behaviourist approach (learning approaches)

• Key features of behaviourist approach

  • Only concerned with studying behaviour that can be observed and measured
  • It is not concerned with mental processes of the mind
  • Introspection was rejected by behaviourists as its concepts were vague and difficult to measure
  • Classical conditioning
  • Operant conditioning
• Behaviourist research

  • Controlled lab studies
  • Behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab studies to achieve this
  • Use of non-human animals
  • Behaviourists suggest that the processes that govern learning are the same in all species
  • So animals (eg rats, cats, dogs, pigeons) can replace humans as experimental subjects
• classical conditioning

  • Refers to learning by association
  • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) produces an unconditioned response (UCR)
  • neutral stimulus (NS) produces no response
  • The neutral stimulus is then paired with the unconditioned stimulus to become a conditioned stimulus (CS)
  • This conditioned stimulus then produces a conditioned response (CR)
• Pavlov’s research (classical conditioning)

  • Conditioning dogs to salivate when a bell rings
  • Before conditioning:
  • UCS = food, UCR = salivation, NS = bell
  • During conditioning:
  • Bell and food occur at the same time
  • After conditioning:
  • CS = bell, CR = salivation
  • Pavlov showed how a neutral stimulus (bell) can come to elicit a new learned response (CR) through association
• Operant conditioning

  • Refers to learning as an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment
  • Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences
• Skinners research (operant conditioning)

  • Rats and pigeons were placed in specially designed cages (skinner boxes)
  • When a rat activated a lever (or pigeon pecked a disc) it was rewarded with a food pellet
  • A desirable consequence led to behaviour being repeated
  • Also if pressing a lever meant the animal avoided an electric shock, the behaviour would also be repeated
• types of consequences of behaviour (operant conditioning)

  • Positive reinforcement = receiving a reward when behaviour is performed
  • Negative reinforcement = avoiding something unpleasant when a behaviour is performed
  • Positive/negative reinforcement increases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated
  • Punishment = an unpleasant consequence of behaviour
  • Punishment decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated
• strength = behaviourism uses well controlled research

  • The approach has focused on the careful measurement of observable behaviour within controlled lab studies
  • Behaviourists have broken behaviour down into stimulus-response units and studies causal relationships
  • Suggests that behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility
• counterpoint to having well-controlled research

  • Approach may oversimplify learning and ignore important influences on behaviour (eg though)
  • Other approaches (eg social learning and cognitive) incorporate mental processes
  • Suggests learning is more complex than just what we can observe
• strength = behaviourist laws of learning have RWA

  • The principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours and problems
  • Toke economy systems = reward appropriate behaviour with tokens that are exchanged for privileges (operant conditioning)
  • Successfully used in prisons and psychiatric wards
  • This increases the value of the behaviourist approach because it has widespread application
• limitation = behaviourism is a form of environmental determinism

  • The approach sees all behaviour as determined by past experiences that have been conditioned and ignores any influence that free will may have on behaviour
  • Skinner = suggested that free will was an illusion
  • When something happens we may think ‘I made the decision to do that’ but our past conditioning determined the outcome
  • This is an extreme position and ignores the influence of conscious decision-making processes on behaviour (as suggested by the cognitive approach)
• extra evaluation = ethical issues

  • procedures (such as the Skinner box) allowed behaviourists to maintain a high degree of control over their experimental ‘subjects’
  • BUT = the animals were housed in harsh, cramped conditions and deliberately kept below their natural weight so they were always hungry
  • => these is a question of benefits vs costs
  • Some would argue that there have been enormous benefits (eg application to therapy) which offsets the harm the animals experienced