This document contains all the possible Approaches 16 marker essays that could come up on your Psychology Paper 1 exam for the AQA examboard. It can also be used for shorter answers, or just some general revision for the topic. Great for AO3, as it also contains counter criticisms and issues and de...
AQA A Level Psychology Paper 2
4.2: Psychology in Context
Topic: Approaches
All 16 marker topic essays
1) Outline and evaluate the behaviourist approach (16)
The behaviourist approach is concerned with studying behaviour that can be
observed and measured. It’s not concerned with studying internal mental
processes like the cognitive approach, as it was seen as irrelevant. The
concept of this approach is that all behaviour is learned, and they describe a
baby’s mind as a ‘blank slate’ which is written on by experience.
Classical conditioning refers to learning through association, and this was first
demonstrated by Pavlov. He showed how dogs could be conditioned to
salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the
same time they were given food, an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Gradually,
the dogs learned to associate the bell with the food and would produce the
salivation response every time they heard it, the unconditioned response
(UCR). Thus, Pavlov was able to demonstrate how a neutral stimulus (NS)
can come to elicit a new learned response, a conditioned response (CR)
through association.
Operant conditioning is learning through reinforcement which was
demonstrated by Skinner, who suggested that behaviour is shaped by its
consequences. Positive reinforcement is receiving a reward when a certain
behaviour is performed, such as praise. Negative reinforcement is avoiding
something unpleasant, so the outcome is a positive experience. Punishment is
an unpleasant consequence of behaviour, such as being told off. Both positive
and negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a certain behaviour
being repeated, while punishment involves adding an unpleasant outcome to
a behaviour, which reduces the likelihood of it being repeated.
One strength of the behaviourist approach is that it’s based on well-controlled
research. Behaviourists focused on the measurements of observable
, behaviour within highly controlled laboratory settings. By breaking down
behaviour into basic stimuli-response units, all other possible extraneous
variables were removed. This allows a cause and effect relationship to be
established. Therefore, this suggests that behaviourist experiments have
scientific credibility. However, this is environmentally reductionist as it
oversimplifies the learning process to simple components. By doing this,
behaviourists may have ignored human thought- an important influence on
learning.
Another strength of the behaviourist approach is that the principles of
conditioning have been applied to real-world behaviours. For example,
operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been
successfully applied in institutions like prisons, schools and more. They work
by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for
privileges, thus these systems help encourage desirable behaviours.
Therefore, this increases the value of the behaviourist approach due to its
widespread application. However, token economies are said to only have
short-term effectiveness, especially in prisons, as they don’t allow offenders to
understand the cause of their offending and to take responsibility for their own
rehabilitation. This suggests that the behaviourist approach fails to consider
the cognitive aspect to learning.
One limitation of the behaviourist approach is it’s environmentally deterministic
as it sees all behaviour as being conditioned by past conditioning experiences.
Skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement
history, and that our past conditioning history determined the outcome, which
ignores any influence that free will may have on behaviour. Therefore, this
suggests that the behaviourist approach ignores the influence of conscious
decision-making processes on behaviour.
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