Behavioural Approach

• Ao1:

  • born with a blank slate, limited free will
  • all behaviour is learned/ determined by environment
  • only focus on observable and measurable behaviour
  • strictly scientific methods
  • 3 main theories: classical conditioning, operant conditioning and SLT
• Classical conditioning: Pavlov

  • learn through association when neutral stimulus is associated with unconditioned response to both then become conditioned
  • rang a bell (NS) then presented dogs with food (UCS) and so dogs salivated (UCR)
  • rang the bell every time they were fed so dogs now paired the bell (CS) to food and salivated at the sound (CR)
• Operant conditioning:

  • learning through consequence of reward and punishment
  • positive reinforcement - more likely to repeat behaviour in hope for same reward
  • negative reinforcement - stimulus is removed so more likely to repeat in hopes of same outcome
  • punishment - less likely to repeat behaviour
• Skinner:

  • box had lever that could be pressed to deliver food (reward) or to switch of shocks (negative reinforcement)
  • recorded lever presses
  • quickly learned to press lever to switch off shock making them more likely to repeat
  • learned to assossicate food with the lever press
• Ao3:

  p- practical applications e- put into practice outside the lab e- token economies have helped encourage positive behaviour l- humans behave in the way predicted by the theory, contributing to our understanding of behaviour

  p- scientific e- based on scientific and objective measures that are controlled and allow for replication e- e.g. focusing on observable behaviour in highly controlled settings l- brought language and methods of natural science giving credibility
• Ao3:

  p- environmentally determined e- suggests behaviour is caused by environmental factors and only these e- e.g. not all children punished for behaviour will stop doing them and choose to continue l- suggests humans do have free will giving doubt to this theory

  p- low external validity e- findings can’t be generalised to wider populations e- as skinner uses animals and pavlov uses dogs makes it difficult to to generalise findings to a human population l- provides limited information and are incomparable