‘Behaviourists explain maladaptive behaviour in terms of the learning principles that http://site-2110139-6219-4389.mystrikingly.com sustain and maintain it. Discuss this statement and show how a behaviourist’s approach to therapy is in stark contrast to a psychoanalytic one’ In this essay I will first of all explain the main principles and theories that underpin the behaviourist approach to psychology. I will subsequently outline how behaviourist theory can provide therapists with some insight into both the causes of maladaptive behaviour and how that behaviour might be sustained and maintained. Having discussed the main behaviourist principles and how they relate to maladaptive behaviour, I will then compare and contrast the behavioural approach with the psychoanalytic (Freudian) approach. I will also comment on ethical issues especially as they relate to behaviourism and some of the experiments on which the theory is founded. Behaviourism is a school of psychology that emphasises the scientific study of observable behaviours especially as they relate to the process of learning.
