What if someone came along and told you that you would get £1000 every time you composted for an entire month? Would this make you more likely to do this behaviour? Chances are, you'd become a composting master. But why? The behaviourism approach in psychology might be able to tell us.
What is the behavioural approach in psychology?
How was behavioural theory formed, and by who?
What are the strengths and limitations of behaviourism philosophy?
What are some other behaviourism examples we see in psychology?
- What is cognitive behavioural therapy?
Behavioural Approach
The rise of the behaviourism approach marked a notable shift in the field of psychology. Before behaviourism was fully established, there were other approaches, such as Wilhelm Wundt's introspection and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis.
However, behaviourists such as John Watson believed that for this new field of psychology to be taken seriously as a science, it must focus on phenomena that can be measured and observed.
The underlying assumptions of the behavioural approach in psychology are summarised by John Watson (1913):
Behavioural psychology studies behaviours that are observable and quantifiable.
Behaviours are mostly learnt from interaction with our environment; this supports the nurture approach.
Humans and animals exhibit very similar learning patterns, so conclusions from animal experiments can be generalised/ extrapolated to humans.
In line with its objective and scientific approach to psychology, experiments conducted by the behavioural approach are mostly lab-controlled.
Behaviourism: a theory that states that all behaviours are learned and acquired through interaction with the environment through conditioning processes.
Behavioural Theory
We now know where the basic principles of the behavioural approach originated, but we've yet to discuss how behavioural theories were initially formed. Well, it began with two men - Ivan Pavlov (classical conditioning) and B.F. Skinner (operant conditioning).
Classical Conditioning: Pavlov's Dog
In 1897, Ivan Pavlov was the first to demonstrate a behaviourism phenomenon called classical conditioning.
He tested this theory by observing a dog's response to a repeated stimulus. He observed that repeated pairings of a sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) with food given to dogs simultaneously could generate a conditioned response, i.e., salivation at the sound of the bell even when no food is provided.
The steps of Pavlov's experiment were as follows:
Dogs salivated (unconditioned response) when provided with food (unconditioned stimulus).
Then the bell (neutral stimulus) was rung whenever food was presented.
Gradually after repeated pairing, the dogs salivated at the sound of the bell even when no food was given. The bell became the conditioned stimulus, and salivation became the conditioned response.
The dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with being fed. The sound of the bell became a trigger for the dogs that caused salivation even when no food was given.
Can you think of how you've been classically conditioned? Think of sour candy. Are you salivating just at the thought of it?
![Behaviourism [+] Pavlov's dog [+] StudySmarter](https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/studysmarter-mediafiles/media/1865576/summary_images/Pavlovs_dog_conditioning.svg.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4OLDUDE42UZHAIET%2F20240419%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240419T040930Z&X-Amz-Expires=180000&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=1533b172630c0870cd2179a8103d715c865361ba82646214626d22775c46ba24)
Fig 1 - The Pavlov dog Experiment was conducted to show how classical conditioning works, commons.Wikimedia by Maxxl².
Operant Conditioning: The Skinner Box
When humans or animals respond to the environment, their actions are followed by consequences.
If the result is positive, the behaviour will be repeated. If the consequence is unpleasant, the behaviour will be avoided. B. F. Skinner decided to test this theory by placing a hungry rat in a cage with a lever.
Each time the lever was activated, a food pallet was dropped into a dispenser. The rat quickly learnt this behaviour, and after the food was pushed into the dispenser several times, it would press the lever when hungry.
This experiment is known as the Skinner box experiment.
Skinner suggested several types of learning occur during operant conditioning:
Positive reinforcement is when an action is rewarded; it increases the likelihood of repeating desired behaviours. You might, for example, get ice cream when you finish all of your homework before the weekend.
Negative reinforcement is when an action prevents an unpleasant outcome which increases desired behaviour, like when you put on sunscreen to avoid sunburn.
Punishment is when an action performed has a negative consequence. It decreases unwanted behaviours, for example, when you get suspended from school for breaking the rules.
In the Skinner box experiment, the desired behaviour is pressing the lever, and the positive reinforcement is that the hungry rat gets food.
![Behaviourism [+] Operant conditioning [+] Skinner [+] StudySmarter](https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/studysmarter-mediafiles/media/1865576/summary_images/Skinner_box_scheme_01.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4OLDUDE42UZHAIET%2F20240419%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240419T040930Z&X-Amz-Expires=180000&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=de35ba3861d39395e435974234ff75485b4a3613283fb6152730608193258b52)
Fig 2 - Skinner's rat experiment illustrated how operant conditioning works, commons.Wikimedia.org
In a second experiment, Skinner placed a rat in a cage and subjected it to mild electric currents. The rats moved around due to discomfort from the electric currents.
The electric currents stopped whenever the rat pressed the lever. After being subjected to the same situation a few times, the rat quickly learnt to press the lever to avoid uncomfortable electric currents through negative reinforcement.
Negative reinforcement causes the subject to increase the behaviour because they benefit from removing the negative stimulus.
Behavioural Philosophy
Today, behavioural philosophy has infiltrated the field of psychology and influenced many other disciplines as well. It has majorly impacted psychologists' approach to research, treatment for psychological disorders, and even education.
As impactful as this approach may be, there are still several strengths and limitations to the behavioural philosophy.
The strengths of the behavioural philosophy might be summarised as follows:
It has scientific credibility. As all experiments are lab-controlled, there is little space for biased judgments of individuals or external variables to affect the study's objectivity.
Classical and operant conditioning have practical applications in psychological treatments, as, for example, in the systematic desensitisation for treating phobias, which is based on classical conditioning.
Behaviourism set a precedent for using animals as research subjects, leading to many important discoveries in psychology.
However, using animals for research is both a strength and a limitation of behaviourism. On the one hand, using animals has allowed researchers to explore phenomena considered unethical to research on humans (imagine if Skinner put a person in a box and shocked them to demonstrate operant conditioning).
On the other hand, many animal advocates feel subjecting animals to this treatment is just as unethical.
Additionally, some questions are raised regarding how generalisable the findings from animal subjects are to a person's life.
Here are a few more limitations the behavioural philosophy can have:
The behavioural approach portrays humans as passive beings whose cognitive thought processes do not influence their behaviours. Therefore, the approach can be argued as deterministic.
It rules out biological causes of learning and performing behaviour. For example, low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin affect the symptoms of depression and OCD.
It fails to explain internal mental processes, such as memory, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities, which are likely to play an essential role in human behaviours. Thus, the approach can be criticised as reductionist.
Behaviourism Examples
So what are some examples of the behaviourism approach's important contributions to modern psychology? Well, let's first look at phobias and how to treat them. Behaviourists would say that a phobia results from an unpleasant learning experience.
For example, they may say that someone developed coulrophobia (fear of clowns) because of a bad experience they had as a child that has caused a conditioned fear response whenever they see clowns.
Since the phobia was learned, the assumption is that it can be unlearned or re-conditioned.
Some examples of treatment that use the behaviourism approach include systematic desensitisation. This exposure therapy repeatedly exposes someone to what they fear while using classical conditioning or cognitive behavioural therapy, which we'll briefly discuss later in this article.
The behaviourist approach also helps us understand other psychological conditions, such as addictions. For example, a gambling addiction likely forms due to operant conditioning, in which a person's destructive behaviour is reinforced through the rewards of winning (even if the losses are greater), or operant conditioning.
Once again, the behaviourist approach to understanding addiction has also influenced how this condition is treated.
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy
So what is cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)? Well, it's regarded as one of the most effective types of evidence-based treatment psychologists use today for psychological conditions, including:
General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Phobias
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Schizophrenia
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
Eating Disorders
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that treats psychological disorders by helping a person change both how they think and how they behave.
Patients undergoing cognitive-behavioural therapy may be asked to engage in behavioural tasks such as practicing new skills or stepping out of their comfort zone as a path towards healing. Without the behaviourism approach, this powerful form of therapy would not even exist.
Behaviourism - Key takeaways
Behaviourism is a theory that states that all behaviours are learned and acquired through interaction with the environment through conditioning processes.
The methodology or laws of the behavioural approach were mainly drawn from the experiments of classical conditioning by Ivan Pavlov (1897) and operant conditioning by B. F. Skinner (1948).
Today, behavioural philosophy has infiltrated the field of psychology and influenced many other disciplines. It has majorly impacted psychologists' approach to research, treatment for psychological disorders, and education.
Some examples of treatment that use the behaviourism approach include systematic desensitisation. This exposure therapy repeatedly exposes someone to what they fear while using classical conditioning or cognitive behavioural therapy, which we'll briefly discuss later in this article.
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy is a type of therapy that treats psychological disorders by helping a person change both how they think and how they behave.
References
- Figure 1 - Pavlov's dog conditioning.svg (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pavlov%27s_dog_conditioning.svg) by Maxxl² (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MaxxL) is licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
- Figure 2 - Skinner box scheme 01.png (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skinner_box_scheme_01.png) by Andreas1 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Andreas1&action=edit&redlink=1) is licensed by CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
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