Approaches - Key studies

Only AS content, so no psychodynamic or humanistic approaches.

Pavlov 1902 - Classical conditioning

Classically conditioned dogs to salivate to a bell. UCS (food) + NS (bell) → UCR (salivation). Repetition. CS (bell) → CR (salivation). By 45 seconds after the bell, the dogs produced 11 drops of saliva.

Skinner 1940s - Operant conditioning

Skinner placed a rat in a Skinner box (a box that featured a lever and a food chute).
Variation 1: Rat pressed the lever to receive food, positive reinforcement meant rat learned to press the lever for foo.
Variation 2: The Skinner box floor was mildly electrified and pressing the lever stopped the electrocution, negative reinforcement meant the rat learned to press the lever to stop the electrocution.

Watson and Rainer 1920 - Little Albert

Classically conditioned little Albert to develop a phobia of rats. Paired rat (NS) with a loud bang (UCS) to associate the fear of the noise onto the rat. His fear generalised to anything that resembled a rat. Unethical.

Bandura et al. 1961 - SLT

A lab study (using matched pairs design) to see how (72) children (aged 3-6) would act towards a bobo doll after observing an adult with the doll. Children either saw an adult act non-aggressively, aggressively or not at all towards a bobo doll. Each child was then left alone for 20 minutes with a range of aggressive and non-aggressive toys and covertly observed. Bandura found that those who observed aggression were more likely to also be aggressive than the children in the non-aggressive and control groups. They were more likely to imitate an adult of the same gender (boys more so than girls).
In a variation, those who saw a model be rewarded were more likely to imitate aggression. Those who watched a model get punished for aggression were less likely to imitate. Vicarious reinforcement.

Phineas Gage - biological approach

A metal pole went through the top of his mouth and brain. He survived but his personality/disposition changed. This led to psychologists beginning to link areas of the brain to specific areas of the brain. Phineas Gage experienced frontal lobe damage and this led to a lack of impulse control.