the behavourist approach

Question 1

what is the behaviourist approach?

Answer 1

learning through association such as stimuli and responses - much of human behaviour can be explained through conditioning

Question 2

what is conditioning?

Answer 2

learned associations between stimuli in the environment and an organism’s responses

Question 3

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 3

when we learn to associate a previously neutral stimulus with a stimulus that already produces a response (unconditioned stimulus). through regular pairing the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus producing a new learned (conditioned response)

Question 4

who is palov?

Answer 4

russian psychologist who discovered process of classical conditioning in 1927

Question 5

what was his research?

Answer 5

• dogs salivated at the sight of food. food was an unconditioned stimulus, saliva was an unconditioned response as both happened naturally.
• they rung a bell, at first produced no response. rung it again with the food out. bell was turning into a conditioned stimulus - after produced a learned conditioned response when dogs would salivate at the sound of the bell as they associated it with food

Question 6

conclusions?

Answer 6

• NS paired and an UCS produces a CR
• A CS / NS in absence of the UCS loses the ability to perform a CR but there is spontaneous recovery and can respond to other stimuli similar to the CS

Question 7

what is operant conditioning?

Answer 7

learning through consequence (reinforcement or punishment)

Question 8

who was behind this?

Answer 8

Skinner (1938)

Question 9

what is watson’s research?

Answer 9

Little Albert - baby placed in front of a rat
hammer smashed behind the baby making them produce an UR which was fear
eventually every-time baby saw the rat they’d be scared as they associating the rat with the ringing noise making them scared - conditioned response

Question 10

what did Skinner do?

Answer 10

put a rat in a cage. was a lever and every time they pressed it a food pellet was dispensed and rat quickly learnt that when they press it a positive reward comes out (positive reinforcement) making them want to commit the act more. however there was also a shock generator and an electric grid therefore they could have also used punishment on the rat making them not want to commit the act again

Question 11

what is positive reinforcement?

Answer 11

adding pleasant consequence

Question 12

what is negative reinforcement?

Answer 12

removing unpleasant consequence

Question 13

what is punishment?

Answer 13

unpleasant consequence

Question 14

what is the difference between punishment and reinforcement?

Answer 14

behaviour that is reinforced will be repeated and learned while behaviour that is punished will die out/less likely to happen in the future

Question 15

strengths of the behaviourist approach

Answer 15

• increased scientific credibility for pyschology while rejecting introspection - based on well controlled research. behaviourists focused on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings
• cause-and-effect relationships established as extraneous variables removed by breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus response units e.g Skinner was able to demonstrate how reinforcement influenced animals and behaviour

Question 16

what is systematic desensitisation?

Answer 16

a therapy based on classical conditioning - eliminates a learned anxious response (CR) that is associated with the feared object (CS) - eliminates one learned response and replaces it with another such as relaxation so patient is no longer fearful of that object