Behaviourist Approach - created from Mind Map

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founding father = JB Watson - criticised early introspective methods as being too subjective & invalid

Classical Conditioning

Key Assumptions

Operant Conditioning

Evaluation

suggested only studying behaviour as it's measureable & observable

behavioruism = used same scientific methods as natural sciences

learning by association

PAVLOV

studied how a dog's salivation helps them digest food & that they salivate before food - when they were hungry - associated with food

before conditioning food = UCS & salivation = UCR

during conditioning bell = no response & bell+food = UCS & salivation = UCR

after conditioning bell = CS & salivation = CR

behaviour learned from experience & emphasise role of the environment

observable & measureable scientifically

no difference between human & non-human behaviour

conditioning & reinforecemt/punishment

behaviour shaped & maintained by its consequences

SKINNER

Positive Reinforcement

Negative Reinforcement

Punishment

Real life application

learning is an active process

conducted experiments with rats - Skinner Boxes

hungry rat placed into a box & time taken recorded for rats to learn that pressing the lever would release food

with electric shocks for pressing the wrong thing - negative reinforcement

more time rat spent in the box - quicker thet larned to get the food from pressing the lever

involves pleaseant/positive consequence when a specific behaviour is performed

eg, student answers a queation correctly & is praised by their teacher

likely to increase likelihood a behaviour will be repeated

when something undesireable is avoided when something happens

eg, tidying your room to avoid being told off by a parent

likely to increase likelihood a behaviour will be repeated

an unpleasant consequence

'token economies' used with institutionalised patients

prisons

given scientific credibiltiy - observable & in highly controlled lab settings

broad range of real life application

cricised for adopting a mechanist view of human behaviour - no conscious insight from humans/animals about their behaviour

too deterministic - ignores any possible influence of freewill

no emphasis on mental events/on thinking