Principal Psychological Perspective

The behaviourist theory focuses on the study of observed behaviours and learning theories the three theories are; classical conditioning, operant conditioning and the social learning theory. Within the behaviourist approach there are three different theorists these are; Skinner, Bandura and Pavlov.

In this assignment I will be explaining the principal psychological perspectives, and then I will be assessing different psychological approaches.

Behaviourism is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviours are attained through conditioning. Behaviourists believe conditioning occurs when we interact with the environment and that the environment we are in determines the way we respond to a stimulus. The behaviourist approach believes we learn behaviours through association between response and consequence. For instance, by touching a hot iron you will feel pain. Therefore, we learn from this, and know not to touch a hot iron as we associate feeling pain as a consequence of this action. There are two forms of conditioning within the behaviourist approach; classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Behaviourists believe that individuals are born without built-in mental content, known as a ‘blank slate’ and that all behaviours arise from experience or perception.

Pavlov’s theory is to show that there are some things that a dog does not need to learn. When food is shown to the dog, the dog starts to salivate which shows we have got a response, this is an unconditioned response because when he salivates he cannot control it. He then set up an experiment to find out if the dog could be trained to salivate at other stimuli such as ringing a bell when it is time for the dog to eat. When ringing the bell there was no conditioned response from the dog which then led him to ring the bell with the food to see if the dog would still salivate. When ringing the bell with the food the dog then had an unconditioned response and started salivating again. The fourth time he rang the bell and took the food away, which

Pavlov presented dogs with food, and measured their salivary response (how much they drooled). Then he began ringing a bell just before presenting the food. At first, the dogs did not begin salivating until the food was presented. After a while, however, the dogs began to salivate when the sound of the bell was presented. They learned to associate the sound of the bell with the presentation of the food. As far as their immediate physiological responses were concerned, the sound of the bell became equivalent to the presentation of the food.

It emphasizes on observable behaviors rather than on unconscious inner states. Behaviorist believe that human behaviors are molded by experience and that we are the result of what we have learned from our environment. The behaviorist approach gives two ways as to how people learn from their environment: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is when two stimuli (environmental factors) are linked together to produce a new learned response. Operant conditioning is learning from the consequences of behavior. A lot of the studies in behaviorism consist of controlled experiments as it is believed that behavior can be reduced to learned stimulus-response units. Behaviorism assumes that humans are born with a blank slate and are therefore born equal. They believe that it is environmental factors that make us different as opposed to biological factors. Behaviorist believe that cognitions, emotions, and moods are too subjective and that only observable behaviors should be studied. They believe that any person could be trained to perform any task with the right

At first he thought it was a sort of annoyance. The salivating is an unconditioned response (UCR) which is an unlearned, naturally occurring, automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus (UCS), which is an effective stimulus that automatically and naturally triggers a response, would be the food. He proved that the action of the UCR existed by giving the dog a bowl of food and measuring the amount of saliva. When food was presented the dogs salivated quickly, but over repeated testing, the dog salivated before contact with the food. Just the sight of the food was enough to stimulate their drooling. Then, just seeing the food dish, or even hearing the footsteps of Pavlov or his assistant was enough to trigger this built in reflex. What was going on to prompt this response? Pavlov was very intrigued by this action and decided to find out the answer to this question, by systematically varying the stimuli and measuring the dog’s reaction. Metronomes, lights, and bells were all used by Pavlov as stimuli, and they all worked as covers for the

The behaviourist perspective is an idea that we can understand any type of behaviour by looking at what the person has learner. This includes personality traits such as shyness, confidence, optimism or pessimism. Behaviourist psychologists explain all human behaviour as resulting from experience. Two key psychologists are Pavlov and Skinner, although these two theorists believed that different processes were involved, they both explained all types of behaviour as being the result of learning. This is everything from shyness to aggression and happiness to depression.

Behavioural Psychology originated in the late 19th to early 20th century and was concerned with the prediction and control of the observable, measurable, external aspects of human experience. Behaviourist psychologists rejected the introspective method used by previous philosophers and psychologists and instead relied on using observation and data that was objective and empirical. This is known as an anti-mentalist approach; Behaviourists considered the workings of the mind

Three of the five major perspectives in Psychology are biological, cognitive and humanistic. The biological approach states that all behaviours, thoughts and feelings are caused by biological factors such as hormone production and genetics (McLeod 2007). For example the production of the hormone serotonin causes an individual to feel happiness, while genetics have evolved over the years so that human bodies and behaviour adapt to their environment, meaning that most behaviour we display today has an evolutionary purpose. The development of social behaviours in humans have resulted in the rise of civilisation, which has introduced “social norms” and feelings such as embarrassment. This shows the biological approach is nomothetic, meaning

The male issue where men tend to only go into male-dominated jobs is caused by conditioning. This is relevant when focusing on B.F. Skinner’s type of conditioning, that being operant conditioning. For operant conditioning when considering the job issue, the psychologist would blame the negative responses that were returned to an individual when deciding to take on a female dominated job. This response would cause the individual to later on choose to coincide with the other person’s standards. Over time this would affect the original individual to make their norms change due to the other’s. The same issue would occur again because they have been conditioned unconsciously

Even before Ivan Pavlov began experimenting with dogs, their normal physiological response was to salivate when they saw food. An unconditioned stimulus is something that occurs naturally

Behaviorism is a type of psychology and a theory of learning. Behaviorism mainly involves experimentation and observation. It doesn’t look into internal thoughts like thinking or emotions. What behaviorism believes that people have no free will and our surrounding and our environment determine our behavior. As we release our very first breath to this world, our brain is in a blank state. Which is ready to learn from what surrounds us in our environment. So behaviorism deals with the behavior modification.

Ivan Pavlov (1928) demonstrated the use of reinforcement was connected between the pairings of an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and a conditioned stimulus (CS). Pavlov’s experiments consisted of presenting meat powder, an unconditioned stimulus to a dog and as a result the dog produced salivation. A bell tone,

Classical conditioning was first observed and developed by a Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov who lived from (1927-1960). The concept of classical conditioning is widely considered to be the most fundamental form of learning. Even before Ivan Pavlov named the process of conditioning, his work was considered ahead of his time (Feeser, 2002, p. 24). In fact, Pavlov was presented the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Nero Medicine for his research on the digestion system of dogs (Feeser, 2002, p. 24). To further his digestion research, Pavlov devised a procedure for surgical procedure implanting a tube, called a fistula, into animals that were still living. This allowed Pavlov to collect digestive secretions, and measure them, such as those secreted in the stomach or the mouth (Feeser, 2002, p. 24). This was a monumental first, because up until Pavlov 's advancements, almost everything that was known about physiological processes was revealed from studies involving acute (temporary or sacrificed animals) as opposed to operatic preparations (long-term and in living animals). Pavlov was always interested mainly in the understanding of reflexive occurrences when food was placed into the mouth and as it passed through the other parts of the digestive system, including the stomach (Feeser, 2002, p. 27). For example, Professor Pavlov or one of his many personal assistants would put meat into the mouth of a dog or dogs and then measure the amount of saliva that passed through a salivary