APPS 03 - Behaviourism Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is the behaviourist (behavioural) approach?
A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning
What is classical conditioning?
- Learning by association
- Occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together
- An unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (UCS) and a new ‘neutral’ stimulus (NS)
- The neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response that was first produced by the unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus alone
What is operant conditioing?
- A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences
- Possible consequences of behaviour include reinforcement (positive or negative) and punishment
What is reinforcement?
- A consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated
- Can be positive or negative
What is positive reinforcement?
A stimulus that increases the probability that a behaviour will be repeated because it is pleasurable e.g. receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
What is negative reinforcement?
- A stimulus that increases the probability that a behaviour will be repeated because it leads to escape from an unpleasant situation and is experienced as rewarding e.g. when an animal (or human) avoids something unpleasant
- The outcome is a positive experience
What is punishment?
- Any procedure that decreases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated because the overall experience is unpleasant
- It is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour
What are the effects of negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement and punishment?
- Positive and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated
- Punishment decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated
What is systematic desensitisation?
Slowly introducing the fear to the patient
What are the assumptions about the behaviourist approach?
- Behaviourism is concerned with observable and measurable behaviour, as opposed to internal events and mental process of the mind like thinking and emotion because these were seen as irrelevant
- Behaviourists believed that observable (i.e. external) behaviour can be objectively and scientifically measured and relied on lab studied as the best way to achieve this.
- People have no free will – a person’s environment determines their behaviour
- When born our mind is ‘tabula rasa’ (a blank slate)
- They suggested that there is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals. Therefore, research can be carried out on animals as well as humans
- Behaviour is the result of stimulus - response (i.e. all behaviour, no matter how complex, can be reduced to a simple stimulus - response association). Action - reaction
- Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learnt from the environment. We learn new behaviour through classical or operant conditioning
Who conducted research into classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov
What was the procedure for research into classical conditioning?
- Pavlov showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell
- Dogs would be presented with an unconditioned stimulus (food) and the dogs would produce an unconditioned response (salivate)
- The researcher would then ring the bell (neutral stimulus) and the dog would produce no conditioned response (doesn’t salivate)
- The researcher would then ring the bell and present the dog with food (unconditioned stimulus + neutral stimulus) and the dog would produce an unconditioned response (salivate)
- When the researcher rung the bell (conditioned stimulus), the dog would respond by salivating (conditioned response)
- Gradually Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell with food and would produce the salivation response every time they heard the sound
Who conducted research into operant conditioning?
B.F. Skinner
What was the procedure for research into operant conditioning?
Procedure A (positive reinforcement):
- Skinner conducted experiments with rats, and sometimes pigeons, in specially designed cages called Skinner boxes
- Every time the rat activated a lever (or the pigeon pecked a disc) within the box it was rewarded with a food pellet
- From then on, the animal would continue to perform the behaviour
Procedure B (negative reinforcement):
- Skinner also showed how rats and pigeons could be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid an unpleasant stimulus, for example an electric shock
What is the formula for classical conditioning?
- Neutral stimulus => no response
- Unconditioned stimulus => unconditioned response
- Unconditioned stimulus + neutral stimulus => unconditioned response
- Conditioned stimulus => conditioned response
What are the strengths of the behaviourist approach?
- Based on well controlled research
- Has real world applications
How is the behaviourist approach based on well controlled research?
- One strength of the behaviourist approach is that it is based on well-controlled research
- Behaviourists focused on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab setting
- By breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus-response units, all other possibl extraneous variables were removed, allowing cause-and-effect relationships to be established
- For instance, Skinner was able to clearly demonstrate how reinforcement influenced an animal’s behaviour
- This suggests that behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility
How does the behaviourist approach have real world applications?
- Another strength of the behaviourist approach is that the principles of conditioning have been applied to real-world behaviours and problems
- For example, operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions, such as prisons and psychiatric wards
- These work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges
- For an example of how classical conditioning has been applied to the treatment of phobias
- This increases the value of the behaviourist approach because it has widespread application
What are the limitations of the behaviourist approach?
- Behaviourist approach may have oversimplified the learning process
- It sees all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences
- There are ethical issues
How has the behaviourist approach oversimplified the learning process?
- However, the problem with this is that behaviourists may have oversimplified the learning process
- By reducing behaviour to such simple components, behaviourists may have ignored an important influence on learning – that of human thought
- Other approaches, such as social learning theory and the cognitive approach have drawn attention to the mental processes involved in learning
- This suggests that learning is more complex than observable behaviour alone, and that private mental processes are also essential
How does the behaviourist approach see all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences?
- One limitation of the behaviourist approach is that it sees all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences
- Skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history
- When something happens we may think ‘I made the decision to do that’ but, according to Skinner, our past conditioning history determined the outcome
- This ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour (Skinner himself said that free will is an illusion)
- This is an extreme position and ignores the influence of conscious decision-making processes on behaviour (as suggested by the cognitive approach)
What are the ethical issues of the behaviourist approach?
- Although procedures such as the Skinner box allowed behaviourists to maintain a high degree of control over their experimental ‘subjects’, many have questioned the ethics of conducting such investigations
- Animals were housed in harsh, cramped conditions and deliberately kept below their natural weight so they were always hungry
