Describe and discuzz the Behaviourist approach to psychology

Leigh-Ann Cooke

Describe and discuss the behaviourists approach in psychology

The behaviourists base their study on examining individuals and their response to stimuli. They believed that we should only study what we can see; therefore they studied directly observable behaviour. The behaviourists did this because they believed that it was incorrect to try and measure what we cannot see, as this leads to inaccuracy. It is for these reasons that the behaviourists carry out their study on behaviour as it is directly observable and the learning process can be studied objectively. The behaviourists believe that we are all born as ‘blank slate upon which experience writes’.

The behaviourists believed in stimulus-response psychology (S-R), this is shown through the study of Pavlov. Pavlov was an early psychologist born in 1849 on September 14. Pavlov was a Russian physiologist whose research on the physiology led to the development of the first experimental model of learning, Classical Conditioning. Most of his research was gathered studying salivation in dogs.

Pavlov concluded that he was able to pair a neutral stimulus with a response producing stimulus and have the neutral stimulus eventually elicit the response that was associated with the original, unlearned reflex.

The paradigm for this is Pavlov’s experiment. In Classical Conditioning terminology, an unconditioned stimulus (US) is an event that causes a response to occur, which is referred to as the unconditioned response (UR). And, in Pavlov's study with dogs, the food within the dog's mouth is the US, and the salivation that occurred is the UR. Pavlov noticed that sometimes that dog would begin to salivate on sight on the experimenter bringing the food; Pavlov phrased these secretions brought on by the stimuli ‘psychic secretions’.

Pavlov took a step further and added an element known as the conditioned stimulus (CS), which is paired with the US.

Pavlov used a metronome as the CS which he rang first, then fed the dogs. This pairing would eventually establish the dog's conditioned response of salivating to the sound of the metronome. After repeating this procedure several times, Pavlov was able to remove the US (food) and by ringing the bell only the dog would salivate (CR). Since the bell alone now produced the unconditioned response (salivation), the association had been established; therefore the dog was fully conditioned.

...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Pavlov took a step further and added an element known as the conditioned stimulus (CS), which is paired with the US.

Prior to conditioning

Food (UCS) ------------------>Salivation (UCR)

Bell (NS) --------------------->No response

Conditioning

Bell + ---------------------->Salivation

Food

Evidence of conditioning

Bell (CS) --------------------->Salivation (CR)

Learning is the result of associations forming between stimuli and responses. Such associations or ‘habits’ become strengthened or weakened by the nature and frequency of the S-R pairings. Learning could be adequately explained without referring to any unobservable internal states.

The behaviourists believed that both humans and animals learn using similar methods. Pavlov investigated this theory experimenting on a dog and the response to a bell when food was presented. Watson studied humans; this being shown through his experiment on ‘Little Albert’. The little child was presented with a white rat that originally created no response. Watson then carried on to try and classically condition Little Albert to fear the white rat by making hitting a mental bar using a hammer behind the boys head creating a loud sound. They paired this with the presentation of Albert the rat. This method was repeated several times until Little Albert eventually formed an association between the noise and the white rat and this is how he was classically conditioned to fear the rat. The main objective of behaviourists such as Watson was to observe whether it was possible for humans to be classically conditioned and the study on how behaviour changes to certain stimuli.

The Behaviourists wanted psychology to be established as a natural science they focused on obtaining data that was; open to public scrutiny, replicable and measurable. This is known as empirical data. Quantitative data gives an overall advantage as it can be easily collated and the conditions controlled.

The behaviourists practiced the aforementioned methods of data collection because they believed that the theories needed to be justified, there use of experiments to prove their theories also backed this up. The behaviourists centred their psychological approach on behaviour, this ensuring that the data collected is empirical data, and from conducting experiments they can base psychology on the other natural sciences so that psychology could be deemed successful.

By doing research and carrying out vast spectrums of experiments the Behaviourists have contributed and influenced the world of today. They have added to education by allowing us to use their methods to prove other theories and operant conditioning is used in school life everyday. Operant conditioning is based on learning through consequences. For example: If one pupil kicked another pupil and the teacher told him off for this inappropriate behaviour, the punishment for this behaviour should make the pupil learn not to do this again as a consequence comes with the action.

Conditioning is still widely used across the world for example; Students in school are conditioned in because if a bell rings students automatically know how to respond to the bell. The bell is the stimulus and our response is going to class or movement. Outside of the school environment Operant conditioning is used, for example in the circus animals are trained to do tricks and perform routines.

The Behaviourists have helped considerably to explain many points of interest and query in everyday life, such as response to stimuli, phobias and many others. There research has allowed them to come up with developed ideas on how to try and treat these things. By voicing their theories they have managed to influence and change the way we live today largely.

Conversely, the contributions of the behaviourists have been challenged on many occasions but by the same token they are welcomed into research and experiments from time to time as all aspects need to be covered to ensure that the study is correct. The behaviourists have an essential role in psychology along with the other groups, who all have valid approaches but on the other hand many assumptions have been made which makes each theory and approach slightly abstract.

There are many criticisms about the behaviourists and their approach to psychology. Other psychologist groups criticise the behaviourists theories and approaches, for example the cognitive psychologists argue strongly that behaviourism ignores some of the most crucial factors of the study that need to be analysed. They believe that it is significant to study the mental thought processes of each individual as this can tell you a lot.

As the behaviourists only work with directly observable data, when there is a noticeable adjustment in behaviour and it can be measured then it is classified as the When someone’s behaviour is observed to have changed and it is measurable it is called ‘index of learning’. This is why they do not study thought processes because they do not believe that this data can be easily observed or collated. If the there is no visible change then the behaviourists will not account for it. Yet still, many argue that learning can be measured in term of behavioural change.

Using the experimental example of Pavlov and the dog it was apparent that the behaviour had changed as the dog had associated the bell with food so even when no food was presented the dog would still begin to salivate and it had paired the bell with food and this is proves that the dog was conditioned, meaning his behaviour had been altered.

The behaviourists do not take into account factors such as: genetics, ethnicity, gender or age. They believe that we were all ‘blank slates’ and as we have all been through different experiences throughout the course of our life, we have all acquired different behaviours due to our varied journeys.

Ethologists are against Behaviourists because their belief is that we are a product of nature and that we should study innate tendencies.

Many criticise that the Behaviourists focus too much on being deterministic, which is the belief that behaviour id determined but the environment and that we do not choose to respond to a stimulus.

Many psychologists believe that it is incorrect to try and generalise the characteristics between both humans and animals, this is because they are so qualitatively biologically different meaning that the difference is so great that I can not possible be measured.

The behaviourists have definitely helped shape psychology in a phenomenal way.