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THEORIES - Coggle Diagram
THEORIES
classical conditioning
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we start with an NS which has an UCR. the UCS is paired with the NS and the UCR happens as a result. the continuous, or traumatic pairing of the UCS and NS turns the NS into the CS and the UCR into the CR. we now have a reaction in the presence of the conditioned stimulus.
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extinction- when the CR gradually wears off after the CS no longer predicts the arrival of the UCS. CS becomes NS again
spontaneous recovery- when the CR comes back because the CS is paired again with the NS, association is never fully broken, just weakens.
antabuse- was used on homosexuals now used on alcoholics. alcohol= UCS, drunk= UCR. taking antabuse will turn alcohol into the CS and will condition nausea as the CR to the sight or smell of it----> george best had this twice and both times trained himself to ignore the nausea and continued drinking. power of free will and personality.
STRENGTHS:
-supported by lab research on animals. Pavlov used dogs and trained them to salivate at the sound of a metronome.
-the steps of conditioning are observable and trackable, adds credibility as you can see it with your own eyes.
WEAKNESSES:
-theory has a sole focus on nurture and ignores all inherited or genetic factors like being born with predispositions towards certain behaviours. 'gay cure', argued that people are born with their sexual orientation
-humans have more complex behaviours than dogs, so pavlovs results are difficult to generalise to humans. found that homosexuals cannot be conditioned out of their sexual orientation.
phobias
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flooding- a method used to forcibly end a phobia, the person goes into a room and they are then locked in forced proximity with their phobia to condition it out of them. first they will panic and get overwhelmed and stressed and probably hot. but eventually they will calm down and they should therefore associate their calmness with the once phobia, and they phobia will be broken.
-unethical= locked in a room inable to escape whilst they are panicking and feeling overwhelmed.
-validity issues, people who are willing to be apart of this type of therapy might not have a true or intense phobia, maybe just a fear.
systematic desensitisation- aims to introduce the feeling of relaxation to compete with the fear response.
YOU CAN'T BE RELAXED AND FEARFUL AT THE SAME TIME.
most phobias are learnt in childhood, as babies have strong fear responses and don't know what is frightening them (little albert study). starts with the initial sensitising event (ISE) which is often traumatic. caoulkd possibly be learnt from role models expressing the be haviour.
in vivo= patient encounters fear irl
in vitros= the patient only faces the fear in their imagination.
STRENGTH: fear responses can be unlearnt, which supports the use of therapy methods. supported by pavolv & dogs
WEAKNESS: patients are put into distressing situations when conditioning the fear out of them. this is unethical, not such a concern if informed concent wasn't given
social learning theory
WEAKNESSES:
-problems with generalising as most research is done on children or animals. adults might learn behaviours differently as its difficult to get adults in a controlled setting with realistic role models, therefore there are issues with accurate representation
-involves cognition which is not observable, which moves the theory away from being scientific and towards being more subjective.
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STRENGTH:
-most research into this is strictly scientific, all done in controlled lab settings, with multiple researchers (behind a one way mirror to stop demand characteristics), so increases inter rater reliability.
-explains things behaviourism cant, like why we learn things so quickly. SLT suggests that huge chunks of behaviour can be learnt in one go by observing and imitating.
4 steps
- behaviour has to be modelled.
- modelled by someone the learner associates themselves with.
- learner must engage- attention (listen and watch), retention (the behaviour must be remembered), reproduction (must be able to reproduce the behaviour), motivation (must have a reason to carry out the behaviour).
- recreate behaviour.
links to multi store model- attention & retention. links to social identity theory- why do we identify ourselves with the role models.
phobias. young girls might be afraid of spiders because their mother is afraid of spiders and learnt to react how they react, but boys may not feel this fear because their father is not afraid.
operant conditioning
WEAKNESSES:
-the theory ignores all intrinsic motivation and instead only focuses on external rewards and punishments. ignores feelings like enjoyment, interest and curiosity.
-focusses only on the observable behaviours and doesn't consider mental processes or restraints, and is therefore reductionist.
positive reinforcement= making p feel rewarded and therefore encouraging the repeat of the behaviour
negative reinforcement= the removal of punishment, increases motivation as they now know they are performing the behaviour correctly
positive punishment= punishes unwanted behaviour by adding something unpleasant
negative punishment= removes something pleasant like rewards for unwanted behaviour.
voluntary behaviour can be learnt by learning the consequences of our actions. to change or maintain a behaviour, we must change the consequence.
contingent- the consequence is directly linked to the behaviour
coninguent- the consequence follows soon after the behaviour, the conditioning is weakened if too much time has passed between the consequence and the behaviour.
-fixed interval- reward turns up at a certain time. medium learning & medium extinction
-variable ratio- unsure when the rewards will arrive. Learning is fast & extinction is slow.
-fixed ratio- reward turns up every time the behaviour occurs. learning is fast & extinction is medium
-variable ratio- reward is dispensed randomly. learning is fast & extinction is slow.
STRENGTHS:
-operant conditioning is used constantly in real life to shape and alter behaviours to desired ones. token economies in prisons successfully
-the scientific approach involves observable and measureable behaviour by ignoring mental states, making it scientific and objective.