behaviours approach

• What is the second assumption of the behaviourist approach?

  • Learning occurs due to the consequences of behaviour
  • weather is reinforced or punished
• To which conditioning theory does the second assumption refer?

  Operant Conditioning
• Operant conditioning deals with conditioning what type of behaviours?

  Voluntary behaviours
• What theory is operant conditioning based on?

  Law of Effect
• According to the Law of Effect, what tends to happen to acts that are reinforced?

  They tend to be repeated
• What tends to happen to acts that are not reinforced or are punished?

  They tend to be extinguished
• What is positive reinforcement?

  Rewarding a certain behavior, making the person want to repeat it
• What are the two types of reinforcement?

  1. Positive reinforcement
  2. Negative reinforcement
• What is negative reinforcement?

  Removing something undesirable when a certain behavior is produced, making the person want to repeat it
• What is the purpose of punishment?

  To extinguish unwanted behavior by receiving something undesirable when the behavior is produced
• What are the learning approaches discussed in this study material?

  1. Behaviourist Approach
• What are the topics covered in the revision checklist for the behaviourist approach?

  • Classical Conditioning and Pavlov's study
  • Operant Conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner's study
• What is the first assumption of the behaviourist approach?

  Learning occurs through association between a stimulus and a response
• What type of conditioning is described in the first assumption?

  Classical Conditioning
• Classical conditioning deals with what type of behaviours?

  Involuntary (reflex) behaviors
• What are some other involuntary physiological responses that can be classically conditioned?

  • Sweating
  • Trembling
  • Shaving
• What was the purpose of Pavlov's dog experiment?

  To investigate how classical conditioning can be used to create an association between a neutral stimulus (bell) and an unconditioned response (salivation)
• What are the phases involved in Pavlov's dog experiment?

  1. Before conditioning: Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) food leads to unconditioned response (UCR) salivation
  2. During conditioning: Bell (neutral stimulus) paired with food (UCS) leads to salivation (UCR)
  3. After conditioning: Bell (conditioned stimulus) leads to salivation (conditioned response)
• What was the purpose of Skinner's rat experiment?

  To investigate how operant conditioning can be used to train rats to press a lever by using either positive reinforcement (presenting food) or negative reinforcement (stopping electric shock)
• What constitutes positive reinforcement in Skinner's rat experiment?

  Presenting food when the lever is pressed
• What constitutes negative reinforcement in Skinner's rat experiment?

  Stopping the electrical grid when the lever is pressed
• What stimuli were present in Skinner's rat experiment?

  Loudspeaker and light
• What were the components of Skinner's rat apparatus?

  Response lever, food dispenser, electrified grid
• Why might the results of Skinner's rat experiment not be generalisable to human behavior?

  Humans are much more complex than rats, and the artificial setting may not reflect real-world complexity
• What are the strengths of Skinner's rat experiment?

  • Many factors were controlled, providing a standardised procedure
  • Findings/results can be considered reliable
• What are the weaknesses of Skinner's rat experiment?

  • Artificial setting may lead to artificial behavior, resulting in low ecological validity
• What is a token economy?

  A behavioral management system where tokens are earned for desired behaviors and exchanged for rewards
• How is operant conditioning applied in institutions?

  Through token economies in prisons and psychiatric wards
• What is the concept of determinism in psychology?

  The belief that behavior is predetermined by past experiences and conditioning rather than free will
• How does the humanistic approach differ from the behaviourist approach regarding human behavior?

  The humanistic approach argues that people have free will and consciously choose their actions
• What treatment method has the behaviourist approach been successfully applied to?

  Treatment of phobias through systematic desensitization
• What is a primary limitation of the behaviourist approach?

  The argument that all behavior is predetermined by conditioning and ignores other factors
• What explanations of behavior does the behaviourist approach ignore?

  Biological explanations and the influence of genes
• What are the ethical and practical issues associated with behavioral research?

  • Exposure of animals to stressful experiments
  • Limited ability to research behaviors ethically
• What are the main debates within the evaluation of the behaviourist approach?

  1. Free will vs. determinism
  2. Nature vs. nurture
  3. Reductionism vs. holism
  4. Nomothetic vs. idiographic
• What is the difference between the behaviourist and humanistic approaches regarding free will?

  Behaviourists believe behavior is determined by conditioning, while humanists believe people have free will to choose their actions
• What is the nature vs. nurture debate within the evaluation of behaviourism?

  Behaviourists emphasize nurture (conditioning and environment), while the biological approach emphasizes nature (genes and predisposition)
• What is the reductionism vs. holism debate within the evaluation of behaviourism?

  Behaviourists reduce complex behavior to basic conditioning, while holistic approaches consider the whole person and multiple factors
• What are the nomothetic and idiographic approaches in psychological research?

  • Nomothetic: Focuses on establishing general laws of behavior
  • Idiographic: Focuses on understanding the individual
• What is the core focus of behaviourist research methods?

  • They focus solely on observable behaviour
  • Reject introspective methods as too vague for scientific measurement