Unit 8: Psychological Perspectives for Health and Social Care
Psychological Perspectives
In order for anyone who wants to work in a caring capacity, they need to understand
the psychological perspectives and how they can be applied and used in a health
and social setting. As psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental
processes where its goal is to explain, describe, predict and control the studied
behaviour.
P1
Behaviourist
The Behaviourist perspective takes on a nurture explanation, as it believes that we
are born with a blank, clean slate as we learn our behaviour from experiences and
this approach that looks into observable stimulus-response behaviours where it
states that all behaviour is learnt through the interaction with the environment. We
learn new behaviour through the ‘learning theory’ which included both classical and
operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov first observed classical conditioning, which is when a stimulus creates a
response but can make a new response where we haven’t had before, in the late
1800s.
He was first studying digestion in dogs originally before he then noticed and studied
how dog’s salivation helps them digest food and whilst studying this he spotted that
dogs would salivate sometimes before their food arrived. Pavlov realised that the
dogs had associated food with other stimulus’ like the door opening, which he later
made the dogs associate food with bells. This caused Pavlov to apply this with
learning by association to humans. Pavlov noticed before the conditioning with the
unconditioned stimulus, where the stimulus-response connection can require no
learning, of the bell causes an unconditioned response of no response. Until he
brought the unconditioned stimulus of food which caused the dog to respond with
salivation from the sight of the food. As this caused Pavlov to discover anything that
was associated with food, whether is
being an object or sound/movement
caused the same response of salivation.
The dog learned association with food
like the lab assistant, which showed a
change in behaviour that must’ve been
learnt from learning. Then during
conditioning he combined the
unconditioned stimulus of both the bell,
which became his neutral stimulus and
food, caused an unconditioned response of an increase in salivation. As the dog had
learnt the association between the bell and the food, which has created a new
behaviour and been learnt which made the neutral stimulus a conditioned stimulus.
And after conditioning, the bell was once used again at dog as now a conditioned
stimulus as he learnt the bell was a signal for the food arrival, which initiated
1
, Unit 8: Psychological Perspectives for Health and Social Care
salivation of a conditioned response. McLeod, S. A. (2013). Pavlov's dogs. Simply
Psychology. [Online] [Accessed on 14th February 2018]
https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html
Skinner
This investigation by psychologist, B.F. Skinner where he trained rats to press a
lever using both types of reinforcement. With the use of positive reinforcement the
rat was placed in a box, which contained a lever on the side, and it trained the rat by
giving the rat a pellet of which each time the rat accidentally pressed the lever it
received food. This caused the rat to learn that the lever gave food, which it
continued to press the lever. But Skinner used negative reinforcement to train the
rat by running an electric current through the floor of the cage and when the rat
would press the lever, the electric shock would stop. This taught the rat that lever
would stop getting rid of something bad where the electric shock action would stop.
This study shows that behaviour is learnt through operant conditioning as the role of
reinforcement either in a positive or negative reinforcement makes behaviour
become repeated. Skinner’s study proposed that humans learn behaviour the same
way as the rats learned how to press a lever due to learning from their environment
which is a major influence on the human behaviour as we learn from our
environment.
Operant Conditioning
B. F. Skinner who saw classical conditioning was too far simplistic to complete the
explanation of the complex human behaviour and focused more on the causes of
actions and it’s consequences that have an effect on the surrounding environment.
As well as the role of reinforcement, which is given after the desired response, where
he studied how animals can learn from the consequences of their actions. As
reinforcement can strength the likelihood of reoccurring behaviour with his study on a
rat that can be applied to humans with how reinforcement affect our behaviour. With
positive reinforcement, which is something, that is desirable and obtained to make
behaviour happen to behave the same way again in order to receive the reward.
McLeod, S. A. (2015). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. [Online] [Accessed on 15th
February 2018] https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
M1
Behaviourist
Advantages Disadvantages
The behaviourist approach is used But a disadvantage is it ignores what
for taking on a nurture explanation happens between the stimulus and
as we learn our behaviour from response like with thinking. The
experiences and how observable behaviourist perspective use
stimulus-response behaviours is reductionism where it reduces
learnt through the interaction with behaviour down to one explanation
the environment. and oversimplifies human behaviour
This approach has the successful where they see an object =
study where new behaviour through response and ignores other possible
2
Psychological Perspectives
In order for anyone who wants to work in a caring capacity, they need to understand
the psychological perspectives and how they can be applied and used in a health
and social setting. As psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental
processes where its goal is to explain, describe, predict and control the studied
behaviour.
P1
Behaviourist
The Behaviourist perspective takes on a nurture explanation, as it believes that we
are born with a blank, clean slate as we learn our behaviour from experiences and
this approach that looks into observable stimulus-response behaviours where it
states that all behaviour is learnt through the interaction with the environment. We
learn new behaviour through the ‘learning theory’ which included both classical and
operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov first observed classical conditioning, which is when a stimulus creates a
response but can make a new response where we haven’t had before, in the late
1800s.
He was first studying digestion in dogs originally before he then noticed and studied
how dog’s salivation helps them digest food and whilst studying this he spotted that
dogs would salivate sometimes before their food arrived. Pavlov realised that the
dogs had associated food with other stimulus’ like the door opening, which he later
made the dogs associate food with bells. This caused Pavlov to apply this with
learning by association to humans. Pavlov noticed before the conditioning with the
unconditioned stimulus, where the stimulus-response connection can require no
learning, of the bell causes an unconditioned response of no response. Until he
brought the unconditioned stimulus of food which caused the dog to respond with
salivation from the sight of the food. As this caused Pavlov to discover anything that
was associated with food, whether is
being an object or sound/movement
caused the same response of salivation.
The dog learned association with food
like the lab assistant, which showed a
change in behaviour that must’ve been
learnt from learning. Then during
conditioning he combined the
unconditioned stimulus of both the bell,
which became his neutral stimulus and
food, caused an unconditioned response of an increase in salivation. As the dog had
learnt the association between the bell and the food, which has created a new
behaviour and been learnt which made the neutral stimulus a conditioned stimulus.
And after conditioning, the bell was once used again at dog as now a conditioned
stimulus as he learnt the bell was a signal for the food arrival, which initiated
1
, Unit 8: Psychological Perspectives for Health and Social Care
salivation of a conditioned response. McLeod, S. A. (2013). Pavlov's dogs. Simply
Psychology. [Online] [Accessed on 14th February 2018]
https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html
Skinner
This investigation by psychologist, B.F. Skinner where he trained rats to press a
lever using both types of reinforcement. With the use of positive reinforcement the
rat was placed in a box, which contained a lever on the side, and it trained the rat by
giving the rat a pellet of which each time the rat accidentally pressed the lever it
received food. This caused the rat to learn that the lever gave food, which it
continued to press the lever. But Skinner used negative reinforcement to train the
rat by running an electric current through the floor of the cage and when the rat
would press the lever, the electric shock would stop. This taught the rat that lever
would stop getting rid of something bad where the electric shock action would stop.
This study shows that behaviour is learnt through operant conditioning as the role of
reinforcement either in a positive or negative reinforcement makes behaviour
become repeated. Skinner’s study proposed that humans learn behaviour the same
way as the rats learned how to press a lever due to learning from their environment
which is a major influence on the human behaviour as we learn from our
environment.
Operant Conditioning
B. F. Skinner who saw classical conditioning was too far simplistic to complete the
explanation of the complex human behaviour and focused more on the causes of
actions and it’s consequences that have an effect on the surrounding environment.
As well as the role of reinforcement, which is given after the desired response, where
he studied how animals can learn from the consequences of their actions. As
reinforcement can strength the likelihood of reoccurring behaviour with his study on a
rat that can be applied to humans with how reinforcement affect our behaviour. With
positive reinforcement, which is something, that is desirable and obtained to make
behaviour happen to behave the same way again in order to receive the reward.
McLeod, S. A. (2015). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. [Online] [Accessed on 15th
February 2018] https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
M1
Behaviourist
Advantages Disadvantages
The behaviourist approach is used But a disadvantage is it ignores what
for taking on a nurture explanation happens between the stimulus and
as we learn our behaviour from response like with thinking. The
experiences and how observable behaviourist perspective use
stimulus-response behaviours is reductionism where it reduces
learnt through the interaction with behaviour down to one explanation
the environment. and oversimplifies human behaviour
This approach has the successful where they see an object =
study where new behaviour through response and ignores other possible
2
