Behaviourism

• Behaviourists believe that psychologists should only study, observable quantifiable behaviour and that all behaviour is learned.
• Behaviourists believe that humans are no different from animals and should not be regarded as more complex making research on animals directly relevant to humans.
• Classical Conditioning is learning by association.
• Pavlov developed the theory of classical conditioning which is a type of learning in which an existing involuntary reflex is associated with a new stimulus.
• Pavlov famously tested the theory of classical conditioning on dogs, who were conditioned to associate the sound of a bell with food. This resulted in the dogs producing a salivation response at the sound of a bell, even when no food was present.
• Pavlov demonstrated that repeated exposure to an event leads to a learned and uncontrollable behaviour.
• Classical Conditioning

  • Unconditioned Stimulus -> Unconditioned Response
  • Neutral Stimulus -> no conditioned response
  • Pairing of US and NS -> unconditioned response
  • Conditioned stimulus -> Conditioned response
• Skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby we operate on our environment (operant conditioning)
• Positive Reinforcement - Adding a pleasant consequence
• Negative Reinforcement - Removing an unpleasant consequence
• Positive Punishment - Addition of something negative
• Negative Punishment - Removal of something positive