Behavioural

•  

  • All animals are born as a blank slate and all behaviours are learned from experiences  
• • pioneered by Watson at beginning of 20th century 
• • Credited with developing psychology as a scientific discipline 
• • Control is important 
  • Lab studies 
• • There are two forms of learning 
  • Classical conditioning 
  • Operant conditioning

   
• Classical conditioning 

  • Learning through association
• • Pavlov's dogs: 
  • Noticed dogs salivate at the presentation of food, natural response (unconditioned) 
  • Presented the dog with food whilst ringing the bell 
  • Bell = neutral stimulus (no initial reaction) 
  • Over time, the dogs start to associate the bell with the food
  • Unconditioned stimulus --> unconditioned response  
  • Neutral stimulus + unconditioned stimulus --> unconditioned response 
  • Conditioned stimulus (NS) --> conditioned response 
  • Dogs began to salivate at sound of a bell  
• • Associating a previously neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (stimulus that already provides a response). 
  • Through regular pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus which produces a new learned response 
• Operant Conditioning 

  • Skinner 
  • Behaviour is a result of learning through consequences
• • Skinner Box: 
  • Rat in a box 
  • If rat accidentally touched a lever in the box, food would be released
  • Positive reinforcement (food delivered when lever pressed) 
• • Reinforced behaviour will stay 
  • Punished behaviour will die out 
• • +  increased scientific credibility 
  • Highly controlled Lab studies 
  • Measurable responses 
  • Breaking behaviour down into basic stimuli and responses (cause and effect relationships could be established)
• • -- use of animal studies
  • Unethical, less concern about protection 
  • Findings from animal studies are not generalisable for humans 
  • Skinner may provide insight to rat's behaviour but not human's.
• • + Real life application 
  • Operant conditioning is used in society by rewarding desirable behaviour to keep it 
  • Made important contributions to mental illness 
  • Phobias have been learnt to have come from learned experiences whereby therapies can recondition a fear 
  • Addictions can be better understood and potentially helped.