What are the two types of conditioning that make up the Learning Approach?

The learning approach, also known as the behaviourist approach, is one of the most well-known phenomenon's in Psychology. Behaviourists argue that we are all born with a blank slate, and therefore all behaviour is learned through interaction with the environment. There are 2 number of ways in which we learn behaviour:Firstly: Classical Conditioning - this is learning through the association of paired stimuli when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together. The jargon we use includes: a) Unconditioned Stimulus (US): This is an object that causes an automatic unconscious response b) Unconditioned Response (UR): The automatic unconscious response b) Neutral Stimulus (NS): Something (eg. an object) that does not make us feel anything automatically originally, but when paired with the unconditioned stimulus, this creates the same response, this then becomes the... c) Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The object that is conditioned to create a response d) Conditioned Response (CR): The automatic response caused by the now conditioned stimulusAn example: Let's take Pavlov's study of dogs. Whenever Pavlov presented his dogs with food that caused the dogs to salivate (as they were hungry), he also rang a bell. In this scenario, the US is the food, the UR is salivation and the NS is the bell. When Pavlov consistently pairs the bell with the food, the bell eventually becomes the CS and the CR is the salivation at the bell. Therefore, whenever Pavlov rings the bell, the dogs will start to salivate even though they didn't originally.Secondly: Operant Conditioning is when behaviour is shaped and maintained due to reward and punishment. The jargon we use includes: a) Positive Reinforcement: behaviour is repeated or more likely to occur due to positive consequences/a reward. For example: doing your homework will result in praise from your teachers and good grades, therefore, you are likely to keep doing homework! b) Negative Reinforcement: behaviour is repeated or more likely to occur due to avoidance of negative consequences, which is rewarding. For example: having a fear of spiders and running away from one will make you feel better and calmer means you will run away every time you see one. c) Punishment: any procedure that decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated due to the experience being unpleasant. For example: teachers may tell off a student for doing something naughty and therefore, the student won't be naughty again due to the punishment they received.

Answered by Sophie W. Psychology tutor

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