Behaviourist

Behaviourist

1. Assumptions

   • Conditioning.
     • Operant
       • Positive Reinforcement
         • Reward given for behaviour so it is repeated
       • Negative Reinforcement
         • Something negative is taken away everytime good behaviour is shown so it is repeated
     • Classical
       • conditioning by association
   • social learning theory
     • Children will copy behaviour of adults/ other people
     • Bandura - Booboo doll experiment
   • Blank slate
   • Animals and humans learn in a similar way

2. Aversion therapy

   • Aim is to counter condition the participants to get rid of bad addictions
   • An aversive stimulus such as feeling sick or negative thoughts in covert sensitisation is associated with the bad behaviour which makes the participant less likely to continue that behaviour
   • for example antabuse, a drug is given to an alcoholic which stops the break down of alcohol in the liver causing a person to feel sick within 10 minutes of having a drink
   • 52% abstinence rates for smoking
   • Higher rates for abstinance from alcohol than Counselling
   • However Miller found no difference in the results of aversion therapy and counselling except higher drop out rates
   • Causes psychological and physical harm
   • Re freshing is needed

3. Watson and Rayner

   • Controlled observation with one participant
   • The child was filmed during the experiment and it was done in a controlled lab enviroment
   • They did an emotional test to see what a child would react to more, the removal of emotional support or a loud bang
   • Sessions
     • 1 - 2x joint stimulation was done Jumped and fell both times
     • 2 -was prevented with the rat before (He was tentive) Joint stimulation was done 5x with a test with just the rat after the 3rd try. When the rat was presented alone he wimpered and last 2 joint stimulation he cried
     • 3 - Blocks were used as a control as Albert showed no response to them. Other animals were tested along side the rat this time such as dogs, rabbits in which he showed negative responses too
     • 4- Albert was moved rooms into a conference hall. His response was freshened up. He continued to show no response to the blocks joint stimulation was done once. Rabbit and dog were both shown Albert's responses were less violent in in the ifferent room
     • 5 - was presented with different white stimuli where he whimpered and cried at all except blocks and rat however he did withdraw from the rat. He was withdrawn from the experiment on this day
   • Unethical
     • pps did not leave in the same condition in which he joined the experiment and so is unethical
     • Watson and Rayner claimed it was ethical because he was face this amount of stress in real life
   • Unreliable
     • Only one participant and he was abnormal, hardly cried and showed no response to removal of emotional support
     • However controlled environment and control was used - blocks
   • Seligman argues that biological factors create fears

4. Is conditioning children a good idea?

   • Conditioning children in the home
     • Gill found that it led to children doing 20% of the chores
     • However does it make a money ambitioned society?
     • Jo frost encourages the naughty step as punishment, for children to reflect on the consequences of their actions if they stay calm and consistent
     • However Morris argues that parents aren't able to stay calm and consistent which leads children to not be able to reflect on their actions and causes psychological harm
   • Conditioning children in schools
     • Classical conditioning - associating the class room with pleasant smells and visual images encourages the students to attend
     • Studies show an increase of teacher praise, decreases inappropriate talking
     • Lepper found that children when promised a reward spend less time on the task and so showing that children are not motivated in doing the task itself but
   • Vulnerable children
     • Lovaas applied behaviour analysis showed that conditioning can lead to vulnerable children displaying socially normal behaviours
     • However, ABA takes around 40 hours when really only 20 is necessary. However when therapy stops it is likely that the Child will stop displaying normal behaviour
     • Is it ethical to manipulate vulnerables like this?