Behaviourist approach

• assumptions of the behaviourist approach

  Watson rejected introspection as it involved too many vague concepts

  all behaviours are learnt from our environment

  • focuses on observable behaviour
  • animals and humans learn in the same ways so behaviourists extrapolate results from animals to humans
  • mainly lab experiments to study stimulus and response
• classical conditioning

  • a type of learning which occurs through repeated associations made between the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and neutral stimulus
  • before conditioning, the neutral stimulus produces the unconditioned response
  • during conditioning, the NS is repeatedly associated with the UCS producing an unconditioned response
  • after conditioning, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus, producing the conditioned response (CR)
• Pavlov (1927)

  • Pavlov showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly associated with food
  • before conditioning, the UCS (food) produced and UCR (salivation)
  • during conditioning: the UCS was repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus (bell) to produce the same UCR of salivation
  • an association was made between the unconditioned stimulus aand the neutral stimulus
  • after conditioning the NS became the CS, producing CR (salivation)
• operant conditioning


  BF Skinner (1953) suggested that learning is an active process where humans operate on their environment

  operant conditioning=a type of learning where behaviour is acquired and maintained on its consequences
• reinforcement


  reinforcement increases likelihood of observed behaviour being repeated

  positive reinforcement: when we carry out a behaviour to receive a reward

  negative reinforcement: when we carry out a behaviour to avoid negative consequences
• punishment 


  punishment decreases the likelihood of observed behaviour being repeated

  positive punishment: adding something unpleasant to decrease behaviour

  negative punishment: removing something unpleasant to decrease a behaviour
• Primary reinforcers

  • such as food, water and sleep don’t need pairing with another stimulus to be reinforcing
• Secondary reinforcement

  • when an idea or action is reinforced by a primary reinforcer (i.e: money can buy food)
• Skinner’s Box 


  Skinner demonstrated, using a rat, the mechanisms of positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement was shown when the rats pressed down on a lever to receive food as a reward, and subsequently learnt to repeat this action to increase their rewards. Negative reinforcement was shown when the rat learnt to press down on the lever to avoid the unpleasant consequence of an electric shock.
• strength of Behaviourist approach


  • Uses highly scientific research methods, particularly the laboratory experiment
  • Strictly-controlled conditions reduce and control for the effects of confounding and extraneous variables, increasing the reliability and internal validity of the findings
  • Focuses on behaviour which is observable and can be measured, increasing the scientific credibility of psychology
• (strength) real-life applications


  An increased understanding of classical and operant conditioning has led to the development of treatments and therapies for serious mental disorders. For example, token economies have been used as a way of dealing with offending behaviour: inmates who carry out socially-desirable behaviour (such as tidying their cell and avoiding conflicts) receive tokens (secondary reinforcers) which can be traded for privileges (primary reinforcers), such as extra TV-time. Therefore, behaviourist principles have had positive impacts on the lives of many.
• (weakness) environmental determinism 


  The behaviourist approach sees all behaviour as the product of past reinforcement contingencies, leaving no room for free will or conscious choices. This hard deterministic stance may be a more appropriate explanation for animal behaviour, whereas explanations of human behaviour should also account for emotions motivations and reasoning skills (e.g. as social learning theory does).

  Hence, the behaviourist approach may be a limited explanation for human behaviour
• (weakness) ethical issues 


  Skinner's box cause physical harm to rats, breaching BPS guideline of protection from harm

  Watson and Rayner's conditioning experiments on Little Albert (no protection from harm)

  much behaviourist research, at least by modern standards, would be viewed as unethical. However, a cost-benefit analysis may show that the benefit of increased understanding of the different types of learning (classical and operant conditioning) outweigh the ethical costs.