Behaviourist Approach
Assumptions
 Behaviourists regard all behaviour as a response to a stimulus.
 They assume that what we do is determined by the environment we are in.
 Behaviourists are unique amongst psychologists in believing that it is unnecessary to
speculate about internal mental processes when explaining behaviour – only the
observable is relevant
Classical Conditioning
People learn to associate two stimuli when they occur together.
Pavlov’s dogs are the most
famous example of this. In his
experiments, Pavlov found that
dogs would salivate when they
heard a bell as they associated
this with food coming.
Can you think of any real life
examples where you have been
classically conditioned?
Operant Conditioning
People learn to perform new behaviours through the
consequences of the things they do. If a behaviour they
produce is followed by a reward then the likelihood of that
behaviour being repeated increases in future.
The ‘skinner box’ is the most famous example of this. In these
experiments, animals would learn to press a lever, as they
were rewarded with food every time they did.
Social Learning Theory
Bandura is your main man here! He proposed that we learn behaviour through observing
and imitating others and that the people we imititate are usually role models who we
respect.
Who do we imitate?
- Those who are of a similar age or older
- Those who are the same gender
- People who get rewarded for their behaviour
Modelling Process
Step 1: Attention
Social Cognitive Theory implies that you must pay attention for you to learn.
Step 2: Retention
Retention of the newly learned behaviour is necessary. Without it, learning of the behaviour
would not be established, and you might need to get back to observing the model again
since you were not able to store information about the behaviour.
Step 3: Reproduction
When you are successful in paying attention and retaining relevant information, this step
requires you to demonstrate the behaviour. In this phase, practice of the behaviour by
repeatedly doing it is important for improvement.
Step 4: Motivation
Feeling motivated to repeat the behaviour is what you need in order to keep on performing
it. This is where reinforcement and punishment come in. You can be rewarded by
demonstrating the behaviour properly, and punished by displaying it inappropriately.
Cognitive Approach
Key Assumptions
- Human behaviour can be explained as a set of scientific processes.
- Our behaviour can be explained as a series of responses to external stimuli.
- Behaviour is controlled by our own thought processes.
Cognitive psychologists assume that behaviour is the result of information processing. By
describing thinking as information processing, cognitive psychologists are making a
comparison between minds and computers (i.e. they are adopting a computer metaphor for
the mind). This is useful because minds and computers have similarities: both have inputs,
outputs, memory stores and a limited capacity for how much information they can process
at any one time. Just as a computer’s behaviour is determined by what information it is given
and how it has been programmed, so a person’s behaviour is determined by (1) the
information available in their environment; (2) the ways they have learned to process
information; and (3) the capacities for information processing inherent in the types of brain
people have.
The approach came about in part due to the dissatisfaction with the behavioural approach,
which focused on our visible behaviour without understanding the internal processes that
create it.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Proposed by Sigmund Freud who believed that our behaviour is caused by unconscious
thoughts.
The Personality
Split into three parts –
Id – Unconscious insatiable part – very selfish
and pleasure orientated
Ego – conscious, rational part of the personality
– has to balance the demands of the id and
superego
Superego – Is concerned with right and wrong –
very morality driven
Defence Mechanisms
In order to balance the demands of the id and supergo, the ego employs defence
mechanisms.
Repression – Unacceptable desires are pushed into the unconscious
Denial – Refuse to believe events or that they are experiencing certain emotions
Sublimation – Diverting emotions onto something else – i.e. sport
The Biological Approach
All behaviour normal and abnormal, is based in physiological processes, especially the brain
but also including other parts of the nervous system and the endocrine (glandular) system.
The things that people think and feel, say and do are caused, one way or another, by
electrochemical events occurring within and between the neurones that make up their
nervous system, particular those in the brain. Many biopsychologists also agree that because
the development of the brain is determined (at least partly) by the genes a person inherits,
that behaviour may be influenced by genetic factors. Furthermore, because the genes we
inherit are the result of evolution, many biopsychologists think that behavioural and
psychological characteristics may have evolutionary explanations.
The brain can be subdivided into many different areas and structures and biopsychological
explanations often focus on which brain areas are responsible for which types of thinking or
behaviour and how they connect with other functions and brain areas. For example,
biopsychologists believe that language in humans is governed by two areas of the cerebral
cortex, Broca’s area, which controls the production of speech and Wernicke’s area, which
controls the comprehension of speech.
Biopsychologists believe that chemical processes in the brain can be an important influence
on behaviour. The brain relies on a large number of chemicals (called neurotransmitters and
hormones) to send signals between neurones. Too much or too little of any of these chemicals
canresult in over- or under-activity in various parts of the brain, which results in changes to
thinking, feeling and behaviour. For example, depression is thought to be linked with a
decrease in the neurotransmitter serotonin.