behaviourism

behaviourism

1. initially proposed by Watson - claimed introspection was unscientific - should adopt objective scientific methods (observation and measurement)

   • data should be behaviour
   • mental states not observable so no place in scientific psychology
   • too much emphasis on innate factors - consequent underestimation of environmental factors

2. approach emphasised common features in human / non-human animals

   • studies on rats / pigeons extrapolated to humans - took comparative approach
     • focused on learning in terms of classical conditioning and instrumental/operant conditioning
       • Little Albert was conditioned to develop a phobia of a rat

3. hugely influential perspective with strong explanatory power

   • practical applications include systematic desensitisation for phobias, behaviour modification for dealing with classroom disruption
   • criticized for ignoring role of cognition and other internal processes (expectancy) and underestimating possibility of innate biases in terms of what is learned
     • e.g. Garcia showed that rats easily learned to avoid a food associated with nausea - did not readily associate nausea with a visual stimulus