behaviourist approach

What does the behaviourist approach believe?

behaviour is learnt directly from the environment

What are assumptions?

foundational beliefs upon which theories/models are built

What should behaviourists only study?

observable behaviour scientifically

What should you use to study the behaviourist approach scientifically?

experiments

What's a major influence in the behaviourist approach?

the environment

Why does the behaviourist approach use animal research?

humans and animals are similar so it helps understand humans

What's classical conditioning?

behaviour is learnt through association

What's an example of classical conditioning?

Pavlov

How does Pavlov use classical conditioning?

dogs associate bell with food, salivating when the bell is rung

What was Pavlov's process?

before conditioning, food is an unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response, salivation.

during conditioning, by pairing the ucs with the bell, a neutral stimulus, the dog salivates and will soon associate the bell with food

after conditioning, when the bell, a conditioned stimulus, is presented alone, the dog has a conditioned response, salivating at the bell alone as it associates the bell with food

What's operant conditioning?

behaviour is learnt through consequences

What's an example of operant conditioning?

Skinner's box

What happened in Skinner's experiment?

rats were places in a box and skinner changed the variations of the box to test operant conditioning.

What's positive reinforcement?

behaviour is more likely to be repeated if followed with a positive consequence

How's positive reinforcement used in Skinner's box?

if the rats pressed the lever, a food pellet drops. eventually the rats learnt to keep pressing the lever in order to get food

What's negative reinforcement?

behaviour is more likely to be repeated if followed with removal of a negative consequence

How's negative reinforcement used in Skinner's box?

the rats would constantly get electric shocks until they pressed the lever, which would stop the shocks. eventually the rats learnt to keep pressing the lever to avoid the electric shocks

What's punishment?

behaviour is less likely to be repeated if followed by a negative consequence

What's reinforcement?

increasing the frequency of behaviour