behaviourist

AO1

• only interested in behaviour that can be observed and measured

• tries to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and relies on lab studies

• main assumption - all behaviour is learned, john locke believed that the mind is a blank slate or ‘tabula rasa’

• behaviourists identified two important forms of learning: classical and operant conditioning

• classical conditioning

  • pavlovs dog - dogs can be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food

  • gradually they learned to associate the sound of the bell with food and would produce saliva when they heard it, even when food was not present

  • thus, pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus can come to elicit a new learned response through association

• operant conditioning

  • skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment, behaviour is shaped by its consequences

  • skinner’s rat - every time the rat activated the lever, it was given a food pellet which encouraged it to to press the lever more, it would be shocked and pressing the lever would prevent this (negative reinforcement)

  • positive reinforcement - receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed

  • negative reinforcement - performing a certain behaviour to avoid something unpleasant and the outcome is positive

  • punishment - unpleasant consequence of behaviour

AO3

• one strength of the behaviourist approach is that research is well controlled

• behaviourists focus on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings. breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus-response units removes extraneous variables, allowing causal links to be established

• this increases the validity of the behaviourist approach because research has high internal validity and produces empirical data

  • CA - however, because behaviour is broken down into components, it is reduced and oversimplifies the learning process. researchers may have ignored important influences on behaviour such as thought and emotion. other approaches like SLT and the cognitive approach have drawn attention to mental processes involved in learning

  • this suggests that behaviour is more complex than just observable behaviour alone

• a strength of the behaviourist approach is that it has strong RWA and can be used to fix real problems

• operant condition have helped form the basis of token economy systems that have been used in institutions like prison and school. these work by rewarding appropriate behaviours with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges

• this increases the value of the behaviourist approach because it has widespread application

• one limitation of the behaviourist approach is that ignores the role that free will plays in human behaviour

• it sees all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences

• skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history; according to skinner, our past conditioning history determined the outcome

• this ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour

• this is an extreme position and ignores the influence of conscious decision making processes on behaviour. it could also be problematic to assume that people are a product of their environment and have no control over their behaviour

• therefore, the behaviourist approach is environmentally deterministic.