The learning approach: Behaviourism

• The behaviourist approach is only concerned with studying behaviour that can be observed and measured. It is not concerned with mental processes of the mind.
• Introspection was rejected by behaviourists as its concepts were vague and difficult to measure.
• Behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab studies to achieve this.
• Behaviourists suggest that processes that govern learning are the same in all species, so animals (e.g. rats) can replace humans as experimental subjects.
• Who conducted research into classical conditioning?

  Pavlov.
• Who conducted research into oparent conditioning?

  Skinner.
• Classical conditioning.


  Learning through association.

  UCS -> UCR

  NS -> No response

  NS+UCS

  CS=CR
• Pavlov's research.


  Conditioning dogs to salivate when a bell rings.

  Before conditioning:

  UCS= food. UCR= salivation. NS= bell.

  During conditioning:

  Bell and food occur at the same time.

  After conditioning

  CS= bell. CR= salivation.
• What did Pavlov show?

  Pavlov showed how a neutral stimulus (bell) can come to elicit a new learned response (conditioned response) through association.
• Oparent conditioning.


  Learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment. Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.
• Skinner's research.

  Rats and pigeons in specially designed cages (Skinner boxes).

  When a rat activated a level (or a pigeon pecked a disc) it was rewarded with a food pellet.

  A desirable consequence led to behaviour being repeated.

  If pressing a level meant an animal avoided an electric shock, the behaviour would also be repeated.
• What are the three types of consequences for behaviour?

  1. Positive reinforcement.
  2. Negative reinforcement.
  3. Punishment.
• What is positive reinforcement?

  Receiving a reward when behaviour is performed.
• What is negative reinforcement?

  When an animal or human produces behaviour that avoids something unpleasant.
• What is punishment?

  An unpleasant consequence of behaviour.
• Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated. Punishment decreases it.
• A strength of behaviourism is that it gave psychology scientific credibility.

  The approach focused on the careful measurement of observable behaviour within controlled lab settings. Behaviourists emphasised the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replication. This brought the language and methods of the natural sciences into psychology, giving the subject greater credibility and status.
• A limitation is behaviourism is a form of environmental determinism.

  The approach sees all behaviour as determined by past experiences that have been conditioned and ignored any influence that free will may have on behaviour. Skinner suggested that free will was an illusion. When something happens we impose a sense of having made the decision but our past conditioning determined the outcome. This is an extreme position and ignored the influence of conscious decision-making processes of behaviour (as suggested by the cognitive approach).
• What did Skinner suggest?

  That free will was an illusion.
• What is behaviourism a form of?

  Environmental determinism.
• A limitation is that animal research has ethical and practical issues.

  Although experimental procedures such as the Skinner box allowed behaviourists to maintain a high degree if control over their research subjects, critics have drawn attention to the ethical issues involved. The animals involved were exposed to stressful and aversive conditions and this may have affected how they reacted to the experimental situation. This means the validity of the findings from these studies might be questioned because the observed behaviour was not 'normal'.