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The Behaviourist Approach 16 marker
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Outline and Evaluate the Behaviourist Approach (16 marks)Early behaviorists such as Watson rejected introspection as it involved too many concepts
that were vague and difficult to measure. As a result, behaviourists tried to maintain more
control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab experiments as the best way to
achieve this. Behaviourists identified two important forms of learning: classical conditioning
and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is learning through association and was first demonstrated by Pavlov.
Pavlov conducted a lab experiment and revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to
the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given
food. The sound of the bell starts off as a neutral stimulus while food is an unconditioned
stimulus. Gradually, Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell with food and
would produce the salivation response every time they heard the sound. The sound of the bell
is now a conditioned stimulus thus produces the conditioned response of salivating. Thus,
Pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus can come to elicit a learned response through
association.
Skinner studied operant conditioning, which means learning through reinforcement or
punishment. Reinforcement tends to increase the frequency of a behaviour, and this is true of
both positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is receiving a reward when
a certain behaviour is performed, whereas negative reinforcement occurs when we avoid
something unpleasant. Punishment is an unpleasant consequence of a behaviour, which
decreases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated. Skinner demonstrated this in his
“Skinner Box” lab experiment. Every time the rat activated the lever within the box it was
rewarded with a food pellet. From then on, the rat would continue to perform the behaviour,
which shows the power of positive reinforcement. Skinner also showed that rats could be
conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid an unpleasant stimulus, for example an
electric shock, thus shows the power of negative reinforcement.
One strength of the behaviourist approach is that it has high scientific credibility. It was able
to bring the language and methods of the natural sciences into psychology by focusing on the
measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings. By emphasizing
the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replication, behaviorism was
influential in the development of psychology as a scientific discipline, giving it greater
credibility and status.
Moroever, principles derived from the behaviourist approach has useful real-life applications.
The principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours
and problems. For example, classical conditioning has been applied to the treatment of
phobias, which has been proven to be successful. McGrath et al conducted a lab experiment
and found that 75% of patients with phobias were successfully treated using systematic
desesitisation. Moroever, operant conditioning forms the basis of token economy systems that
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