Outline ‘conditioning’ and ‘blank slate’

• Point: blank slate

  The behaviourist approach assumes that humans are born as a blank slate, meaning that all behaviour is learned from the environment rather than being innate
• Evidence: blank slate

  Behaviourists believe individuals do not have a built-in mental content and that internal processes such as thoughts and emotions do not drive behaviour. Instead, behavuour is shaped entirely through interactions with environmental stimuli
• Explain: blank slate

  This assumption supports the idea of nurture over nature, meaning that social and environmental factors are the primary influences on behaviour rather than biological or genetic factors. This perspective is known as environmental determinism, as it suggests that early associations, rewards, and punishments shape an individual’s behaviour later in life
• Link: blank slate

  For example, a child who experiences punishment for bad behaviour may learn to avoid similar behaviours in the future
• Point: conditioning

  Behaviourists argue that behaviour is learned through conditioning, which occurs in two forms: classical and operant conditioning
• Evidence: conditioning

  Classical conditioning involves learning through association, as demonstrated by Pavlov’s experiment with dogs. In this study, dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus), eventually causing them to salivate (conditioned response) at the sound of the bell alone. Operant conditioning, proposed by Skinner, suggests that behaviour is learned through reinforcement and punishment
• Explain: conditioning

  Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behaviour reoccurring by providing a reward, such as Skinner’s rats receiving food for pressing a lever. Negative reinforcement also strengthens behaviour by allowing an individual to avoid an unpleasant consequence, such as completing homework to avoid detention. Conversely, punishment weakens behaviour by discouraging undesirable actions
• Link: conditioning

  Through these mechanisms, behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned from the environment rather than being innate