Behaviourist approach

• Assumptions-

  • we’re born with a ‘blank slate’ (‘tabula rosa’), since everything we become is shaped by the processes that we learn from ur environment
  • extreme ‘nurture’ from nature vs nurture debate
  • observable behaviour that can be measured through lab experiments
  • Darwins idea that learning is the same in all species, meaning animals could replace humans as subjects
• Classical conditioning-

  • Pavlovs dogs -1927- dogs conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell
  • timing- has to be near the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned response to create a link
  • extinction- conditioning will fade overtime
  • spontaneous recovery- without repair you can still achieve the conditioned response
  • stimulus generalisation- phobia generalises to other similar things
• Operant conditioning-

  • Skinners box -1953- rat press a button to get food, repeated due to positive response
  • learning through consequences
  • schedules of reinforcements
  • continuous reinforcement schedule, helps establish a response
  • partial reinforcement schedules, helps avoid extinction and maintains the response
• Evaluation-

  • CPS- based well on controlled research, giving scientific credibility
  • CPW- oversimplifies the learning process through reducing behaviours into simple components
  • S- conditioned have been applies to the real world behaviours/problems giving broad application
  • S- highly controlled experiment
  • W- views all behaviour as conditioned by the past conditioning, not thinking about free will
  • W- ethical issues of using animals
  • W- different species used and compared (dogs and rats and humans)