Behaviourists approach

• Positive reinforcement

  Receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
• Negative reinforcement

  Behaving in a way which avoids something unpleasant
• Punishment

  An unpleasant consequence of behaviour such as being shouted at by a teacher
• Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

  1. Unconditioned stimulus —> unconditioned response
  2. Neutral stimulus —> No conditioned response
  3. US + NS —> Unconditioned response
  4. Conditioned stimulus —> conditioned response
• Pavlov’s Dog experiment

  1. Before conditioning: Food solicits salivation
  2. Before conditioning: Whistle solicits no salivation
  3. During conditioning: Whistle + food —> salivation
  4. After conditioning: Whistle —> salivation
• Assumptions

  • Behaviourist approach rejected the vagueness of introspection, focusing instead on observable and measurable events and the conditions under which learning would be most likely to occur
  • Also assume that learning is shaped and maintained by consequence, including: punishment, positive and negative reinforcement = consequences of the behaviour increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated and that can be positive or negative
• Assumptions pt2

  • Much of behaviourists’ research is on animals because they believe that these basic processes govern learning in all species
  • Skinner and Pavlov insisted on studying objectively and overtly which increases the scientific status of psychology