Evaluate the behaviourist approach to explaining behaviour. {6 marks}

For this question I recommend developing one positive and one negative point, both of which follow the PEEL (point evidence explanation link) format. This ensures that you hit the knowledge marks (AO1) and evaluation marks (AO3). BY adding real life examples where possible you increase the AO3 as well as AO2 application marks if they are available. I have indicated in bold where each section is in the example answer. Behaviourists believe that we are born a clean slate and all behaviour is learnt through experience. There are two main ways that this learning is thought to occur, through classical conditioning (responses learnt by association with stimuli) or operant conditioning (positive or negative reinforcement making a chance behaviour more or less likely to be repeated). This can explain disorders such as phobias, when a traumatic or negative event leads to a conditioned fear response to an ordinarily unconditioned stimulus. [point] This is demonstrated by the study of Little Albert - a young boy who was conditioned into having a fear of white rats by being scared by a bang each time he was presented with one. [evidence] Subsequent therapies to unlearn this association (for example, systematic desensitisation) has come about and has been very successful in treating phobics, supporting the theory. [explanation and link] However, the behaviourist approach is often criticised as being too reductionist and fails to account for biological factors. [point] Results from twin studies show that more MZ twins (genetically identical) share particular behaviours than DZ twins (only share 50% of genes). [evidence] This implies that inheritance of particular genes increases the likelihood of different behaviours, for example, presence of mental disorders such as schizophrenia. [explanation] This nature influence questions the validity of the nurture explanations; [link] yet MZ twins rarely have 100% concordance rates, indicating environment does still ultimately effect behaviour. Therefore, many examples of behaviour are accepted to be a result of an interaction between the biological characteristics we inherit and the nurture we receive from our environment. [Concluding sentence summarising overall approach to question]