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…

Behaviorism Approach to Life According to Ciccarelli and White (2010), behaviorism is the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only. An example of this is the environment a person is exposed to determines their behavior affecting their personality (McLeod, 2007). Furthermore, personality determines a person’s motivations and goals in life. With this said, this theory assist in better understanding interactions with people every day. For instance, all people have their own unique…

The idea behind the behaviorist branch is that they believe that psychology is studied through observable behaviors. The behaviorists were the first to focus on more objective research as opposed to the subjective research like the previous leaders in psychology such as Titchener and Freud (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Namy, Woolf). Behaviorism or black box psychology opened the eyes of the psychology community by showing them that they should not just rely on the reports of others, but having data they could…

Bachelor, Maters and Doctorate within the years 1930-1934. Shortly after Maslow married his longtime sweetheart and first cousin Bertha Goodman, he had discovered J.B. Watson and his theories on behaviorism which sparked an interest in him. However, the birth of his two daughters Anna and Ellen made him forget behaviorism. After working for 18 months at the Columbia University he met with well-known learning theorist Edward Thorndike who sparked an interest in him that he decided to research on the…

Psychology evolved in the 1800’s from philosophy and physiology because Wilhem Wundt argued for it to be in its own discipline. He established the first psychology lab in America and after that schools sprang up all around the country. As more schools were established new ways of thinking were introduced to psychology. The first two introduced were functionalism and structuralism. These two focused on consciousness in different way, they somewhat battled for attention. After these ideas died out…

also. Learning theories are conceptualized frameworks which describe how individuals absorb, process and retain information. Behaviorists such as John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, Edward L. Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov and Edwin R. Guthrie believed that all learners were passive in nature and only responded to external stimuli. Behaviorism, as explored by the before mentioned, is a biological basis of learning and focuses exclusively on observable behaviors. This includes Thorndike’s theory of connectionism…

One of the theories we have studied this semester in Knowing and Learning in Mathematics and Science is the Behaviorism theory. The behaviorism theory states that behaviorism is a theory on learning that only concentrates on noticeably observable behaviors and disregards any independent activities of the mind. The Behaviorism theory was brought up by Burrhus Frederic Skinner. He based this theory on operant conditioning. This theory has a reinforcing stimulus which can be modified into continuous…

Theoretical Perspective to Behaviorism Behaviorism is also often referred to as the Learning Theory. The origin of the behaviorism can be traced back to the paper that was written by James Watson in the year 1913 titled, “Psychology as the behaviorist views it (Watson, 1913).” This paper outlined a series of beliefs that underline the practice of behaviorism approach. At one point of time the psychologists even believed that this was the only so called scientific approach (Watson, 1913). Some…

Classification Behaviorism claims that “consciousness” is neither defined nor unable concept; that it is merely another word for the “soul” of more ancient time (Watson, 1970). However, behaviorism holds the subject matter of human psychology it focus on the behavior or activities of the human being. Etymology The word behaviorism originates from the Middle French word behavior, meaning the observable activity in human and animal. This term was coined in 1913 by the United States psychologist…

When one hears the word psychology, a therapist on a couch asking patients to talk out their problems usually come to mind. In fact, the field is much more important and relevant in our everyday lives than one may think. Cambridge’s Dictionaries Online website defines it as “the scientific study of the way the human mind works and how it influences behavior, or the influence of a particular person’s character on their behavior” (2015). How we act and react, what we think and say, and why we do what…