AO3 - Behaviourism

• The behaviourist explanation of human behaviour can be criticised for environmental determinism. This is because the approach states that an individual is controlled by external factors such as learning through stimulus, response and association (classical conditioning) or being rewarded for a behaviour (operant conditioning) that inevitably causes behaviour, e.g. phobias.  Therefore, it neglects the role of free will, and choice that individuals have; this could leave individuals feeling like they have no control over their behaviour. Limiting the behaviourist explanation of human behaviour.
• A strength of the behaviourist explanation of human behaviour is that it has practical applications. The principles of the theory, that behaviour is caused by classical conditioning has led to the treatment of systematic desensitisation. This is effective in treating phobias by helping the individual to unlearn their maladaptive association to a phobic stimulus by gradually exposing them to their phobia whilst they apply relaxation techniques. Therefore, the behaviourist explanation of human behaviour is an important part of applied psychology as it helps to treat people in the real world.
• The behaviourist explanation of human behaviour can be criticised for environmental reductionism. This is because complex human behaviour is reduced down to simple basic units of learning through stimulus, response and association or rewards and reinforcements, like the learning theory of attachment. This neglects a holistic approach, which would take in to account how a person’s culture and social context would influence and explain human behaviour. Therefore, the behaviourist explanation of human behaviour may lack validity, as it does not allow us to understand the behaviour in context.
• However, a weakness of the behaviourist explanation of human behaviour is that it is criticised for animal bias. This is because it uses animals to investigate human behaviour for example; Pavlov used dogs to investigate classical conditioning and Skinner used rats to investigate operant conditioning. This is potentially a problem because human behaviour may be more complex than animal behaviour as they have higher mental functioning. Therefore, there are issues with extrapolating the findings of the research to human behaviour, casting doubt on the behaviourist explanation of human behaviour.