Behaviourism

What do behaviourists believe/assume?

• born as blank slates - all behaviour is learnt from the environment

• Animals + humans learn behaviour in the same way

How do behaviourist’s assumptions influence their experimental design?

• all behaviour is learnt - so, understanding principles of learning = main research goal

• Animals + humans learn in same ways → Animals can be used as research subjects bcs results should also be true for humans

What are the advantages of animal studies?

• they are easy to keep

• in many circumstances they don't know they are being studied and so behave 'naturally'

• procedures can be used with them which would be illegal with humans (bcs ethics) (eg: administering shocks as punishment to see the effect on learning)

• The 'mind' is irrelevant, so differences irrelevant - Behaviourists only observe quantifiable behaviour/stimulus → response, SO = ok to use animals instead of humans

What do behaviourists reject/ignore?

What do they focus on instead?

• reject idea of genetic/hereditary behaviours

• ignores cognition bcs cannot be seen (instead: stimulus → response)

• focus on observable events, conditions that make learning most likely to occur (sometimes known as ‘learning theory’ bcs of this)

What are the 2 types of learning behaviour?

1. Classical conditioning (Pavlov) - learning through association

2. Operant conditioning (Skinner) - learning through reinforcement

What is the process of classical conditioning?

Before:

• unconditioned stimulus → unconditioned response

• neutral stimulus → no response

During:

• neutral stimulus + unconditioned stimulus → unconditioned response

After:

• conditioned stimulus → conditioned response

Classical conditioning formula using Pavlov’s dog

Food → salivation
Bell → no response

Food + bell → salivation

Bell → salivation

How can classical conditioning be used to explain fear?

negative thing is repeated and becomes expected which leads to fear

What’s and example of classical conditioning

(can be AO1 or AO3 supporting research)

Little Albert:

• Aimed to show that classical conditioning → phobias

• 11 mnth old Albert

  1. white rat (NS) → no fear response

  2. Loud bang from metal bar (UCS) → fear response (UCR)

  3. NS + UCS → fear response

  4. White rat (CS) → fear response (CR)

  5. CR = projected onto similar stimuli (eg: Santa beard)

Classical conditioning

Evaluation of little albert study (positives (+) and negatives (-)

+ helped to develop systematic desensitisation therapy for phobias (reverse conditioning)

+ experimental method establishes clear cause and effect

- unethical (protection from harm), wouldn’t be repeated today

- Not everyone goes on to develop a fear or phobia after a negative situation, so learning theory can't be the full story

-/+ laboratory study, so lacks eco val as situation was artificial, BUT, results support Pavlov's idea of classical conditioning

What are variables of classical conditioning?

1. Timing - if timing b/w UCS + NS = too long, learning/conditioning won’t occur

2. Extinction - CR = NOT permanent, so if CS appears multiple times w/o the UCS shortly after learning, the CR will disappear

3. spontaneous recovery - post extinction, if conditioning occurs again, learning = much quicker

4. stimulus generalisation - CR can occur w/ other similar stimulus (eg: Little Albert becoming afraid of all fluffy things)

What is the difference b/w operant and classical conditioning?

• operant conditioning = voluntary response/behaviour

• classical conditioning = involuntary response

Operant Conditioning

What is reinforcement?

anything that encourages and increases the desired behaviour

Operant Conditioning

What are types of reinforcement/punishment?

1. Positive reinforcement = being rewarded w/ something additional after the behaviour to encourage it (eg: pocket money for chores)

2. Negative reinforcement = removal of something negative after the behaviour to encourage it (eg: taking away chores for good test result)

3. Punishment = addition of something negative after an undesired behaviour to discourage it (eg: no pocket money for bad test result)

Operant Conditioning

What are schedules of reinforcement?

• Continuous reinforcement: desired behaviour = reinforced every time it occurs, may result in stronger response

• Partial reinforcement: behaviour reinforced irregularly - may strengthen response bcs chance of reward OR weaker effect bcs not guaranteed

Example of operant conditioning/positive reinforcement:

• Skinner’s box (1938)

  1. the rat moves around cage until accidentally presses the lever

  2. food pellet (reinforcer) dropped into the cage

  3. rat begins to press the lever over and over to get food

  4. If pellets stop, after a few tries the rat abandons the lever (extinction)

Operant Conditioning

What variation of Skinner’s box showed negative reinforcement?

• rat given electric shock

• accidently knocks lever, shock stopped

• after a few times, the rat learned to press the lever to stop the shock

Evaluation: conditioning isn’t able to explain all human behaviour

Lots of evidence to show that animals + humans can learn by conditioning BUT also learn via observation/vicarious reinforcement (SLT), + evidence to show behaviour = genetic (eg: aggression + MAOA-L gene) → SO conditioning isn’t comprehensive

Evaluation: Extrapolation issues w/ animal studies (Pavlov’s Dog/Skinner (1938)’s box)

Extrapolation issues (findings yielded from animals are generalised to humans) → problematic bcs humans = more complex than animals → SO need more research on humans

Evaluation: Ethical issues w/ use of animals

cannot consent/understand what they’re going through = experiment, not real life → nowadays, researchers have to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of if it’s acceptable to use animals, + they must ensure animals = well looked after → unethical to replicate Skinner (1938)

Evaluation: practical application of classical conditioning

Theory/research used to develop systematic desensitisation to treat phobias → eliminates learned anxious response (CR) associated with the phobia (CS) by replacing anxiety w/ relaxation as the CR → seen to be effective w/ phobias like arachnophobia

Evaluation: Operant conditioning is based on experimental research

eg: Skinner (1938)’s box → used experimental method (by manipulating the consequences of behaviour (IV) = able to measure the effects on the rat’s behaviour (DV)) → established cause + effect b/w consequences and future frequency of behaviour

Evaluation: Reductionist

Ignores emotion/cognitive → limits the perspective + oversimplifies complex processes → although true that studying cognition = less scientific, it may give more complete explanation of behaviour, as shown by the SLT

Evaluation: environmentally determinist

Ignores freewill - believe all behaviour can be predicted/determined by stimulus and response → suggests people = product of environment → environmentally determinist