The Learning Approach: Behaviourism Flashcards
The behaviourist approach is only concerned with studying behaviour that can be
Observed and measured
The behaviourist approach is not concerned with
Mental processes of the mind
Introspection was
Rejected by behaviourists as its concepts were vague and difficult to measure
Behaviourists tried to maintain more
Control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab studies to achieve this
Behaviourists suggest the processes that govern learning are
Same in all species so animals can replace humans as experimental subjects
Who came up with classical conditioning
Pavlov
Classical conditioning is learning through
Association
UCS
Food
UCR
Salvation
NS
Bell
What did Pavlov do?
Conditioned dogs to salvage when a bell rings
UCS = UCR = NS
Before conditioning
No response
NS + UCS
During conditioning.
Bell and food occur at the same time.
CS = CR
After conditioning.
CS = bell
CR = salvation
Pavlov showed how a natural stimulus (bell) can come to elicit
A new learning response (conditioned response) through association
Who came up with Operant conditioning?
Skinner
Operant conditioning says that learning is an
Active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment
Operant conditioning says that behaviour is shaped and maintained by its
Consequences
Skinners research
Rats and pigeons were placed into specially designed boxes.
They had to pull leavers to receive a treat.
If they pushed a leaver then they got an electric shock.
Skinner findings
The animals figured out what they had to do to get a treat so they repeated the behaviour
There are three types of consequences of behaviour
Positive research
Negative research
Punishment
Positive research
Receiving a reward when behaviour is performed
Negative reinforcement
When an animal or human produces behaviour that avoids something unpleasant
Punishment
An unpleasant consequences of behaviour
Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that
Behaviour will be repeated
Punishment decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be
Avoided
The approach focuses on the careful measurement of
Observable behaviour within controlled lab settings
Behaviourists emphasised the importance of
Scientific processes such as objectivity and replication
Because behaviourists found scientific processes to be so important, this brought the
Language and methods of the natural sciences into psychology, giving the subject greater credibility and status
The principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of
Real-world behaviours and problems
Token economy systems reward appropriate behaviour with
Tokens that are exchanged for privileges
Where are token economy’s mostly used?
In prisons and psychiatric wards
Token economy is a good treatment for patients who
Lack ‘insight’ into their condition and are not capable of talking about their problems
Animals and humans are seen as
Passive and machine-like responders to the environment, with little conscious insight into their behaviour
Other approaches, such as social learning theory and the cognitive approach
Have placed much more emphasis on the mental events that occur during learning
The processes that mediate between stimulus and response suggest that
Humans play a much more active role in their learning
The approach sees all behaviour as determined by
Past experiences that have been conditioned and ignore any influence that free will may have on behaviour
Skinner suggested that free will was an
Illusion
When something happens we impose a sense of having made a decision but
Our past conditioning determined our outcome
This is an extreme position and ignores the influence of
Conscious decision-making processes on behaviour
Although experimental procedures such as the skinners box allowed behaviourists to
Maintain a high degree of control over their research subjects, criteria have drawn attention to the ethical issues involved
The animals were exposed to
Stressful and aversive conditions and this may have affected his they reacted to the experimental situation
The animals stress means the validity of the findings from these studies might be
Questioned because the observed behaviour was not ‘normal’
