What is behaviourism?
A way of explaining human behaviour through observation
What are the 3 key assumptions of the behaviourist approach
- All behaviour is learnt through experience
- The brain isn’t important to understand behaviour
- Animals and humans learn in the same way
Define classical conditioning
Making an association between 2 stimuli
Describe the process of classical conditioning using pavlov
- pavlov noticed food made his dogs salivate unconditionally
- Pavlov rang a bell which produced no response
- Pavlov rang the bell then fed the dogs multiple times
- After conditioning pavlov rang the bell which made the dogs salivate (conditional response)
Draw the process of Pavlovs classical conditioning
Food———> salivate
Bell———> no response
Bell + Food ———> salivate (x multiple)
Bell———> salivate
What is the unconditional stimulus and response?
Automatic
What is the conditional stimulus and response?
Learnt
Describe the Little Albert case
- Albert not scared of animals but was scared of loud noises
- Watson and Raynor tried to condition him to be scared of white rats
- every time Albert touched the white rat they made loud noises
- Albert became scared of all fury animals because of generalisation
What is Operant conditioning?
Learning through consequences of our actions
What is reinforcement?
A consequence that increases the likelihood of behaviour being repeated
What is positive reinforcement?
A reward is given when certain behaviour is performed
What is negative reinforcement?
When an individual increases behaviour to avoid negative consequences
What is punishment ?
An unpleasant consequence that reduces likelihood of behaviour occurring again
What was the method of skinners first study, and what reinforcement did this support ?
Positive reinforcement
1. Rat moves around cage and accidently presses lever
2. Lever releases food, when food stops rat presses lever few more times then stops
3. Rat gets hungry and presses lever again
How did skinner extend his research
and what type of reinforcement was this?
Negative reinforcement
1. put rat in cage
2. floor shocks rats feet
3. rat learns to press the lever to stop electric floor
What are 2 limitations of the behaviourist approach?
-lacks generalisability (humans and animals are diff)
-mechanistic view of behaviour (only looking at observable features)
How does this approach lack generalisability and why is it a limitation?
Humans and animals have different psychological processes and humans have more complex thoughts therefore behaviorism doesnt accurately reflect human behavior
BUT little Albert is human
How does this approach have a mechanistic view of behavior?
It ignores mental processes and how complex humans are and fails to explain how humans are unique and behave differently in situations
What are 2 strengths of the behaviourist approach?
-Real life application
-Scientific credibility
it’s replicable and objective (collect physical evidence)
How does behaviorism have real-life applications?
operant conditioning- used in schools to improve behavior
classical conditioning- used to treat phobias by unlearning association (SD and flooding)
How can positive reinforcement be used in schools?
-Children perform good behavior they can be rewarded with eg sweets so they will perform this behavior again and learn
How does behaviorism have scientific credibility, how is this a strength?
It’s replicable and objective (can collect empirical evidence from observations)
This is a strength because it is accurate and not open to interpretation therefore we can trust it more
Behaviorism is a determinist approach (lack of free will)
What does this mean?
Is it a positive or negative?
Negative
The approach doesn’t consider the role of the thought process
It believes if something happens to us, we will respond in a certain way, and we have no free will
This is an extreme view as it doesn’t fit with human experience
