Describe the Behaviourist perspective and its main principles. P1

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Viktoria Robins                                                     Psychology, Unit 8

Describe the Behaviourist perspective and its main principles. P1

Behaviourism is a learning theory that only focuses on observable behaviours. The main principle of this theory is that all behaviour is learned. The belief is that all people are born as a blank slate, and we learn everything.

According to behaviourism, there are two main types of conditioning, which are:

  • Classical conditioning—occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. This technique was first demonstrated by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov. He showed that classical conditioning is when a stimulus (e.g. bell) that does not normally provoke a particular response (e.g. salivation), eventually does produce the response by being paired with another stimulus (e.g. food) that normally does produce the response.
  • Operant conditioning—occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced. This conditioning is a method of learning. The thought is that a person is taught using rewards and punishments for a particular behaviour. Through this conditioning, a person learns to make an association between a particular behaviour and the resultant consequence, e.g. a baby knows it will get fed if it cries.

There are three main theorists who supported the behaviourist approach, and they conducted studies to try and prove its validity. These theorists were:

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  • Pavlov—Ivan Pavlov studied reflexes, which are an automatic behaviour that is caused by a stimulus from the environment. He found that this automatic behaviour can be manipulated. This is called conditioning. His most famous experiment is the one, in which he used dogs to demonstrate classical conditioning. The dogs he used showed a salivation response when they where offered food (unconditional stimulus). The food was offered a number of times with the sound of a buzzer (conditional stimulus). After this, the sound of the buzzer alone could produce the salivation response.
  • Skinner—was especially interested in stimulus-response ...

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