Behaviourist Approach

Question 1

Behaviourist approach

Answer 1

an approach explaining behaviour and suggests that all behaviour is acquired and maintained through classical and operant conditioning

Question 2

Behaviourist

Answer 2

Believes that human behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without the need to consider thoughts or feelings.

Question 3

Who researched into classical conditioning

Answer 3

Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov in (1927)

Question 4

What was Pavlov aim of the study?

Answer 4

To investigate the salivary reflex in dogs when he noticed that animals not only salivate when theres food but when the stimuli was joined with the presention of food.

Question 5

Classical conditioning

Answer 5

Combination of UCS and UCR. Pairing a NS with the UCS turns the NS into a CS and the UCR into a CR.

Question 6

Key features of forming an association:

Answer 6

Timing
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Stimulus generalisation

Question 7

Key features of forming an association:

Timing

Answer 7

NS needs to predict the UCS (order/interval)

Question 8

Key features of forming an association:

Extinction

Answer 8

Without the NS the CR is lost

Question 9

Key features of forming an association:

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 9

Spontaneous recovery – Re-pairing brings back the association

Question 10

Key features of forming an association:

Stimulus generation

Answer 10

similar to CS

Question 11

Draw the diagram of Pavlov’s research during and after conditioning.

Answer 11

UCS → UCR
Food Salivation

UCS + NS → UCR
Food + Bell Salivation

CS → CR
Bell Salivation

Question 12

Operant conditioning

Answer 12

Learning through reinforcement or punishment. if a behaviour is followed by a desirable consequence then that behaviour is more likely to occur again.

Question 13

Skinner 1938

Answer 13

interested in behaviours that are freely made rather than those that are reflex/reflexive. Created the ‘skinner box/ in order to investigate operant conditioning in rats.

Question 14

Positive reinforcement (Adding)

Answer 14

A behaviour is followed by giving a rewarding stimulus e.g. prasing a child after they do something particular we will reinforce their good behaviour

Question 15

Negative reinforcement (Taking away)

Answer 15

A behaviour is followed by taking away something unpleasant e.g. the act of hitting the the ‘off’ button on an alarm clock removes the unpleasant ringing sound.

Question 16

Reinforcement (Strengthing)

Answer 16

Anything that strengths a response and increases the likelihood of it occuring again in the future

Question 17

Positive punishment (Adding/giving)

Answer 17

A behaviour is followed by giving an unpleasant stimulus e.g. being shouted at

Question 18

Negative punishment (Taking away)

Answer 18

A behaviour is followed by taking away a pleasant stimulus e.g. confiscating your phone

Question 19

Punishment (Weakens)

Answer 19

Involves the application of an unpleasant consequence with the result that the behaviour is less likely to occur again in the future

Question 20

One strength of classical condtioning is its application to the treatment of phobias.

Answer 20

E: Classical conditioning has led to the development of systematic desensitation - a treatment which reduces the anxiety associated with phobias

E: Systematic desensitation works by using the principles of classical conditioning to replace the learned response (anxiety) with another respone (relaxtion).

L; This matter bacuse systematic desensitation is an effective treatment for a range of phobias including arachnophobia (fear of spiders) an aerophobia (fear of flying)

Question 21

A criticism of classical conditioning comes other theories of learning
Seligam (1970)

Answer 21

E: Seligam (1970) proposed the concept of prepardeness to explain why some relationship are easier to establish than others.

E: For example, animals are prepared to learn associations that are significant in terms of their survival. A dog will quickly learn to assocaite them smell of meat with food, however, it is slower to learn the association with the sound of a bell and food.

L: This suggests that species have different to learn through the process of classical condtioning.

Question 22

One strength of operant conditiing is the use of experimental methods.

Answer 22

E: Skinners research uses controlled conditins to discover the casual relationship between two or more variables

E: Skinner’s use of the Skinner box allowed him to manipulate the consequnes or the behavour (IV) to measure the effect on the rat’s behaviour (DV)

L: This allowed him to establish a cause and effect relationship between positive and negative reinforcement and the likelihood of future behaviour.

Question 23

A criticism of the behavioursit approach is the reliance on non-human animals

Answer 23

E: Some psychologists claim that skinner’s reliance on rats and piegons means that were are unable to draw conlusions in relation to human behavior.

E: These psychologists argue that humans have free will and that our behaviour is not shaped by classical or operant conditing

L: This matters because psychologists may be unable to generalise the findings from animals to humans

Question 24

What and advantage of using scientific methods?

Answer 24

Able to discover a possible casual relationship between varables

Question 25

A final criticism of the behavourists approach is that it ignores other psychological explanations is that it ignores other psychological explanations

Answer 25

E: The behaviourists approach ignores cognitive and emotional factors, suggesting that humans are a product of conditining alone.

E: However, many psychologists argue that the human interaction is far more complicated than a simple stimulus-reinforcement relationship.

L: This matters because the behaviourist explanation may not provide a complete explanation of complex human behaviours, for example ‘love’

Question 26

What AO3 are you using for classical conditining

Answer 26

STRENGTHS
- Treatment for phobias

WEAKNESS
- Other theories of learning

Question 27

What AO3 are you using for Operant conditing?

Answer 27

STENGTHS

- the use of experimental methods

Question 28

What AO3 are you using for the behaviourist approach?

Answer 28

WEAKNESSES

• The reliance on non-human animals
• Ignores other psychological explnations