Approaches in psychology

What is the behaviourist approach

All animal and human behaviour is learnt through the environment rather than feelings or genetics

Classical conditioning

Where an involuntary natural reflex becomes associated with a new stimulus eg. Little albert experiment/ pavlov’s research

What is Pavlov’s research

Classical conditioning where Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate at food to begin with which evolved to salivating to a tone

What is operant conditioning

B F Skinner

Where voluntary behaviour is modified by good or bad consequences

What is positive reinforcement

Increasing the frequency of a behaviour by adding a good stimulus or a reward when the behaviour is performed

Eg. A house point for good work

What is negative reinforcement

Increasing the frequency of a behaviour by removing or avoiding a negative stimulus

Eg. Stopping an alarm clock to stop the annoying noise. By pressing stop you remove the negative stimulus (noise)

What is positive reinforcement in terms of skinners experiment

A hungry rat accidentally presses a button in skinners box which releases food, causing the behaviour to be repeated

What is negative reinforcement in terms of skinner’s experiment

When a rat is in the box, there is electric shocks through the floor. The lever stops this. The rat learns quickly to press the lever to stop the current

who were the subjects in skinners experiment

• hungry rats

• in a skinner box with a evel that releases food

what is punishment

• an unpleasant consequence that decreases the likelihood of behaviour being repeated

strengths of skinners experiment

• high internal validity, lab conditions meant clear cause and effect

what is real world application of skinners experiment

• token economy situations in prisons and psychiatric hospitals where good behaviour is exchanged for priveledges

weakness of skinners experiment

• human behaviour is much more comp,ex than animals, driven by cognitive processes

• implies all behaviour is shaped purely by external causes, ignoring choice and free will

What is the social learning theory (SLT)

• behaviour learnt by observing and imitating others

What are meditational processes in SLT

Internal mental processes between observing and imitating behaviour

What is imitation

Copying the behaviour of a role model

What is identification in SLT

Identifying with a role model and being more likely to imitate them

What is vicarious reinforcement

Seeing a role model rewarded for their behaviour making it more likely to be imitated

What are the 4 meditational processes

• attention - we notice certain behaviours

• Retention- remembering observed behaviour

• Motor reproduction - individual replicates said behaviour

• Motivation- individual seeks to demonstrate behaviour they’ve observed

Whats the role of a role model in SLT

Their behaviour and consequences are observed and imitated

What did bandura’s bobo doll experiment demonstrate

Whether children would imitate aggressive behaviour when the observe an adult model

What did bandura’s research find

Children exposed to an aggressive role model showed more aggressive behaviour

What does bandura’s research say about learning behaviour

Children can learn new behaviour through observing and imitating others