Behaviourist Approach

Created by: Shed16705
Created on: 19-09-21 15:27

Classical conditioning

All animals are born with a number of natural reflexes.
These reflexes are made up of a stimulus and a response.
When other stimuli are associated with this stimulus, they also trigger the same response.

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Pavlov's research

Pavlov's dogs.
Food = Salivation
Food + Bell = Salivation
Until (through 'association')
Bell = Salivation

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Strengths of classical conditioning

Led to the development of treatments for the reduction of anxiety associated with various phobias. This works by eliminating the learned anxious response and replacing it with a positive one.

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Limitations of classical conditioning

Different species face different challenges to survive, so have different capabilities to learn through the process of classical conditioning.

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Operant conditioning

Organisms spontaneously produce random behaviours that produce consequences. Whether or not the organism repeats the behaviour depends on the nature of the consequences.

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Positive reinforcement

Occurs when a behaviour produces a pleasant or satisfying consequence for the organism.
Skinner Box: Rats moved about the box until they hit a lever that released food. The rats began to push the lever in order to obtain food.

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Negative reinforcement

Works by removing something aversive, or unpleasant, from the environment and so restoring the organism to its 'pre-aversive' state.
Skinner box: Rats were shocked until they moved about and hit a lever. The rats would then hit the lever to stop it again.

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Strengths of operant conditioning

Relied upon the experimental method-controlled conditions to discover a causal relationship between two or more variables. This allowed Skinner to establish the cause and effect relationship between the consequences of a behaviour and its future frequency

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Limitations of operant conditioning

Skinner's experiments involved the study of non-human animals. Some claim this limits the the amount his findings can be applied to human behaviour as people have free will.

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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Pavlov's dogs.
Food = Salivation
Food + Bell = Salivation
Until (through 'association')
Bell = Salivation

Back

Pavlov's research

Card 3

Front

Led to the development of treatments for the reduction of anxiety associated with various phobias. This works by eliminating the learned anxious response and replacing it with a positive one.

Back

Card 4

Front

Different species face different challenges to survive, so have different capabilities to learn through the process of classical conditioning.

Back

Card 5

Front

Organisms spontaneously produce random behaviours that produce consequences. Whether or not the organism repeats the behaviour depends on the nature of the consequences.

Back

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Behaviourist Approach