behaviourist approach ao3 Flashcards
(4 cards)
strength of behaviourist approach - scientific …
scientific credibility
rejected introspection instead encouraging objective research
broke down behaviour into basic stim and response … extraneous variable removed… cause and effect relationiship established. For example skinner showed how reinforcement affected behaviour in his skinners box experiment. An example of how he removed an extraneous variable could be how he placed the rat in an unfamiliar setting where he didn’t have previous knowledge of pressing the leaver to release food reward. Thus providing us with objective research and removal of bias.
strength of behaviouist - irl app
P: one strength of the behaviourist approach is its real life application.
E; for example operant conditioning forms basis of token economy in institutions like prisons, whereby good behaviour is rewarded w tokens that can be exchanged for priveldges. This works via adding a pleasant consequence to increase behaviour (positive reinforcement.) additionally it has also made contributions to our understanding of anxiety disorders like phobias and how they are a consequence of previous negative learning expirmevs and associations between stimuli (cc) producing phobic responses. This has allowed psychologists to develop therapies like systematic desensitisation and flooding in an attempt to recondition fear response. Additionally some addictions like gambling can be better understood by oc whereby rewards from gambling reinforce destructive behaviour.
L; this approach thus has real life applications that can give people in society who suffer from bad habits or anxiety disorders a means to improve their quality of life.
weakness of behaviouist
reduc.. and animal
However an counterpoint to the behavioursist approach is that it’s rigorous scientific method by breaking down complex behaviours into basic stimulus and response units means tehyve adopted a reductionist approach which oversimplifies learning process , ignoreing free will and individual motivation on the cognitive system. And thus it could be argued that findings from studies may not be an accurate representation of behaviour. Additionally the behaviourist approach uses animal studies this could be considered as unethical as non human ppts cannot consent to participation. Also the question of whether or not findings from animal studies can be generalised to human behaviour must also be brought into question. Thai is due to the fact that humans have much more complex minds that animals. So this means that the behaviourist reductuodnt approach and use of animal studies limit its generalisability to real life.
not accurate representation of complex behaviour
strength - behavourist concepts building blocks for other theories
behavourist concepts building blocks for other theories. its scientific principles in work done on operant conditioning and the establishment of cause and effect relationships allowed for the establishemt of the cuploard love thery of attachment proposed by dollard and miller cc and oc principles eg association of food w mother cs sat.
thus supporting the cred of cconcepts and in building the understaning of mother infant attachment
