behaviourism

• what is the behaviourist approach only interested in

  behaviour that can be observed and measured
• what did watson reject

  introspection - too many vague concepts

  difficult to measure
• what to behaviourists believe

  all behaviour is learned

  we are born as blank slates

  basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species - use animals

  classical and operant conditioning
• what is classical conditioning 


  learning by association
• outline classical conditoning

  pavlov

  learning occurs when association is made between an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus that already gives a response

  pavlov dogs: showed dogs could be conditioned to salivate to sound of bell

  before conditioning - reflex response of salivation to food

  bell - ns - associated with food (temporal contiguity) caused salivation to bell (conditioned response of salivation to conditioned stimulus of bell)
• what is stimulus generalisation

  bell with varying pitch and tone - salivation still occurs + little albert study fear was conditioned to all white fluffy objects
• what is time contiguity 


  association only occurs if associaiton of stimuli occurs within a short time period or no association will be made
• who conducted research into operant conditioning

  skinner
• what are the principles of operant conditioning 


  learning by consequence

  negative reinforcement - avoidance response

  positive reinforcement - approval/ praise/ reward

  punishment - unpleasant consequence of behaviour makes you less likely to repeat behaviour

  negative and positive reinforcment make you more likely to repeat a behaviour
• what was skinners research

  rats - box of rats that contained a response lever

  would prompt release of pellet down a chute - so that rats could eat it

  metal floor which cld be electrified to administer an electric shock

  when rat learned it would get a pellet when pressing the leaver it would continue - positive reinforcment

  punishment - electric shock

  avoidance of electric shock - negative reinforcement
• what was skinners analysis of behaviour

  Antecedents - what happens just prior to behaviour

  Behaviours - called operants - operant in rats = pressing lever

  Consequences - what happens after the operant
• what is real world application of behaviourism

  token economy systems - positive reinforcement to modify behaviour - ie cocaine addicts who stayed clean were given shop vouchers

  used successfully in institutions - prisons and psychiatric wards

  rewarding behaviour in exchange for tokens for privileges - used in SZ and explaining attachments between mother and infant - dollard and millers learning theory of att
• what is a strength of behaviourism

  uses scientific methods - high internal validity - observable behaviour - lab settings - objectivity

  HOWEVEVR - low ecological validity
• what is a drawback of using animal research

  humans are physiologically and psychologically more complex - emotional beings - do not consider thought processes - cognitions in humans
• what is an issues and debates criticism of behaviourism

  deterministic - environmental determinism

  sees all behaviour as conditioned by past experiences

  past conditioning history determines outcome - ignores free will in behaviour - skinner said himself that free will is an illusion