Classical Conditioning - Behaviourism

?

What is Classical Conditioning?

An association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus to produce a response. 

Behaviourist approach - the view that behaviours are learnt and animals and people learn in the same way. It's easier to investigate using animals, as their enviornment can be controlled. 

PAVLOV'S DOGS:

  • Dogs were presented with an unconditioned stimulus - food 
  • The food caused the dogs to salivate - unconditioned response
  • The dogs were presented with a bell ringing - neutral stimulus
  • The bell on its own lead to no conditioned response 
  • The dogs were then presented with the bell ringing and the food being presented a few seconds later - this was done repeatedly.

Another study is Watson (1920s) - Little Albert: 

  • Watson conditioned Albert to be afraid of his pet rat - he paired it with a loud noise. After conditioning Albert showed extreme fear towards his pet rat.
  • He then presented him with other fluffy objects to see if the fear had been transferred and generalised to other fluffy objects.

Problems with Watson's experiment:

  • Ethics - lack of informed consent as Albert is a baby and cannot consent to it.
  •            - long-term psychological harm - becoming scared of normal everyday objects.
  • Sample - only one child is being experimented. A small sample size means that we cannot generalise results.
  • Ecological validity - study conducted in small lab setting - cannot be applied to other environments. Not a natural setting for the child which could impact the resuls.

Practical Applications 

- Can help us to explain the development of phobias.

OPERANT CONDITIONING - BEHAVIOURISM

- learning through consequences: 

  • positive reinforcement - increases the likelihood of behaviour…

Comments

No comments have yet been made