P1 Unit 8 Health and Social Care
Behaviourist (role of reinforcement, conditoninn, Pavlov, Skinner):
Behaviourist is the theory that anyone could be able to behave in a certain way depending on the
way they are treated such as, someone is more likely to stop doing something if they are treated
negatvely aferwards. However, their behaviour could be changed if they get a reward for what they
have done, this would give them a motvaton to contnue in a positve way and possibly beneft
others. The individual’s thinks that it’s a beter idea to think logically in a positve way. The scientst
contributng to this theory had a thought that this was the role of reinforcement which meant that
most of the animals should’ve been able to change their behaviour in a positve way. They thought
this would be benefcial for the wilder animals and those who need a bigger discipline support.
Ivan Pavlov had carried out an experiment that involved conditoning his dog. He found that dogs
had refexes that when they smelt food their glands would produce saliva and therefore they would
get even hungrier than before which could impact their behaviour. He suggested that it was normal
to have those in dogs as saliva is partcipatng in the role of digestng the food that animals consume.
However, the experiment he had carried out has proved that even if the scientst created a
‘unrelated feeding’ the animal would produce the same saliva. So to fully investgate his theory he
did an experiment where when he had to feed his dog he rang a bell to indicate the presence of
food. He repeated that for a few weeks and the dog seemed to understand that whenever Pavlov
rang the bell the food would come. He used a measuring machine that measured how much his
dog’s glands were producing of the saliva; he kept the records to see if the results would change if
he didn’t brought the food and just rang the bell instead of giving his dog the food. So then one day
he just rang the bell and the machine that he used to measure his dog’s saliva producton in its
glands have remained at the same level as if the dog thought that the food was coming when it
wasn’t. He used this experiment to prove that animal’s behaviour could be changed through
conditoning which could lead to discipline.
B.F. Skinner had carried out an experiment to support the idea of the role of the reinforcement and
he used a rat as animal to test on. The experiment involved him putng a rat into a cage which had a
buton in it wwhen pressed food will fall out of it.. He investgated that rat’s behaviour could be
changed and it could be trained to get food when it’s hungry by just pressing the buton. fer few
days the rat started to understand that if it pressed a buton the food would fall out so it kept on
doing that. The experiment involved the conditoninn the amount of food the animal was getng
depending on when it’s hungry wthe buton.. When he turned of the mechanism the rat ‘forgot’
about the food and it wasn’t eatng as much which led to slow progress of training. However, when
he turned the mechanism back on, the rat took a shorter amount of tme to ‘understand’ that if the
buton was pressed some of the food is going to be released. He suggested that this mechanism was
already in that rat’s role of reinforcement history and that it looks less tme for it to get that it
needed to press a buton to obtain its food.
Behaviourist (role of reinforcement, conditoninn, Pavlov, Skinner):
Behaviourist is the theory that anyone could be able to behave in a certain way depending on the
way they are treated such as, someone is more likely to stop doing something if they are treated
negatvely aferwards. However, their behaviour could be changed if they get a reward for what they
have done, this would give them a motvaton to contnue in a positve way and possibly beneft
others. The individual’s thinks that it’s a beter idea to think logically in a positve way. The scientst
contributng to this theory had a thought that this was the role of reinforcement which meant that
most of the animals should’ve been able to change their behaviour in a positve way. They thought
this would be benefcial for the wilder animals and those who need a bigger discipline support.
Ivan Pavlov had carried out an experiment that involved conditoning his dog. He found that dogs
had refexes that when they smelt food their glands would produce saliva and therefore they would
get even hungrier than before which could impact their behaviour. He suggested that it was normal
to have those in dogs as saliva is partcipatng in the role of digestng the food that animals consume.
However, the experiment he had carried out has proved that even if the scientst created a
‘unrelated feeding’ the animal would produce the same saliva. So to fully investgate his theory he
did an experiment where when he had to feed his dog he rang a bell to indicate the presence of
food. He repeated that for a few weeks and the dog seemed to understand that whenever Pavlov
rang the bell the food would come. He used a measuring machine that measured how much his
dog’s glands were producing of the saliva; he kept the records to see if the results would change if
he didn’t brought the food and just rang the bell instead of giving his dog the food. So then one day
he just rang the bell and the machine that he used to measure his dog’s saliva producton in its
glands have remained at the same level as if the dog thought that the food was coming when it
wasn’t. He used this experiment to prove that animal’s behaviour could be changed through
conditoning which could lead to discipline.
B.F. Skinner had carried out an experiment to support the idea of the role of the reinforcement and
he used a rat as animal to test on. The experiment involved him putng a rat into a cage which had a
buton in it wwhen pressed food will fall out of it.. He investgated that rat’s behaviour could be
changed and it could be trained to get food when it’s hungry by just pressing the buton. fer few
days the rat started to understand that if it pressed a buton the food would fall out so it kept on
doing that. The experiment involved the conditoninn the amount of food the animal was getng
depending on when it’s hungry wthe buton.. When he turned of the mechanism the rat ‘forgot’
about the food and it wasn’t eatng as much which led to slow progress of training. However, when
he turned the mechanism back on, the rat took a shorter amount of tme to ‘understand’ that if the
buton was pressed some of the food is going to be released. He suggested that this mechanism was
already in that rat’s role of reinforcement history and that it looks less tme for it to get that it
needed to press a buton to obtain its food.
