behaviourist approach

what is classical conditioning?

when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus

what was the procedure of pavlovs dogs?

• he presented a neutral stimulus which was a bell

• he presented an unconditioned stimulus food to see an unconditioned response of salivation

• he then presented the bell with the food over multiple trials

• he then presented the bell by itself to see if conditioned response occurs and if bell turned into conditioned stimulus

what was the findings of pavlovs study?

• he found that the dog made an association between the bell and food

• bell turned into conditioned stimulus

• bell produced conditioned response of salivation

what is generalisation?

• when slight changes in the conditioned stimulus still produces the same conditioned response

• application of learned behaviours onto new stimuli

what is discrimination?

what is operant conditioning?

a type of learning where behaviour is acquired and maintained based on its consequences

what is positive reinforcement

when behaviour is more likely to be repeated because of receiving a reward

what is negative reinforcement?

when behaviour is more likely to be repeated when a negative consequence is taken away

what is punishment?

when behaviour is less likely to be repeated because of a negative consequence

describe skinner box

• positive reinforcement = food pellet when lever is pressed

• negative reinforcement = loud noise stopped when lever is pressed

• punishment = electric shock when lever was pressed

strengths of behaviourist approach

• practical applications ( classical conditioning led to therapies for phobias like SD and flooding )

• scientific

limitations of behaviourist approach

• hard deterministic (disagrees w idea of free will explain that all behaviour is learned)

• reductionist