Summary Psychology approaches A01 and A03 AQA exam board

THE BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH

Behavioural psychologists believe that all behaviour is acquired through
learning.
Behavioural psychologists are only interested in observable events, for
example stimulus and response.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Both humans and animals can be classically conditioned and this is one
of the ways they interact with their environment to learn behaviour.
Classical conditioning is learnt through association.
 Ivan Pavlov first demonstrated classical conditioning and he
revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of
a bell.




Neutral stimulus: Stimulus which does not evoke any response.
Unconditioned stimulus: Stimulus which evokes a natural/instinctive
response.
Conditioned stimulus: This is when the neutral stimulus is associated
with a specific response.
Unconditioned response: Natural, unlearned response to an
unconditioned stimulus.
Stimulus generation: The tendency of a new stimulus to evoke
responses or behaviours similar to those elicited by another stimulus.
Stimulus discrimination: The characteristics of the conditioned stimulus
is too different to be generalized meaning association won’t occur.
Time contiguity: The neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus
must be presented at the same time. This is because the longer the
time-lapse the less chance of association made.