Behaviourism

• Classical Conditioning is the association of two stimuli together.
• Pavlov's Dog is an example of classical conditioning
• Pavlov's Dog

  A) Neutral

  B) Unconditioned

  C) Conditioned

  
• Operant Conditioning is learning through action and consequence.
• There are 3 Types of consequences to actions in Operant Conditioning: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement and Punishment
• Positive Reinforcement is the rewarding of a behaviour with the addition of a positive stimulus.
• Negative Reinforcement is the rewarding of a behaviour with the removal of a negative stimulus
• Punishment is creating a negative consequence to a behaviour
• Behaviourism is scientifically credible because of three things:

  • It focuses on measurable observable behaviour
  • It's Tested with highly controlled lab settings
  • It's Objective and repeatable
• Behaviourism was influential in making psychology a scientific discipline
• A real life application of Behaviourism is Token Economy systems. For example: in prisons, good behaviour can be rewarded with a token which can be exchanged for privileges which is operant conditioning
• A real life application of Behaviourism is in the treatment of phobias: for example, Classical conditioning can be used in Exposure Therapy where the patient is gradually exposed to their feared stimulus along with relaxation techniques.
• Mechanistic view of behaviour: Animals are seen as machine - like, they simply respond to their environment with optimum behaviour
• In Behaviourism there is a high level of Environmental Determinism: meaning that all behaviour is based on past experiences. This ignores the influence of free will.
• Skinner argued that free will is an illusion and the past has full influence over our decisions
• Skinner Tested the validity of Positive and Negative Reinforcement with his Skinner's Box experiment: He put animals such as a rat and a pigeon in a box with a lever. Part A: the animal flicked the lever and a food pellet was released, the animal then repeated this behaviour. Part B: the animal is exposed to electric shocks which only cease when the lever is activated, they then learned to repeat this behaviour when shocked
• An ethical issue with Skinner's Box experiment is that the animals were in stressful and adverse conditions. This brings the practical issue which is that those emotions could have affected their actions unlike in real life.