Behaviourist Approach Flashcards
Assumptions
We are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) where all our behaviours are learnt from experiences (except primary drives) via reforcement and punishment or association
reinforcement
strengthens behaviour
punishment
stops behaviour
methods
lab
usually animal
Classical conditioning
When an associative link is forged between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned response
Pavlov
trained dogs to salivate when a bell rings
- food (UCS) -> salivate (UCR)
- food (UCS) + bell (NS) -> salivate (UCR)
- bell (CS) -> salivate (CR)
Little Albert
- noise (UCS) -> fear (UCR)
- noise (UCS) + rat (NS) -> fear (UCS)
- rate (CS) -> fear (UCS)
went on to fear anything white and fluffy
Operant conditioning
Skinner
- +/ve reinforcement
- -/ve reinforcement
- punishment
+/ve reinforcement
recieve reward when behaviour performed
-/ve reinforcement
avoiding something unpleasant when behaviour is performed
OC: punishment
unpleasant consequence of behaviour
Skinner’s Box
Rat activates lever so rewarded with food -> behaviour repeated
press lever to avoid electric shock -> behaviour repeated
AO3 + application
- systematic desensitisation for phobias (CC)
- token economy in modifying behaviours (OC)
AO3 + controlled research
scientific credibility
- controlled lab experiment
- broke info down into stimulus-response links
- studies causal relationship
AO3 - oversimplify learning
ignore important processes of behaviour e.g. thought in learning more complex than observation
