The behaviourist approach

types of conditioning

1. classical
2. operant

positive reinforcement

presence of rewards to increase the likelihood of desired behaviour

negative reinforcement

acting in a way to avoid an undesired outcome

punishment

consequence for an undesired action

reinforcement

something in the environment that strengthens a behaviour

extinction

after a few presentations of the CS in the absence of the UCS, it loses ability to produce CR

spontaneous recovery

following extinction, if the CS and UCS are paired, the response happens much quicker

Describe and evaluate Pavlov's study [8 marks]

AO1: Pavlov carried out research on dogs over 25 years and reported it in a series of lectures about Classical Conditioning.
Pavlov had been studying the dogs' salivary reflex but noticed that they started salivating at other things beside food - like the sight of the researchers or the sound of their approaching footsteps. To stop this, Pavlov built a special environment to test the dogs.
Pavlov tested that food produced saliva, but the sound of a tuning fork did not. This showed that the tuning fork was a neutral stimulus for the dogs.
After pairing the sound with food 20 times, the sound became a conditioned stimulus and Pavlov collected 11 drops of saliva after the dog heard it.
Pavlov claimed his research on dogs could be generalised to humans. He thought this because of the Theory of Evolution, which suggests that humans learn the same way animals do because we have the same ancestors.
A03: If this research does generalise to humans, it has many applications, such as aversion therapy, which uses conditioning to cure people of addictions.
However, aversion therapy doesn't always work on humans. Some alcoholics carry on drinking despite conditioning and aversion therapy was disastrous when it was used on homosexuals n the 1960s.
Another problem might be the artificial nature of Pavlov's tests, which involves the dogs being tied up in sealed cages. You cannot expect such unrealistic tests to explain or predict behaviour in the real world.
CONC: Pavlov's research has been hugely influential and inspired Behaviourist psychologists like Watson and Skinner. However, even if some human behaviour is learned by association, studies on dogs are never going to tell us everything about how humans learn.

2 assumptions

1. behaviour is learnt through the environment
2. observable behaviours, not mind should be studied

✅ AO3: classical conditioning

can be applied to treatments of certain phobias and mental disorders

❎ AO3: classical conditioning

only appropriate for some learning. not everyone will be affected the same positive way because all species face different challenges to survive

✅ AO3: operant conditioning (R)

can be used to treat psychiatric patients and prisoners by the token economy. tokens are exchanged for privileges

✅ AO3: operant conditioning (S)

scientific method - has credibility and can be replicated

❎ AO3: operant conditioning

makes people seem passive and mechanistic with no conscious control over their own actions. not everyone will also be affected the same way