Behaviourist Approach

• Assumptions of the Behaviourist Approach

  1. We are all born as a blank slate.

  2. All behaviour is learnt.

  3. We are a product of our environment (nurture).

  4. All behaviour can be explained through classical and operant conditioning.

  5. Behaviour should be investigated using scientific experiments.
• Classical Conditioning - Pavlov's Research


  - Pavlov discovered that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell that was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food.

  - Gradually Pavlov's dogs associated the sound of the bell (a stimulus) with the food (another stimulus) which would produce salvation as a response every time they heard the sound.

  
  

  - This showed how a neutral stimulus can bring out a new learned response (conditioned response) through association.

  
  

  Before conditioning:

  
  

  UCS = food, UCR = salivation, NS = bell

  
  

  UCS -> UCR

  NS -> no response

  
  

  During conditioning:

  
  

  NS + UCS

  Bell and food occur at the same time

  
  

  after conditioning

  
  

  CS -> CR

  Bell ringed and salivation occurs

  
  

  - Pavlov showed how a natural stimulus (bell) can come to elicit a new learned response (conditioned response) through association.

  
• Operant Conditioning - Skinner's Research


  - Suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment.

  - Positive reinforcement is receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed; e.g., praise from a teacher for answering a question correctly.

  - Negative reinforcement occurs when an animal or human avoids something unpleasant, when a student hands in an essay to avoid being told off.

  - Similarly a rat may learn through negative reinforcement that pressing a lever leads to avoidance of an electric shock.

  - Punishment is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour, for example being shouted at by a teacher for talking during a lesson.
• The Skinner Box


  A small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is systematically recorded while the consequences of the response are controlled.

  
• Strengths of the Behaviourist Approach

  Well-controlled research

  - No extraneous variables allowing cause and effect relationships to be established.

  
  

  Real-world application

  - Operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems (prisons and psychiatric wards).
• Limitation of the Behaviourist Approach

  - Behaviourists assume all our behaviour is learned however cognitive psychologists argue that behaviour is also a product of the way we think, for example Beck argued that behaviours that stem from illness such as depression are a result of faulty thinking.

  - Environmental Determinism - ignores any possible influence free will may have on behaviour

  - Ethical issues - Animals were housed in harsh, cramped conditions and deliberately kept below their natural weight so were always hungry.