Describe and evaluate the research methods used by the behaviourist approach

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                Naomi Harding - Psychology

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 from the experiment can not be generalised to humans and it has been accused of ignoring important biological and cognitive differences as behaviourism assumes humans and animals learn in the same way. An advantage of using animals in experiments is that there are less ethical concerns then with experiments concerning humans.

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One of the first research experiments was the case of ‘Little Albert’ done by Watson and Rayner in 1920. This was one of the first experiments showing us empirical results in human classical conditioning (which also led to results showing stimulus generalisation and higher order conditioning). They chose Little Albert in a hospital at the age of 9 months, before the experiment he was given some baseline emotional tests, all of which, he showed no fear response. (He was shown various animals, masks, cotton wool etc.) At the age of 11 months, the classical conditioning began. Little Albert was ...

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Summary The writer has discussed some experiments that have been carried out by behaviourists and has explained them very well. It may have been better however, to cover more experiments but in less detail in order to show an understanding of behaviourists' research methodology. Also, in order to increase the rating, the writer needs to think more carefully about the introduction and conclusion. Score 3*