Describe and evaluate the research methods used by the behaviourist approach

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Question: Describe and evaluate the research methods used by behaviourism

Behaviourism is a belief that the environment causes and affects our behaviour. The approach accepts determinism and believes that all behaviour can be explained in terms of, behaviour is a direct result of environmental stimuli that can be predicted. Empiricism is accepted and behaviourism rejects 'abstract' terms such as 'id', 'ego' etc. Lab based experiments have taken place in the field of behaviourism to come up with empirical evidence to support theories, experiments such as, Pavlov's dogs, The skinner box, Bobo the doll and Little Albert are among them. This is an advantage as it means results are reliable, meaning that they can be repeated and still achieves consistent results making the research valid.

Behaviourism did experiments on both humans and animals. In using humans, the experiment is at risk of obtaining false results because as humans we have a conscious thought and can tell the experiment is not real. The 'Hawthorne Effect' suggests that we, as humans, perform better when being watched. This is a disadvantage of empirical research being carried out on humans. A disadvantage of using animals in experiments is that the results obtained