Behaviourist approach

• John Locke- Tabula Rasa theory that at birth are minds are born as a blank slate, data and rules for processing are added on/formed y ones sensory experiences.
• Classical conditioning- learning via association. Ivan Pavlov explains how behaviour is learnt through stimulus and response. The experiment conducted of training the dogs to associate the sound of a bell to the upcoming presence of food. The natural response of a dog salivating near food was then found with just the sound of the bell due to ASSOCIATION.
• Neutral stimulus, the bell, unconditioned stimulus, the food unconditioned response, salivating, unconditioned response salivating when seeing the food, conditioned stimulus, the bell, salivation upon seeing the food.
• Operant conditioning- learning via reinforcement. Skinner box experiments, conducted experiments on rats and pigeons in cages called `Skinner boxes`, every time the pigeon pecked the disk it would be rewarded. As the idea of positive reinforcement states the pigeon is more likely to repeat this behaviour. Skinner also demonstrated how negative reinforcement could be reinforced by performed by avoiding unpleasant things like electric shock.
• Stimulus- detected by an organism
• Response- emitted by an organism
• Positive reinforcement- receiving an award more likely to repeat
• Negative reinforcement- avoiding something unpleasant more likely to repeat
• Punishment reinforcement- an unpleasant consequence less likely to repeat
• Behaviour modification- adapting behaviours in order to become more socially acceptable/desirable. E.g ignoring anti social or maladaptive behaviour and rewarding when good behaviour is shown. This technique is often used in schools, prisons and psychiatric hospitals
• Token economy- when a desirable characteristics is presented, a physical token is given to them later in exchange for goods or privilege rewards. Often used on children, disabled or ADHD people.
• A03- Advantages, real life application, scientific credibility(the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings), objectivity and replication
• A03 Disadvantages- learning theory may apply less to human behaviour than it did in both animal experiments, environmental determinism(behaviour determined by past experiences) ignores the possibility of free will, ethical and practical issues e.g. Skinners although there wad a high degree of control) the animals were exposed for stressful and aversive behaviours