(Y1) learning theories

Question 1

what are the basic assumptions of learning theorists / behaviourist approach?

Answer 1

learning theorists take the view that humans are born a ‘blank slate’ (tabula rasa) and that everything we go on to do has been learned. all behaviour is a response to a stimulus, so the explanation for all human behaviour is found in a person’s environment, not their mind or feelings.

• people are products of their environment, all complex behaviours have been learned.
• learning (and consequently behaviour) is under the control of the environment
• doing psychology means understanding what people have learned and how
• only observable behaviour should be studied, speculation about mental processes should be eliminated.

Question 2

what theory refers to learning by association?

Answer 2

classical conditioning

Question 3

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 3

classical conditioning refers to learning by association. classical conditioning essentially refers to a behavioural procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus. this is known as conditioning as an automatic conditioned response is paired with a specific stimulus.

Question 4

unconditioned stimulus
(definition)

Answer 4

a stimulus that leads to an automatic, innate response.

Question 5

unconditioned response
(definition)

Answer 5

a response that occurs due to an unconditioned stimulus. this is our natural tendency to react to certain stimuli (e.g. when we start to laugh after being tickled). this is based on biology, it is innate and doesn’t require a psychological explanation.

Question 6

neutral stimulus
(definition)

Answer 6

something that doesn’t usually affect us, elicits no response

Question 7

conditioned response
(definition)

Answer 7

a conditioned response occurs after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus after a period of time. this association is ‘learning by association’ which is known as conditioning.

Question 8

who proposed the theory of classical conditioning?

Answer 8

ivan pavlov in his experiment ‘pavlov’s dogs’

Question 9

conditioned stimulus
(definition)

Answer 9

after conditioning, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus because it produces the same reaction from us that the UCS used to produce. there is something artificial about this learned response to a CS, therefore it is known as a conditioned response (CR).

• the CR does not feel artificial to the person doing them
• conditioned stimuli gradually lose their association with the original unconditioned stimulus. this process is known as extinction and it can take a long time.
• once an association is formed, it is never truly forgotten. even after extinction, a CR can reappear. this is known as spontaneous recovery.
• once a CR is formed, there is a tendency for it to appear in response to other things other than the original CS. this is called stimulus generalisation when people continue to make associations with stimuli similar to the CS that will produce the CR.

Question 10

what is the most famous research into classical conditioning?

Answer 10

pavlov’s dogs experiment

https://www.psychologywizard.net/uploads/2/6/6/4/26640833/12180.jpg

Question 11

explain pavlov’s dogs’ experiment
(refer to technical terminology as in classical conditioning)

Answer 11

1. (before conditioning)
   the food acted as an unconditioned stimulus which elicited the dog’s unconditioned response, which was to salivate in reaction to the food.
2. (before conditoning)
   the bell was rang and this acted as a neutral stimulus which elicited no conditioned response and the dog therefore, did not salivate or react in response to the bell being rang.
3. (during conditioning)
   the bell (NS) becomes paired with the food (UCS), which the dog responds to with salivation (UCR)
4. (after conditioning)
   the bell becomes the conditioned stimulus and elicits a conditioned response of salivation from the dog alone.

this proves the principles of classical conditioning that suggest how we learn via association. in this manner, neutral objects can be paired with unconditioned stimuli to elicit a conditioned response.

Question 12

research into classical conditioning

Answer 12

Pavlov’s Dogs Experiment

• The Classic Study in the Learning Approach is Watson & Rayner’s (1920) “Baby Albert” study, which uses Classical Conditioning to produce a phobia in a baby boy. This shows that Classical Conditioning explains how humans learn too.

However, other research into Classical Conditioning has been less successful. David H. Barlow (1966) carried out a series of procedures in the USA to ‘cure’ homosexuals of their same-sex attraction. The process involved using stomach-churning descriptions and images to produce an urge to vomit – this is the UCS producing a UCR. Then images of attractive same-sex partners were paired with the disgusting imagery. This associating of UCS and NS produced a CS instead; a sense of nausea and disgust (CR) was felt whenever the men were presented with a same-sex partner (CS). Stimulus generalisation meant this CR was generalised to any same-sex partner. Up to 50% of the young men treated in this way seemed to change their sexual orientation.

Martin Seligman (1993) reports how these studies generated great excitement in America and prompted many doctors and judges to recommend using conditioning to change the behaviour of homosexuals and paedophiles (homosexuality was illegal at the time many people confused it with paedophilia). However, the conclusions were not valid. Most of the men who stopped their homosexual activities after the treatment were bisexuals; among men with exclusive homosexual orientation, the results showed very little success. However, many patients reported feeling traumatised and violated by the treatment, especially when other researchers used electric shocks instead of disgusting imagery as their UCS.

This sad story indicates that Classical Conditioning does not have the same effect on humans as on dogs. Some psychologists suggest that characteristics like homosexuality are ‘essential’ behaviours that cannot be greatly modified by conditioning. It is also possible that cognitions are involved in human sexual attraction – feelings like ‘love’ for example – so it is not just a matter of conditioning people not to behave in a particular way; you need to take into account how they feel.

Question 13

evaluate (AO3) classical conditioning

Answer 13

Credibility

There’s a lot of research in support of the Classical Conditioning, including the studies by Pavlov (1927) and Watson & Rayner (1920) that you will meet in this course. This research isn’t just from the start of the 20th century; it continues to the present day, with brain scanning revealing “reward centres” in the brain that activate when pleasant associations are formed.

Moreover, a lot of this research is strictly scientific, being carried out on animals in lab conditions or using brain imaging techniques like MRI. Because the theory only looks at behaviours (rather than cognitions), every step in the conditioning process is observable. This adds to the credibility of the theory, since you can see it happen with your own eyes.

Objections

Although research on dogs and other animals shows conditioning taking place, generalising the conclusions to human learning is not so clear-cut. For one thing, there are other learning theories – Operant Conditioning and Social Learning Theory – and it is usually difficult to tell whether one or the other is largely responsible when something is learned. For example, even when associations are formed, the person is usually being rewarded or punished at the same time: George Best learned to associate drinking with nausea, but drinking was still rewarding for him because it was pleasurable.

The theory focuses entirely on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate. It is possible some people are born with predispositions towards behaviours, rather than learning them through conditioning. Many critics of Barlow’s ‘gay cures’ would say that people are born with their sexual orientation; they don’t learn it and cannot be expected to un-learn it.

The theory also focuses entirely on behaviours and ignores cognitions. Cognitions are thought-processes and include things like personality, willpower and motivation. Sigmund Freud argued that a lot of self-destructive behaviour comes from hidden thought-processes in the unconscious mind and are not learned and cannot be un-learned so easily.

Differences

Classical Conditioning has many similarities with Operant Conditioning. Both were based on lab studies done on animals – dogs for Pavlov, rats for Skinner. Both then generalise the conclusions about learning to human beings. Both of them have produced effective treatments for problem behaviours – aversion therapy and systematic desensitisation for Classical Conditioning, token economy programmes for Operant Conditioning.

However, Classical Conditioning explains the acquisition of involuntary behaviours, things that are “knee jerk reactions”. However, Operant Conditioning explains how behaviours are learned by their consequences and better explains more deliberate, voluntary behaviours.

Social Learning Theory is quite different from Classical Conditioning. For one thing, it includes cognitions as well as behaviours. Classical Conditioning only looks at how behaviours get paired and associated. SLT looks at how we draw conclusions from seeing role models in action (“If they did that and got away with it, I can too!”) so there’s a big role played by thought-processes. This makes SLT rather less scientific than Classical Conditioning, but it is better at explaining how we learn complicated behaviours like talking in “chunks” by observing and imitating, rather than having to make associating and generalise, which is a much slower and more uncertain process. SLT is a much better explanation of things like how children learn to talk or why youngsters turn to crime.

Applications

Classical Conditioning has always had huge applications for therapy, especially the treatment of “irrational” or “instinctive” problems like phobias and addictions.

Aversion therapy works by associating a dysfunctional behaviour (like drinking) with a UCR (like vomiting) to produce a new CS. If successful, the CS will produce a nauseous CR whenever drink is present. This sort of therapy works best when the patient is willing and wants the therapy to succeed. Many of Barlow’s gay men where in prison, because their homosexuality was then a crime, and they were forced to undergo the treatment.

Systematic desensitisation works by associating a troubling CR (like a phobia) with the CS (like a spider) in a relaxing, safe environment. Gradually, the patient stops associating fear with the spider. The spider goes back to being a NS, producing no reaction. This is extinction.

Question 14

what is operant conditioning?

Answer 14

operant conditioning is a theory of learning by consequences. it is a learning process where voluntary behaviours are modified by association with the addition of reward or aversive stimuli. the frequency or duration of the behaviour may increase through reinforcement or decrease through punishment or extinction.

Question 15

who developed operant conditioning?

Answer 15

B.F. Skinner, an American scientist.

Question 16

why is operant conditioning significant for psychology?

Answer 16

• It shows how scientific research proceeds. Skinner’s discoveries about animal behaviour were generalised to humans based on evolutionary theory (that humans and other animals learn through similar mechanisms). This in turn led to the behaviourist school in Psychology.
• It illustrates features of Learning Theory, since it studies behaviour as a response to external stimuli without taking into account cognitions
• It is important for you to understand how Social Learning Theory developed out of this theory

Question 17

what theory is associated with learning by consequences?

Answer 17

operant conditioning

Question 18

summarise the process of operant conditioning
(refer to key terminology)

Answer 18

not all of our behaviour is involuntary or innate. some of it is voluntary because we know exactly what we are doing. voluntary behaviour can be learned too because we observe the consequences of our actions and this affects how we behave the next time we are put in the same situation.

• operant conditioning tells us that our behaviour is based on A-B-C so if you want to change behaviour, you must change the antecedents (what has already happened) or the consequences; it is easier to change the consequences.

A: antecedent -> B: behaviour -> C: consequence
(directs) (motivates)
https://www.psychologywizard.net/uploads/2/6/6/4/26640833/2231151_orig.jpg

Question 19

define antecedent
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 19

something that comes before a behaviour and may trigger that behaviour.

Question 20

define consequence
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 20

something that motivates behaviour. this can either increase or decrease the behaviour, depending on whether the behaviour is reinforced or punished.

Question 21

define **reinforcement **
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 21

when the desired behaviour is rewarded. this makes it more likely to be repeated.

Question 22

define positive reinforcement
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 22

positive reinforcement rewards the desired behaviour by adding something pleasant like food, affection, a compliment, money.

Question 23

define negative reinforcement
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 23

negative reinforcement rewards the desired behaviour by removing something unpleasant like, taking away the pain or distress, stopping criticism, cancelling a fine.

Question 24

define primary and secondary reinforcement
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 24

primary reinforcement when the reward is something we want naturally, a basic need such as food, warmth or affection.

secondary reinforcement is a reward we have learned to value, like money.

Question 25

define punishment
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 25

punishment is when undesirable behaviour produces unpleasant consequences.

Question 26

define positive punishment
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 26

this punishes the undesirable behaviour by adding something unpleasant like a shock, a criticism or copying out lines

Question 27

define negative punishment
(in relation to operant conditioning)

Answer 27

this punishes by removing something pleasant like being grounded, deducting money or removing the xbox etc.

Question 28

(link to diagram/flowchart on operant conditioning)

Answer 28

https://www.psychologywizard.net/uploads/2/6/6/4/26640833/5383322.jpg?564

Question 29

what must effective conditioning be?
(operant conditioning)

Answer 29

contingent and contiguent

contingent- means that there is a clear link between the person’s behaviour and the consequence it produces - they know exactly what they are being rewarded or punished for.

contiguent- means that the consequence follows soon after the behaviour, if there’s too long a delay, the conditioning is weakened.

Question 30

what does skinner’s research show overall?

Answer 30

skinner’s research suggests that reinforcement shapes behaviour better than punishment and positive reinforcement shapes it better than negative reinforcement.

Question 31

schedules of reinforcement
(operant conditioning)

Answer 31

https://www.psychologywizard.net/uploads/2/6/6/4/26640833/8704431_orig.png

A lot of Skinner’s research was how often a reward needs to happen before behaviour is learned. He discovered four “schedules” that work

- Fixed interval: The reward turns up at a regular time. Desirable behaviour increases in the run-up to the reward. This happened with Skinner’s pigeons. It might happen with humans at work if there is a regular tea break or “casual Friday”. Learning is medium and extinction (learned behaviour fading) is medium.

- Variable Interval: The reward turns up but you can’t be sure exactly when. An example might be the audience applauding a performer or cheering an athlete. Desirable behaviour increases more slowly but stays at a steady rate. Learning is fast but extinction is slow.

- Fixed Ratio: The reward turns up every time the desired behaviour is carried out so often. Skinner’s rats got a reward every time they pressed the lever. A human might get paid for every 100 products they build. If you don’t do the behaviour, you get nothing; if you work fast, you get a lot. Learning is fast and extinction is moderate.

- Variable Ratio: The reward is dispensed randomly, after a changing number of behaviours, such as feeding the rat after one lever-press, then after 5, then after 3. For humans, this might be like a slot machine because you don’t know how many times you’ll have to pay in before it pays out. Learning is fast and extinction is slow.

Question 32

research into operant conditioning

Answer 32

Skinner carried out research on animals, famously in rats. He placed the animals in a “Skinner box” which contained a lever, a light and a food dispenser. If the rat pressed the lever, the light came on and a food pellet rolled down the chute. This is positive reinforcement. At first the rat would press the lever accidentally.

However, the consequence was contiguous (the food was dispensed instantly) and contingent (the light coming on alerted the rat to what it had done). Rats quickly learned to press the lever to get food.

In a variation on this, Skinner electrified the floor of the Skinner Box and arranged for pressing the lever to turn the electric current off for 30 seconds. This shows negative reinforcement since the rat is learning to remove something painful. Skinner found that the rats learned to press the lever, but not as quickly as the rats that were positively reinforced.

Skinner (1948) carried out a famous experiment called “Superstition in the Pigeon”. Eight pigeons were starved to make them hungry then put in a cage. At regular intervals every 15 seconds, a food dispenser would swing into the cage for 5 seconds then swing out again. When the food was due to appear, the pigeons started showing strange behaviours, such as turning anticlockwise who making swaying motions.

• Skinner concluded the pigeons were repeating whatever behaviour they had been in the middle of doing when the reinforcement was first offered to them. Because the food kept reappearing, this senseless behaviour was strengthened. This is like a “superstition” when humans imagine that, by doing something senseless (knocking on wood, crossing their fingers) they can make something pleasant happen.

Question 33

evaluate (AO3) operant conditioning

Answer 33

Credibility

There’s a lot of research in support of the Operant Conditioning, including the study by Skinner (1948) into pigeons. This research isn’t just from the start of the 20th century; it continues to the present day. Brain imaging has identified “reward centres” in the brain that activate during positive reinforcement – these are linked to the brain’s motivational centres.

Moreover, a lot of this research is strictly scientific, being carried out on animals in lab conditions or using brain imaging techniques like MRI. Because the theory only looks at behaviours (rather than cognitions), every step in the conditioning process is observable. This adds to the credibility of the theory, since you can see it happen with your own eyes.

Token Economy Programmes became popular in the 1970s and are proven to work. For example, Hobbs & Holt (1976) showed that TEPs work to reduce antisocial behaviour in a juvenile detention centre.

Objections

Although research on rats and pigeons shows conditioning taking place, generalising the conclusions to human learning is not so clear-cut. For one thing, there are other learning theories – Classical Conditioning and Social Learning Theory – and it is usually difficult to tell whether one or the other is largely responsible when something is learned. For example, a phobia may be formed through association AND because the consequences were unpleasant – such as when someone is bitten by a dog and develops a fear of dogs.

The theory focuses entirely on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate. It is possible some people are born with predispositions towards behaviours, rather than learning them through conditioning. This might explain why some people turn to crime or develop musical talent without being reinforced.

The theory also focuses entirely on behaviours and ignores cognitions. Cognitions are thought-processes and include things like personality, willpower and motivation. Sigmund Freud argued that a lot of self-destructive behaviour comes from hidden thought-processes in the unconscious mind and are not learned and cannot be un-learned so easily.

Differences

Operant Conditioning has many similarities with Classical Conditioning. Both were based on lab studies done on animals – dogs for Pavlov, rats for Skinner. Both then generalise the conclusions about learning to human beings. Both of them have produced effective treatments for problem behaviours – aversion therapy and systematic desensitisation for Classical Conditioning.

Classical Conditioning explains the acquisition of involuntary behaviours, things that are “knee jerk reactions”. However, Operant Conditioning explains how behaviours are learned by their consequences and better explains more deliberate, voluntary behaviours.

Social Learning Theory is quite different from Operant Conditioning. For one thing, it includes cognitions as well as behaviours. SLT explains a child learning to talk by watching and imitating adults, whereas Operant Conditioning suggests the child needs to have each word or phrase rewarded with praise or attention; SLT seems more realistic, because children learn to speak quickly and their parents don’t pay attention to everything they say.

However, Operant Conditioning and SLT overlap in vicarious learning. This is where a person sees a role model being reinforced for their behaviour; you are MUCH more likely to imitate behaviour you see being reinforced. This combines imitation (SLT) and reinforcement (Operant Conditioning).

Applications

Operant Conditioning has always had huge applications for therapy, especially the treatment of more deliberate problems like addictions and crime.

Systematic desensitisation works by positively reinforcing early behaviours in the direction of the feared object, then gradually shaping behaviour through positive reinforcement. Eventually, the patient will be able to handle something they used to have a phobia about.

Token Economy Programmes (TEPs) use positive reinforcement to modify behaviour in a closed setting like a school, hospital or prison. They may also be used with addicts or mental health patients, so long as the patient agrees to the TEP and has a say in what the tokens are acquired for and what they can be spent on. Mestel & Concar (1994) reported a successful programme to reward cocaine addicts who stayed ‘clean’ with vouchers for local shops.

Question 34

what is shaping?

Answer 34

shaping is a form of behaviour modification based on operant conditioning. shaping involves changing the reinforcement to produce very precise behaviours.

1. at first, you reward any behaviour in the general direction you want.
2. later, you reward behaviours that are similar to the specific behaviour you have in mind.
3. eventually, you only reward the specific behaviour you are looking for

Question 35

define partial reinforcement
(operant conditioning)

Answer 35

only some of the behaviours are rewarded, or only some of the time.

Question 36

define continuous reinforcement
(operant conditioning)

Answer 36

each behaviour is reinforced with a reward or desirable response

Question 37

define phobias

Answer 37

phobias refer to an irrational fear of an object or thing

Question 38

how can phobias be explained by operant conditioning

Answer 38

Phobias can be explained by Operant Conditioning in a number of ways. If the feared thing is removed when you scream and cry, then fearful behaviour is negatively reinforced (it removes something unpleasant). If other people show concern, share their own fears or even just pay attention, then fear is positively reinforced too (it adds something pleasant).

This idea of shaping also appears in systematic desensitisation. If someone has a phobia of spiders, you might reward them at first for looking at pictures of spiders, then at a spider in the same room but far away, and eventually for handling a spider. This is why systematic desensitisation uses Classical AND Operant Conditioning

Question 39

what are the two treatments for phobias?

Answer 39

systematic desensitisation and flooding

both approaches involve exposure to the phobic object/situation either through imagining (in vitro- the client imagines exposure to the phobic stimulus) or real contact, in person (in vivo- the client is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus).

the main difference is that SD does this gradually, in stages, ensuring that the client is relaxed and calm before progressing to the next stage of exposure. whereas, flooding is not gradual exposure and instead it happens all at once. the client is placed at the most fearful situation and is not able to avoid it,

Question 40

what is systematic desensitisation

Answer 40

Systematic Desensitisation (SD) is based on classical conditioning and has two components:

(1) counter-conditioning: this involves learning to associate the thing you fear with something relaxing or pleasant.
(2) graduated exposure: this involves introducing you to the thing you fear in stages, starting with the brief and remote encounters (a photograph, at a distance, for a second) and building up to longer, closer and more immediate encounters.

*sometimes there is a third component:
(3) participant modelling: a role model demonstrates being replaced and calm in the presence of the feared object.

Uses classical conditioning principles to decondition the learned fear. The aim is for the person to associate the phobic situation/object with being in a relaxed state. Treatment starts by training the client to use muscle relaxation techniques, breathing, and/or meditation techniques to learn to relax. Pulse and breathing rate can be used as measures of anxiety/relaxation. They then, together with the therapist, draw up a hierarchy of the least to most fearful situations that they can imagine. Gradual exposure begins with the least fearful scenario (either in vivo or in vitro) e.g. looking at a picture of the phobic object. The client uses their relaxation techniques until they are in a calm relaxed state before moving to the next stage of the hierarchy. If the client is relaxed at each stage, they should be relaxed with the phobic object present

Question 41

what is flooding?

Answer 41

flooding is based on classical conditioning and has two components:

(1) unavoidable exposure: this involves introducing you to the thing you fear the most in an immediate and unavoidable way.
(2) extinction: this involves learning to associate the thing you fear with something neutral.

Flooding also uses classical conditioning, but does not include relaxation techniques, or gradual exposure. The client is either placed in, or imagines, the most fearful scenario possible, involving exposure to the phobic object or situation. Although they feel extremely fearful during this exposure, the body cannot sustain this intense state of anxiety and eventually the client will be exhausted and become calm. They are not allowed to leave the situation until their fear has completely subsided and they are calm (note that unlike SD where the client is in control, at this point during flooding the client is not in control of the situation). The learned response of fear is extinguished and replaced with a new response of non-fear.

Question 42

evidence for treatments of phobias (both SD and flooding)

Answer 42

Mary Cover Jones (1924) deconditioned the fear of a rabbit in a child called Peter. She gradually moved the rabbit closer to Peter, pairing the presentation of the rabbit with a pleasurable stimulus - food. Social Learning was also used with Peter, as he observed other children (role- models) interacting happily with the rabbit Further reading - (PDF)

Toozandejhani (2011) found that SD was an effective treatment for social phobia, but the symptoms returned after the treatment.

Capafons et al (1998) recruited 41 aerophobia sufferers in Spain and treated 20 of them with SD, and had 21 members of a control group. The treatment group was given 2x1 hour sessions of in vivo and in vitro techniques a week over a 12- 15 week period.
During a flight simulation, self-reports and physiological measures of anxiety were used. The results showed all but two those who had SD treatment reported lower levels of fear and were seen to have less anxiety, and one member of the control group showed signs of improvement. While SD is effective it was not 100% effective.

Wolpe (1960, 1973) found that driving around in a car with a student with a fear of car travel (flooding) for hours, cured her phobia!

Hogan and Kirchner (1969) found that imaginal flooding - imagining intensely frightening situations involving rats - extinguished the fear of rats in a sample of students.

Question 43

define unavoidable exposure
(in relation to flooding)

Answer 43

Normally, phobia-sufferers run away from the thing they fear, so they never work through the body’s “alarm stage” and learn to end the association with fear and anxiety. If the patient can be prevented from escaping the object they fear, then they can learn to stop fearing it.

In Stampfl’s flooding therapy, the patients are bombarded with tape-recorded descriptions of what they fear. They can’t stop the tape recorder or block out the descriptions.

Other types of flooding involve being surrounded by images of the feared object (imaginal flooding) or immersed in virtual reality.

Question 44

define extinction
(in relation to flooding)

Answer 44

When the body’s “alarm phase” comes to an end, you feel emotionally drained but unafraid. If the feared object is still present, you will learn to associate it with a lack of emotion, rather than fear. This is called “extinction” or “Pavlovian extinction”.

The idea is that the feared object stops being a conditioned stimulus (CS) producing a fearful conditioned response (CR); it goes back to being a neutral stimulus (NS) which doesn’t produce any response at all.

Question 45

evaluate (AO3) flooding as a treatment for phobias

Answer 45

CREDIBILITY

Flooding is based on classical conditioning, which is a well-established psychological theory supported by a huge amount of research (eg Pavlov’s dogs, Baby Albert). Research suggests that phobias are learned in the first place through association and can be un-learned by forming different associations.

The main advantage of flooding is that it is fast, realistic and relatively ethical.

Exposure therapy can have immediate results: the alarm stage only lasts about 10-15 minutes and the fear response can be extinguished within an hour. Flooding takes longer, with the first session lasting several hours but later ones getting shorter.

Exposure therapy and flooding present the sufferer with unavoidable exposure and this is what often happens in real life. It is argued that this therapy better prepares sufferers for occasions when they may be confronted unexpectedly with the object they fear, with no way to get away from it.

Exposure therapy has ethical problems but flooding is an in vitro technique that causes less intense distress. Although exposure therapy works best on simple phobias, like animals or objects, flooding can be used for more complex phobias, like social situations. This is because the patient is listening to descriptions or looking at images, rather than physically touching the object they fear.

Keane et al. (1989) studied 24 Vietnam veterans with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). PTSD is experienced by people who have survived traumatic events like wars, disasters or crimes; it involves panic attacks and phobias as well as other symptoms like “numbing” (the inability to feel normal emotions) and social avoidance (breaking off relationships).

The soldiers received 14 to 16 sessions of flooding therapy and they were tested before, after and 6 months later for symptoms of PTSD. Compared to a control group who didn’t receive therapy, the flooding group had fewer terrifying flashbacks as well as less anxiety and depression. The other symptoms of PTSD (“numbing” and social avoidance) didn’t change. This study supports the idea that flooding can extinguish phobias.

OBJECTIONS

It can be unethical to expose a patient to something they find distressing. In fact, it could backfire and make the patient even more frightened of that thing. This is particularly true of exposure therapy, which can backfire badly, but even the tape recordings or constant flow of images involved in flooding can be too much for some patients.

Wolpe (1969) reported the case of a client who had to be hospitalised because flooding made her so anxious. This is one reason why Wolpe preferred systematic desensitisation to flooding.

For the same reason, although it has been shown to work, psychiatrists are often reluctant to suggest flooding as a therapy.

There’s also a danger of spontaneous recovery, when the extinguished phobia suddenly returns. This is because the flooding sessions aren’t very long and the therapy doesn’t replace the fear-response with a different response, it just replaces it with no response.

DIFFERENCES

Systematic desensitisation involves gradual exposure to the object you fear, but with flooding you are completely exposed to it, all at once. It’s like going directly to the end of the stimulus hierarchy and skipping all the stages in between.

Systematic desensitisation is much more ethical than flooding, because the participants are only exposed gradually to the thing that they fear and they only move on to greater exposure when they feel ready. With flooding, the patient is exposed to the object they fear all at once, in a very intense way. This can be distressing.

Both therapies can be carried out in vitro rather than in vivo. Imagining exposure to the feared object is less distressing. However, in vitro flooding is still more upsetting that in vitro systematic desensitisation.

Neither systematic desensitisation nor flooding tackle the possible underlying problem behind the phobia. They are both behavioural therapies that only deal with the symptoms, not the cause. If there is an underlying problem behind the phobia (like trauma in the patient’s past), then that will still be there and will carry on causing difficulties, even if the phobia is temporarily eased.

APPLICATIONS

It’s quite common for flooding to form a part of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

In the video (right), Prof. Lars-Göran Öst uses exposure therapy to overcome Mariam’s fear of snakes, but he also challenges Mariam’s false beliefs about what the snake will do when it is released. HIs approach also uses some elements of systematic desensitisation because Mariam is gradually exposed to the snake (although much faster than in SD and with less control on her part). This shows how the different therapies blend together.

Question 46

define counter-conditioning
(in relation to systematic desensitisation)

Answer 46

this involves pairing the object. activity or creature that produces the fear response with something else that produces an incompatible response like pleasure, relaxation or humour.

the idea is that instead of their old conditioned response (CR) of fear, the patient learns a new CR, like relaxing or laughing.

Question 47

define graduated exposure
(in relation to systematic desensitisation)

Answer 47

the therapist and the patient work out a stimulation hierarchy. this is a list of encounters with the feared thing, going from least intense to the most intense.

less intense encounters tend to be:
- pictures or imitations rather than reality
- far away rather than close-up
- brief rather than long-lasting

the stimulation hierarchy must be created by the patient NOT the therapist. this is for two reasons:

1. the patient knows best what makes them anxious. having control over how the therapy proceeds is itself relaxing.
2. it would be unethical to expose patients to distressing situations if they hadn’t given informed consent to every step in the process first. ethical guidelines emphasise the importance of respecting people’s autonomy (control over what happens to them next)

Question 48

define participant modelling
(as in systematic desensitisation)

Answer 48

Systematic desensitisation is based on classical condition, but Social Learning Theory can also be used to improve the therapy.

Douglas Bernstein (1979) calls this participant modelling. A first step on the stimulation hieraarchy would be to watch someone else model the relaxation techniques and encounter the feared object before trying it yourself.

With really severe phobias, the patient can’t even bear to watch someone else encounter the feared object. In these cases Richard Sharf (2000) recommends covert modelling. This is where the first step on the stimulation hierarchy is to imagine someone else encountering the feared object.

Question 49

evaluate (AO3) systematic desensitisation

Answer 49

CREDIBILITY

Systematic desensitisation is based on classical conditioning, which is a well-established psychological theory supported by a huge amount of research (eg Pavlov’s dogs, Baby Albert). Research suggests that phobias are learned in the first place through association and can be un-learned by forming different associations.

Since this research has been carried out in controlled laboratory conditions, it also provides a strict scientific basis for systematic desensitisation. This makes it possible to measure the effectiveness of the therapy. It is easy to tell if systematic desensitisation is succeeding by observing how far down the stimulation hierarchy the patient can proceed, compared to the last session.

Gilroy et al. (2003) studied 42 patients who had been treated for their fear of spiders (arachnophobia) in three 45-minute sessions of systematic desensitisation. The phobia’s strength was measured by a questionnaire and by observing the patient when they encountered a spider. A Control group was taught relaxation techniques without gradual exposure to the spider. After 3 months and again after 33 months, the treatment group were less fearful than the Control group. This shows that systematic desensitisation reduces the power of a phobia and that the effects are long-lasting.

OBJECTIONS

It can be unethical to expose a patient to something they find distressing. In fact, it could backfire and make the patient even more frightened of that thing.

However, if systematic desensitisation is done properly, the patient decides on the stimulus hierarchy and only moves on to the next stage of the hierarchy when they feel ready. This respects the patient’s autonomy and helps them feel less anxious.

A problem might be that, in real life, sufferers do not get to choose when and how they encounter the object of their fear (a spider might drop on you unexpectedly!) and they might have no control over a real life situation. This means that the benefits of the therapy might not generalise to real life situations.

Another weakness is that systematic desensitisation works best for phobias of objects or animals. It’s not so effective for phobias of situations or concepts, like the fear of crowds, foreigners, the number 13, flying or germs.
This is because it’s hard to re-create these things in the therapy session and hard to manipulate these things into a stimulus hierarchy. With a fear of flying (aerophobia), you’re either flying or you’re not. The sufferer isn’t frightened of aeroplanes or films set on aeroplanes; it’s actually being up in the air themselves that they find frightening.

In the past, in vitro techniques involved the patient imagining themselves to be in the frightening situation. These days, virtual reality is helping to apply systematic desensitisation to situations that used to be difficult to set up in a therapy session.

I want to play “Skyrim” this way

DIFFERENCES

Systematic desensitisation involves gradual exposure to the object you fear, but with flooding you are completely exposed to it, all at once. It’s like going directly to the end of the stimulus hierarchy and skipping all the stages in between.

Systematic desensitisation is much more ethical than flooding, because the participants are only exposed gradually to the thing that they fear and they only move on to greater exposure when they feel ready. With flooding, the patient is exposed to the object they fear all at once, in a very intense way. This can be distressing.

Both therapies can be carried out in vitro rather than in vivo. Imagining exposure to the feared object is less distressing. However, in vitro flooding is still more upsetting that in vitro systematic desensitisation.

Neither systematic desensitisation nor flooding tackle the possible underlying problem behind the phobia. They are both behavioural therapies that only deal with the symptoms, not the cause. If there is an underlying problem behind the phobia (like trauma in the patient’s past), then that will still be there and will carry on causing difficulties, even if the phobia is temporarily eased.

APPLICATIONS

Rothbaum et al. (1995) created a virtual-reality helmet worn by the patient which displays a phobic situation which is controlled by the therapist. The scene might be one of driving a car over a high bridge. The pulse rate is monitored by the therapist. When the pulse rate gets too high, the scene is frozen in frame. The therapist then uses counter-conditioning to replace the fear with relaxation techniques.

This sort of technology is replacing in vitro therapy, making systematic desensitisation more ethical without losing its effectiveness; it also enables systematic desensitisation to be applied to phobias of things other than animals or objects.

Question 50

what type of learning does social learning theory explain?

Answer 50

learning by observation

Question 51

who developed social learning theory?

Answer 51

albert bandura

Question 52

why is social learning theory significant in psychology?

Answer 52

• It shows how scientific research proceeds. The behaviourist school in Psychology was based on Classical and Operant Conditioning but SLT expands on this.
• It illustrates features of Learning Theory, since it studies behaviour as a response to external stimuli, but it also takes into account cognitions
• It is important for you to understand how Social Learning Theory developed out of Bandura’s famous lab experiments in the 1960s

Question 53

what is social learning theory?

Answer 53

This theory was developed by Albert Bandura, an American psychologist. Behaviourism was a school of Psychology that believed that all human behaviour came about through a mixture of Classical and Operant Conditioning. However, there were problems with this. Some behaviour seemed to appear without conditioning. This is particularly true of complex behaviour, like language, or antisocial behaviour, like aggression. Bandura proposed SLT, sometimes called “observational learning”, which looks at how we learn by observing other people and imitating them, without conditioning.

Question 54

summarise the different stages of social learning theory (also referred to as observational learning)

Answer 54

observational learning takes place in 4 steps:

1. the behaviour must be modelled, which means it must be carried out by a role model figure like a parent, friend or celebrity.
2. the observer must identify with the role model- normally because they are similar in appearance, gender, age, interests, education level etc.
3. the behaviour must be observed:

-attention: you must be attending to the behaviour
-retention: you must retain it in your memory
-reproduction: you must have the capacity/ability to carry out the behaviour
=motivation: you must have a reason to carry out the behaviour (e.g. a reward)

4. the behaviour is imitated

Question 55

give the acronym for the four stages of social learning theory

Answer 55

ARRM

attention
retention
reproduction
motivation

Question 56

define model
(in relation to social learning theory)

Answer 56

the person displaying the behaviour that is observed.

Question 57

define modelling
(in relation to social learning theory)

Answer 57

the person displaying the behaviour (the model) can be said to be ‘modelling’ the behaviour (e.g. Peter modelled the desired behaviour of lifting the toilet seat so that his son Billy would learn to do this when he uses the bathroom, by observing and imitating his father).

Question 58

define attention
(in relation to social learning theory)

Answer 58

the observer has to pay attention to the behaviour being modelled.

Question 59

define retention
(in relation to social learning theory)

Answer 59

the episodic memory of the action needs to be encoded and stored.

Question 60

define reproduction
(in relation to social learning theory)

Answer 60

the modelled behaviour is carried out when the opportunity arises

Question 61

define motivation
(in relation to social learning theory)

Answer 61

reproduction takes place because there is expectation that this will be rewarded (reinforcement). punishment will demotivate someone, making reproduction less likely.

Question 62

what social and cognitive aspects underlie social learning theory?

Answer 62

cognitive
- the multi-store model of memory explains paying attention and retaining memories of what we observe.

social
- inter group theories like social identity theory explain why we might identify with some role models and not others

Question 63

what characteristics does bandura suggest that make someone a role model in social learning theory?

Answer 63

• They are similar to the observer. This is perceived similarity – it might exist only in the observer’s imagination. Similarity in gender seems particularly important but there can be similarity in age, race, ability, social identity, interests, etc.
• They have status in the eyes of the observer. Again, this is perceived status; a naughty child in a lesson might have status in the eyes of his classmates for clowning around, but not to the teacher.

Their behaviour is rewarded. This is called Vicarious Reinforcement.
- It can result in modelling (when the observer imitates the behaviour),
- facilitation (when the observer repeats the behaviour a bit differently),
- disinhibition (when someone becomes more likely to do something they used to think was wrong)
-inhibition (when someone becomes less likely to do something they used to think was OK because the role model was punished).

Question 64

research into social learning theory

Answer 64

• bandura’s bobo doll studies into imitation support SLT.

- Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) shows the importance of similar role models. The children were more likely to imitate aggression in a same-sex role model. Because the role models were adults, they all had status in the eyes of the children; the male role models had more status than the female ones because of the cultural expectations in the USA. The study showed modelling and facilitation (imitative aggression) as well as disinhibition (non-imitative aggression)

- Bandura (1965) shows the importance of Vicarious Reinforcement. When Rocky was punished, this produced inhibition and the children did not imitate him as much. It also shows the importance of motivation: when rewards were offered, even the inhibited children imitated Rocky’s aggression.

Question 65

applications of social learning theory
(phobias + censorship in media)

Answer 65

phobias
Phobias can be explained by SLT if the phobia is modelled. For example, young girls might see phobias of mice or spiders modelled by the mothers, with whom they identify, whereas boys do not imitate this behaviour. 9/10 women express a fear of spiders, but only 1/10 men do.

censorship in the media

Bandura’s 1963 study was triggered by concerns about violence on TV. In the UK, ‘terrestrial’ TV observes a “watershed” which means that programmes with violence, sexual content or obscene language are only shown after 9pm. The thinking behind this is that, before 9pm, children may be watching unattended but after 9pm parents will be present who might choose to turn off such shows.

The “watershed” is an application of Social Learning Theory. It is based on the idea that children might observe antisocial or inappropriate behaviour on TV, then imitate it in real life. This isn’t just aggression; it includes smoking, drug-taking, obscene language or sexual behaviour.

The rating system for films (U, 12, 18) and the “Parental Advisory” stickers on CDs and video games are similar applications.

There is a similar concern that Size Zero models on magazine covers and adverts function as role models and encourage young girls to imitate their extreme skinniness. One application of this has been for many fashion shows to ban Size Zero models.

Now that shows, music or games can be streamed through the Internet and TVs have “catch-up” functions, some argue that the “watershed” is redundant, because children can access anything at any time on TV, computers or mobile phones.

Question 66

evaluate (AO3) social learning theory

Answer 66

Credibility

There’s a lot of research in support of the SLT, including the three studies led by Bandura (1961, 1963, 1965) into imitation of aggression. This research isn’t just from the start of the 20th century; it continues to the present day. The Contemporary Study by Becker et al. (2002) is an example of this.

Observational learning has also been noticed in animals like monkeys. Cook & Mineka (1990) had monkeys watch a video of another monkey reacting with fear to a snake. When the observer-monkeys had a chance to get food, they would not if it involved approaching a snake or a snake-like object (toy snakes).

Moreover, a lot of this research is strictly scientific, being carried out in lab conditions and using one-way mirrors and multiple observers for inter-rater reliability.

The greatest strength of SLT is that it explains things that Behaviourism cannot. Behaviourism was a school of Psychology that focussed on Classical and Operant Conditioning. This struggled to explain how humans learn complex behaviour so quickly. SLT proposes that huge “chunks” of behaviour can be learned “in one go” through observation and imitation.

Objections

Much of the research into SLT is carried out on children or animals. This is because it is difficult to put adult humans into controlled situations with realistic role models. There may be a problem generalising findings from children or animals to adult humans. They may not be representative samples.

Nonetheless, monkeys and chimpanzees are quite close to humans in evolutionary terms so you would expect them to learn in similar ways. Human children also have enough similarity to adults in the way they learn to make this research credible.

A deeper problem with SLT is that is involves bringing in cognitions – thought processes, which are unobservable. The old Behaviourist school of psychology only studied observable behaviour and focussed on Classical and Operant Conditioning. By including cognitions, Bandura is moving SLT away from behaviourism and into a less scientific, more subjective territory.

SLT also ignores the nature side of the nature/nurture debate. It may be that some people are born with predispositions to certain behaviours (like aggression) and don’t need role models. In fact, these people might seek out role models rather than just waiting for them to appear.

Differences

SLT is quite different from Operant and Classical Conditioning. For one thing, it includes cognitions as well as behaviours. SLT explains a child learning to talk by watching and imitating adults, whereas conditioning suggests the child needs to have each word or phrase rewarded with praise or attention; SLT seems more realistic, because children learn to speak quickly and their parents don’t pay attention to everything they say.

However, Operant Conditioning and SLT overlap in vicarious learning. This is where a person sees a role model being reinforced for their behaviour; you are MUCH more likely to imitate behaviour you see being reinforced. This combines observational learning (SLT) and reinforcement (Operant Conditioning).

Similarly, association and reinforcement may explain why a person continues with a behaviour after they have imitated it once. For example, a girl might imitate her mother’s fear of spiders and upset herself; she then comes to associate the Neutral Stimulus (a spider) with her own distress, so that it becomes a Conditioned Stimulus. This is how phobias are maintained, even if you only get exposed to a role model once.

Applications

SLT is often used alongside other therapies such as Systematic Desensitisation or Token Economies.

For example, someone with a phobia of spiders might not want to approach a picture of a spider in an early stage of the therapy. If they see someone they trust approach the picture and pick it up without harm, they will see there are no bad consequences. If they see this person being praised by the therapist, this is vicarious reinforcement.

In a TEP, participants will see other learners acquiring tokens and then spending them to get rewards. This is also vicarious reinforcement. The organisers of a TEP need to make sure that giving out tokens and purchasing rewards with them is a public event, with as many observers as possible.