Behaviourist Approach Flashcards
Where is behaviour learned from?
All behaviour is learned from experiences within our environment.
What’s classical conditioning?
All behaviour can be explained in terms of classical conditioning where new behaviours are learnt through association
What’s an example of classical conditioning?
Pavlov’s dog study – noticed that when a dog is presented with food, they naturally salivated which is a hard-wired and involuntary response. However, when the dogs were presented with another stimulus (e.g., the sound of a bell) the dogs did not respond. Therefore, the bell was a neutral stimulus (NS), the food was an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), and the salivation was an unconditioned response (UCR). He measured the saliva by inserting a small test tube into the cheek of the dog. He then presented the dogs with the bell just before feeding them, and this was repeated many times. Pavlov found that the dogs formed an association between the bell and the food after many pairings, and they salivated when they heard the bell alone, even when they weren’t given food. As such, the bell had become a conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation was a conditioned response (CR)
What did Watson and Rayner investigate?
At 9 months, Albert was tested with a white rat, a rabbit, cotton wool and other stimuli to see if he had a fear reaction. He didn’t; this shows these were NS. The researchers also checked his fear response by banging an iron bar. Albert cried at the loud noise; this shows the noise was an UCS and the crying was an UCR.
At 11 months, Albert was conditioned. He was shown the white rat three times. Each time the rat was paired with striking the iron bar. Albert started to whimper. A week later, Albert was conditioned again. The rat was presented 3 times, paired with the noise. When the rat was later presented alone, Albert whimpered. The rat was paired with the noise again 2 more times. When the rat was presented alone another time, Albert cried. This suggests that the NS (rat etc) has now become a CS and Albert’s crying is a CR.
What’s operant conditioning?
Behaviour can be explained in terms of operant conditioning where new behaviours are learnt through – positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment.
What’s positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment?
Positive Reinforcement – repeat a behaviour to receive a pleasant consequence.
Negative Reinforcement – repeat a behaviour to avoid an unpleasant consequence.
Punishment – not repeating a behaviour to avoid an unpleasant consequence.
Does positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment increase or decrease the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated?
Positive and negative reinforcement (avoiding a negative consequence) increase the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated.
Punishment decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated (unpleasant consequence).
What did Skinner suggest?
Skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment.
What was Skinner able to demonstrate?
Skinner was able to demonstrate that pigeons can be conditioned to peck a coloured disk for food, by giving the positive reinforcement of food each time the behaviour is exhibited.
How did Skinner investigate operant conditioning?
Conducted experiments on rats, pigeons in cages called skinner boxes.
Every time the rat activated a lever (or pecked a disc) within the box, it was rewarded with a food pellet. From then on, the animal would continue to perform the behaviour. Also showed how rats and pigeons could be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid an unpleasant stimulus (e.g., electric shock) – positive/negative reinforcement.
What are the strengths of the behaviourist approach?
useful in helping us to understand the cause of phobias. We now know phobias are learnt through classical conditioning - associating the phobia with a past negative experience that generated anxiety. This is also maintained through operant conditioning, avoiding the situation which reinforces the behaviour. We can now treat phobias using conditioning so individuals associate their phobia with relaxation rather than anxiety.
Scientific because it uses lab/quasi experiments to investigate behaviour. Skinners rats or Pavlov’s dogs. This is a strength as high control of extraneous variables allows researchers to establish behaviourist cause & effect of behaviour. Standardised procedures allow experiment replication so behaviourist theories can be tested for reliability.
What are the limitations of the behaviourist approach?
determinist and believes we are governed by forces beyond our control. The behaviourist approach believes that behaviour is pre-set by how we are conditioned. Criminals that have been positively reinforced for stealing – ie money, praise, a ‘buzz’ are more likely to do this again and it is out of their control. This is a weakness as it takes responsibility away from criminals & gives them an excuse for their behaviour and has massive implications on our CJS. Such as criminals could receive shorter sentences for crimes.
reductionist as it over simplifies complex behaviour down to how we are conditioned. It states that phobias are only causes by classical conditioning and learning by association, and doesn’t consider that it may be due to evolution or genetics. This is a weakness as not considering the role of biology could give psychologists an inaccurate understanding of behaviour and therefore lead to misdiagnosis.
