Behaviourism - Evaluation

2 strengths of behaviourism

-Gave psychology scientific credibility

-Main principles of learning have been used in real-life settings

Strength of behaviourism - Gave psychology scientific credibility

P: Gave psychology scientific credibility

E: Behaviourism uses lab experiments and emphasises importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replicability

C: Gave psychology greater credibility and status coz results more reliable and valid

What 2 scientific principles does behaviourism emphasise? (E)

Objectivity

Replicability

What type of experiments does behaviourism use?

Lab experiments

Why did behaviourism give psychodynamic credit and status? (C)

Results seen as reliable and valid

Strength of behaviourism - Main principles of learning used in real life settings

P: Main principles of learning used in real-life settings

E: Classical conditioning - token economy in prisons

C: Behaviourism applicable to range of real world behaviours and problems

How is classical conditioning applied to the real world? (E)

Token economy in prisons

2 limitations of behaviourism

-Portrays humans acting as machines

-Based heavily on animal research which has ethical and practical issues

2 issues of behaviourism using animal research

Ethical issues

Practical issues

Limitation of behaviourism - Portrays humans acting as machines

P: Portrays humans acting as machines

E: Humans seen as passive with no conscious thought or insight into own behaviour

C: Processes that mediate between stimulus and response suggest humans play a much more active role

Example of humans seen acting as machines in behaviourism

No conscious thought or insight into own behaviour

What suggests humans play a much more active role in own learning?

Processes that mediate between stimulus and response

Limitation of behaviourism - based heavily on animal research

P: Based heavily on animal research which has practical and ethical issues

E: Animals in Skinner's experiments subject to stressful and aversive conditions which might impact on their behaviour

C: Validity of results questioned coz behaviour observed might not be normal

Why might the behaviour observed in Skinner's study not be normal?

Animals subject to stressful and aversive conditions