psychology behaviorist perspective...HELP!!!

behaviorist perspective i need to kno what other study links with this perspective apart from the pavlo - dogs one?
thank you

Reply 1

Sohail92

dee009

behaviorist perspective i need to kno what other study links with this perspective apart from the pavlo - dogs one?
thank you

if this is psyb1...
• Psychology should be the study of behaviour because behaviour is objective and observable.
• Do not agree with psychodynamic approach as they state that the unconscious mind is not observable.
• Our actions are based on stimulus-response. A stimulus is any object/event which has an effect and the response is your reaction given to the stimulus. E.g. seeing food is a stimulus and that it might make you hungry, is the response.
• Behaviour is determined by environmental factors, not biological factors such as genetics and heredity.
• We learn through conditioning. There are two types: classical and operant conditioning.
• John Lock described the mind as a tabula rasa (blank slate) all behaviour is learnt and dependant on experiences and the environment.
• Behaviour is determined by nurture (environment) not nature.

Classical conditioning.
Whilst researching the digestive system of dogs, he observed that whenever a dog was presented with food it would automatically salivate. This led Pavlov to change the focus of his research and predict that if another stimulus was presented to the dog at the same time as the food, then the stimulus would become associated with the food and cause the dog to salivate.
Experiment: Pavlov rang a bell at the same time that food was presented to the dog. The dog continued to salivate as an involuntary reflex response. After a number of trials, Pavlov discovered that he no longer needed to present the food to the dog; the dog salivated just to the sound of the bell. Pavlov referred to this paired association as a conditioned reflex.

Classical conditioning: Watson and Rayner demonstrated classical conditioning in the case study of Little Albert. Their aim was to investigate whether an emotional response such as fear could be conditioned in a human being. Albert was 11 months old when the experiment was conducted. In the experiment, Watson presented a white rat directly in front of Albert. When he reached for the rat, Watson would simultaneously strike a metal bar with ah hammer, thus creating a loud noise. This pairing of stimuli occurred several times during a number of weeks. Watson found that when the rat alone was presented to Albert, he immediately became frightened and showed an attempt to move away from the rat. Watson and Rayner concluded that this successfully demonstrated that behaviour is learnt and that a phobia of rates could be conditioned in a baby. His phobia of white rats also transferred onto other objects such as a white rabbit, cotton-wool and even Santa Claus’ beard.
The principles of classical conditioning have been applied to many areas of psychology for example, in the treatment of atypical behaviour. Aversion therapy can be used in the treatment of alcoholism. At the same time that alcohol is presented, the person is given a drug that induces an unpleasant response such as nausea and vomiting. After repeated pairings, the person begins to associate the alcohol with nausea and vomiting and hence over time, can cure their addiction.

Thorndike’s Law of Effect
one psychologist who studied animal behaviour was Edward Thorndike. His law of effect stated that if behaviour is followed by satisfying consequences, e.g. pleasure, then that behaviour is ‘stamped in’ and is more likely to be repeated in the future.
Thorndike’s law of effect was based on his observations of cats trying to escape from puzzle boxes. The cats were placed into the box and the only means of escape was to operate a latch that would allow the door to open. When first placed in the box the cats took a long time to escape. With experience, these ineffective behaviours occurred less frequently and the positive behaviours i.e. escape occurred more frequently enabling the cats to escape in less time over a number of trials. Thorndike concluded that the cats had learned to escape from the puzzle boxes through trial and error learning. Thorndike’s law of effect influenced Skinner to produce his theory of operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning studies the process by which behaviour can be altered by manipulating the environment. If a response is followed by a reinforcing stimulus, the probability is that it will occur again. The key concept in this kind of conditioning is reinforcement. A reinforce is defined as any event that increases the probability of the response occurring again, e.g. sweets for a child, money for an adult, food for a hungry animal.
In the famous skinners box experiments, Skinner would introduce a hungry rat into the box. Inside the box was a lever which, when pressed, would deliver a pellet of food. When the rat pressed the level, a pellet of food was dropped onto the tray. The rat soon learned that pressing the lever would result in food (a reward). Skinner observed that as a consequence of its action (i.e. receiving a pellet of food) the rate continued to display the new learned behaviour – the rat’s behaviour had been positively reinforced.
Skinners principles of operant conditioning have been applied to many areas of psychology E.g. Prisons and token economy.

Strengths and limitations
Operant and classical conditioning do not account for the spontaneous behaviour in humans.
The use of animals in applying laws of learning to humans has been criticised as it is believed that we are more complex than animals.
Ignores the mental processes involved in learning unlike the cognitive approach.
Ignores the possible role of biological factors such as nature in human behaviour.
This approach is scientific in the experimental methods it uses to formulate laws
Provides a strong contribution in behaviour modification techniques. E.g. systematic desensitisation, token economy, aversion therapy etc.
The approach is scientific in the experimental methods it uses to formulate laws.
Behaviourists use rigorous empirical methods of research, through conducting experiments. Because they believe that learning can be studied in all species and the underlying principles are the same, they study animals in the laboratory under controlled conditions and apply their findings to humans. This raises representation and generalisation issues along with the criticisms that laboratory studies lack ecological validity.