Behaviourists

Question 1

How is behaviour learnt according to behaviourists?

Answer 1

All behaviour is learnt through direct experiences in our environment

Question 2

Who are the 2 researchers in this approach?

Answer 2

• Pavlov
• Skinner

Question 3

What are the 2 types of conditioning?

Answer 3

• classical
• operant

Question 4

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 4

All behaviour is learnt through associations

Question 5

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 5

All behaviour is learnt through consequences

Question 6

Outline Pavlov’s study

Answer 6

Pavlov’s Dog

• Before conditioning: Food (UCS) = Saliva (UCR)
• During conditioning: Food (UCS) + Bell (NS) = Saliva (UCR)
• After conditioning: Bell (CS) = Saliva (CR)

Question 7

What are the 4 features of classical conditioning?

Answer 7

• Timing,
• extinction
• spontaneous recovery
• stimulus generalisation

Question 8

How does timing affect conditioning?

Answer 8

If there is a long interval between the NS and the UCS, conditioning wont take place.
The NS cannot be used to predict the UCS because the timing interval is too long

Question 9

What is extinction?

Answer 9

CS without the UCS looses its ability to produce the CR

Question 10

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 10

After extinction, if CS and UCS paired together the link is made quickly

Question 11

What is stimulus generalisation?

Answer 11

Once conditioned, they will respond to other stimuli that are similar to the CS

Question 12

Outline Skinners study

Answer 12

Skinners Rat

• When lever was pressed = food received
• Changed box to give shock = lever pressed to stop
• to study punishment if lever pressed = shock given

Question 13

What is positive reinforcement ?

Answer 13

Behaviour more likely to be repeated if followed by positive consequence

Question 14

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 14

We learn to continue a behaviour if it leads to the removal of an unpleasant consequence

Question 15

A03 - Strength of Classical conditioning - development of treatments

Answer 15

• development of treatments for reduction of anxiety associated with various phobias
• For example, systematic desensitisation is a therapy based on classical conditioning
• This therapy works for eliminating the conditioned response (CR), anxiety, that is associated with the stimuli (CS)
• The therapist replaces the CR of the anxiety with another one (relaxation)
• This approach has been effective for a range of phobias like arachnophobia and aerophobia
• Therefore the behaviourist approach has provided significant contribution to our understanding and treatment of phobias

Question 16

A03 - Limitation of Classical conditioning - Different capabilities

Answer 16

• Different species have different capabilities to learn through classical conditioning, as they face different challenges to survive
• For some species the CS and UCS are hard to establish
• Seligman proposed the concept of preparedness
• some animals are prepared to learn associations in terms of their survival needs (e.g. dogs learn to associate smell of meat with food)
• yet unprepared to learn associations that are not significant to them (e.g. harder to associate sound of bell with food)
• Suggests that CC may explain some behaviours better than others and that the learning process may be influenced by innate evolutionary drives

Question 17

A03 - Strength of Operant conditioning - reliance on experimental methods

Answer 17

• One strength of OC is its reliance on experimental methods, which uses controlled conditions
• Skinner’s reliance on Skinner’s box allowed us to establish a cause and effect relationship
• By manipulating the consequences of the behaviour (IV), he was able to measure the effects on the rats behaviour (DV)
• Therefore, Skinner’s conclusions have high internal validity
• This means that we can be sure that the learnt behaviour was a result of the direct consequence of an action

Question 18

A03 - Limitation of Operant conditioning - uses animals

Answer 18

• Skinner used non-human animals than humans ones.
• Critics argue that Skinner’s reliance on rats and pigeons tell us little about human behaviour
• They argue that humans have free will, rather than having behaviour determined by positive and negative consequences
• Skinner counter-argued thar free will is merely an illusion and what we believe are behaviours chosen through free will are actually products of external influences that guide our behaviour on a daily basis
• Therefore, Skinner had no issues with generalisability
• However, human behaviour is driven by complex emotions and thoughts so it’s impossible for all these processes to be observed