behaviourism approach

• main assumption of behaviourism

  all behaviour is learnt through the process of classical and operant conditioning, where behaviourist only study behaviour that can be observed and measured
• description of classical conditioning with pavlov


  he researched how people learn through association
• describe pavlovs study

  • he had an unconditioned stimulus which was the food, which created an unconditioned response to the dogs which was to automatically salivate the food
  • where the bell became the neutral stimulus, that had no conditioned response until the dogs started to associate the bell with the food
  • the bell then became the conditioned stimulus to make the dogs salivate once they started to associate that the bell was linked with food and the dogs started salivating as a conditioned response to the bell
• description of operant conditioning with skinner

  he researched that operant conditioning is learnig through reinforcement and punishment, where he believes that learning is an active process where people and animals behaviours are shaped by their consequences
• positive reinforcement

  the reward when certain behaviour is performed, which increases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated
• negative reinforcement


  when animals or humans avoid something unpleasant, which increases the likelihood of behaviour being repeated to avoid consequences
• punishment


  an unpleasant consequence of behaviour, which decreases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated because it has an unpleasant consequences
• What type of research did Skinner conduct on rats?

  He investigated operant conditioning.
• What is the purpose of the 'Skinner box'?

  To investigate operant conditioning in rats.
• How did the rats learn to press the lever in the Skinner box?

  They pressed the lever accidentally and received food, leading them to do it intentionally.
• What is positive reinforcement in the context of Skinner's research?

  It is when a behavior is strengthened by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus, such as food.
• How did Skinner demonstrate negative reinforcement in his research?

  By showing that rats learned to press the lever to avoid an unpleasant stimulus like an electric shock.
• What type of reinforcement is used when a rat presses a lever to avoid an electric shock?

  Negative reinforcement.
• What are the key components of Skinner's operant conditioning research with rats?

  • Development of the 'Skinner box'
  • Rats pressed a lever to receive food (positive reinforcement)
  • Rats pressed a lever to avoid electric shock (negative reinforcement)
• one strength on the evaluation of behaviourism

  • the approach has scientific credibility, because it focuses on the measurement of observational behaviours in highly controlled setting
  • where the animals were put in the same conditions that were highly controlled which suggests behaviours have ben influential in psychology as a scientific subject
• one strength on the evaluation of behaviourism

  • there are real life applications based on behaviourism, which are called token economy which involves giving patients tokens in exchange for privileges, which have been used successfully in mental health institutions and prisons
  • this suggests that behaviourism has validity in real life world and can be used to improve individuals lives
• one weakness on the evaluation of behaviourism

  • this views behaviour in a mechanistic way, where it assumes all humans are like machines and do anything without thought or decision and ignores the role of thinking before behaving
  • people may take a more active approach to learning and may apple more to animals than humans
• one weakness on the evaluation of behaviourism

  • there are ethical and practical issues involved in Pavlov and skinner's research
  • where placing animals in stressful situation this may have affected how they reacted to the situation and their behaviour might have been different to usual
  • this suggests that it would be difficult to replicate the studies