Behaviourism

Question 1

What are the three main assumptions of behaviourism?

Answer 1

1) Nearly all behaviour is learnt,
2) Animals and humans learn in the same ways,
3) The ‘mind’ is irrelevant.

Question 2

What is meant by ‘nearly all behaviour is learnt’?

Answer 2

• Only exceptions are a few inborn reflexes and a few inborn instincts,
• Evidence now shows that genetics can influence psychological features,
• Behaviourism claims that learning is the cause of the majority of behaviours.

Question 3

What is meant by ‘animals and humans learn in the same ways’?

Answer 3

• Humans can do much more complex things than other animals, the principle by which we learn are the same,
• Based on the idea that we can form stimulus-response associations between stimuli and our actions,
• We may use both conditioning, but humans can be said to use other forms of learning as well, e.g. social learning.

Question 4

What is meant by ‘the ‘mind’ is irrelevant’?

Answer 4

• Can’t directly observe and measure a person’s thinking,
• Can only obtain measurable data by studying behaviour,
• Although cognitive abilities cannot be directly, scientifically measured, they may give a more complete explanation of behaviour, as shown by social learning theory.

Question 5

Ivan Pavlov, method (classical conditioning)

Answer 5

• Noticed that his dogs would salivate before they got food; realised that they had associated food with another stimulus,
• Whenever Pavlov gave his dogs food, he would also ring a bell,
• After repeating this procedure several times, Pavlov tried ringing the bell without giving the dogs any food.

Question 6

Ivan Pavlov, results

Answer 6

• The bell alone caused salivation.

Question 7

Ivan Pavlov, conclusion

Answer 7

• When dogs see food they salivate, this is an automatic, unlearned response - a reflex,
• The food is an unconditioned stimulus and salivation is an unconditioned response,
• The bell has become a conditioned stimulus, and salivation has become a conditioned response.

Question 8

Skinner (1938), method (Operant conditioning)

Answer 8

• Created a ‘Skinner box’, in which he placed one rat at a time,
• Each box contained a variety of different stimuli, a speaker, lights, a floor which gave an electric shock, and a food dispenser that released food upon a lever being pressed,
• A hungry rat would be placed in a skinner box, the time taken for the rats to learn pressing the lever would release food was recorded.

Question 9

Skinner (1938), results

Answer 9

• Initially the rat would run around the cage until it accidentally pressed the lever and it was rewarded with food,
• the more the rat was put back into the box, the quicker they got at learning where the lever was.

Question 10

Skinner (1938), conclusion

Answer 10

• Rats can learn behaviour through operant conditioning,
• A behaviour such as pressing a lever can be positively reinforced by receiving food.

Question 11

Skinner (1938), evaluation

Answer 11

• Hugely influential in promoting the idea of behavioural psychology,
• Experiment used animals; results might not be generalisable to humans,
• Sample size was too small, reducing reliability of results.

Question 12

Watson and Rayner (1920), method (little Albert)

Answer 12

• Partcipant was an 11 month old boy named ‘little Albert’,
• Showed no fear when white fluffy objects such as rats or rabbits,
• Researchers tried to create a conditioned response to these objects,
• White rat was placed in front of Albert, as he reached out for it, a metal bar was struck loudly behind his head,
• This was repeated twice at first, then 5 more times a week later.

Question 13

Watson and Rayner (1920), results

Answer 13

• When Albert was shown a rat, he would start to cry,
• Also extended to other white fluffy objects, e.g. a white santa claus beard prop.

Question 14

Watson and Rayner (1920), conclusion

Answer 14

• Fear response to white fluffy objects had been conditioned in Little Albert, showing that abnormal behaviour can be learned.

Question 15

Watson and Rayner (1920), evaluation

Answer 15

• Very unethical; experiment couldn’t be repeated today,
• Not everyone goes on to develop a phobia/fear after a negative situation, learning theory can’t be the entire explanation,
• Was a laboratory study; lacks ecological validity,
• Results support Pavlov’s dogs; idea of classical conditioning.

Question 16

What is Social Learning Theory, and who developed it?

Answer 16

• Developed by Bandura,
• Agrees with the idea that people can learn by conditioning, but also claims that they learn a lot from role models,
• Some mediational processes are also involved between the stimulus and the response,
• Proposes that several processes take place for learning to happen: modelling, identification,
• Can also be learnt through reinforcement and vicarious reinforcement.

Question 17

Bandura et al. (1961), method

Answer 17

• 36 girls and 36 boys with a mean age of 52 months took part in the study,
• Study had a matched participants design (children matched on ratings of aggressive behaviour shown in their nursery school),
• Had three conditions,
• In first condition, children observed aggressive adult models playing with a bobo doll,
• In the 2nd, children observed non-aggressive models playing with other toys and ignoring the bobo doll,
• In the 3rd, a control condition; children had no exposure to the models,
• The children’s behaviour was then monitored for 20 minutes in a room containing aggressive toys and non-aggressive toys.

Question 18

Bandura et al. (1961), results

Answer 18

• Children exposed to aggressive models imitated a lot of their aggressive behaviour,
• Children in the non-aggressive and control conditions showed barely any aggressive behaviour,
• Aggressive behaviour was slightly higher in the control condition than in the non-aggressive condition.

Question 19

Bandura et al. (1961), conclusion

Answer 19

• Aggressive behaviour is learned through imitation of others behaving aggressively.

Question 20

Bandura et al. (1961), evaluation

Answer 20

• Study provides evidence for social learning theory,
• Strict control of variables; results likely reliable; study can be replicated,
• has low ecological validity; artificial situation,
• Difficult to generalise; limited sample; children all from the same school,
• Study encouraged aggression in children; could be an ethical problem.