The Learning Approach: Behaviourism

The Learning Approach: Behaviourism

1. Assuumptions

   • The behaviourist approach is only interested studying behaviour that can be observed and measured
   • Early behaviourists, such as John B Watson rejectd introspection as it involoved too many concpets that were vague and difficult to measure
     • as a result behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and relied on Lab experiments as the best way to achieve this
   • Following Darwin, behaviourists suggested that the basic processes that govern learning are te same in all species
     • in behaviour research, animals could replace humans as experimental subjects. Behaviourists identified two important forms of learning:
       • 1. Classical conditioning
       • 2. Operant conditioning

2. Classical conditioning- Pavlovs research

   • Classical conditioning is learning and was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov through association
   • Pavlov revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food
   • Gradually , Pavlov dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell (a stimulant is food (another stimulu) and would produce the salvation response every time they heard the sound
   • Thus, Pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus, in this case a bell, can come to elicit a new learned response

3. Operant conditioning -Skinner's research

   • Skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on there environment . In operant conditioning there are three types of consequences of behaviour:
     • Positive reinforcement: is receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed; for example, praise from a teacher for answering a question correctly in class.
     • Negative reinforcement: occurs when an animal (or human) avoids something unpleasant. When a student hands in an essay so as not to be told of, the avoidence of something unpleasnat is the negative reinforcment
       • Similary, a rat may learn through negative reinforcement that pressing a lever to avoidance of an electric shock
     • Punishment: is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour, for example being shouted at by the teacher or talking during a lesson
   • Positive and negative reinforcementincrease the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated. Punishment decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated

4. Evaluation

   • Scientific credibility
     • Behaviourism was able to bring language and methods of the natural sciences into psychology by focusing on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings.
       • By emphasising the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replication, behaviourism was influential in the development of psychology as a scientific disipline, gving it greater credibility and status
   • Real life application
     • The principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range to real world behaviours and problems. For instance, operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been used sucessfully in institutions, such as prisons and psychiatric wards. These work by rewarding appropriate behaviour tokens that can ten be exchanged for privileges
       • Treatments such as these have the advantage of requiring less effort from a patient because the patient doesnt have to think about thier problem (as they do in 'talking therapies'). Such therapies are also suitable fro patients who lack insight
   • Mechanistic view of behaviour
     • From a behaviourist perspective, animals are seen as passive and machine-like responders to the environment, with little or no conscious insight into thier behaviour. Other approaches in psychology, such as social learning theory and the cognitive approach, have emphasised the importance of mental events during learning
       • These processes, which medicate between stimulus and response, suggest that people may play a much more active role in their own learning. This means that learning theory may apply less to human than to animal bahaviour

5. Evaluation Extra

   • Environmental determinism
     • The behaviourist approach see all behaviour as determined by pas experiences that have been conditioned. Skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history. This ignores any possible influence that any sense of free will may have on behaviour. Skinner suggested that any sense of free will is simply an illusion. When something happens we impose a sense of having made the decision but according to Skinner, our past conditioning history determine the outcome
   • Ehical and practical issues in animal experiments
     • Although experimental procedures such as Skinner box enabled behaviourists to maintain a high degree of control over thier experimental 'subjects', many critics have questioned the ethics of conducting such investigations. The animals involved were exposed to stressful and aversive conditions, which may also have affected how they reacted to the experimantal situation