Behaviourist approach

Outline and evaluate the behaviourist approach to abnormality

The behaviourist model explains abnormality as learnt behaviour. The behaviourists explain this learning as being a result of our environment. It has two ways to explain how abnormality can be learnt.
It also argues that people do not have free will and that the environment determines their behaviour by making them behave in certain ways
Classical conditioning is about an association made between a stimulus and response. In a study, carried out by Watson and Raynor (1927), phobias are shown to be demonstrated through classical conditioning. By banging rods behind Little Albert’s back every time he went to play with a toy fluffy white rat, Albert came to associate the toy with the fear he felt from the banging. As a result Albert began to always make that association whether any rods were being banged together behind him or not.
Operant conditioning is another form of learning proposed by the behaviourists’ model. Operant conditioning focuses on reward and reinforcement. Through this idea we learnt to behave in certain ways as a result of positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement involves encouraging behaviour through reward. E.g. “if you eat all your vegetables, you can have a sweet treat”. Negative reinforcement involves encouraging behaviour by taking away unpleasantness. E.g. “if you behave I will give you back your phone”.
Behaviourists suggest that these principles of reinforcement work in the same way. For example, drug abuse may be explained in terms of negative reinforcement. The taking of the drugs is reinforced by the removal of problems or anti-social behaviour.

This may be rewarded with social status and attention from others. Bandura (1977) suggests that children learn by observing behaviour and then imitating it if the expectation of reward is greater than the expectation of punishment for that behaviour. Learning by watching others be rewarded can be vicious learning. An example of this is aggression.

Children learn behaviours from people within their lives eg. Parents, older siblings and teachers. Antisocial behaviour can be explained by Social Learning Theory. For example Bandura bobo dolls. If a child observes aggressive behaviour which is rewarded, it can lead to the child repeating antisocial behaviours like aggression. Also some phobias develop due to observing how someone responds to a stimulus. If a child observes someone respond in a negative/maladaptive way to a stimulus, it is very likely that the child will also imitate that behaviour as they learn to be frightened of that object.
Most of the research into classical and operant conditioning has been conducted on animals. It is unethical to carry out research on animals. The findings from one species have been applied to another, in this case humans, but clearly humans are different to animals.