Behaviourist approach

• Pavlov pioneered research into a form of learning known as classical conditioning.
• Classical conditioning is a type of learning where a neutral stimulus i paired with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response.
• Classical conditioning is learning through ASSOCIATIONS.
• unconditioned stimulus - a stimulus that causes an automatic response.
• unconditioned response - the automatic response or reflex to the unconditioned stimulus.
• neutral stimulus - stimulus that initially produces no specific response.
• conditioned stimulus - a stimulus that is conditioned due to the pairing of a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus to produced a conditioned response.
• conditioned response - the learned response to the conditioned stimulus
• Pavlov’s dogs experiment:

  DOG FOOD – unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

  DROOLING – unconditioned response (UCR)

  BELL – neutral stimulus (NS) conditioned to a conditioned stimulus (CS)
• The dog food produces the natural response of drooling, so pairing dog food with a bell sound will condition the response of drooling making the bell sound a conditioned stimulus.
• Little Albert was an experiment conducted by Watson and Raynor in 1920, where they conditioned Albert to be scarred of a white rat by pairing the white rat with a loud noise to produce the conditioned response of fear.
• operant conditioning is a type of learning where the person repeats or decreases behaviours that yield a positive outcome or permits them to escape a negative outcome.
• operant conditioning is learning through consequences
• B.F Skinner was the theorist behind operant conditioning and he created the skinner box.
• Skinner Box:

  -experiment using rats and pigeons in a specially designed cages.

  -every time the rat activated a lever in the box, they were rewarded with food.

  -Skinner also showed how rats could be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid and unpleasant consequence of being electrocuted.
• Reinforcement - a consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated, can be positive or negative.
• Punishment - a consequence of behaviour that decrease the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated - can be positive and negative.
• positive reinforcement - rewarding behaviour thus increasing the likelihood that the desired behaviour is increased.
• negative reinforcement - increasing the desired behaviour through removing an unpleasant stimulus.
• positive punishment - decreasing the unwanted behaviour by installing an unpleasant consequence.
• negative punishment - decreasing the likelihood of a behaviour by removing a pleasant stimulus
• vicarious reinforcement - behaviour increases as a result of observing others being rewarded or punished for similar behaviours
• Evaluations of conditioning:

   

  -application to real world phobias: principle of classical conditioning and operant conditioning have been used in explaining how people acquire and maintain phobias.

  -scientific credibility: the theories are based of observable behaviours in controlled lab setting allowing for easy replicability thus high levels of internal validity.
• Evaluations of conditioning:

   

  -non human participants: psychologists have argued that humans have a larger mental capacity than rats and pigeons 0 thus unable to extrapolate the finding from animal studies and apply them to humans.

  -ignoring other explanations: doesn’t take into account other theories, human behaviour isn’t subject to one definition, it ignores theories like the biological approach.