Behaviourist Approach

• Assumptions of the behaviourist approach

  1. Behaviour is learned from direct experience

  2. All humans and animals are conditioned to behave in the way they do
• classical conditioning

  a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired; a response that is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone.
• operant conditioning

  when behaviour is learned in terms of consequences for the behaviour through reinforcement. This includes positive, desirable outcomes or negative, undesirable outcomes.
• reflex

  a simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus
• Stimulus


  any event or situation that evokes a response
• Conditioning phase

  the period during conditioning where the neutral stimulus is presented alongside the unconditioned stimulus in order to acquire its power.
• neutral stimulus (NS)


  a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning
• unconditioned stimulus (US)


  a stimulus that elicits a response, such as a reflex, without any prior learning
• unconditioned response (UR)

  a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus
• conditioned stimulus (CS)


  a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place
• conditioned response (CR)

  a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus
• extrinsic motivation

  a desire to perform a behaviour to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment
• positive reinforcement


  Increasing behaviours by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.
• negative reinforcement

  Increasing behaviours by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: negative reinforcement is not punishment.)
• positive punishment


  the adding of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behaviour's recurring
• negative punishment

  taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop a behaviour
• covert sensitisation

  use of aversive imagery to reduce the occurrence of an undesired response
• A strength of the behaviourist approach: it is scientific in its methodology. Scientific methods such as laboratory experiments allow great control over variables. Skinner’s method relied on the experimental method. This makes it easier for psychologists to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between variables as well as the future frequency of occurrence.
• A weakness of the behaviourist approach: limited explanation for behaviour. Behaviourists have been accused of ignoring other levels of explanation for behaviour such as cognitive states. the approach explains behaviour in terms of stimuli and responses, as though humans are a product of conditioning alone, disregarding other factors in its explanation (humans having free-will). this makes the approach reductionist
• gender stereotypes

  oversimplified but strongly held ideas about the characteristics of males and females
• Who is the main researcher of classical conditioning?

  Pavlov
• Who is the main researcher for operant conditioning?

  B.F. Skinner
• Skinner’s box (operant conditioning) key feature.

  Reinforcer: provides reinforcement for an action (lever dispensing food).
• Pavlov’s dog (classical conditioning) key feature

  Stimuli: Bell (NS) + food (UCS) —> conditioned stimulus.
• Timing in classical conditioning is critical for the conditioned response to occur. It will not happen if the interval between the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus is too long.
• extinction in classical conditioning is when the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the unconditioned response, association is lost.
• spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning, following extinction, is when the CS and the UCS have been paired again and an association is made quickly.
• stimulus generalisation in classical conditioning is when stimuli that are similar to the CS are responded to in the same way as the CS.
• stimulus discrimination in classical conditioning is the ability to distinguish between two stimuli that are similar but not identical.
• A strength of the behaviourist approach: classical conditioning has been applied to therapies and anxiety reduction treatment regarding phobias. Systematic desensitisation is a technique that involves exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus in small increments, eliminating the conditioned response associated with a stimulus (phobia). Learned response of anxiety can be replaced with a learned relaxation response. Thus the approach is effective for application in the medical field and is reliable in modern day life.
• A weakness of the behaviourist approach: it relies on the research of non-human subjects in studies. skinner’s study with rats and pigeons show what an animal response would be to a situation, however, the results ignore the complexities of human cognition, meaning the study has been generalised from animals to humans, which does not work as animals are so fundamentally different to humans.