Topic 4: Approaches in Psychology Flashcards
(66 cards)
What are the assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
- Studies behaviour which can be observed and measured.
- Relied on controlled and objective lab studies
- All behaviour is learned- a baby is born as a blank slate that is written on by experience.
- Basic processes which govern learning are the same in all species.
What is classical conditioning?
Learning by association, when an UCS and a NS are repeatedly paired together, to produce a new CS and CR.
What is Pavlov’s research on classical conditioning?
- Before conditioning: Food (US) produces salivation (UR)
- Bell (NS) produces no response
- During conditioning: Bell (NS) + Food (US) produces salivation (UR)
- After conditioning: Bell(CS) produces salivation (CR)
What is operant conditioning?
A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by it’s consequences.
What is positive reinforcement?
Receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed, encourges the behaviour to be repeated.
What is negative reinforcement?
Occurs when you avoid an unpleasent situation, the outcome is a positive experience. Encourages the behaviour to be repeated.
What is punishment?
An unpleasent consequence of behaviour, decreases the likelihood the behaviour will be repeated.
What was Skinner’s research on operant conditioning?
Everytime a rat activated a lever within the box it was rewarded a food pellet, it would continue to perform this behaviour - positive reinforcement.
Each time it pulled the lever it avoided an electric shock- negative reinforcement.
What is a strength of the behaviourist approach? (Well controlled research)
By breaking down behaviour into simple stimulus response units, it removes any extraneous variables, allowing cause and effect relationships to be established. Suggests behaviourist experiments have high scientific credibility.
What is a limitation of the behaviourist approach? (Well controlled research)
Behaviourists may have oversimplified the learning process. By reducing behaviour to such simple components they may have ignored the importance of human thought on learning. Other approaches focus more on mental processes. Suggests that learning is more complex than observable behaviour alone and mental processes are also essential.
What is a strength of the behaviourist approach? (Real world application)
Operant conditioning is the basis of the token economy system that is used in prisons and psychiatric wards. These work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges. Increases the value of the approach.
What is a limitation of the behaviourists approach? (Environmental determinism)
The approach sees all behaviour as conditioned by past experiences. Skinner says that everything we do is the sum of our reinforcement history. Ignores any possible influence of free will on our behaviour. Ignores the influence of any conscious decision making system on our behaviour.
What is the extra evaluation point for the behaviourist approach? (Ethical issues)
Controlled conditions are important for research, but not good for the animals, e.g they were kept below their natural weight so were always hungry.
What are the assumptions of social learning theory?
- People learn through the observation and imitation of others
- Learning can occur directly (through conditioning) or indirectly
What is imitation?
Copying the behaviour of others
What is identification?
When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like them
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Occurs through observing someone else being rewarded for a behaviour.
What are mediational processes?
Cognitive factors which influence learning and come between stimulus and response
What are the 4 mediational processes?
Attention- The extent to which we notice certain behaviours
Retention- How well the behaviour is remembered
Motor reproduction- The ability of the observer to perform the behaviour
Motivation- The will to perform the behaviour
What is modelling?
From the observers perspective it is imitating the behaviour of the role model. From the role models perspective it is the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer.
What makes someone a role model?
If they have similar characteristics to an observer but are of a high status and/or are attractive
What was Bandura’s first study to investigate social learning theory?
He recorded the behaviour of children who watched an adult behave in an aggressive way towards a bobo doll.When these children were later playing with the doll they demonstrated much more aggressive behaviour than the people who had observed a non aggressive adult.
What was Bandura’s second study to investigate social learning theory?
Showed videos to children where adults behaved aggressively towards a bobo doll, one group saw the adult praised for their behaviour and a second group was punished, a third group saw the aggression with no consequence. When given their own doll, the first group showed much more agression, followed by the third and then the first.
What is a strength of the social learning theory? (Cognitive factors)
Classical and operant conditioning cannot account for learning on their own. We store infomation about the behaviours of others and use this to make judgements about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions. SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of learning by recognising the role of mediational processes.
