There are many different approaches which try to explain why humans behave the way we do. These
approaches often belong to a certain side of an argument. One argument is the nature vs nurture
debate. Nature arguments argue that all behaviour is a result of our biology and what we were naturally
born with and argues that issues that may arise later in life are all a result of our biology. Nurture, on the
other hand, refers to everything that goes on in the world around us. This can be from primary
socialisation by the family to secondary socialisation from the wider world [ThoughtCo 2019]. Another
argument is the continuity vs discontinuity argument. This debate argues about whether development is
an effortless undisturbed process (Continuity) or if it is a more harsh change that occurs systematically/
in stages (Discontinuity). [Reference* 2020]. Last, but not least, is the argument nomothetic vs
idiographic. The nomothetic approach is focused on the investigation of multiple individuals in order to
identify similarities between them, whereas the idiographic approach seeks to analyse the individuality
of one single person. [R4DN 2020].
The behaviouralist approach is a nurture perspective believes that our experiences determine human
behaviour. Something has happened which acts as a stimulus and this stimulus initiates a response. The
primary belief of the behaviouralist approach is that looking at what a person has learned, we can gain
insight into the reasoning for their behaviour. One key concept under the behaviouralist approach is the
idea of classical conditioning, proposed by Pavlov, and operant conditioning proposed by Skinner.
Pavlov conducted a study where he paired an unconditioned stimulus, something that naturally
produces a response, (meat) with a neutral stimulus, something that doesn’t produce a response, (a
bell) and conditioned dogs to produce a response (drooling) when the bell rang which then leads to the
neutral stimulus becoming a conditioned stimulus. At the beginning of the study, Pavlov put some meat
in front of a hungry dog and the dog salivated in response. This is where an unconditioned stimulus
produces an unconditioned response. He took the meat away and rang a bell. The dog did not react
when the bell was rang which was where a neutral stimulus produced no response. Next, Pavlov rang
the bell at the same time he presented the meat and continued to repeat this process until the dog
learned to salivate at the sound of the bell. Now the bell has become a conditioned stimulus which
produces a conditioned response from the dog. The dog has been conditioned to know that the sound
of the bell means food and thus salivates when it is rung. This process is called classical conditioning.
Pavlov believed that classical conditioning is where humans learn a large amount of their behaviours,
but acknowledges that dogs are a great deal less complex in comparison to humans so his conclusion did
have some flaws [Cherry, K 2020].
Skinner also conducted a study on behaviour. Skinner used rats in his study and analysed their behaviour
when under positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is when a behaviour leads to a
,desirable outcome/consequence and Negative reinforcement is when a behaviour puts an end to
something which is seen as unpleasant. Whenever the rats in Skinner’s study pressed a lever, they
would receive food, and this was positive reinforcement for them to continue pressing the lever. To test
negative reinforcement, Skinner ran an electrical current into the floor of the box the rats were in and
made it so that the only way the electrical current could be stopped is if the rats pressed the lever. The
rats then learned that, in order to stop the pain and un-comfortability they were experiencing, they
would need to press the lever and this is negative reinforcement. The rats learning to perform a
behaviour for a desired outcome (the relief of pain or desire for food) is what is known as operant
conditioning [Cherry, K 2020].
The behaviouralist approach is useful in health and social care for helping to understand difficult
behaviours and can greatly contribute to changing or shaping the behaviour of an individual. Sarah K has
clinical depression which could potentially be linked to the abuse she experienced in her childhood.
Sarah has now developed a behaviour to apologise frequently, despite an issue not being any fault of
her own. If the behaviouralist was to explain Sarah’s condition, they would take the stance that her
behaviour could have been acquired through classical conditioning if negative emotional states were
associated with certain stimuli and this would be how her depression was learned. When she was
younger, she may have learned that whenever her parents were angry or disappointed in her, that is
when they would abuse her. This means that she would have associated the negative emotions she felt
when being abused with someone being upset with her and this is why she apologises even when
something isn’t her fault as she has learned that when a feeling of disappointment or anger is paired
with another person, she gets hurt. Operant conditioning could also explain her behaviour as she could
have learnt that apologising stops the pain that would usually be caused to her if someone is upset or
angry with her. She doesn’t want to be hurt so the desirable outcome is to not be hurt and apologising
prevents this just as the lever prevented the pain of electrical shocks to the rats. This could be how she
learned to apologise even if something was not her fault. She would have learnt from her childhood that
regardless of if it is her fault or not, she should apologise to avoid pain.
Simon has a severe phobia of spiders and often becomes panic when he sees or thinks he sees a spider,
regardless if it is real or fake. If the behaviouralist approach was to attempt to figure out exactly why
Simon behaves in this way, they would believe that it is a result of poor learning or faulty conditioning.
As the behaviouralist approach is a nurture approach, it does not believe that our biology has much, if
any, influence on our behaviour and that all humans must be taught the ‘correct’ way to behave from
birth throughout life. Classical conditioning could explain Simon’s behaviour if he was conditioned to
associate fear with spiders. If, for example, one of his parents had a fear of spiders and would loudly
scream at the sight of a spider, the loud scream would most likely have made Simon scared as a loud
sound is an unconditioned stimulus and fear is an unconditioned response. If the loud sound would only
appear whenever a spider (a neutral stimulus) was around, then the loud scream would become
associated with the spider and Simon will have learned to be afraid whenever a spider is around, even if
the loud scream is no longer present. This would mean that the spider has gone from a neutral stimulus
to a conditioned one and now Simon produces a conditioned response of fear whenever he sees a
spider. Operant conditioning may explain Simon’s phobia as he may have learnt that if a spider brings
fear and panic, Simon will avoid the spider in order to avoid the feeling of fear. Fear going away is the
desired outcome in this scenario and if Simon learns that avoiding spiders reduces his anxiety levels, he
will constantly avoid the spiders as a result.
, As the behaviouralist approach believes that mental illness is a result of faulty conditioning, one
treatment which they would most likely propose to treat mental illness would be reconditioning. To
recondition someone would be to alter their way of thinking in order to change their behaviour. In
reference to classical and operant conditioning, to recondition someone would be to change or get rid of
the association the person has learned to make between the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned
stimulus.
In Sarah’s case, for example, to recondition her depression, the behaviouralists would attempt to create
new associations with more positive things. For example, providing her with unconditioned positive
regard to counteract her negative self-view, low mood and low self-esteem. Providing unconditional
positive regard should recondition her view about herself as well make her feel good. Feeling good
would then become a desired outcome and Sarah would learn to associate positivity with feeling good
which will make her want to think positively more often. By reconditioning Sarah to feel good whenever
she has positive thoughts, this will help to treat her depression and decrease her low mood and poor
self esteem.
In Simon’s case, he would need to be reconditioned to believe that spiders do not need to be associated
with fear. This can e done in several ways. One way is that calming music could be put on to help bring
Simon’s anxiety down and then he could slowly be introduced to the idea of spiders. For example,
having calming music on whilst having the book ‘incey wincey spider’ on a table in front of him; then
moving to reading the book and working his way up from there. The music (neutral stimulus) would
make Simon calm (unconditioned response) so that when he is gradually exposed to spider related
things, he can associate spiders with calm instead of fear. Through this treatment, in time, Simon should
feel no fear when around spiders, especially when the music is playing.
The behaviouralist perspective is a strong approach towards understanding behaviours because it help
us to identify the route of certain behaviours and how it was learned and can be unlearned. It identifies
that humans learn through their experiences and how these experiences condition their behaviour
which is very effective for explaining things like fears, aggressive behaviours, stress, etc as there are
many examples of where childhood experiences are the route of behaviours. There are many cases, for
example, where phobias are linked to a certain event that occurred in childhood. As a large number of
phobias are routed in childhood, it is very possible that Simon’s phobia of spiders could also be routed in
his childhood. If there was a certain experience that Simon had which triggered this and caused him to
fear spiders, the behaviouralist approach would be able to explain and understand the reasoning for
Simon’s fear very efficiently. The behaviouralist approach helps us to understand that our experiences
can condition us or lead to us being conditioned into certain behaviours which can then continue into
later life. The ‘routed in childhood’ view would also greatly apply to and explain Sarah’s condition as she
experienced the trauma of abuse from her parents. The behaviouralist approach would be efficient for
explaining why Sarah is depressed, has low self-image and self-esteem and frequently apologises as it
makes sense that a traumatic experience such as abuse would teach and condition Sarah into believing
certain things about herself and making her feel bad about herself. This would effectively explain her
depressed behaviours and why she does them. However, the behaviouralist approach is discredited
because it completely ignores the nature side of the argument. The nature argument has a large
significance in explaining behaviours and mental illnesses. The impact of brain chemicals, and other
biological factors cannot be ignored as the hold too much significance in the way humans behave.
Simon’s fight or flight response is an innate biological response which cannot so easily be reconditioned
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