Behaviourism

• Psychology

  the scientific study of the human mind and behaviour.
• Wilhelm Wundt

  referred to as the 'father of psychology'

  this is because his work marked the separation of psychology from its own philosophical roots
• What did Wilhelm Wundt achieve?

  - first to attempt to study the human mind scientifically

  - set up the first psychology labatory in Leipzig Germany in the 1870's
• What technique did Wundt use?

  introspection
• What is introspection?

  the examination of our own conscious thoughts & feelings
• How did Wundt use introspection for experiments?

  - used a metronome to get them to tune in

  - asked them to report their thoughts & feelings

  - he would then compare reports given by different students

  - replicated his research to make sure findings were reliable
• What are the 6 main approaches in Psychology


  1. Behaviourism

  2. Social learning theory

  3. Humanistic psychology

  4. The cognitive approach

  5. The biological approach

  6. The psychodynamic approach
• What is the behaviourist approach?

  researches behaviour - suggests that psychology should restrict itself to studying observable behaviours that can be measured directly.
• What do behaviourists believe?

  that we are born as blank slates & that behaviour is learnt
• What are the 2 forms of learning?

  1. Classical conditioning

  2. Operant conditioning
• What is Classical conditioning?

  learning through association.
• What is Operant conditioning?

  where one is able to change the behaviour of another person or animal using reinforcement and punishment.
• What is positive reinforcement?

  occurs when an animal/human receives something pleasant for performing a behaviour.
• What is negative reinforcement?

  occurs when an animal/human avoids something unpleasant by performing a behaviour.
• What was it that Skinner made?

  Made the Skinner box to investigate operant conditioning in rats.
• What is Social learning theory?

  a development of behaviourism - suggests that learning can also occur indirectly through the observation and imitation of models.
• What is modelling?

  is the demonstration of a behaviour that may be imitated.
• What is imitation?

  the copying of a modelled behaviour.
• What is some examples of successful imitation?

  - accurate modelling

  - attention (learning strategies - repetition)

  - feedback

  - able/capable

  - motivation (success, fame, money, status)

  - retention
• What is vicarious reinforcement?

  if they observe the model being reinforced for a behaviour, they are more likely to imitate it.
• What was Bandura's research?

  - he split young children (aged 3-5) into 3 groups

  - all of the children watched a film of an adult behaving aggressively towards a Bobo Doll

  - the adult model displayed distinctive physically and verbally aggressive acts towards the doll.

  - group 1 observed the film and the adult, group 2 only observed the model being aggressive, and group 3 didn't observe anything.
• Define Classical Conditioning

  • response is involuntary
  • acquisition in response
  • learn by association
• Define Operant Conditioning


  • response is voluntary
  • maintenance in response
  • learn my consequence