learning approaches

• Behaviourist approach


  Proposes that everyone is born as a 'blank slate' which life writes upon (Watson, 1930)
• Behaviourist approach


  • All behaviour is learned from the environment e.g. upbringing, neighbourhood, peers, education
  • Behaviour can be understood using a stimulus-response approach
  • Reinforcement is key in terms of whether a behaviour will be repeated or not
  • Only observable behaviours can be measured and investigated (which rules out the study of memory, for example)
  • Using lab-based, scientific methods is the best way to study behaviour
  • Animal research may be used as a basis for understanding human behaviour
  • Repeated behaviours become internalised and automatic
• Classical conditioning


  Learning via association
• Operant conditioning


  Learning via consequence
• Make sure that you understand the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning as each type of conditioning is distinct
• Research using the behaviourist approach

  • Pavlov's use of dogs to explore the mechanisms of classical conditioning
  • Skinner's use of rats and other animals to explore the mechanisms of operant conditioning
• Strengths of the behaviourist approach

  • The use of scientific methods means that research into behaviourism has good reliability
  • Behaviourism takes a nomothetic approach which is a strength as it seeks to establish general laws of behaviour which can be applied universally
• Weaknesses of the behaviourist approach

  • The behaviourist approach is overly simplistic, offering a reductionist view of behaviour which ignores key factors such as personality, cognition, culture
  • Scientific methodology is not necessarily the best way to study human behaviour: humans are more nuanced and sophisticated than a single quantitative finding may suggest
• The Behaviourist Approach is based on the idea that human beings are born as a blank slate which life writes on
• Only observable behaviour can be studied, according to behaviourists, via the use of scientific methodology such as lab experiments
• The Behaviourist Approach is founded on classical conditioning (learning via association) and operant conditioning (learning via consequence)
• The Behaviourist Approach is overly deterministic and negates the idea of free will as presented in the Humanistic Approach


  The Behaviourist Approach claims that people are products of environmental forces and have little control over their behavioural responses as opposed to the Humanistic Approach's insistence that humans have free will
• The Behaviourist Approach uses scientific/experimental methodology (nomothetic)


  The Humanistic Approach takes a more ideographic approach to studying behaviour e.g. Roger's client-centred therapy
• The Behaviourist Approach depends on empirical evidence


  The Humanistic Approach is unfalsifiable, therefore unscientific
• The Behaviourist Approach is only interested in studying observable behaviour


  The Humanistic Approach studies thoughts, feelings and subjective opinion
• The Behaviourist Approach could be accused of being overly deterministic with its focus on stimulus-response


  The Humanistic Approach does not use pre-determined ideas as to individual outcomes i.e. anything is possible
• Classical conditioning


  Learning via association, where a neutral stimulus is substituted for the original unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response
• An unconditioned stimulus is one which produces a natural, unforced response i.e. no animal or human has to learn how to feel hunger
• Pavlov, a physiologist, was measuring the volume of specific enzymes in dog saliva when he noticed that the dogs began to salivate before they saw or smelt their food - in fact they began to salivate when they heard the footsteps of the lab assistants approaching
• Pavlov's classical conditioning procedure

  1. The dog is given food as usual (unconditioned stimulus)

  2. The dog salivates when it sees and smells the food (unconditioned response)

  3. A bell is sounded (neutral stimulus) every time the dog is given food (unconditioned stimulus)

  4. A bell is sounded every time the food is presented (the pairing of neutral and unconditioned stimuli)

  5. After repeated pairings the dog salivates when it hears the bell (the bell has become the conditioned stimulus and the dog salivating to the bell has become the conditioned response)

  6. When Pavlov stopped pairing the bell and the food he found that the conditioned response decreased and gradually disappeared (known as 'extinction')
• Operant conditioning


  Learning via consequence, where some behaviours will be repeated based on their positive consequences and some behaviours will not be repeated based on their negative consequences
• Types of reinforcement in operant conditioning

  • Positive reinforcement
  • Negative reinforcement
  • Punishment
• Positive reinforcement


  Performing a behaviour to experience the positive consequences
• Negative reinforcement


  Discontinuing a behaviour to avoid unpleasant consequences
• Punishment


  A type of deterrent which can be positive (i.e. direct) or negative (indirect)
• The consequence is called the reinforcer e.g. praise from the teacher is a positive reinforcer; a detention is a negative reinforcer
• Skinner's operant conditioning procedure

  1. A rat is placed in a specially designed box (known as a 'Skinner box')

  2. The box contains a lever which the rat can press

  3. When the rat presses the lever a food pellet (the reward) is dispensed

  4. The rat learns to press the lever via ratios e.g. every 10th press dispenses food or intervals e.g. food is dispensed after every 5 minutes (known as 'schedules of reinforcement')
• Strengths of classical and operant conditioning

  • It is more ethical to use animals in research than it is to use humans (although some would disagree with this)
  • Operant conditioning has good application to educational settings and prisons (e.g. the use of token economies draws directly from operant conditioning)
• Weaknesses of classical and operant conditioning

  • Whilst conditioning may explain some forms of behaviour, it cannot explain all behaviour for example: behaviour which is spontaneous or original, behaviour where no reward is sought, behaviour which goes against what has been learnt via the environment
  • Conditioning experiments are often performed on animals, the findings of which cannot be generalised to human behaviour
• Both classical and operant conditioning (and behaviourism generally) are highly deterministic


  They assume that a specific response will follow a specific stimulus (classical conditioning) or that only behaviours which bring rewards are likely to be repeated (operant conditioning). There is little room for free will in conditioning; the assumption is that people are controlled by environmental forces and have little autonomy over their own destiny.
• Both classical and operant conditioning (and behaviourism generally) are reductionist


  They do not consider the role of other significant influences on behaviour such as genes, personality, culture.
• Operant conditioning is learning which takes place due to consequences that shapes both human and animal behaviour
• Conditioning


  Learning which takes place due to consequences that shapes both human and animal behaviour
• Types of reinforcement


  • Positive reinforcement
  • Negative reinforcement
  • Punishment
• Positive reinforcement


  Receiving a reward when performing a certain behaviour
• Negative reinforcement


  Performing a certain behaviour to avoid something negative
• Punishment


  Receiving an unpleasant consequence for your behaviour
• Both positive and negative reinforcement encourage the behaviour, increasing its likelihood, whereas punishment discourages the behaviour, decreasing the likelihood of it being repeated
• Skinner's work


  Suggested learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate in their environment
• Skinner box experiment


  1. Placing one rat at a time in a box containing a lever that released food and an electroplated floor

  2. Rats learned to press the lever to release food (positive reinforcement)

  3. Rats learned to press the lever when the light came on to avoid the electric shock (negative reinforcement)