Behaviourism

In Pavlov’s study of dogs, what were the:

• UCS

• UCS

• NS

• CS

• CR

• UCR - food

• UCR - salivation

• NS - bell ringing

• CS - bell ringing

• CR - salivation

When does classical conditioning occur

When an association is made between 2 stimuli

In Watson’s study of Little Albert what were the:

• UCS

• UCR

• NS

• CS

• CR

• unconditioned stimulus - sound of bars

• unconditioned response - fear / crying

• neutral stimulus - rat

• conditioned stimulus - rat

• conditioned response - fear / crying

What’s the general structure for classical conditioning

1. UCS → UCR

2. UCS + NS → UCR

3. CS → CR

What can operant conditioning explain that classical conditioning can’t

• acquisition (obtaining) of new behaviour

What is positive reinforcement

• a positive reward makes the behaviour that led to it more likely to be acquired

• If a behaviour makes a pleasant stimuli occur, it’s more likely to be repeated

What is negative reinforcement

• a negative reward makes the behaviour that led to it more likely to be acquired

• If a behaviour stops an unpleasant stimuli, it’s more likely to be repeated

What is punishment

• a punishment makes the behaviour that led to it less likely to be acquired

• If a behaviour makes an unpleasant stimulus occur, it’s less likely to be repeated

Outline the use of operant conditioning in Skinner’s research with rats

• Positive reinforcement - pushing a lever causes food to come, makes the animal press the lever more often

• Negative reinforcement - pushing a lever that stops the electric shock, makes the animal press the lever more often

• Punishment - electric shock makes eating less likely

Explain why behaviourists rejected Wundt’s introspectionism and what they replaced it with

• there’s no objective validity of introspective reports of inner mental processes

• For behaviourists, psychology is the science of behaviour alone, not the mind

• Experiments are used to identify the external causes of behaviour, not the inner mental causes

What do behaviourists measure in their experiments

Behaviour which is observable