Topic 4 of 6 · Form 5
The learning approach
Behaviour is learned from experience and the environment through conditioning and observation.
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Assumptions
Behaviour is learned from experience and the environment through conditioning and observation.
Classical and operant conditioning
- Classical conditioning (Pavlov): association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.
- Operant conditioning (Skinner): reinforcement (positive and negative) and punishment shape behaviour; schedules of reinforcement.
Social learning theory
Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961): children who watched an adult model behave aggressively towards a Bobo doll imitated much of that aggression; boys showed more imitative physical aggression than girls. Processes: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation; vicarious reinforcement.
Applications
Animal training, behaviour therapy (systematic desensitisation for phobias), token economies.
Evaluation
Strengths: scientific, testable, effective therapies. Weaknesses: ignores cognition and biology (except social learning), deterministic, animal research generalised to humans, ethical issues with children.
Check yourself
- What is negative reinforcement?
- Name the four processes in social learning.
- How does systematic desensitisation treat phobias?
Show answers
- Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behaviour.
- Attention, retention, reproduction (motor reproduction) and motivation.
- Gradual exposure through a hierarchy of feared situations paired with relaxation, replacing fear with calm.
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