Behavioural Approach Essay

The behavioural approach suggests that all behaviour is learnt. This includes abnormal behaviours. Behaviours can be learned through classical conditioning, operant conditioning or modelling. Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning, where learning results from the association of stimuli with reflex responses. Classical conditioning can be used to explain the development of many abnormal behaviours, including phobias, anxiety disorders and taste aversions. An example of how classical conditioning might result in a phobia is the case of Little Albert. In an experiment carried out by Watson and Rayner, a 11 month old boy called ‘little Albert’ was taught to fear a white rat through associating it with a loud noise, a symbol behind his head. Each time he played with the rat the symbol would be hit which caused him to cry. Eventually he would do so even without the noise due to the classical conditioning theory. This research however, would not receive approval from an ethics committee today because it would be seen as unethical. Making the baby cry deliberately and teaching him to fear the rat would be seen as wrong because it could cause distress and would go against ‘little Alberts’ human rights. The theory of operant conditioning was proposed by Skinner. Operant conditioning involves learning from the consequences of actions. Actions which have a good outcome through positive reinforcement (reward) or negative reinforcement (removal of something bad) will be repeated. Actions which have a bad outcome (punishment) will not be repeated. Operant conditioning explains how abnormal behaviours might be maintained. This could be through positive reinforcement; behaviours which have a good outcome by bringing some sort of reward are said to be positively reinforced. On the other hand it could be down to negative reinforcement which is behaviours which have a good outcome by removing something unpleasant are said to be negatively reinforced. Finally, abnormal behaviours could also be learnt through modelling or social learning, which is learning through observation of an individual. What happens is simply an individual models the behaviour and the observer imitates the model. A strength of the behavioural approach is that it can be experimentally tested. The principles of learning have been and continue to be tested empirically in a laboratory. The focus on observable behaviour means it can be objectively measured. A further strength is that unlike the psychodynamic approach, it doesn’t require delving into the past, which is problematic because it could unearth traumatic experiences which can produce unreliable data. However, those who support the psychodynamic approach suggests the behavioural model only focuses on symptoms, not on the underlying causes of abnormal behaviour. Freudians claim it treats the symptoms while ignoring the root cause of the problem. Therefore it cannot work as the problem will just represent itself with different symptoms. Whereas, the biological approach cannot explain cultural differences in abnormality such as culture-bound syndromes, a strength of the behavioural approach is that it can account for this because It accounts for cultural differences because it recognises the importance of the environment in shaping behaviour. While behavioural treatments are often effective for certain disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and phobias, they have not been found to be effective for many other disorders and have also often been criticised for being unethical because treatment is often painful and uncomfortable and is sometimes imposed on individuals without their consent. The behavioural approach is accused of being reductionist and simplistic. This is because it’s a simple approach with connections of stimulus. It neglects the influence of cognitions (The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought and experience). A further limitation is that much behaviourist research involves animal studies. While behaviourists argue that humans are fundamentally the same as non-human animals, others would argue that the greater complexity of the human mind makes it difficult to generalise findings from animal studies to humans. Overall the behaviourist approach shows all behaviour to be learnt through our experiences. It states that this learning can either be learnt through classical or operant condition and also the social learning theory. It can be experimentally tested and proven which makes the approach credible however it can be seen just to treat the symptoms of a abnormal behaviour rather than looking at the cause.