Behaviorism

• Behaviorism Summarised

  • Studying what we can see, rather than what we can't.
  • Beginnings of psychology becoming a scientific discipline.
• Pavlov's Classical Conditioning Terminology - Stimulus

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) - An event that produces an automatic/unlearned response
  • Neutral Stimulus (NS) - a stimulus that does not elicit a response prior to learning
  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - an original neutral stimulus that had been paired repeatedly with the unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned Response
  • Acquisition - repeated pairings of the CS and the UCS
• Pavlov's Classical Conditioning Terminology - Responses

  • Unconditioned Response (UCR) - an automatic or unlearned response/reaction that is preceded by a UCS
  • Conditioned Response (CR) - a response/reaction elicited by the conditioned stimulus.
• Real World Examples of Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

  • Tones on other people's phones
  • Celebrities in advertising
  • Smelling food and feeling hungry
  • Experience of food poisoning
  • Phobias
  • Christmas music feels
• Skinner's Operant Conditioning Explained

  • Social learning theory
  • Uses rewards and punishment to modify behaviors
  • Behaviors that are rewarded are likely to be repeated
  • Behaviors that are punished are likely to be less frequent
• Watson & Little Albert - Watson's Experiment

  • Aim: Conditioning a fearful Response in an infant through Classical Conditioning
  • Procedure: They paired a white rat (NS) with a loud noise (UCS) to create a fear response (CS) in Albert after repeated trials
  • Results: Albert developed a fear of the rat, which generalized to similar looking things (rabbits, fur coats), showing stimulus generalization
  • Ethical Concerns: The study lacked informed consent, caused distress without proper debriefing, did not attempt to reverse Albert's conditioned fear.
• Pavlov's Dogs - Classical Conditioning

  • Aim: Ivan Pavlov aimed to investigate Classical Conditioning by examining how dogs could learn to associate a neutral stimulus (a bell) with food
  • Procedure: Pavlov repeatedly paired the sound of a bell (NS) with food (UCS) that naturally caused dogs to salivate (UCR).
  • Results: After several pairings, the dogs began to salivate (CR) upon hearing the bell (CS) alone, even without food.
• Skinner & Operant Conditioning - Reinforcement

  • Positive Reinforcement: Add pleasant stimulus to increase/maintain behavior
  • Negative Reinforcement: Remove unpleasant stimulus to increase/maintain behavior
• Skinner & Operant Conditioning

  • Positive Punishment: Add unpleasant stimulus to decrease behavior
  • Negative Punishment: Remove pleasant stimulus to decrease behavior
• Token Economy

  • Desirable behaviors are encouraged through the use of selective reinforcement
  • A participant is given a reward (token) as secondary reinforcement when they participate in Socially Desirable behavior
  • Tokens are then exchanged for primary reinforcers such as food or privileges
• Token Economy Examples

  • Schools
  • Hospitals
  • Prisons
  • Fairs/Arcades
• Practical Applications of Operant Conditioning

  • Maintaining phobias using reinforcement
  • Systematic desensitization
• Developing a Phobia - Dog Phobia

  • US (being bitten) produces UR (fear)
  • NS (the dog) becomes associated with US (being bitten)
  • CS (the dog) produces CR (fear)
  • Avoid dogs - negative reinforcement
  • Phobia is maintained
  • Stimulus generalization occurs causing fear to similar things
  • Results in fear of all dogs
• Maintaining a Phobia

  • Maintained through operant conditioning
  • We avoid the thing we are afraid of. Either through deliberate avoidance or running away (escaping) when encountered
  • Produces a feeling of relief which is rewarding - this is negative reinforcement
  • This behavior is continued, maintaining the phobia and is never dealt with.
• Evaluation of Behaviorism

  • Is Behaviorism credible?
  • Highly controlled
  • Measurable
  • Credibility to psychology as a science
  • What about people being seen as passive?
  • Ethics around animal experiments?
  • How could behaviorism help token economy systems?
  • How could behaviorism help with phobias?