Behaviourism:
The behaviourist approach is based upon the assumptions that all humans are born as blank slates and that behaviour is learnt through interactions and experiences with the world. According to behaviourism, there are three methods in which are all learnt through; classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory.
Classical conditioning is the principle of learning via association. In the 1890’s by Ivan Pavlov. Whilst conducting research into the digestive he discovered that when dogs were given food, they would salivate. But after a while he started to notice that the dogs were beginning to salivate as soon as the researcher opened the door to the lab to deliver the food (2005, Eysenck). Thereafter, he devised an experiment where he would take a dog’s unconditioned response (salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (food) and then associate it with a neutral stimulus (a bell) and see what would happen when the original unconditioned stimulus was removed. He discovered that after training the dog to recognise that the sound of a bell meant that they would be given food; The dog would salivate even when the unconditioned stimulus was removed from the experiment. Thus, proving that it was possible to train a reaction to a neutral stimulus via association with an unconditioned stimulus (2012, Cardwell & Flanigan).
Operant conditioning is the theory that we learn through the consequences of our behaviour and depending on whether the consequences are positive or negative, will establish how likely we are to do that behaviour again. ‘skinners box’ experiment was a 1938 lab experiment conducted by B.F. Skinner. These ‘Skinner boxes” were created to remove any and all extraneous variables from the study and contained usually nothing more than a device such as a lever or disc that would be used to measure the behaviour of the animals and would deliver food. Rats were used in one experiment and were placed inside the box and allowed to move and explore the area freely. As the moved around the box they would eventually unintentionally press the lever as the stepped on it. This would be rewarded instantly with food. After a few more accidental uses of the lever the rats began to use the lever more and more as they began to realise that this would mean they would receive food. This experiment showed that depending on whether or not the behaviour was reinforced or not, would determine how likely it would be for that behaviour to be repeated. (2010, Lund)
Both of these experiments were produced in lab conditions. This meant that all conditions of the experiment would not only be easy to replicate, but also made sure all results would be relating to the experiment and not caused by other uncontrolled variables. However, this made the setting of the experiment artificial and gave it a low ecological validity, meaning it would be difficult to generalize the results to real life. Another limitation of these experiments was that they were performed on animals which means its not really possible to generalise the results of what a rat or pigeon does to human behaviour.
Biological approach
The biological approach assumes that behaviour is caused by activity in the bodies nervous system. Peoples thoughts, feelings, what they say, and what they do are caused by electrochemical events that happen in and between the neurones that make up the nervous system, primarily in the brain. Its also widely agreed that because brain development is partly determined by genes. Behaviour may also be affected by genetic factors as well. This would also lead many biopsychologists to believe that there are evolutionary explanations to certain behaviours.
The brain can be divided into many different areas and biopsychological explanations often focus on which brain areas control what types of thoughts and behaviour and how they interact with other brain areas. For example, language is believed to be controlled by two areas of the cerebral cortex, production of speech comes from the Brocas area, and comprehension of speech comes from the Wernicke’s area. These speech centres are then connected to many other brain areas which include those involved in thinking and in auditory working memory.
Biopsychologists also believe genetic influences are believed to play a role in many types of behaviour. For example, schizophrenia is a psychological disorder that is believed to be at least partly due to inherited faulty genes. These are believed to influence the development of the nervous system and potentially cause the malfunctioning that causes the symptoms of the disorder.
Chemical processes in the brain also have an influence on development. There is a large amount of chemicals known as Hormones and neurotransmitters that the brain uses to send signals between neurones. Too much or too little of any of these chemicals will result in under- or over activity in parts of the brain, which consequently results in changes to thoughts, emotions and behaviour.
Biopsychology also plays a major role in the nature/nurture debate, which argues whether behaviour is innate, and we are born with it, or learnt through environment and external influences. Waber et al (2007) was a longitudinal study that used 500 healthy American children between the ages of 0-18 and studied their brain development, taking particular interest in motor skills, IQ development, and language and social skills. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track brain development they planned to study normal development as well as brain development of children who were exposed to environmental risks. Depending on what age they were when they started, each child was studied for a period of several months to several years. The findings discovered that children from low income backgrounds performed lower on IQ tests and would have more behavioural issues than their peers from middle- and higher-income families. But there were no differences found in basic cognitive functions like memory and verbal fluency. All children did however show to learn rapidly between the ages of 6 and 10, with much less growth cognitively as they got older. This study supports the suggestion that development occurs the quickest during childhood and that nurture plays a major role in this. (Sammons, 2018)
Cognitive approach
Much like the behaviourist approach, the cognitive approach assumes that psychology is a science and therefore only objective and controlled methods should be used to study it. However, unlike behaviourism, the cognitive approach believes it is important to look at the mental process of an organism and how that influences behaviour. The cognitive approach builds on behaviourisms simple stimulus-response links and says that in between stimulus and response is a mediational event that occurs that determines the response. Without this, cognitive psychologists say they cannot have a complete understanding of behaviour.
Mediational processes are what cognitive psychologists use to describe the mental event that occurs within the brain. This event could be memory, perception, attention or problem solving. They are called mediational processes because they mediate between a stimulus and a response. According to cognitive psychologists, to understand behaviour, you must understand the process that causes behaviour.
According to Cognitive psychology, humans are information processors. Like a computer the human mind transforms information, stores it, and then retrieves that information from memory as and when it is needed. Therefore, Cognitive psychologists can provide theories as to how these processes work and can prove them by using this metaphor. For example, researchers can predict the output or reaction, by controlling the information or stimuli. If the actual output matches their prediction, then they have successfully and scientifically proven an internal process. In Loftus and Palmers 1974 study, they aimed to prove that by changing the use of language in a line of questioning, could affect and alter a person’s memory of an event. To test this they asked 45 American students were shown 7 different car collisions, afterwards were then asked a number of specific questions, including a question that the researchers would change the verbiage of for each group, “how fast were the cars going when they (smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted)?”
The findings of this study showed that the verb used would change the answer the participant gave. Those who were asked if the cars ‘smashed’ gave the highest speed average of 40.8mph, followed by collided (39.3 mph), “bumped” (38.1 mph) “hit” (34 mph) and finally “contacted” with 31.8 mph, 9 miles per hour slower than the highest average. These results proved Loftus and Palmer’s prediction that they could effectively change a person’s memory by changing the structure of the questions asked. This links to cognitive psychology as they were able to predict a response by affecting how the stimulus was processed. (Mcleod, 2010)