Behaviourism
- Created by: Molly Mack
- Created on: 26-11-19 20:29
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- The Behaviourist Approach
- all behaviour is learning through association or reinforcement
- Assumptions
- based on observable behaviour
- This approach is only concerned with behaviour that can be observed and measured
- Basic processes are the same in all species
- This means that animals can replace humans as experimental subjects
- based on observable behaviour
- Classical Conditioning - Pavlov
- This is learning through association
- A neutral stimulus is continuously paired with a unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response
- Pavlov conducted research on this using dogs and conditioned them to salivate in response to a bell
- The unconditioned stimulus was food with the unconditioned response being salivation
- Food was paired with the neutral stimulus (a bell) to create a conditioned stimulus and response
- The unconditioned stimulus was food with the unconditioned response being salivation
- This is learning through association
- Operant Conditioning - Skinner
- Operant conditioning involves learning through consequence with reinforcement and punishment
- Positive reinforcement is increasing the likelihood of a behaviour repeated as it is rewarded
- Negative reinforcement is increasing the likelihood of a behaviour repeating through avoiding an unpleasant consequence
- Skinner's research involves pigeons responded to stimuli in specially designed Skinner boxes
- When a pigeon pecked a disc it would be rewarded with a food pellet
- The animal would continue to repeat the behaviour to receive the reward
- Skinner also showed that rats and pigeons could be conditioned to perform a behaviour to avoid a negative consequence
- When a pigeon pecked a disc it would be rewarded with a food pellet
- Operant conditioning involves learning through consequence with reinforcement and punishment
- Evaluation
- It is scientifically credible - it has helped psychology develop as a science
- It has real life application in token economy used in prison
- The approach has a mechanistic view of behaviour with humans acting as passive responders
- The approach has environmental determinism with behaviour being determined by our experiences
- The animal research used has ethical issues
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