Edexcel Psychology A-level Unit 2: Learning Theories and Development Notes

The Learning Approach: Behaviorism

• Introduction and Assumptions
  • The behaviorist approach explains behavior as acquired and maintained through classical and operant conditioning.
  • Only objectively measured and observed behavior is studied (e.g., Skinner's Box).
  • Watson and Skinner disagreed with Wundt’s subjective introspective methods due to the inability to formulate general laws and universal principles.
  • The basic laws governing learnings are the same across humans and non-humans, justifying the use of animals in experiments.

Classical Conditioning

• Definition: Learning through associations between an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus.
  • Before conditioning: UCS produces UCR.
  • During conditioning: NS is paired with UCS, producing UCR.
  • After conditioning: NS becomes CS, producing CR.
• Pavlov's Dog Experiment:
  1. Before conditioning: Food (UCS) → Salivation (UCR).
  2. During conditioning: Food (UCS) + Bell (NS) → Salivation (UCR).
  3. Association made: Food and Bell.
  4. After conditioning: Bell (CS) → Salivation (CR).
• Extinction: Conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus, leading to conditioned response disappearing.
• Spontaneous Recovery: The conditioned response reappears after extinction.
• Generalization: Similar stimuli to the conditioned stimulus produce the conditioned response.

Operant Conditioning

• Definition: Learning based on the consequences of behavior.
  • Reinforcement: Increases the likelihood of repeating a behavior.
  • Punishment: Decreases the likelihood of repeating a behavior.
• Types of Reinforcement
  • Positive Reinforcement: Receiving a reward for a behavior (e.g., praise for completing homework).
  • Negative Reinforcement: Avoiding negative consequences by performing a behavior (e.g., completing homework to avoid detention).
• Skinner's Box
  • Positive reinforcement: Rats pressed lever → received food; they repeated the action.
  • Negative reinforcement: Rats pressed lever → avoided electric shock; they repeated the action.

Potential Applications (A02)

• Understanding the role of classical conditioning in phobias (e.g., Little Albert).
  • Extinction: Phobia diminishes when the conditioned stimulus (loud bang) is no longer paired with the conditioned response (crying).
  • Generalization: Phobia extends to similar objects (e.g., white, fluffy items).
• Differentiating classical and operant conditioning which involve different mechanisms demonstrated in different scenarios.

Evaluation (A03)

• Strengths:
  • Scientific Rigor: Use of scientific research methods and lab experiments increases reliability and internal validity.
  • Real-Life Applications: Development of treatments and therapies for mental disorders (e.g., token economies for offenders).
• Weaknesses:
  • Environmental Determinism: Neglects free will, conscious choices, emotions, motivations, and reasoning skills, limiting its explanation of human behavior.
  • Ethical Issues: Use of animals (Skinner's box) and humans (Little Albert) in experiments raises ethical concerns regarding harm and protection of participants.
  • Cost-benefit analyses may justify unethical research due to increased understanding of learning types.

The Learning Approach: Social Learning Theory (SLT)

• Introduction and Assumptions
  • Learning done directly with classical/ operant conditioning and indirectly with vicarious reinforcement.
  • Stages of Learning:
    1. Observer identifies with a desirable role model.
    2. Role model displays behavior.
    3. Observer imitates behavior.
    4. Vicarious reinforcement increases imitation likelihood.
• Role Model: A person the observer identifies with, often attractive, of high status, similar age/gender. Models influence indirectly by being present in media.
• Identification: Observer associates/relates to a role model and wants to be more like them.
• Vicarious Reinforcement: Observer sees role model rewarded for behavior, motivating imitation to receive the same reward.
• Mediational Processes: Cognitive processes between stimulus and response.
  • 4 Mediational Processes:
    • Attention
    • Retention
    • Motor Reproduction
    • Motivation
• First two mediational processes pertain to the observation of behavior; the latter two pertain to imitating said behavior. Observed behaviors don't always need to be reproduced at the same time.

Potential Applications

• Bandura’s Bobo Doll Study (1961)
  • Children exposed to aggressive models (real-life, film, cartoon) behaved more aggressively toward a Bobo doll.
  • Aggression linked to social learning theory.
• Topics include why some individuals are chosen as role models, individual differences in the use of mediational processes and the influence of media following SLT.
• Comparisons with other approaches, specifically behaviorism, suggesting SLT is a better explanation for human behavior.

Evaluation

• Weaknesses:
  • Ignores Biological Differences: Does not account for biological and hormonal factors between genders.
    Boys exhibited more imitative aggression, aggressive gun play, and more non-imitative aggressive behavior as testosterone has been linked to increased aggressiveness.
  • Demand Characteristics:
    • Bobo doll experiments may lack internal validity since the dolls are specifically designed to be struck.
      Participants may have been deliberately acting more aggressively towards the doll in order to please the experimenter, which reduces the generalizability of the findings.
• Strengths:
  • Acknowledges Human Cognition: Recognizes the role of mediational processes in human behavior, making it a better exclamation of human behavior compared to Behaviorism.

Key Study: Becker et al (2002)

• Investigated the link between media exposure and eating disorders, with focus on classic conditioning/social learning theory.
• Fiji studied as a natural experiment, since the island was one of the last to receive satellite TV.
• 128 female participants (average age of 17) completed the EAT-26 questionnaire before being interviewed on diet changes and importance of weight in 1995 and 1998.
• Researchers found a 30% increase in TV exposure, with 74% reporting body image dissatisfaction in 1998.
• Qualitative data showed comparison between the girls and role models on TV, supporting modeling and social learning theory for disordered eating behavior.
• Weaknesses:
  • Generalizability: Fiji had strong cultural beliefs about beauty norms that were different from those in the Western world.
    The study had a small sample size and the findings are culture-bound. The result can't be applied to Western cultures where teenagers are typically exposed to ‘skinny’ role models from an early age by growing up with TV as a cultural norm.
• Strengths:
  • Methodology: Recorded interviews allowed content analysis to assess comment frequencies objectively, increasing validity.
• Validity:
  • The fact that the study was a natural experiment and this lead to extraneous/confounding variables not being controlled. It is naive to assume that eating behavior is the only aspect influenced by TV.

The Behavioral Approach to Explaining Phobias

• Mowrer suggested that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and then maintained through operant conditioning.
• Watson and Rayner demonstrated how Little Albert associated the fear caused by a loud bang with a white rat.
  • White rat (NS) → no response.
  • Loud bang (UCS) → fear (UCR).
  • Rat (CS) → fear (CR).
  • Conditioning generalized to other objects (e.g., white fluffy Santa Claus hats).
• Operant conditioning takes place when a behavior is rewarded or punished. Phobics practice avoidance behaviors to avoid the phobic stimulus. By avoiding such an unpleasant consequence, the avoidance behavior is negatively reinforced and likely to be repeated again, hence maintaining the phobia.
• Strengths:
  • Explains how phobias are acquired and maintained, translating to practical benefits in systematic desensitization and flooding.
  • Mowrer emphasizes exposure to the phobic stimulus to prevent negative reinforcement of avoidance behavior.
• Weaknesses:
  • Buck suggested safety is a greater motivator for avoidance behavior vs. avoiding anxiety. Buck demonstrates this thought process when he uses the example of social anxiety phobias.
  • Seligman suggested we are more likely to develop phobias toward 'prepared' stimuli. Running away from such stimuli increases the likelihood of survival and reproduction, and so this behavior has a selective evolutionary advantage.

The Behavioral Approach to Treating Phobias

• Systematic desensitization is a behavioral therapy designed to reduce phobic anxiety through gradual exposure to the phobic stimulus, using counterconditioning and reciprocal inhibition.
• Process:
  1. Patient and therapist create an anxiety hierarchy.
  2. Therapist teaches relaxation techniques.
  3. Patient works up the hierarchy, progressing only when calm at the present level.
  4. Cure is achieved when the patient can remain calm at the highest anxiety level.
• Strengths:
  • Supporting evidence: Gilroy et al. showed systematic desensitization reduced spider phobia symptoms compared to relaxation techniques alone.
  • Suitable for many patients: Including those with learning difficulties.
  • More acceptable to patients: due to low refusal rates.
• Flooding reduces phobic anxiety through immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus in a safe environment.
  • Without avoidance, the phobia is not maintained. It relies on the principle that it is impossible to maintain a state of heightened anxiety for a prolonged period, meaning that eventually, the patient will learn that the phobic stimulus is harmless.
• Strengths:
  • Cost-effective: Cures phobia in one session.
  • Weaknesses:
  • Less effective for complex phobias. Social phobias, for example, need cognitive therapy for the distal (as opposed to the mer proximal) causes of the phobia.