Approaches Flashcards
The Behaviorist Approach: Assumptions
- interested in behaviors that can be observed and measured
- not concerned with internal, mental processes
- maintain control and objectivity within research –> reliance on lab experiments
- Two important forms of learning: classical and operant conditioning
The Behaviorist Approach: Classical Conditioning - Pavlov’s Research
- Learning through association
- Dogs salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time it was given food:
- food (UCS) –> salivate (UCR)
- food (UCS) + bell (NS) –> salivate (UCR)
- ——> after repeated pairings:
- bell (now CS) –> salivate (now CR)
- The dogs associated the sound of the bell (NS) with the food (UCS) and began to salivate (CR) when the bell sound was heard
The Behaviorist Approach: Operant Conditioning - Skinner’s Research
- Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences
Positive Reinforcement: receiving a reward after a certain behaviour - e.g. money for a tidy room
Negative Reinforcement: avoidance/taking away of something unpleasant after a certain behaviour - e.g. tidy room to avoid being told off
Punishment: an unpleasant consequence of a behaviour e.g. being shouted at for not tidying your room
- Positive and Negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated.
- Punishment decreases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated
Positive and Negative reinforcement increase….
…. the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated.
Punishment decreases…..
…the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated
Behaviourist Approach: Evaluation (explain each)
P- Real life Applications
E- Token economies
- desirable behaviours encouraged through selective reinforcement
- based on operant conditioning
- When desired behaviour is displayed
- tokens are given immediately as secondary reinforcers which can be exchanged for rewards (primary reinforcers)
C - this is a strength of the approach because it can be used to improve the QOL of people
P- Research Support
E- Skinner’s boxes and Pavlov’s dogs
- association between bell (ns-cs), food (ucs), salivation (ucr–>cr)
- electric floor (negative reinforcement) food pellet (positive reinforcement)
C - increases validity since research results agree with the assumptions
P- Studies are highly controlled:
E - standardised procedures - can be replicated
- focuses on observable behaviour - objective
C - this is a strength a it gives the theory scientific credibility because the research it is based upon is highly objective and replicable
Animal Research: less generalisable
P - Environmental determinism
E - suggests all behaviour is determined by past experiences and conditioning
e.g. skinner = behaviour is all due to reinforcement
- ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour
C - It does not consider other factors such as free will or biology
Little Albert
- Watson and Raynor presented Little Albert with a white rat and he showed no fear.
- Watson then presented the rat with a loud bang that startled Little Albert and made him cry.
- After the continuous association of the white rat and loud noise, Little Albert was classically conditioned to experience fear at the sight of the rat.
- Albert’s fear generalized to other stimuli that were similar to the rat, including a fur coat, some cotton wool, and a Father Christmas mask.
Social Learning Theory: Assumptions
- Learning through observation and imitation
- learn through direct and indirect reinforcement - combining learning theory with cognitive factors.
- Learn through vicarious reinforcement
- Learn by watching models
- Imitation through identification
- involves the role of mediational processes
Modelling
From the observers perspective: imitating the behaviour of a role model.
From the role model’s perspective: The precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer
Vicarious Reinforcement
- Indirect learning/reinforcement
- Observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour - and imitating the behaviour only if it is rewarded
Identification
- when an observer associates themselves with a role model and imitates their behaviour them to be more like the role model
Mediational Processes: Bandura
- Determine whether there is a response to a behaviour
- Attention: the extent to which we notice certain behaviours
- Retention: how well the behaviour is remembered
- Motor reproduction: the ability of the observers to perform the behaviour
- Motivation: the will to perform the behaviour, which is often determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished.
ARMM
Social Learning Theory: Evaluation (explain each point)
P - Lab Studies
E - a lot of the research that is used to support the slt are lab studies
- for example, the bobo doll study
- the main purpose of a bobo doll was to hit it
- children may have just been behaving how they though they were expected to rather than learning aggressive behaviour
C - lack of external validity they may not learn aggression in the same way in other situations
P - Bobo Doll - research support
E - children who saw an adult model behave aggressively towards a bobo doll were much more aggressive towards the doll and the other toys than those who observed a non-aggressive adult.
C - This supports the idea that children learn behaviour through modelling
P - Ignores Biology
E - e.g. in the bobo doll study found boys were consistently more aggressive than girls this could be due to hormone levels
C - reductionist because it says that behaviour is all down to learning but other factors may also be at play
Bobo Doll - Bandura
Do children imitate what they see?
Study A
- Recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave aggressively towards a bobo doll e.g. hitting it with a hammer and shouting abuse to it
- When these children were later observed playing with various toys, including the bobo doll, they behaved much more aggressively towards the doll and the other toys than those who observed a non-aggressive adult.
- This shows how children learn through modelling
Study B
- Children were shown videos of an adult behaving aggressively to a bobo doll
- One group saw the adult being praised for their behaviour, a second group saw the adult being punished for their behaviour and the third (control group) saw no consequence.
- When given their own bobo doll the first group showed the most aggression, followed by the third and then the second
- This shows how children learn through vicarious reinforcement and through modelling
Case Study: HM
- Scoville performed experimental surgery on H.M.’s brain to stop the severe epileptic seizures he had been suffering from
- partial medial temporal lobe resection –> removed 8 cm of brain tissue from the anterior two thirds of the hippocampus, and believed he “probably destroyed …. the uncus and amygdala” as well
- H.M. lost the ability to form new memories
- Anterograde amnesia
- He could do a task and even comment that it seemed easier than he expected, without realising that he had done it hundreds of times before.
- He also lost his memory for events that had happened after his surgery: he could not remember moving house, nor that he had eaten a meal thirty minutes previously.
- Retrograde amnesia of events preceding the surgery, such as the death of his uncle three years before.
- His early childhood memories remained intact.
- His intelligence also remained as before, at slightly above average.
The Psychodynamic Approach: Main Assumptions
- Freud
- The conscious mind is the tip of the iceberg
- Most of out mind is made up of the unconscious mind
- The structure of personality: id, ego and superego
- Defence mechanisms: repression, denial and displacement
- Psychosexual stages: Oedipus complex (Little Hans)
The Structure of Persoanlity
id:
- operates on the pleasure principle- gets what it wants, throughout life the id is selfish and demands the satisfaction of its needs
- only part that is present at birth
Ego:
- operates on the reality principle
- mediates the id and the superego, reduces conflict between their demands
- It does this by using a number of defence mechanisms
- developed at age 2
Superego:
- operates on the morality principle
- moralistic part of the personality: how we ought to be
- our internalised sense of right and wrong
id
- operates on the pleasure principle- gets what it wants, throughout life the id is selfish and demands the satisfaction of its needs
- only part that is present at birth
Ego
- operates on the reality principle
- mediates the id and the superego, reduces conflict between their demands
- It does this by using a number of defence mechanisms
- developed at age 2
Superego:
- operates on the morality principle
- moralistic part of the personality: how we ought to be
- our internalised sense of right and wrong
Defence Mechanisms
- ensure that the ego is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas
- require distortion- long term=unhealthy, undesirable
- Repression: pushes a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
- Denial: Refuses to acknowledge some aspect of reality
- Displacement: Transferring feelings from their true source, on to a substitute target
The Psychosexual Stages
- developments occurs in 5 stages, each marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve in order to fully progress to the next stage
- each stage relate to where the libido is centred in the individual e.g. oral=mouth
- Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital
- Any psychosexual conflict that is unresolved (frustration or overindulgence) leads to fixation, where the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carries certain behaviours and conflicts into adulthood
Oral Stage
- 0-1 years
- Libido present in the mouth
- can lead to oral fixation e.g. smoking, nail biting, thumb sucking
Anal
- 1-3 years
- Libido present in the anus
- conflict= anal retentive: obsessive perfectionist or anal expulsive: thoughtless and messy
