The Behaviourist Approach (booklet 2)

John B Watson…

Humans are influenced by their surroundings…

We start off as blank slates and then our family, friends and experiences shape us into who we are.
It is possible to shape a human into anything.

AO1: by the early 1900s, many psychologists were dissatisfied with introspection as a method, arguing
that its lack of general principles led to subjective and inconsistent data and made it unscientific…
John B Watson (1878 - 1958) added that truly scientific psychology should study observable behaviour that
could be measured , rather than “private” inner mental processes.

TABULA RASA OR BLANK SLATES: Watson argued that we entered the world as “blank slates” – all we have is our capacity to learn
things. There is no innate instincts or personality… We learn things from our environment and experiences, so a person’s unique way of
behaving is a result of their unique set of learning experiences.

ENVIROMENTAL DETERMINISM: Watson did not believe that people have free will… He proposed that all our behaviour was
determined by our learning experiences and the environment.

FOCUS ON BEHAVIOUR: Watson felt that psychologists must adopt the scientific method, and study only things that can be directly
observed… He heavily criticised Freud’s emphasis on the unconscious mind in the Psychodynamic Approach, since there is no physical way
of testing this.

CONDITIONING: Watson believed that the main process by which people learn was conditioning… This occurs when 2 things are
associated and originated with Pavlov’s work.

CONDITIONING -------- LEARNING

Key assumptions:
- We all enter the world as blank slates (Tabula Rasa)
- Behaviour must be researched under controlled lab conditions.
- Humans are born with no innate instincts or personality.
- We learn things from our environment and experiences.
- Animals & humans learn the same way…
- People do not have free will.
- All our behaviour is determined by our learning experiences.
- Not interested in unseen mental processes
- Watson believed that we should adopt the scientific methods and study things that can be physically observed and
experienced.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: OPERANT CONDITIONING:

Learning by association occurs when two stimuli A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped
are repeatedly paired together – an unconditioned and maintained by its consequences. Possible
(unlearned) stimulus and a new ‘neutral’ stimulus. consequences of behaviour include reinforcement
The neutral stimulus eventually produces the same (positive or negative) and punishment.
response that first was produced by the
unconditioned stimulus alone.

Ivan Pavlov-
Russian neurologist as well as a psychologist, he was known for the discovery of classical conditioning through
his experiments with dogs.
He developed the experiment which tested the concept of the conditioned reflex. He trained a hungry dog to
salivate at the sound of a metronome or buzzer because it was previously an association with food.

B.F Skinner-
American psychologist and an influential exponent of behaviourism which views human behaviour in terms of
responses to environmental stimuli, and favours the controlled, scientific study of responses as the most direct
means of elucidating human nature.

Classical conditioning through association. The key idea that learning occurs when an association is made
between a previously neutral stimulus and a reflex response… The reflex response can be positive or negative.

UCS: unconditioned stimulus - something you make a reflex reaction to.

CS: conditioned stimulus – a neutral object that has become associated with an unconditional stimulus.

CR: conditioned response- the learned response to the neutral stimulus when it has been paired with the
unconditioned stimulus.

NS: neutral stimulus- something you don’t make a reflex reaction to.

UCS: unconditioned response- the reflex action.

CONDITIONED = LEARNED
UNCONDITIONAL = UNLEARNED

UCS ----------------- UCR

HIT FLINCH

Associated with…
NS -------------------- UCS
BUZZER HIT

NS becomes a CS

CS ----------------------- CR
BUZZER FLINCH

Key Study - Pavlov’s Dogs…

Classical conditioning was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov… Pavlov 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.
They then learnt to associate the sound of a bell ( a neutral stimulus) with the food ( an unconditioned stimulus)
and would produce the salivation response every time they heard the bell.

AIMS: the aim was to find out what causes salivation in dogs, and what motivates it.

METHOD: using a neutral stimulus in combination with an unconditioned stimulus, e.g. use a bell or a
metronome while giving the food to the dogs.

CONCLUSION: The dog has learned to associate the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus, so the
NS is a CS now, so the dogs salivate an equal amount at the sound of the stimulus (bell/metronome) as it
salivated to the unconditioned stimulus alone (food).
Salivation is both a USR and a CR…
WE LEARN BEHAVIOUR BY ASSOCIATION... IF TWO ENVIROMENTAL STIMULI ARE FREQUENTLY PAIRED TOGETHER, WE LEARN TO ASSOCIATE
THEM.

UCS --------- UCR

Food. Salivation
Associated with…
NS-------------------------UCS
Bell/ metronome food

NS becomes CS….

CS ----------------------CR
Bell/metronome salivation

Principles Of Operant Conditioning…

B.F Skinner was very influenced by Watsons behaviourist ideas. However, he also realised that the psychology
proposed by Watson had some serious shortcomings. A psychology based wholly on classical conditioning
assumes that organisms are essentially passive – they just hang around waiting for stimuli to respond to… To
Skinner it seemed obvious that people and animals actively engage with their environments. Skinners important
insight was that and animal/persons behaviour was determined by the consequences of past behaviour.

OPERANT CONDITIONING: a type of learning in which future behaviour is determined by the consequences
of past behaviour… If we find something pleasant, we are more likely to repeat it. And if an action produces an
unpleasant effect, we are less likely to do it again.

REINFORCEMENT: a reinforcement is a consequence that strengthens behaviour (makes it more likely to be

repeated). It can sometimes be in the form of a reward (positive reinforcement), but sometimes it refers to a
removal of an unpleasant result (negative reinforcement).

PUNISHMENT: a punishment weakens behaviour or makes it less likely to be repeated.

Key Study – Skinner’s box…

Skinner called learning from consequences ‘operant conditioning’ because it is based on how organisms operate
on their environment. Essentially, Skinner’s theory is that the likelihood of the future behaviour is determined by
the consequences of past behaviour.

1. Skinner conducted experiments with rats and sometimes pigeons, in specially designed cages called
skinner boxes. Every time the rat activated the lever (or a pigeon pecked a disk) within the box it was
rewarded with a food pallet. From then on, the animal would continue to carry out this behaviour.

2. He also showed how rats and pigeons can be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid an
unpleasant stimulus, for example an electric shock.

What is meant by variable reinforcement?

Variable reinforcement is when you only reward people every now and again, this makes the behaviour more
compelling.

Practical applications of operant conditioning?

Education and classroom management…
e.g. a student may behave well in class to avoid an unpleasant consequence such as a detention (negative
reinforcement) or a student might do well in a test to receive a reward such as a good grade (positive
reinforcement).
Strengths and weaknesses of the behaviourist approach…
- One strength of the behaviourist approach is that it is based on well controlled research… behaviourists
focused of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings. By breaking down behaviour
into basic stimuli--- response units and other possible extraneous variables were removed, allowing
cause -and-effect relationships to be established. E.g. Skinner was able to clearly demonstrate how
reinforcement influenced an animal’s behaviour.

- A further strength of the approach is that it can be applied to real world behaviours… E.g. operant
conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in instructions,
such as prisons and psychiatric wards. These work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that
can be exchanged for privileges. E.g. how classical conditioning has been applied to the treatment of
phobias.

- However a weakness of the behaviourist approach is that it sees all behaviour as determined by our past
experiences… Skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history…
when something happens we may think ‘I made the decision to do that’ but according to Skinner, our
past conditioning history determined the outcome. This ignores any possible influence of that free will
may have on behaviour. Skinner said that free will is an illusion.

Ignorance of influence of conscious decision making (as suggested by cognitive approach).