Psychology (The behaviourist approach)

Main assumptions:

Ø  All behaviour consist of response to certain stimuli

Ø  Behaviours is learned from our environment

Ø  Behaviour is determined by reinforcements (positive or negative) of the things we do

Ø   Psychology study observable behaviour rather than the mind (which cannot be observed)

Ø  Animal and human findings can be generalised.

Ø  Reductionism believe (can be broken down into its simplest form)

Ø  Determinist (that all behaviour is out of our controls- causing problems in courts)

The approach states that behaviours is shaped by the environments. Like we are born with a blank slate. There are two key features of the approach

Classical conditioning:
Learning through association between two stimuli that occur together in time. We are born with reflexes (e.g. salvation) and others that we lean.

Ivan Pavlov, wanted to test association by completing an experiment involving conditioning between a dogs salvation and food:

Stage 1                                                    
Unconditioned stimulus                                            Unconditioned response
(The Food)                                                                          (Salvation)  

Stage 2
Unconditioned stimulus)          +       Conditioned stimulus       Unconditioned response
(The food)                                                (The bell)               …