behaviourist approach

• key assumptions of behaviourism

  • focuses on behaviour that can be observed and measured (doesnt investigate mental processes of the mind)
  • watson (1913) = rejected introspection, it had too many concepts that were vague, difficult to measure
  • behaviourists tried to have more control and objectivity with their research, used lab experiments to achieve this
  • behaviourists believe that animal experiments are applicable to humans
• classical conditioning (learning through association)

  everyday examples:

  • eating chicken from a shop and then getting sick, therefore not wanting to eat chicken from that shop because you associate it with being ill
• classical conditioning - Pavlov's research

  • first demonstrated by pavlov in 1897
  • conducting research on the digestion of dogs
  • firstly dogs would salivate when food is infront of them
  • later they salivate before food arrives
  • he then realised they were salivating at noises that were consistently present before food arrived
• classical conditioning - pavlov's research

  1. he set an experiment in which he rang a bell shortly before showing dogs food
  2. at first dog elicited no response to bells
  3. eventually dog would salivate at the sound of the bell alone as they now associate the bell with food
• pavlov's research - key terminology

  1. neutral stimulus: stimulus that at first elicits no response - the bell
  2. unconditioned stimulus: stimulus that leads to an automatic response - the food
  3. unconditioned response: automatic response to the stimulus - dogs salivating at the food
  4. conditioned stimulus: stimulus eventually triggers a conditioned response - ringing of the bell
  5. conditioned response: learned response to a stimulus that was previously neutral - salivations in response to the bell ringing
• operant conditioning (learning by consequence)

  • BF skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment
• three types of consequences of behaviour

  1. positive reinforcement (behaviour more likely to be repeated)
  2. negative reinforcement (behaviour more likely to be repeated)
  3. punishment (behaviour less likely to be repeated)
• operant conditioning - skinner's research

  • skinner (1948) did research on animals, mainly rats, placed them in a skinner box which contained a lever, a light and a food dispenser
  • if animal pressed lever, light came on and a food pellet rolled down the chute. this is positive reinforcement
  • animal learned to press lever to get food
  • however skinner found out the reward would stop and the animal would press lever and no food was rewarded its behaviour would quickly stop = extinction
• operant conditioning - skinners research

  • skinner electrified the floor of the skinner box and arranged for pressing the lever to turn the electric current of for 30 secs
  • this is negative reinforcement
  • he then found out that animals learned to press the lever but not as quickly
• scientific credibility (evaluations)

  • in attempt to objectively and systematically collect reliable data, the behaviourist approach makes use of scientific research methods, mainly laboratory experiments
  • strictly controlled conditions reduce and control the effects of confounding and extraneous variables increasing the reliability and internal validity of the findings (more likely to be replicated)

  supports

  • focusing on behaviour which is observable and can be measured the behaviourist approach increases the scientific credibility of psychology
• What has increased understanding of classical and operant conditioning led to in terms of mental health?

  Development of treatments and therapies for serious mental disorders
• How do token economies work in dealing with offending behavior?

  Inmates receive tokens for socially-desirable behavior, which can be traded for privileges
• What are examples of primary reinforcers in a token economy?

  Privileges such as extra TV-time
• What do the positive impacts of behaviorist principles on lives suggest?

  That behaviorist principles have practical applications in real-world settings
• What are the broad applications of conditioning principles?

  • Applied to a wide range of real-world behaviors
  • Addressed various problems in different settings
• mechanistic view of humans (evaluations)

  • behaviourist perspective animals, humans are seen as machine like with little or no conscious insight into their behaviour
  • social learning theory and cognitive approach emphasised importance of mental events during learning, processes mediate between stimulus and response, people play more active role in own learning

  limitations

  • behaviourism overlooks the realm of consciousness and subjective experiences. doesnt address possible role of biological factor in human behaviour
• environmental determinism (evaluations)

  • behaviourist approach sees behaviour as determined by past experiences that were conditioned. skinner said everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history. ignoring influence free will has on behaviour
  • skinner said free will is an illusion. saying our past conditioning history determined the outcome

  limitations

  • this hard deterministic stance may be appropriate for animal behaviour whereas hum behaviour should account emotions, motivations and reasoning skills. behaviourist is a limited explanation for human behaviour
• ethical and practice issues in animal experiments (evaluations)

  • many critics questioned the ethics of conducting such investigations (skinner box)
  • animals involved were exposed to stressful and aversive conditions, affecting how they reacted to the experimental situation

  limitations

  • behaviourist research would be viewed as unethical

  supports

  a cost benefit analysis shows benefit of increased understanding of different types of learning outweigh ethical costs