THE LEARNING APPROACH

How ‘nurture’ shapes us

Today’s session

You will learn how to... You will learn about...

Describe the assumptions of psychological approaches

Behaviourism

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”

John B. Watson (1919)

•What claim is Watson making about human nature?

WE ARE BORN WITH A BLANK SLATE

To what extent do you agree with this statement?

We are shaped into the person we are by our social world

Classical conditioning

Extinction

Spontaneous recovery

Stimulus and Response

KEY WORDS

Operant conditioning

(+) (-) reinforcement

Punishment

Primary and

secondary

reinforcement

Social learningImitationModellingObservationVicarious reinforcement

2 KEY ASSUMPTIONS

BLANK SLATEWe are shaped by our environment by means of reinforcements and punishments

2. SEEING IS BELIEVINGThe only way to explain behaviour is by measuring what you can observe.Data must be scientifically gathered using scientific principles

3 Types of LEARNING

OC – behaviour is voluntary and considers punishments and rewards.– Stickers, token economy,

detention

CC – stimulus and

response of reflexes

–Eye blink, knee-jerk,

breathing.

–Good at explaining

phobias

SLT – we learn through watching and copying others especially role models and people we look up to

Observations (definition and strengths & weaknesses)

– Naturalistic, structured– Non- Participant and participant, – Covert and overt

Chi Squared

Lab experiments

Methodology and PRACTICAL

KEY WORDS TO LEARN• Inter-observer reliability•Tallying•Ecological validity•Time sampling

STUDIES IN DETAILSOCIAL LEARNINGBANDURA (1961) study of how aggressive models might be copied by

children

CLASSICAL

CONDITIONING

• WATSON & RAYNOR

(1920) Little Albert

KEY ISSUE – you choose!

The

influence of

role

models on

anorexia

The influence of advertising on people’s behaviour

The increase

in female

violence to

changing role

models

CONTENT

The main features of CC,OC, SLT

One therapy

How OC and SLT explain gender development and behaviour

Comparison with biological and psychodynamic

Exam Questions

Explain 2 ways in which the learning approach differs from– Biological approach [4marks]

– Psychodynamic approach [4 marks]