The behaviourist approach: assumptions (blank slate, classical conditioning, operant conditioning), the named therapy (aversion therapy/systematic desensitisation), application to behaviour, and evaluation. AS content.

What this dot point is asking

The behaviourist approach is the second of the five approaches in Component 1, and it is AS content. You must know its assumptions, its named therapy, how it applies to behaviour, and how to evaluate it.

The answer

Assumptions

The named therapy

Application to behaviour

The approach explains behaviour through conditioning. A phobia can be acquired by classical conditioning (a neutral object paired with a frightening event) and maintained by operant conditioning (avoidance is negatively reinforcing because it removes anxiety). Attachment can be explained as learned through association with food and reinforcement by comfort. The approach underpins behavioural explanations of Component 3 behaviours such as addiction (reinforcement) and the modification of bullying or criminal behaviour.

Evaluation

• Scientific. Controlled lab experiments isolate cause and effect and are highly replicable.
• Useful applications. Systematic desensitisation, token economies and behaviour modification work in practice.
• Reductionist and deterministic. Reduces behaviour to stimulus-response and denies free will, ignoring biology and cognition.
• Animal evidence. Much of the evidence is from animals (Pavlov's dogs, Skinner's rats), so generalising to complex human behaviour is questionable.
• Incomplete. Cannot easily explain language, insight or behaviour that appears without conditioning.

Examples in context

Example 1. Why systematic desensitisation follows from the assumptions. Because the approach assumes phobias are learned by association, the therapy unlearns the association through counterconditioning, replacing fear with relaxation. The therapy is a direct application of classical conditioning, which is why Eduqas pairs each approach with a therapy that flows from its assumptions.

Example 2. The contrast with the cognitive approach. The behaviourist approach treats the mind as a black box and explains a phobia purely as conditioned responses. The cognitive approach explains the same phobia through faulty thinking and would treat it with CBT. Comparing them shows the difference between explaining behaviour by external conditioning and by internal mental processes.

Try this

Q1. Distinguish between classical and operant conditioning. [3 marks]

• Cue. Classical conditioning is learning by association (a neutral stimulus paired with an unconditioned stimulus); operant conditioning is learning by consequences (reinforcement increases a behaviour, punishment decreases it).

Q2. Explain how systematic desensitisation treats a phobia. [3 marks]

• Cue. The client learns relaxation, builds a fear hierarchy, and is gradually exposed to each step while relaxed, counterconditioning the fear until the stimulus no longer triggers anxiety.

Q3. State one weakness of the behaviourist approach. [2 marks]

• Cue. It is reductionist and deterministic, reducing behaviour to stimulus-response and ignoring biology, cognition and free will (or: it relies heavily on animal evidence).