Overview: -includes classical condition and Pavlovs research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinners research -the approach emerged at the beginning of the 20th century -credited for being the driving force in the development of psychology as a scientific discipline -only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured -it is NOT concerned with looking at mental processes -relied heavily on lab experiments to ensure control and objectivity within their research -following Darwin, behaviourists say that the process of governing learning is the same within all species > thus the experiments could replace humans with animals -Behaviourists identified two forms of learning: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING AND OPERANT CONDITIONING
CLASSICAL CONIDITIONG - PAVLOVS RESEARCH! -about learning through association (stimulus definition: a thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction) -Pavlov revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell, if the bell was repeatedly sounded at the time the dog was given food -Gradually the dog would learn to associate the sound of the bell (a stimulus) with the food (another stimulus) and would produce salivation as a response to when he heard the bell -So through the stimulus which was a bell, he would think of food another stimulus and thus salivate whenever he heard the noise. ( He associated the sound with food) This shows that a neutral stimulus (the bell) can create a conditioned response (salivating) through associating a noise with food. WE CAN THEREFORE LEARN THROUGH ASSOCIATING ONE THING TO ANOTHER! Classical conditioning can be applied to an explanation for attachment.... >association of two stimuli's to respond to one >care giver begins as a neutral stimulus ..when the same care giver gives food to the child repeatedly, the child creates an expectation that when they see that person they get food. This then has turned the neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response is pleasure, which learning theorists see as love.
OPERANT CONDITIONING - SKINNER'S RESEARCH (1953) -learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment -In operant conditioning there are three types of consequences of behaviour: 1) POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT = receiving a reward for the behaviour e.g. praise from a teacher for answering a question right 2) NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT = doing something to avoid something unpleasant e.g. in Skinners theory, the rat was conditioned through negative reinforcement to press the lever so he avoided an electric shock 3) PUNISHMENT = an unpleasant consequence (using negative reinforcement would help to avoid this) it was found that positive and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated. Punishment decreases the likelihood. Operant conditioning can be applied as an explanation for attachment: >when babies cry for comfort >crying leads to feeding >when the care giver feeds the baby when it cries we see positive reinforcement as the child gets what it wants But the care giver gets negative reinforcement, as she feeds the baby to stop the unpleasant crying of the baby >it is a two way response Evaluation of the Behaviourist approach: >Scientific credibility -behaviourist approach was able to bring the methods and language of natural science into the discipline -it helped to give the subject more credibility because of this >Real-life application - the principles of conditioning have been applied to various real life behaviours and problems (e.g. token economy systems and the treatment of phobias) >View of behaviour -we are seen as passive and machines - the theory ignores we have our own minds to say no!
Pedagogy: 1) ask students to write down anything they may know about classical and operant conditioning (help to get a feel for the level of knowledge i am working with) 2) What does it mean to be conditioned to do something? 3) Pavlovs research - begin by asking what children associate the school bell with? - then just ask them to jot down things they associate with a response -Brief video on Pavlovs dog and come back and explain as a class -Get students to draw a story board on the research 4) Operant conditioning - incorporate role play here (see AQA psychology text book) 5) Evaluation - class debate (make this a theme, when evaluate we debate!) 6) Homework task - set the students one of the question within the AQA text book depending on ability to answer for next lesson