Behaviourist Approach

• key assumptions of behaviourist approach

  - humans are born blank slates

  - hevaiour is shaped by environment/experince

  - used highly controlled experiments
• define classical conditioning

  - learning through association

  - NS + UCS > CS + CR
• outline Pavlov's dogs:

  - demonstrated stimulus/response with dogs

  - associated sound of ticking metronome/bell (NS then CS) with food (UCS)

  - associated the NS with food, producing CR of drool
• what is stimulus generalisation


  - a CR formed to a CS will occur with similar stimuli

  - Little Albert, classically conditioned to fear a white rat, became afraid of fur coat, dog, santa mask
• define operant conditioning

  - learning through consequence/reinforcement
• outline Skinner's box:

  - rats more likely to produce behaviour when positively reinforced (pulling a lever to release a food pellet)

  - rats more likely to produce behaviour when negatively reinforced (pressing a lever removed the unpleasant electric shock)
• A03, behaviourist approach

  - environmentally deterministic

  - reductionist, reduces complex mental processes down to simple stimulus/response units

  - extrapolation issues (animal research)