A Reflection On Behaviorism Theory

Behaviourist approach has may strengths to its findings, there has a been a vast amount of experiments from other theorists that support the theory. However, many weaknesses can be highlighted. One is how using rewards or other means to shape behaviour can be argued that the individual is only motivated for these rewards which can encourage a shallow and materialistic style. Another limitation that can be mentioned is that that behaviourist research was widely carried out on animals, for instance Skinner’s rats, Watson’s cats and Pavlov’s dogs. We cannot compare human behaviour to that of an animal. We cannot be 100% certain that humans would act the same way as the animals experimented on (McLeod,2017). As well as this, another criticism states how even though you can change someone’s behaviour in one environment, what happens when the individual goes to a different environment where positive behaviour isn’t reinforced. O’Brien gives an example of if a teacher changed a challenging child’s behaviour at school but then the child went home to the same environment as before, the child would find it increasingly hard to stick to the changed behaviour (O’Brien 2016). I feel that I can relate to this with a child I have in my class. I have managed through positive reinforcement to change his behaviour that he showed in previous classes, however when communicating with his carer it is noted that his previous behaviour is still present in his home environment.

From Chapter 1: What were the intrinsic limitations of introspection and behaviorism, and how did these limitations lead to the “cognitive revolution”?

Behaviorism has its roots as far back as the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates (460-377 BCE), known as the father of medicine, developed humorism consisting of four humors that corresponded with four temperaments. Physicians and philosophers used this model with its four temperaments for many long years.

“The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone,” stated B. F. Skinner (Brainy, 2014). This is a quote that is very popular and was a prime description of those Skinners experiments were meant to prove along with it being a saying that many people in the psychology world followed. Burrhus Fredrick Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in the small town Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinners father was a lawyer while his mother was a stay at home mom to take care of him and his younger brother. As a boy, he enjoyed creating a variety of gadgets and coming up with convincing ideas that was his step in stone later on when he go into psychological studies. After graduating from Hamilton College in 1926, Skinner was very undecided on what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Skinner tried to begin a career as a writer and author, but soon realized he was not making any progress; he decided to pursue psychology at Harvard University. After graduating from Harvard, he continued to work there for the rest of his career. After a year of fighting leukemia, Skinner died on August 18,1990. Skinner left a remarkable imprint on the psychology world; by the time he died Skinner was named to be the utmost influential psychologist in the 29th century, along with publishing a considerable amount of books and articles (Zorn, 2014).

It is said that humanistic psychology was developed upon the limitations of behaviourism. The humanistic approach is often referred to as the “third force” in psychology coming after psychoanalysis and behaviourism; it is an alternative approach to psychology (Maslow, 1968). It offered a more wholesome approach to psychology at the time in comparison to behaviourism and psychoanalysis. This essay will compare and contrast behaviourism and humanistic psychology; it will focus on their contributions to psychological theory and their applications in the real world.

Traditional behaviorism focused exclusively on the direct observation of objectively measurable events (Wolf, 1978). Due to declining popularity, behaviorists had to rethink their position to remain relevant (Wolf, 1978). They discovered that society typically wanted to learn about concepts and ideas that are more subjective in nature (Wolf, 1978). Behaviorists began to acknowledge the social validity, or the relevance to society, of their research (Wolf, 1978). The population now had a voice in the research of behaviorists which stimulated research into new areas, such as teaching people how best to “relate” to young people (Wolf, 1978, p. 207). Behaviorists emphasize the importance of incorporating the subjective into what had once been an objective sub-division of psychology.

Behaviorism and humanism are two theories of learning. Both theories are very important, and have many good qualities, which makes it difficult to say that one is better than the other. When it comes to learning, behaviorism does not consider mental processes, rather it looks at our response to stimuli in our environment. Whereas, humanism sees learning as personal, and is dependent on each individual self. Even though the two theories seem completely opposite of each other, there are some similarities between them pertaining to learning.

Psychology is a topic that is full off theories, statics, ism's! Today we are going to look at Humanism VS. Behaviorism, but before we can look at these two, you must have a clear understanding of what psychology is. The best way I can describe psychology is the studying of the mind and behaviors, so that’s a pretty broad definition. Psychology can be broken down in to several aspects. As we take a closer look at psychology you will begin to see how the mind is connected to everything we do, I have heard people say there is" no rhyme or reason" someone does something, well psychology proves that statement to be incorrect. There is always an explanation for why people behave the way they do, or learn the way they do, process situations, and

Behaviorism and social learning theory are examples of two mechanistic theories that focus on explaining children’s behavior. Social learning theory emphasizes observational learning and imitation. On the other hand, behaviorism is rooted in focusing on how the environment impacts development. The environment shapes the child’s development as the child strives to adapt to the environment. Both theories deal with explaining behavior and consist of similarities, but are composed of different elements of explaining behavior.

Behaviorism is the scientific approach to psychology that is distinguished by logical-theoretical emphasis as is seeks to develop reasons for behavior (Moore, 2013). The theory of Behaviorism was developed by John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Uniquely, this theory states that personality is plastic and can be shaped by the environment or situational influences. Another difference from previous thoughts is

Behaviorism has been credited with providing clear predictions that can be scientifically tested and yield explanations that can be supported by evidence. For instance, in the application of Applied Behavioral Analysis in improving clients’ behaviors, the functions of individuals problematic behaviors can be evaluated and modified using behavior change principles including reinforcement. Similarly, behaviorism emphasizes the objective measurement of behaviors through providing clear and conceptual definitions, and its therapy is applicable to real life situations as in the case of anxiety. Conversely, studies incorporated into behaviorism allow for appropriate comparisons between animals and humans as in the Case of Watson’s, Thorndike’s and Pavlov’s studies respectively.

in modifying a behaviour. Used in a variety of circumstances, operant conditioning has been found to

Learning is the relatively permanent change in behavior (Burns, 1995), and can come in the form of observable activities and internal processes. Explanations of what happens when these actions occur are known as learning theories. These theories include behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social learning and constructivist. In this essay behaviorist and cognitivists will be described, compared and contrasted in order to truly understand their approache.

A significant piece of several psychological theories in the late nineteenth century was introspection, which is “the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes” (Press, 2013). In retort to this theory behaviorism came about. Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In other words behaviorism does not look at the biological aspects but it suggests that all behaviors are learned habits and changes in response to the environment. It endeavors to explain how these particular habits are formed. Behaviorism claimed that the causes of behavior was not necessarily found in the complexities of the mind but could be observed in one’s immediate environment, from stimuli that produced, reinforced, and punished certain responses also known later on as conditioning. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that the scientist began to discover the actual systems to learning, thereby laying a foundation for behaviorism. A theorist by the name of Ivan Pavlov was a major contribution to the discovering of significant behavioral theories.

The term behaviorism referred to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson based on the proposition that all things which organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors (Staddon, 2001) . And this behavior could be researched scientifically . According to Pavlov, "Respondent Conditioning” resulted from the association of two stimuli, such as causing dogs to salivate at the sound a tuning fork. Consequently, Skinner developed “Operant Conditioning” where the “Stimulus-Response” association was elicited through selective reinforcement (rewards or punishments) to shape behavior. In this regard, behaviorism assumed that a learner was a passive recipient and responding to environmental stimuli. When applying the tenets of Behaviorism to teaching, Skinner asserted that the learner started off as a blank slate, and then his behavior was shaped via positive or negative reinforcement. Behaviorist