Behaviourist Approach:Evaluation

Behaviourist Approach:Evaluation

1. Strengths

   • Behaviourists' use of rigorous, experimetal methods of research enhances the credibility of psychology as a scientific discipline.
   • The approach provides strong arguments for the nurture side of the debate
   • It has provided a number of practical applications and techniques to shape behaviour, e.g. rewards in education

2. Weaknesses

   • Ignores the mental processes that are involved in learning unlike the cognitive approach which see them as important
   • Rejects the possible role of biological factors
   • Behaviourists view humans as passive learners unlike humanistic psychologists who view humans as active agaents
   • The principles of operant and classical conditioning do not account for spontaneous behaviour in humans
   • The use of animals in applying laws of learning to humans has been criticised. People argue that we are more complex than animals.