Theoretical Approaches And Theories Of Psychology

All behavior is learnt from the environment. We learn new things new behavior through operant or classical conditioning.

Pavlov’s discovery of classical conditioning was a complete accident (Hock, 2009, p. 66). Pavlov was doing physiology research with salvation’s role with digestion when he discovered classical conditioning. In his research, he had dogs with their salvation glands redirected to their cheek in order to test the amount of saliva produced when presented with different foods. Pavlov then noticed that the dogs would salivate before they even got the food. He then discovered that the dogs had associated the worker’s footsteps with the food. So, when the dogs hear the footsteps they know that food is on the way so they begin to salivate.

Our understanding of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning has allowed us to unlock many of the answers we sought to learn about human behavior. Classical conditioning is a technique of behavioral training, coined by Ivan Pavlov, which basically states that an organism learns through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. This helps us understand human behavior in an assortment of ways. It makes it clear that almost everything we do is based on patterns of stimulus and response. For example, if you were bitten aggressively by a dog as a child, you may be still scared of dogs today. That is because the dog caused you pain, which in turn caused you have anxiety towards dogs.

In Psychology learning is seen as a change in behaviour caused by an experience. Behaviorism, is seen as a learning theory; an attempt to explain how people or animals learn by studying their behaviour. The Behaviourists Approach has two theories to help explain how we learn, Classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this task I will attempt to describe and evaluate this approach.

Classical conditioning was a theory developed by a Russian psychologist called Ivan Pavlov. He was working with dogs to investigate their

Psychology is the scientific “study of the mind” (Gross, 2015) and behaviour, which includes the study of humans and animals. There are various approaches in modern psychology. A theoretical approach is a perspective which is someone’s view about human behaviour, there can be many different theories within an approach, however they all piece together the same assumptions. (McLeod, 2007). A theory is an attempt by theorists to try to explain behaviour. Theories are not facts but can be verified by testing. Theories can then be evaluated which I aim to achieve through this essay, where I will briefly explain the theoretical approaches in psychology and aim to focus on an analysis of each perspective which consists of the psychodynamic,

Psychology is the scientific “study of the mind” (Gross, 2015) and behavior, which includes the study of humans and animals. There are various approaches in modern psychology. A theoretical approach is a perspective (view) about human behavior, there may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions and principles. (McLeod, 2007). A theory is an attempt by theorists to try to explain behavior. Theories are not facts but can be verified by testing. Theories can then be evaluated which I aim to do through this essay, where I will briefly explain the theoretical approaches in psychology and aim to focus on an analysis for each perspective which consist of the psychodynamic, humanist, cognitive and behavioral approaches where I will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each approach separately.

The behaviourist approach assumes that all behaviours are learnt. It suggests that there are three ways in which this learning can happen, these are classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning.

Classical conditioning is a form of basic learning the body automatically responds to a stimulus. One stimulus takes on the properties of another. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) is credited for discovering the basic principles of classical conditioning whilst he was studying digestion in dogs. He developed a technique for collecting dog’s salivary secretions. Pavlov (cited in Eysneck M.W 2009) noticed that the dogs would often start salivating before they were given any food or saw the feeding bucket or even when they heard the footstep of the laboratory assistant coming to feed them. Quite by accident Pavlov had discovered that the environmental control of behaviour can be changed as a result

According to Gleitman (2011, p. 264) classical conditioning can be defined as “a form of learning in which one stimulus is paired with another so that the organism learns a relationship between the stimuli.” However it was the study pioneered by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian Born physiologist, which truly revolutionised the theory of classical conditioning.

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was the first to describe classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning. It has a textbook meaning which is the learning process in which a neutral stimulus (e.g., a tone) becomes associated with an innately meaningful stimulus (e.g., food) and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar or a conditioned response (e.g., salivation).

Classical conditioning is a psychological process that associates two items together to create a reaction. Classical conditioning was first discovered by Ivan Pavlov in 1902 (Wortley, R. 2011), he performed an experiment which lead to the discovery. He noticed that dogs would salivate at the sound of

Classical conditioning is a type of learning process which occurs through associations between an environmental and natural stimulus. Classical Conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov who was a Russian physiologist. Pavlov was initially studying the digestive process of dogs when he accidentally observed a gripping behavioural phenomenon. Pavlov noticed that the dogs started salivating as soon as it saw the technicians who fed it entering the room, even though there was no food in sight. This response demonstrated the basic principle of classical conditioning which made Pavlov question why the dogs reacted in this way, therefore he decided to research the concept in depth.

Classical conditioning was introduced by famous Physiologist Ivan Pavlov. It involves presentation of neutral stimulus along with another significant stimulus “unconditional stimulus”. Pavlov came upon this theory because he was initially conducting another expirement were he put meat powder in the dogs mouth so he could measure digestive secretions and saliva. But with this he noticed that the dog would start salivating just by the site of the meat powder, the by the site of the assistant taking the meat powder, then as time went on anything that associated itself with the meat powder produced salivation in the dog. Pavlov went on to conduct his classical conditioning which was were he chained a dog to a machine that measured the quantity the dog salivated. At regular intervals a tone was sounded that was followed with a bit of food. The tone itself had no importance to the dog except for an orientating response that had the dog curious to find were the tone came from. Combining the tone with a bit of food

Pavlov’s classical conditioning experiment was to train a dog to respond to a bell; initially with food, then both food and a bell and finally just the bell. It suggests the learner is passive and responds to stimuli, it showed that behaviour was learnt by negative and positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the appliance of a stimulus and negative reinforcement is the removal of the stimulus. It is essentially to change the behaviour of a learner to enable learning. Animals were used in much of the behaviourist’s experimentation. Classical conditioning’s strength is that, it is arguably scientific and based on observed evidence carried out by laboratory experiments. A problem with this theory is that it is deterministic; it negates any freewill in the individual.