Psychological Approaches to Explain Human Behaviour
Compare and contrast different approaches in psychology, in their effectiveness in explaining human behaviour.
Many psychological approaches try to explain human behaviour and as to whether behaviour is innate, nature, or it’s learnt through experiences from our environment, nurture.
The behaviourist approach is a theory that all behaviours are learnt and that individuals are born with a tabula rasa, a blank slate. They claim that individual’s behaviour is determined by the environment in which they live in; this has been called environmental determinism. This social learning theory can be explained by the principles of conditioning, classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which simple responses are associated with new stimuli. For example Psychologist Pavlov’s (1849-1936) research on dog’s digestive system, he noticed that when he presented food to his dogs they would then salivated. The food is an unconditioned stimulus that brings forth a response automatically and the salivation to the food is the unconditioned response which is automatically produced.
He then sounded a bell, the conditioned stimulus, before he presented the dogs with food. Eventually every time he sounded the bell they would automatically produce saliva, this is a conditioned response. Therefore Pavlov’s research supports the theory that behaviour can be taught and conditioned.
Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which behaviour is controlled by giving a reward or reinforcement. The essence of operant conditioning can be seen in Skinner’s (1938) experiment with his ‘skinner boxes’. His theory arises from Thorndike’s (1874-1949) theory in instrumental learning. Thorndike suggested that learning could take place through trial and error. Both Thorndike and Skinner (1938) concentrate on the effects of behaviour whilst Pavlov’s study focuses on behaviours themselves.
Many psychological approaches try to explain human behaviour and as to whether behaviour is innate, nature, or it’s learnt through experiences from our environment, nurture.
The behaviourist approach is a theory that all behaviours are learnt and that individuals are born with a tabula rasa, a blank slate. They claim that individual’s behaviour is determined by the environment in which they live in; this has been called environmental determinism. This social learning theory can be explained by the principles of conditioning, classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which simple responses are associated with new stimuli. For example Psychologist Pavlov’s (1849-1936) research on dog’s digestive system, he noticed that when he presented food to his dogs they would then salivated. The food is an unconditioned stimulus that brings forth a response automatically and the salivation to the food is the unconditioned response which is automatically produced.
He then sounded a bell, the conditioned stimulus, before he presented the dogs with food. Eventually every time he sounded the bell they would automatically produce saliva, this is a conditioned response. Therefore Pavlov’s research supports the theory that behaviour can be taught and conditioned.
Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which behaviour is controlled by giving a reward or reinforcement. The essence of operant conditioning can be seen in Skinner’s (1938) experiment with his ‘skinner boxes’. His theory arises from Thorndike’s (1874-1949) theory in instrumental learning. Thorndike suggested that learning could take place through trial and error. Both Thorndike and Skinner (1938) concentrate on the effects of behaviour whilst Pavlov’s study focuses on behaviours themselves.