Behaviourist Approach, Classical + Operant Conditioning PECs

• WEAKNESS

  P: Behaviourist approach considered environmentally deterministic. 

  E: All behaviour is determined by past experiences that have been conditioned. Skinner- Everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history. This ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour. Skinner suggested that free will is simply an illusion. 
• WEAKNESS, Environmentally deterministic continued

  C: Has implications for the criminal justice system. Suggests that there are ramifications for legislation. Such as the idea of someone not being in control of their actions if they commit a crime. Questions whether those brought up in aggressive environments should be held responsible for the actions if they commit crime. Or do they have free will to override this environmental force?
• STRENGTH

  P: Has real life application. Principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours and mental problems.  

  E: Operant conditioning basis of token economy systems. Used successfully in prisons and psychiatric wards. Reward appropriate behaviour with tokens, exchanged for privileges. 

  C: Behaviourism, but more specifically operant conditioning has aided the development of a therapeutic procedure has been used to encourage: 

  • Self-care. 
  • Social skills. 

  Theory has had a positive societal impact, encouraging good behaviour. 
• FOR Operant Conditioning, WEAKNESS

  P: Skinner's research, His experiments involved the study of non-human animals rather than humans

  E: Reliance on rats and pigeons, his studies can tell us little about human behaviour. Unlike non-human animals, humans have free will rather than their behaviour determined by positive and negative reinforcement.

  C: Research lacks population validity, His findings may not be generalisable to explain human behaviour.
• FOR Operant Conditioning, STRENGTH

  P: Skinner's research, reliance on the experimental method which uses:

  Controlled conditions, to discover a possible causal relationship between two or more variables

  E: Good example of this in practice: Skinner box

  By manipulating the consequences of behaviour (the IV), he was able to accurately measure the effects on the rat's behaviour (the DV)

  C: Allowed him to establish a cause and effect relationship between the consequences of behaviour and future frequency of its occurence
• FOR Operant Conditioning, STRENGTH

  P: Has real world application

  E: HIs use of the experimental method, enabled him to vary how often reinforcement was provided e.g fixed interval, variable ratio (on average 10 responses=reinforcement) etc

  C: Explain addiction to gambling as this is the principle that makes fruit machines and other kinds of betting so addictive.
• FOR Classical Conditioning, STRENGTH

  P: Led to the development of treatments for reduction of anxiety associated with various phobias

  E: Systematic desensitisation is therapy based on CC. Works by eliminating the fear response (the CR) that is associated with the phobic object or situation (the CS) . Therapist tries to break the association (between phobic object/sitch and learned response/fear) and replace it with another (relaxation). Patient no longer anxious in presence of phobic object or situation.
• Continued led to development of treatments for reduction of anxiety associated with various phobias

  C: Has important implications. This approach found to be effective for range of phobias:

  . Arachnophobia (fear of spiders)

  . Aerophobia (fear of flying)

  Increases validity of the BA as if forms of therapy based on CC found to be effective the assumptions made by the approach must be correct.
• FOR Classical Conditioning, STRENGTH

  P: Evidence to support the learning of behaviour (through CC) from Watson and Rayner

  E: W and R presented a white rat at the same time as a loud noise to Little Albert which made him cry. After continuous pairings Little Albert became classically conditioned to experience fear at the sight of the rat.

  Resulted in CR of fear

  C: Demonstrates learning of behaviour occurs through association and phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning
• FOR Classical Conditioning, WEAKNESS

  P: Watson's and Rayner's experiment criticised for having a biased sample

  E: Experimented on a single child, and using a sample of one can be very unrepresentative because baby may have been unusual in all sorts of ways meaning he may have responded differently (to other young children) so these findings will therefore be unique to him.

  C: W's R's findings lack population validity and it may not be possible to generalise to other infants or older people.

  This therefore weakens the evidence as support for CC (Have to say this or no marks)