Outline And Evaluation Of Psychological Psychology

n outline and evaluation of three psychological perspectives and related research studies
Introduction

The behaviourist approach transformed psychology in the early twentieth century when in 1913 a University of Chicago graduate, John Watson, put forward the theory that psychology should be about the study of observable behaviour ignoring all mental processes such as thoughts and emotions (Malim 1998). He criticised the use of introspection as not being a reliable and objective method for psychological study and believed the aim of psychology should be to predict, understand and control behaviour (ibid). He proposed that psychology should be seen as a science using controlled variables within experimentation (McLeod 2007a). This approach made

He tested this ‘learning via association’ theory using a bell to see if he could condition his dogs to salivate to the ringing of a bell (ibid). Giving them food caused them to salivate, the saliva being an inbuilt, unlearnt natural reaction known as the unconditioned response (UCR) (ibid). This stems from the food, known as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (ibid). By introducing a neutral stimulus (NS), the bell, and pairing the food with the bell a number of times, the dogs learned to associate the bell with the food (ibid). He then rang the bell without food and the dogs began to salivate (ibid). The bell, originally a neutral stimulus had now become a learnt, or conditioned stimulus (CS), causing the dogs to salivate which was now a conditioned response (CR) (ibid). This form of learning basically involves learning to associate an unconditioned stimulus, which produces an inbuilt reaction, with a new stimulus so the new stimulus produces the same reaction

It proposed that behaviour resulting in pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, whereas that which has no pleasant consequences dies away (ibid). He used a cat in a cage which he called the ‘puzzle box’, from which the cat could escape by pulling a string loop (ibid). The cat eventually linked pulling the string with escaping which Thorndike named ‘trial and error learning’ (ibid). This theory was developed further by Burrhus Skinner (in ???) who coined the phrase operant conditioning (ibid). Skinner placed a rat in a box with a lever that operated a food dispenser (ibid). The rat accidently pressed the lever and was presented with food. Eventually the rat learnt to press the lever for food, the reward, known as the reinforcer with the process known as positive reinforcement (ibid). As well as positive reinforcement other consequences can be used, such as negative reinforcement and punishment (ibid). Negative reinforcement is concerned with the elimination of something unpleasant, for example the rat learnt to press the lever to switch off an electric shock while punishment is concerned with punishing a response with an unpleasant stimulus making the response less likely to be repeated