How impressionable are we? Do we simply see something and follow along? According to the learning approaches, behaviour is dictated and learned via interactions with our environment, such as our parents. If this is the case, are we not responsible for our thoughts and actions?
The learning approach is explained through two main theories, behavioural and social learning theory. Both views have been investigated by credible psychologists and theorists, with slight differences in their models.
What is the Learning Approach: Psychology?
The learning theory highlights how our experiences shape our thoughts, attitudes and behaviours.
There are different approaches to learning; the three major theories are behaviourist, cognitive constructivist and social constructivist.
The approaches have slight differences, but each agrees that our experiences are fundamental to understanding human behaviour.
What is the Definition of Behaviourism Learning Theory?
Behaviourism learning theory is an approach in psychology that focuses heavily on how the external environmental shape our behaviour.
The behavioural approaches were introduced and accepted in mainstream psychology when the psychodynamic approach, which focuses on childhood experiences and their effect on personality (psyche) and psychosexual development, was no longer the accepted approach to explain behaviour.
In psychology, when the majority of psychologists no longer believe or disprove that an approach in psychology is no longer functional or effective at explaining behaviour, there is a paradigm shift.
A paradigm is essentially an approach in psychology. When a paradigm is accepted, that approach in psychology is mainly used to explain behaviour, and the principles/ methods of that approach are also predominantly used.
Learning Approach Assumptions: Psychology
The main learning approach assumptions are:
- Behaviour is learned from our environment; thus, behaviourists approach the nurture aspect of the nature versus nurture debate.
- Behaviour can always be understood in terms of a stimulus-response.
- Behaviourists argue that animal and human behaviour are comparable as both learn behaviours in the same way; this means it is generalisable to extrapolate research from animal studies to humans.
- Researchers should aim to measure observable behaviours, i.e. Behaviourists favour empirical research. Behavioural psychologists emphasise that empirical research should be as scientific and objective as possible.
Learning Approach Psychology Examples
The learning approach consists of three explanations; the first two focus on how our response to environmental factors shapes our behaviour. These are known as classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Although both theories assume that the environment shapes our behaviour, there are slight differences between the two. The classical conditioning theory emphasises the role of learning associations between stimuli and responses. In comparison, operant conditioning emphasises reinforcement, rewards and punishment's role in learning behaviours.
And the final learning approach example is the social learning theory (SLT), which explains how cognitive processes mediate the learning of stimulus responses.
The SLT was proposed much later than the classical and operant conditioning learning theories.
Learning Approaches Psychology: Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov proposed the classical conditioning theory in 1897. The theory suggests that behaviour is learned via associations.
Pavlov proposed his classical conditioning theory after conducting experiments on dogs. In the experiment, before the dogs were conditioned, dogs were presented food (the unconditional stimuli) which caused an automatic response from the dogs to salivate (unconditional response).
Each time the dogs were given food, a bell rang (neutral stimulus); the dogs had no response to the bell.
During the conditioning stage, the dogs began to form an association/ understand the link between the bell and food (unconditional stimuli) and salivated when they heard the bell. Therefore, the bell became the conditional stimulus, and salivation was the conditional response.
The experiment highlighted how the dogs learned an association between the bell and food.
Figure 1 - Pavlov's dog experiment highlighted how animals learn associations.
Learning Approaches Psychology: Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning was proposed slightly later than classical conditioning by B. F. Skinner in 1948. The theory suggests that we learn behaviours by observing behaviours and their consequences. If behaviours are reinforced, an individual is likely to repeat the behaviour, but if they are punished or receive negative consequences, they are unlikely to repeat the behaviour.
There are two types of reinforcement; positive and negative.
Positive reinforcement is when something positive occurs when carrying out the behaviour and negative reinforcement is when something negative is removed, making the individual likely to continue the behaviour.
An example of positive reinforcement is a child being praised for doing their homework; this praise will make the child feel good. And an example of negative reinforcement is smoking because it alleviates stress.
The principles of operant conditioning are based on research that Skinner carried out on rats and pigeons. In one experiment, rats were placed in a box with an electrical grid on the floor. The grids passed small electrical currents, which caused discomfort to the animal.
There was a lever in the box, and the electrical currents stopped each time the animal pressed it (an example of negative reinforcement.
The rats quickly learned to press the lever as soon as it was placed in the electrocuted Skinner box to avoid an unpleasant experience.
Figure 2 - Skinner's animal research highlighted how animals are likely to continue behaviours that are reinforced.
Learning Approaches Psychology: Social Learning Theory
The SLT supports many of the assumptions of behavioural theories similar to classical and operant principles; the theory proposes that behaviours are learned directly from experience.
However, it adds to the theory by suggesting that behaviours may also be learned indirectly from observation by imitating others. And that cognitive processes mediate the learning of behaviours.
Teenagers may observe that popular children in school are smokers, so they may also start to smoke to be seen as popular; this concept is known as vicarious reinforcement.
For the individual to acknowledge popular children as smokers, they need to pay attention to the popular children and what makes them popular, which is an example of a cognitive process.
Bandura (1961) outlined the role of mediational processes in learning. He suggested four processes:
- Attention; acknowledging a behaviour.
- Retention; remembering the behaviour.
- Reproduction; imitating that behaviour.
- Motivation; imitating the behaviour for the observed vicarious reinforcement - positive or negative.
The SLT is supported by Bandura's bobo doll experiment on nursery school children. The children were either exposed to an aggressive, non-aggressive, or no model at all. After exposure, the children were taken into a separate room with a bobo (inflatable) doll and observed.
The children exposed to the aggressive model exhibited aggressive behaviour compared to those exposed to the non-aggressive and no-model conditions.
In another experiment variation, children were less likely to copy aggressive behaviour if they saw others punished than children who observed aggressive behaviour and rewarded.
Learning Approach Psychology: Strengths and Weaknesses
The strengths of the learning approaches in psychology are:
- Each learning approach has been supported by research. As there is evidence for each explanation, it can be assumed they have some truthfulness.
- It has significant practical applications; for example, systematic desensitisation uses classical and operant conditioning principles to treat phobias.
- The SLT helps to explain the influence that the media may have on human behaviour. The media, especially social media, has been found to play a crucial role in behaviours that children imitate. Rounsefell et al. (2019) found that social media exposure was related to body dissatisfaction, dieting/ restricting foods, changing their image to match the 'ideal' image, etc.
On the other hand, the criticisms of the behavioural theories of learning are:
- The learning approaches simplify behaviour by only explaining behaviour in terms of environmental influences whilst ignoring other factors such as biological. Therefore, the theory can be considered reductionist.
The SLT considers environmental and cognitive factors. Therefore, it can be regarded as more holistic than classical and operant conditioning. However, it still ignores many important factors.
- It considers humans as passive beings, undermining the role of mental processes and genetic functions in their behaviour; thus, it can be considered deterministic.
- Behavioural studies derived their results by experimenting on animals, including uncomfortable/ unethical mental and physical conditions.
- The bobo doll experiment was conducted on children. The results might have differed if this experiment had included adults in the sample. Therefore, the research can be considered non-representative and lacks generalisability.
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