was to show conditioned emotional responses in a human.
Lots of myths surrounding this study.
What did Mary Jones’ Little Peter study demonstrate?
Systematic desensitisation.
When did Behaviourism become a dominant approach?
1930-1950s.
Name 2 of Skinner’s key ideas.
He believed the behaviour of any organism was controlled by its history of reinforcement.
Operant conditioning stated that a behaviour is learned as a result of its past consequences.
Name Skinner’s 3 main scientific practices.
The Skinner Box.
Contingencies of Reinforcement - graph to show the relationship between responses and reinforcement by time interval/ratio of responses to reinforcement (these could be fixed or variable).
The cumulative record - graph of a single organism’s behaviour overtime.
What is variable interval reinforcement schedules?
You don’t know when the reinforcement will occur so you keep checking to see when it happens (e.g. gambling).
It is the hardest reinforcement to recondition.
What is radical behaviourism and who was the main leader of this?
Radical behaviourism believed ALL behaviour could be explained without the need for mental states.
Skinner banned all talk of cognition.
Name one of the applications of radical behaviourism.
Token economy in therapy.
This had many ethical issues such as abuse of power.
How did Edward C Tolman contribute to the Behaviourist Movement?
Tolman took into account mental traits.
Conducted the maze for rats studies.
Wanted to test whether rats form hypotheses about where the food is in the maze or cognitive maps.
Skinner was not impressed by this theory.
How did Harry Harlow contribute to the Behaviourist Movement?
Nature of love monkey experiments.
Monkeys prefer soft mother with no food more than wire mother with food.
