THE
BEHAVIOURAL
APPROACH
Or
Everything
opposed to
Freud
JB Watson (1878-1958)
‘Father of Behaviourism’
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and
train him to become a doctor, lawyer, artist, beggar or thief”
THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
 Tabula Rasa
 Environmental determinism
THE IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVABLE
EVENTS IN RESEARCH
 This approach is primarily concerned with
observable behaviour (measurable behaviour)
 Stimulus-Response relationships.
 E.g.: you burn your hand on a stove, and therefore
do not touch the stove again.
Classical Conditioning
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 This is learning through ASSOCIATION
 To remember this think ASS!
… clASSical conditioning
… ASSociation
No response
Neutral Stimulus
(NS)
Unconditioned
Response
(UCR)
Unconditioned Stimulus
(UCS)
Conditioning
Conditioned Stimulus
(CS)
Conditioned
Response
(CR)
LITTLE ALBERT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FKZAYt77ZM
 Complete the table on pg 8,
explaining the process of the
Classical Conditioning of Little
Albert.
 Include these terms:
 rat, striking hammer, fear, unconditioned
stimulus (UCS), unconditioned response
(UCR), conditioned response
(CR),conditioned stimulus (CS), neutral
stimulus (NS).
Work it out....
A child is afraid of spiders. One day he is in a lift
and notices a spider. Now he is afraid of lifts.
Neutral stimulus (NS)?
Unconditioned stimulus
(UCS)?
Unconditioned response (UCR)?
Conditioned stimulus (CS)?
Conditioned response(CR)?
And another, try this one on your own
 Many years ago, as a child, Rick used to
visit a dentist who thought that
anaesthetic was just for sissies. The
dentist had a grandfather clock in the
waiting room. Years later, Rick still
feels uneasy and a little anxious
whenever he hears the tick of a
grandfather clock.
 Suggest the NS, UCS, CS, UCR and CR
in this scenario.
Operant Conditioning
OPERANT CONDITIONING
 Operant conditioning is learning through
consequence
 It focuses on reward and punishment.
Ratatouille
Ratatouille is hungry
and perform various
exploratory behaviours
By chance he
presses the lever
I’ll do
that
again
A pellet of food
appears!
Some definitions....
Reinforcement :
Positive
reinforcement :
Negative
reinforcement :
Punishment :
Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood
of the behaviour being repeated
Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood
of the behaviour being repeated by using consequences
that are pleasant when they happen i.e. food for
Ratatouille
Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood
of the behaviour being repeated by using consequences
that are pleasant when they stop
Anything unpleasant which has the effect of decreasing the
likelihood of any behaviour which is not the desired
behaviour.
Schedules of reinforcement
 When and how often we reinforce a
behaviour can have a significant impact on
the strength and rate of the response.
2 types of schedules
 Continuous reinforcement: the desired
behaviour is reinforced every single time it
occurs.
 Partial reinforcement: the response is
reinforced only part of the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGazyH6fQQ4
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
How can Operant
Conditioning be used
to explain OCD?
Starter…
 Many years ago, as a child, Rick used to
visit a dentist who thought that
anaesthetic was just for sissies. The
dentist had a grandfather clock in the
waiting room. Years later, Rick still
feels uneasy and a little anxious
whenever he hears the tick of a
grandfather clock.
 Suggest the UCS, CS, UCR and CR in
this scenario.
Social learning
Learning by observation and imitation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q
Social Learning
 Learning by observation
… People observe the behaviour of
other people (models)
… They may imitate the behaviour
they observe
… Whether or not they do so depends
on the observed consequences:
 Vicarious reinforcement
 Vicarious punishment
Vicarious…what???
Observe how
behaviour is
reinforced in other
people
(Copying the behaviour of others
- ‘role models’)
For modelling to occur, there must be: Attention (noticing the behaviour)
 Retention (remembering the
behaviour)
 Motor Reproduction (it has to be
physically possible)
 Motivation (there has to be a reason
to want to copy the role-model)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU&feature=related
a) Aggression Rewarded
(VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT)
b) Aggression Punished
(VICARIOUS PUNISHMENT)
c) Adult neither rewarded or punished
(No reinforcement)
Result: Rewarded adult is MOST likely to be copied
Punished adult LEAST likely to be copied
Bandura’s ideas could be used to
explain eating disorders,
obsessive compulsions and
anxiety.
How?
Evaluation of Behavioural Approach
 Over to you…
 10 minutes
 Read through Limitations section on page 189.
Write these in
the evaluation
box on pg 11 of
your booklet
 Summarise the strengths and weaknesses of the
behavioural approach.
 Use short sentences (bullet points)
 You need to identify at least 3 weaknesses and 2
strengths.
‘Preparedness’
Seligman (1971)
 Evolutionary history has prepared us to
be sensitive to certain stimuli, such as
dangerous animals and situations.
 Even today, we have not shaken this
off.
… E.g. Ohman et al (2000)
… Participants could be conditioned to fear
pictures of spiders, but they could not be
conditioned to fear pictures of flowers.