A01

• What is the behavioural approach?

  A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning
• What is classical conditioning?

  Learning through association - a neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that it eventually produces a conditioned response
• What is operant conditioning?

  Learning through reinforcement or punishment - if a behaviour is followed by a desirable consequence, then that behaviour is more likely to to occur again in the future
• State the three types of consequences in operant conditioning

  1. Positive reinforcement

  2. Negative reinforcement

  3. Punishment
• Name the researcher who proposed the two-process model

  Orval Hobart Mowrer (1947)
• What is the two-process model?

  A theory that explains the two processes that lead to the development of phobias - they are acquired through classical conditioning and are maintained through operant conditioning
• State the research study that demonstrates the acquisition of a phobia through classical conditioning

  Watson and Rayner (1920) - Little Albert
• State the neutral stimulus (NS), unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and unconditioned response (UCR) in the Little Albert study

  NS = white rat

  UCS = loud noise

  UCR = fear
• Explain how a phobia is maintained through operant conditioning

  We successfully escape fear when we avoid the phobic stimulus and this acts as a negative reinforcement for avoidant behaviour and so makes it more likely for us to repeat the avoidance, which maintains the phobia
• What is extinction?

  The gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behaviour decreasing when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus