Behavioural Perspective of Abnormality
Behavioural Perspective of Abnormality
( Behaviour is determined by our experiences
( Concentrates on behaviours- the responses an organism makes to the environment
( Behaviours can be external (actions ) or internal (feelings or thoughts)
( Behaviourists believe that people are the sum total of their learned behaviours
( Believe that abnormal behaviours/functioning can be learned.
( Applied principles of conditioning and social learning theory to explain development of psychological disorders
Behavioural explanations
( Classical conditioning (Pavlov): learning by temporal association- two events occurring closely together repeatedly become fused. Over time both events elicit same response-Pavlov’s dog
( Operant conditioning (Skinner)- learned behaviours as a result of feedback received as a consequence of behaviour.
( Positive reinforcement/rewarding leads to recurrence of behaviours. If abnormal behaviour is rewarded it is reinforced positively.
( Social learning/observational learning (Bandura) occurs when we imitate or model our behaviour on our observations of others behaviour.
Behavioural Therapies
( Aim of behavioural therpy is to identify responses that cause problems and replce them with more appropriate responses.
( Systematic desensitization -step-by-step procedure where people learn to react calmly to the stimulus causing the fear/anxiety 1. Establish fear hierarchy-list of feared objects /situations: lowest to highest 2. Develop relaxation techniques 3. Imagine/confront hierarchy items 4. Combine 2&3 5. Over time clients learn not to fear stimulus- phobias
Other behavioural therapies involve using classical and operant conditioning to change learned responses through repeated exposure to anxiety causing stimuli.
Assessing the behavioural model
Advantages/Pros
( Theories can be easily tested scientifically. Lead to increase in popularity of model
( Treatments
( Behaviour is determined by our experiences
( Concentrates on behaviours- the responses an organism makes to the environment
( Behaviours can be external (actions ) or internal (feelings or thoughts)
( Behaviourists believe that people are the sum total of their learned behaviours
( Believe that abnormal behaviours/functioning can be learned.
( Applied principles of conditioning and social learning theory to explain development of psychological disorders
Behavioural explanations
( Classical conditioning (Pavlov): learning by temporal association- two events occurring closely together repeatedly become fused. Over time both events elicit same response-Pavlov’s dog
( Operant conditioning (Skinner)- learned behaviours as a result of feedback received as a consequence of behaviour.
( Positive reinforcement/rewarding leads to recurrence of behaviours. If abnormal behaviour is rewarded it is reinforced positively.
( Social learning/observational learning (Bandura) occurs when we imitate or model our behaviour on our observations of others behaviour.
Behavioural Therapies
( Aim of behavioural therpy is to identify responses that cause problems and replce them with more appropriate responses.
( Systematic desensitization -step-by-step procedure where people learn to react calmly to the stimulus causing the fear/anxiety 1. Establish fear hierarchy-list of feared objects /situations: lowest to highest 2. Develop relaxation techniques 3. Imagine/confront hierarchy items 4. Combine 2&3 5. Over time clients learn not to fear stimulus- phobias
Other behavioural therapies involve using classical and operant conditioning to change learned responses through repeated exposure to anxiety causing stimuli.
Assessing the behavioural model
Advantages/Pros
( Theories can be easily tested scientifically. Lead to increase in popularity of model
( Treatments