2. Behaviourism

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about behaviourism, focusing in particular on: (i) Pavlov and Skinner’s research on conditioning and reinforcement for both simple and complex behaviours; (ii) the approach’s exclusive focus on observable behaviour and ignorance of free will; (iii) strengths of the approach, including its focus on experimentation and resulting effectiveness for treating phobias; (iv) weaknesses of the approach, including its reductionist take on the complexities of behaviour and its lack of consideration for the relative speed at which we can acquire behaviours when compared stimuli exposures in our environment.

Course

In this course, Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya (University of Birmingham) explores the five main psychological approaches. In the first lecture, we think about the psychodynamic approach and its famous founder, Sigmund Freud. In the second lecture, we consider the behavioural approach and its overt focus on observable phenomena. In the third lecture, we think about the cognitive approach and its views of human consciousness as abstract. Next, we consider the biological approach and its tight integration with modern medicine. In the fifth lecture, we think about the humanistic approach and its ubiquitous presence in modern therapeutic interventions throughout the Western world. In the sixth and final lecture, we consider how these approaches interact and overlap.

Lecturer

Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya is a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Dr Bouguettaya’s research interests are in social psychology and how knowledge from that field can be applied to others, particularly health, including how we can apply social identity theory to societal problems, as well as investigating the different perspectives one might take on those issues. Some of Dr Bouguettaya’s recent publications include 'The relationship between gambling advertising and gambling attitudes, intentions and behaviours: a critical and meta-analytic review' (2020) and 'The Effect of a Food Addiction Explanation Model for Weight Control and Obesity on Weight Stigma' (2020).