Strengths And Weaknesses Of Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning looks at intentional actions that might have an effect on the surrounding environment. Thorndike was the first to conduct the study then behaviourists Skinner developed his study to explain how many aspects of the human behaviour are acquired. Skinner thought the classical conditioning was too simplistic to be a complete explanation of human behaviour. Thorndike 's study looked at the way cats would learn to escape from the puzzle box by trial and error. Cat did not immediately acquire the desirable escape behaviour, however it gradually increased their ability to show it. Thorndike found that responses that led to consequences was more likely to happen again than when any response led to undesirable consequences was

This is because it 's based on evidence carried out by controlled experiment like Pavlov (1902) when he showed how classical conditioning can be used to make a dog salivate to the sound of a bell. Supporters of a reductionist approach say that it is scientific. Breaking complicated behaviours down to small bits means that it can be scientifically tested but some would argue that, the reductionist view lacks validity. Whilst reductionism is useful, it can lead to incomplete explanations. Classical conditioning theory is deterministic which is a problem because it means that it does not allow for any degree of free will in the individual. A person has no control over the reactions that they have learned from classical conditioning such as a phobia. Scientists are mainly interested in finding laws that can then be used to predict events, but by creating general laws of behaviour, deterministic psychology underestimates the uniqueness of human beings and their freedom to choose their own destiny or

There was more non imitative aggression among children who has observed aggressive behaviour, although the difference for non-imitative aggression was small. Girls in the aggressive model showed more physical aggressive responses if the model was male, but more verbal aggressive responses if the model was female. However, the reason to this general pattern was the observation of how often they punched Bobo, and in this case the effects of gender were reversed. Boys were more likely to copy same sex models than girls but results for girls imitating same-sex models is not as strong. Boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls. There was no difference in verbal aggression between both boys and girls. The model had an effect on the child 's behaviour because all variables other than independent variable were controlled. Variables such as the gender of the model, time children observed the model and behaviour of the model were controlled, Many psychologists are very critical about laboratory studies of imitation because they tend to have low ecological validity. The study involves child and an adult model, which is a very limited social situation because the model and the child are strangers which is unlike normal modelling which normally takes place within the family. The experiment was unethical for example, there is