This essay highlights the behaviourist approach and their assumptions to human behaviour. This includes, humans born like a blank slate, behaviour is learnt through conditioning and humans and non human animals learn in similar ways. This essay was awarded with full marks and describes in great det...
The first behaviourist assumption is that humans are born like a
blank slate. Behaviourist believe that when we are born our mind
is like a tabula Rosa, which is Latin for blank slate.
Behaviourists suggest that behaviour is learnt through
interactions with the environment as we response passively to
environmental stimuli. This approach highlights the support for
the idea of nurture over nature as they believe that social and
environmental factors have the greatest influence, over innate,
biological factors. This perspective can be referred to as
environmental determinism as our behaviour is determined by the
environment we grew up in. This is because learning processes
take place and the associations we make in our early stages in
life can heavily influence our later reactions to other people
and situations. Due to the early rewards and punishments we
experience when growing up.
The second behaviourist assumption is that behaviour is learnt
through conditioning. Behaviourists suggest that we learn through
two types of conditioning: classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is to do with association of particular
stimuli and this is how new behaviours are learnt. This can be
identified during Pavlovre able to study animals in a lab
environment and make generalisations about human behaviour. This
can be identified during Pavlovs study with conditioning dogs to
salivate and these principles can be applied to humans. For
example, during systematic desensitisation the client will learn
to associate their phobia with feelings of relaxation rather than
anxiety. Behaviourists highlight the idea that learning and
unlearning are the same ideas. Token economy systems are a
classic example of this, whereby desirable behaviour is
reinforced with tokens that can be exchanged for rewards such as
sweets and cigarettes.
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