About the 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.

About the 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).