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AS Psychology Help

I've been asked to answer the question

"Outline one general assumption from the Learning Approach"
(worth 5 marks)

Firstly I'm not entirely sure what an assumption is & i have no idea where to look or where to start with answering it.

Some ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry i havent studied that yet but if you visit
www.psychologyman.co.uk there might be some stuff he seems to have alot of info on his website
Reply 2
Avatar for Tainturier
Tainturier
Bexx
I've been asked to answer the question

"Outline one general assumption from the Learning Approach"
(worth 5 marks)

Firstly I'm not entirely sure what an assumption is & i have no idea where to look or where to start with answering it.

Some ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated!


The learning approach is based on behaviourist theory (look up Skinner and Pavlov). There are two major theories within this approach and several assumptions. The main assumption (assumptions are the basic beliefs that a theory is built upon) is that all behaviour is learned as a result of interaction with the environment (another assumption which links with this for example, is that we are all born blank slates, there is no genetic predisposition to anything and we learn everything passively).

In order to outlined the assumption that all behaviour is learned from the environment as a result of stimulus response relationships you can outline the findings of Skinner who showed that rats learn to press a lever (stimulus) in order to gain rewards i.e. food pellets (reponse). A behaviour is hence linked with a reward so is positively reinforced so will continue to be carried out.
Alternatively you can discuss pavlov who showed that dogs in his studies salivated to the sound of a bell ringing, because they had learned that a bell rang at their food time. So even in the absence of food, they learned to repond. The basic assumption of learning theory is hence supported by these two accounts of operant conditioning (Skinner) and Classical Conditioning (Pavlov).
Reply 3
Avatar for Bexx
Bexx
OP
thank you, very helpful :smile:
One very important aspect of the psychology exam is that you have 5 minutes to answer this question, which means you need to be writing solid for 5 minutes.

Tainturier gave a very good explanation. You state the assumption, then give the evidence (or related studies) that supports that the idea that this assumption is correct.

However..

"The main assumption (assumptions are the basic beliefs that a theory is built upon) is that all behaviour is learned as a result of interaction with the environment (another assumption which links with this for example, is that we are all born blank slates, there is no genetic predisposition to anything and we learn everything passively)."

I would add to this that because all behaviour can be learned, behaviour can also be unlearned (or that is they way the we were taught it). It is just an extension of the main assumption.

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