THE BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH Flashcards
THE BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH
why did the behaviorist approach reject introspection as a method in experimentation
they thought it was vague as it didn’t focus on observable events
what do behaviourists believe
they believe that much of human behavior can be explained in terms of a basic form of learning known as conditioning, which involves the use of associations and consequence.
describe what operant conditioning is
organisms spontaneously produce different behaviors, and these behaviors produce consequences for that organism. some desirable and some undesirable. Whether the behavior is repeated depends on the nature of these consequences.
describe operant conditioning in terms of the skinners box experiment
operant conditioning is learning through consequence. Skinner’s experiment identified the learning theory using rats. in one condition a rat was placed in a box that had a button that stimulated the dispenser and a food dispenser. in the first minute the rat did not do anything, until it accidentally pressed the button which dispenced food. the rat then noticed the connection and continued to press the button. showing that a behavior can be learned as long as a good feeling is produced such as food. we call this positive reinforcement. we as humans can also learn through negative reinforcement as also shown by Skinner’s experiments. the rats were placed into a box with an electrically induced, the rats also had a button but this time the button turned off the electrical current to the box floor. meaning that relief, which is also a pleasurable feeling is produced when it was pressed. so the rats produced a learned behaviour that produced a relief feeling.
describe the term classical conditioning
classical conditioning is learning through association. all animals are born with number of natural reflexes such as salivation when food is present. these reflexes are made up of a stimulus and its naturally associated response. when other stimuli are constantly associated with this stimulus then it then also produces this response. for example in pavlovs research where he used dogs to understand more about learning. the dogs salivated when they were given food. this is the unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response working. but if a neutral stimulus such as the sound of a bell is introduced, if constantly associated. the bell sound will begin to produce a salivating response. this is an example of the neutral stimuli becoming a conditioned stimulus and the saliva becoming the conditioned response to the new stimuli
why will the conditioned stimulus not produce a response after the stimulus has been used where no pleasure is gained out of it.
after a while or after the stimulus doesn’t create pleasure the learned response will slowly diminish. however, the conditioning will be picked up faster than the first conditioning if pleasure is given again
how can classical conditioning be applied to therapy?
systematic desensitisation is a therapy based on classical conditioning. it works by eliminating the learned anxious response (CR) that is associated with a feared object or situation (CS). it is then possible to eliminate one learned response (anxiety) by replacing it with another (relaxation) so that anxiety is no longer the conditioned response
why is classical conditioning only appropriate for some learning?
because different species face different challenges to survive, some relationships between Conditioned stimulus and Unconditioned stimulus are more difficult to establish. Seligman proposed the concept of preparedness to explain this. animals are yet prepared to learn associations that are significant in terms of their survival needs (smell of meat is associated with food) yet unprepared to learn associations that are not significant to them (bell- food associations) so it can be disrupted by individual differences between species. so Pavlov study may not apply to humans.
what is a strength of skinners research in support of operant conditoning
a particular strength of Skinner’s research was his reliance on the experimental method using controlled conditions to discover a possible relationship between variables. this allowed him to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the consequences of behavior and the future frequency of its occurrence.
if there is no good consequence to a behaviour, eventually the behaviour will stop. which key concept is this
extinction
why does the behaviourist approach have scientific credibility
because behaviorism was able to bring in the language and methods used by natural scientists into psychology by measuring the behavior in controlled lab settings. so the approach gave psychology a scientific credibility allowing it to be more accepted as a science
how has operant conditioning been applied to real life.
the token economy system which is based on operant conditioning is used in prisons and psych wards. these reward appropriate behavior with tokens. so that behaviors can be conditioned to create pleasure. which induces more of the behaviour.
discuss ethical issues within behaviourist experimentation
often behaviourist studies use animals in experiments. some feel this is unethical as animals have been exposed to stressful events. the cause of distress effects the animal with harm, so some see this approach as unethical.
