behaviourist approach

• When did the behaviourist approach emerge in psychology?


  At the beginning of the 20th century
• What does the behaviourist approach focus on instead of introspection?


  Observable events, i.e. stimuli and responses
• How do behaviourists explain human behaviour?


  Through a basic form of learning known as conditioning
• What are the basic assumptions of the behaviourist approach?


  • Behaviour is learned from experience.
  • Only observable behaviour is measurable scientifically.
  • It is valid to study animal behaviour.
  • There is no genetic influence on behaviour.
• What natural reflex do all animals, including humans, have when food is placed in their mouth?

  Salivation
• What is classical conditioning?


  Learning through association between stimuli and responses
• What happens when other stimuli are consistently associated with a stimulus in classical conditioning?


  They eventually trigger the same response
• Who first demonstrated classical conditioning?


  Ivan Pavlov
• What did Pavlov's research reveal about dogs?


  They could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell
• How did Pavlov's dogs learn to associate the sound of the bell with food?


  By repeatedly presenting the bell sound at the same time as food
• What are the key principles of operant conditioning?


  • Learning by consequence.
  • Positive reinforcement: increases likelihood of behaviour.
  • Negative reinforcement: increases likelihood by avoiding negative consequences.
  • Punishment: decreases likelihood of behaviour.
• What is the basic idea behind Skinner's theory of operant conditioning?


  Organisms produce different behaviours that have consequences
• What is a 'Skinner box' used for?


  To investigate operant conditioning in rats
• How does reinforcement frequency affect behaviour response?


  • Continuous Reinforcement: low response rate, quickly extinguished.
  • Variable Interval: stable response rate, slowly extinguished.
  • After an unpredictable number of responses: high response rate, unlikely to be extinguished.
• What is a strength of the behaviourist approach?


  It is scientific and uses experimental methods to measure observable behaviour
• How did Skinner manipulate consequences in his research?


  By using reinforcement to measure effects on rat behaviour
• What is a weakness of the behaviourist approach?


  It ignores other factors that could be causing behaviour
• Why is the behaviourist approach considered to reduce human interaction complexity?


  It simplifies behaviour to a stimulus-response relationship
• What is environmental determinism in the context of the behaviourist approach?


  All behaviour is determined by past conditioned experiences