Behaviourist approach

• What is the assumption of the behaviourist approach

  • Assumes all behaviours are learnt
  • ignores mental processes
  • measures observable behaviour
  • rejects introspection as its too vague
  • uses lab experiments to maintain and control objectivity
• What is classical conditioning?

  • classical conditioning - Pavlov
  • learning through association
  • he conditioned dogs to salivate to sound of a bell
  • food - ucs salivation - ucr
  • the food is repeatedly paired with bell, this produces salivation because of food
  • dog learns to associate food with bell, so salivates to bell.
  • the dog has been conditioned
• What is operant conditioning?

  • operant conditioning - skinner
  • learning through consequence
  • reinforcement - increases likelihood of a behaviour happening
  • positive - reward for good behaviour
  • negative - behaving in a way to avoid something bad
  • punishment - reduces likelihood of a behaviour happening positive- given something bad
  • negative- something good taken away
• Strength - highly controlled research

  • a strength of the behaviourist approach is it is based on controlled research
  • it is focused on the measurement of observable behaviour in highly controlled lab setting
  • By breaking down behaviour into a stimulus and response units, all of the extraneous variables are removed and establishes cause-and-effect
  • however, learning process may have been over simplified. they have ignored important mental processes like thought
• Limitation - animal research

  • A limitation is animal research
  • assumes humans learn the exact same with animals
  • we are different cognitively and physiologically
  • we might behave differently from animals so the laws and principles derived from these experiments
  • might apply more to animals than to humans
  • not generalisable
• Limitation - environmental determinism

  • a limitation is environmental determinism
  • see all behaviour as conditioned by past experiences
  • skinner suggested everything we do is based off reinforcement history
  • ignores the influence of free will on behaviour
  • skinner argued free will is an illusion
• Strength - real world application

  • a strength is the real world application
  • principles of conditioning have been applied to everyday behaviours
  • 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.
  • had positive impacts on the lives of many.
• The Skinner box experiment

  • rat was placed in box
  • box had leaver to dispense food
  • the rat learned to press the leaver to receive food
  • the rat was positively reinforced
  • in another experiment, rat was placed in electrocuting box
  • pressing leaver stopped electrocution
  • rat learned to press leaver to stop electrocution
  • the rat was negatively reinforced