Behaviourist

• Assumptions:

  • we are born a blank slate (tabula rasa)
  • behaviour is learnt through experience (nurture)
  • learning by rewards and punishment is operant and assosciation is classical
  • only observable behaviour should be studied and speculation about mental processes should be eliminated
  • basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species (apply to human and non human)
  • establish general principles of human behaviour, which can be considered a nomothetic approach
• Classical conditioning

  • Pavlov revealed that he could condition dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell
  • He paired an unconditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus, to create a conditioned response of salivating.
  • Used food and a bell
• Classical conditioning is learnt through assosciation. This is done by pairing a new stimulus with an existing stimulus response link.
• Neutral stimulus produces no natural behavioural response.
• UCS- something that causes a natural response
• UCR- a natural behavour reaction to a stimulus
• CS - a neutral stimulus that causes the same response as the UCS on its own because they have been paired together
• CR - a learned response to a stimulus
• Stimulus generalisation

  when stimuli similar to the CS elicit the CR
• Spontaneous recovery

  when a conditioned response reappears
• Extinction

  • when the weakened behaviour disappears
• Operant conditioning is based on learning through consequences. It focuses on voluntary, rather than reflexive behaviour.

  • positive reinforcement - behaviour > likely to occur due to a pleasant consequence
  • negative reinforcement- > more likely to reoccur due to avoidance of unpleasant consequences
  • punishment - < likely to occur due to an unpleasant consequence

  +ve and -ve reinforcement increase behaviour likelihood whereas punishment decreases it.
• Skinner

  B.F. Skiiner focused on animal lab experiments and investigated the role of reward and punishment in shaping behaviour. He believed that free will is a myth.
• Skinner box

  • contained a lever that rats pressed in order to get food ( +ve)
  • the floor was metal and so electric shocks adminstered to act as punishment
  • actions to avoid electric shock were reinforced (-ve)

  Skinner shaped desired behaviour through reinforcement and punishment which is called shaping.
• Reinforcement schedules

  • continous - when every response reinfroced
  • fixed - when the reinforcement is given every thirty seconds
  • varied - when it varies trial to trial
• A03

  • Support comes from Pavloc and Skinner
• A03

  • Limitational as it cannot be generalised to humans as there is animal studies and humans may have more complex cognitions
• A03

  • Watson and Rayner - little Albert
  • conditioned a baby to be afraid of a white rat after assosciating it with a loud hammer noise
• A03

  • Has greater scientific credibility and status as it emphasises the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replication. It uses lab studies which have high validity.
  • Has value in society, used in token economies for psychiatric wards and this is useful as it helps change behaviour by offering reward good behaviour in exchange for privileges, which benefits society.
• A03

  • Reductionist as it ignores the idea of mental processes. It reduces complex behaviour down to stimulus and responses and ignores cognition.
• A03

  • Treatments such as systematic desensitisation can also be used as a value point