Approaches

Question 1

What is the behaviourist approach?

Answer 1

• A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable & in terms of learning

Behaviourist believe that all behaviour is learned

Question 1

What is classicial conditioning?

Answer 1

• A type of learning in which an existing involuntary reflex response is associated with a new stimulus

Question 2

What is the unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 2

• Something that naturally causes a reaction

Question 3

What is the unconditioned response?

Answer 3

• A natural reaction to an unconditioned stimulus
  The stimulus & response are naturally connected

(always becomes conditioned response)

Question 4

What is the neutral stimulus?

Answer 4

• Something that you want to connect with the unconditioned stimulus through conditioning, but at start of process it does not lead to any response

(NS always becomes conditioned stimulus)

Question 5

What is the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 5

• The name for a neutral stimulus once an anssociation has been learned.
• This association occurs as the UCS and the NS are paired on (usually) a number of occasions

Question 6

What is the conditioned response?

Answer 6

• The response that is given to the conditioned stimulus

Question 7

What was Pavlov’s dog experiment?

Answer 7

Before conditioning:
- The dog is hungry, the dog sees food & the dog salivates. This is a reflex action which aids digestion, therefore it is an unlearned relationship
- When we present food to the hungry dog (before dog salivates) we ring a bell
- Pavlov repeated this action at several meals-every time dog sees the food the dog hears the bell
- After number of pairings they ring the bell but dont show any food-the dog salivates

The bell elicts the same response than the sight of food

Question 8

What was Skinners research?

Answer 8

• Created a ‘Skinner Box’ and used rats- he put the rats in a cage w a lever it could press on.

Exp 1- Positive reinforcement
- Lever was rigged up to a mechanism that dispenses food, so when rat pressed lever it got a bit of rat food. When rat would press lever by accident food appeared. After a few similar occurances rat associated lever in order to obtain food
Presentation of food acted as a positive reinforcement for behaviour of lever pressing

Exp 2- Punishment
- Skinner changed mechanism so that when rat pressed lever instead of recieving a food pellet it was given an electric shock to its paw. V quickly rat stopped pressing lever, electric shock acted a sa punishment

Exp 3- Negative Reinforcement
- Skinner set up cage so floor could be electrified & altered mechanism so that lever acidently switched off current. Once floor was electrified rat started bouncing about & accidently hit the lever. This turned off the electric current. Exp was then repeated & rat learned to press lever immediately the current was turned on.

Question 9

What is the difference between punishmet, positive & negative reinforcement?

Answer 9

PR- recieveing a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
NR- Encouragement of certain behaviours by removing or avoiding a negative outcome/stimuli
Punishment- The unpleasant consequence of behaviour

Question 10

Give one strength of the behaviourist approach.

Answer 10

• Based on well-controlled research
• Behavioursits focused on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings.
• By breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus-response units, all other possible extraneous variables were removed allowing cause & effect relationships to be established

This suggests that behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility