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Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches

The Behaviourist Approach: assumptions of the approach

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

Recall questions on classical conditioning, operant conditioning and shaping.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Explain the blank slate assumption, and name the philosopher whose term the behaviourists adopted.

Process

Distinguish generalisation from discrimination.

Key term

Name the three assumptions of the behaviourist approach.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name the three assumptions of the behaviourist approach.

    Model answer

    The mind at birth is a blank slate, behaviour is learnt through conditioning, and humans and animals learn in similar ways.

  2. 2

    Explain the blank slate assumption, and name the philosopher whose term the behaviourists adopted.

    Model answer

    A baby is born with no pre-existing content to its mind, so everything about its personality and behaviour is written on it by experience; the term tabula rasa comes from John Locke.

  3. 3

    What did Watson famously claim he could do with a group of healthy infants?

    Model answer

    That given a dozen healthy infants and control over their upbringing, he could train any one of them into any profession he chose, whatever their background or apparent talents.

  4. 4

    Who demonstrated classical conditioning, and with what animals?

    Model answer

    Ivan Pavlov, working with dogs.

  5. 5

    Define classical conditioning.

    Model answer

    Learning by association, in which a neutral stimulus repeatedly paired with a stimulus that already produces a reflex response comes to produce that response by itself.

  6. 6

    Identify the unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response in Pavlov's work.

    Model answer

    The food is the unconditioned stimulus and salivation in response to the food is the unconditioned response.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

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Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
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The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches
Contemporary Debates
Principles of Research and Application of Research Methods
Mathematical Requirements for Psychology (Appendix A: AS Unit 2 and A2 Unit 4)

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Memory is .
reconstructivereproductivepermanent

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AParticipants volunteer and are already motivated.
BSamples are self-selecting.
CNo convincing placebo version exists.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

An MRI scan images structure only.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

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Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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