Classical Conditioning and Pavlov

• What is behaviourism known as

  -black box psychology as they only measure behaviour that can be observed

  -they do not measure thoughts or feelings; these cannot be seen

  -most of the research was conducted in labs on animals
• what is the behaviourist approach an example of

  -an example of hard determinism.

  -ignores the role of free will and would propose we have no conscious control

  -more specifically an example of environmental determinism-the belief that behaviour is caused by features of our environment that we can not control
• What are the 5 basic assumptions of the behaviourist approach


  1. All behaviour is learned
  2. only study behaviour that is observable and measurable
  3. most of the research is conducted in controlled scientific lab studies
  4. research conducted on animals is valid as they share the same principles of learning
  5. we are born blank slates-there is no genetic influence on behaviour
• What is classical conditioning

  -involves learning by association

  -association is made between a previously neutral stimulus and a reflex response
• Outline Pavlov's research

  -Conducted an experiment to investigate the salivatory reflex in dogs. At first when he rang the bell the dogs made no response (the bell was a neutral stimulus).

  -Pavlov would then give the dog food after he rang the bell(food was unconditioned stimulus) UCR was saliva

  -the repeated pairings would mean the dogs formed a association between the bell and food

  -eventually the dog would salivate on hearing the bell(bell had become conditioned stimulus) CR was saliva
• define stimulus generalisation


  -when a response that has been previously trained to be elicited by one stimulus can be elicited by a different but physically similar stimulus
• define stimulus discrimination

  -involves the ability to distinguish between one stimulus and similar stimuli
• define spontaneous recovery


  -refers to the return of a conditioned response (in a weaker form) after a period of time following extinction
• define extinction


  -the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behaviour dec or inc
• What is a strength of classical conditioning


  -a strength of cc is the development of therapies to reduce anxiety associated with phobias.

  -Systematic desensitisation is based upon replacing one conditioned response (anxiety) with another (relaxation) in response to a phobia

  -this approach has been found to be 75% effective for a range of phobias.

  -Therefore Pavlov has contributed to our understanding of human behaviour
• What is a limitation of the approach

  -different species have different capabilities to learn through cc.

  Seligman (1970) proposed the concept of biological preparedness to explain this.

  -Animals are prepared to learn associations that are significant to them in terms of their survival needs

  -therefore one could argue that Pavlov has taught us little about human behaviour as humans are biologically and cognitively different to dogs
• what is another weakness

  -one of the basic assumptions of the approach is that most research is conducted in controlled scientific lab studies

  -this means there is a higher chance of demand characteristics being displayed by ppts as they know they are being watched

  -this means there is less certainty that the IV is what impacted the DV and not other EV's

  -reduces the validity of research
• What is another weakness of cc's

  -however the behaviourist approach does not take biology into account

  -dopamine is associated with our attention and motivation.

  -an excess of D2 dopamine receptors is linked to the development of schizophrenia

  -this suggests that behaviourism alone cannot adequately explain all human behaviour