The Learning Approach has contributed to offering explanations and treatments to mental disorders. It states that mental disorders/behaviour is learnt rather than being genetic or due to a trauma as a child.
Support from this comes from Pavlov's idea of Classical Conditioning. It can be described as learning by association. Classical Conditioning involves learning to associate with a stimulus which brings about a certain response with a new stimulus, so that eventually the new stimulus will bring about that same response. He used his experiment on dog's to carry out and explain Classical Conditioning.Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) : Something that naturally has the power to do produce a response in an organism.
Unconditioned Response (UCR) : An automatic but unlearned, uncontrolled response to the Unconditioned Stimulus.
Neutral Stimulus (NS) : Something that does have a response but it is paired with the Unconditioned Stimulus to produce ...
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) : Something in the environment that can acquire the power to produce a specific response in an organism that it doesn't have the power naturally to do. This is LEARNED!
Conditioned Response (CR) : The reliable learned response from the organism to something that it experiences. This is LEARNED!
Pavlov's Dogs' completely proved that this was the way in which Classical Conditioning worked. However Pavlov also discovered other aspects to Classical Conditioning that he went on to explain.
Extinction: When the Conditioned Stimulus and Conditioned Response pairing no longer occurs.
Spontaneous Recovery: This is a brief recurrence of the Conditioned Response but in a much more weaker form, however it means that the pairing can be re-conditioned.
Generalisation: This occurs because the learner the Conditioned Response has been conditioned with associates similar stimuli to that of the original Conditioned Stimulus.
Discrimination: This is where the learner is trained to avoid generalisation. It can be done by using a range of Neutral Stimuli with the learner but only conditioning one of them to be the Conditioned Stimulus.
With regards to mental disorders, it can be used as an explanation to where mental disorders come from. This is because of the famous study of 'Little Albert' by learning psychologists Watson and Raynor, who used Pavlov's ideas of Classical Conditioning and applied them to a human example, this being a nine month old baby known as 'Little Albert.'
They discovered that phobias can be conditioned into humans which means that they cannot lead a normal life because phobias interfere with the functioning of humans due to the fact that its a fear of an object or a situation. But as well as conditioning phobias using Classical Conditioning, learning psychologists have also devised ways of curing phobias with a technique that works using the basis of Classical Conditioning called Aversion Therapy also known as Behaviour Therapy.
They use an Emetic drug which is designed to purposefully make a person sick. They then pair it with a behaviour which the person doesn't want so they then associate that behaviour with being sick. An example of this is shown here, using alcohol as the unwanted behaviour.
Another Therapy developed due to Pavlov's Classical Conditioning is known as 'Systematic Desensitization. This too helps to overcome phobias but also anxiety disorders. The first step of the therapy involves being taught relaxation techniques (such as meditation) in order to deal and cope with the stress and anxiety due to the fears they are about to face, these are known as 'Coping Strategies.' The next step involves the patient using the newly taught relaxation techniques when faced with an increasing hierarchy of fears. The last step of the hierarchy involves the patient dealing with their ultimate phobia in an attempt to cure them of it. Systematic Desensitization also uses 'Negative Reinforcement' which is a part of Operant Conditioning because the patient is having to remove an unpleasant situation by using the coping strategies to deal with it.
Operant Conditioning was created by Burrhus Frederic Skinner and is used to explain how many aspects of human behaviour are obtained. He explained that our behaviour is shaped by the consequence we receive for it. According to Skinner, their is three types of consequence we can receive for our behaviour, with which 'Positive Reinforcement' and 'Negative Reinforcement' strengthen our behaviour whereas 'Punishment' weakens our behaviour. Skinner used his own 'Skinner's Rats'' experiment as support for this.
Positive Reinforcement: This increases the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again because the behaviour is rewarded by providing a pleasant consequence.
Negative Reinforcement: This increases the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again because a unpleasant consequence is being removed.
Punishment: This decreases the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again because the behaviour is followed by an unpleasant consequence.
From Operant Conditioning the concept of a 'Token Economy' was developed. This helps to treat institutionalised patients with mental disorders, especially schizophrenics.The process involves giving tokens for good behaviour by acting as secondary reinforcer's so that the patients can then purchase whatever they want, which is a special privilege. The tokens are awarded for actions such as making their bed or getting dressed etc.
Social Learning Theory focuses only on human behaviour. It was developed by Bandura and Walters who were interested in what shaped the way we are and how we behave. They came up with three basic principles of learning which are:
Observation:
Imitation:
Modelling:
People are more likely to be modelled/imitated if:
Unconditioned Response (UCR) : An automatic but unlearned, uncontrolled response to the Unconditioned Stimulus.
Neutral Stimulus (NS) : Something that does have a response but it is paired with the Unconditioned Stimulus to produce ...
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) : Something in the environment that can acquire the power to produce a specific response in an organism that it doesn't have the power naturally to do. This is LEARNED!
Conditioned Response (CR) : The reliable learned response from the organism to something that it experiences. This is LEARNED!
Pavlov's Dogs' completely proved that this was the way in which Classical Conditioning worked. However Pavlov also discovered other aspects to Classical Conditioning that he went on to explain.
Extinction: When the Conditioned Stimulus and Conditioned Response pairing no longer occurs.
Spontaneous Recovery: This is a brief recurrence of the Conditioned Response but in a much more weaker form, however it means that the pairing can be re-conditioned.
Generalisation: This occurs because the learner the Conditioned Response has been conditioned with associates similar stimuli to that of the original Conditioned Stimulus.
Discrimination: This is where the learner is trained to avoid generalisation. It can be done by using a range of Neutral Stimuli with the learner but only conditioning one of them to be the Conditioned Stimulus.
With regards to mental disorders, it can be used as an explanation to where mental disorders come from. This is because of the famous study of 'Little Albert' by learning psychologists Watson and Raynor, who used Pavlov's ideas of Classical Conditioning and applied them to a human example, this being a nine month old baby known as 'Little Albert.'
They discovered that phobias can be conditioned into humans which means that they cannot lead a normal life because phobias interfere with the functioning of humans due to the fact that its a fear of an object or a situation. But as well as conditioning phobias using Classical Conditioning, learning psychologists have also devised ways of curing phobias with a technique that works using the basis of Classical Conditioning called Aversion Therapy also known as Behaviour Therapy.
They use an Emetic drug which is designed to purposefully make a person sick. They then pair it with a behaviour which the person doesn't want so they then associate that behaviour with being sick. An example of this is shown here, using alcohol as the unwanted behaviour.
Another Therapy developed due to Pavlov's Classical Conditioning is known as 'Systematic Desensitization. This too helps to overcome phobias but also anxiety disorders. The first step of the therapy involves being taught relaxation techniques (such as meditation) in order to deal and cope with the stress and anxiety due to the fears they are about to face, these are known as 'Coping Strategies.' The next step involves the patient using the newly taught relaxation techniques when faced with an increasing hierarchy of fears. The last step of the hierarchy involves the patient dealing with their ultimate phobia in an attempt to cure them of it. Systematic Desensitization also uses 'Negative Reinforcement' which is a part of Operant Conditioning because the patient is having to remove an unpleasant situation by using the coping strategies to deal with it.
Operant Conditioning was created by Burrhus Frederic Skinner and is used to explain how many aspects of human behaviour are obtained. He explained that our behaviour is shaped by the consequence we receive for it. According to Skinner, their is three types of consequence we can receive for our behaviour, with which 'Positive Reinforcement' and 'Negative Reinforcement' strengthen our behaviour whereas 'Punishment' weakens our behaviour. Skinner used his own 'Skinner's Rats'' experiment as support for this.Positive Reinforcement: This increases the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again because the behaviour is rewarded by providing a pleasant consequence.
Negative Reinforcement: This increases the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again because a unpleasant consequence is being removed.
Punishment: This decreases the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again because the behaviour is followed by an unpleasant consequence.
From Operant Conditioning the concept of a 'Token Economy' was developed. This helps to treat institutionalised patients with mental disorders, especially schizophrenics.The process involves giving tokens for good behaviour by acting as secondary reinforcer's so that the patients can then purchase whatever they want, which is a special privilege. The tokens are awarded for actions such as making their bed or getting dressed etc.
Social Learning Theory focuses only on human behaviour. It was developed by Bandura and Walters who were interested in what shaped the way we are and how we behave. They came up with three basic principles of learning which are:Observation:
Imitation:
Modelling:
People are more likely to be modelled/imitated if:
- They are a similar age to the learner
- They have a higher social status
- They are the same sex as the learner
- The behaviour being observed is simple
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