Behaviorism As A Psychological Theory Of Human Development

Behaviorism is one of the most used theories in education. Due to it can fit in both a classroom setting and at home. Educators had sought out the reason why for many years. But due to each child learns a different way so should the educator. Behaviorism was study by many great Psychologists over the years. Just to name some that had done work and publish books on the subject are, John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Clark Hull, and B.F. Skinner.

Psychologists today like John B. Watson who wrote Behaviorism, believe that all human behavior is a result of conditioning. Therefore humans can be taught to act any way the manipulator wants them too. Behaviorism, a school of psychology, founded by John B. Watson, is the concept that all behavior stems from a form of conditioning. This conditioning could be being betrayed and thrown in jail, or having you father murdered. In Watsons’s book Behaviorism, Watson states:

The primary ideology within behaviorism is the principle of stimulus and response, whereby an individual will respond to a stimulus (Cranton, 2014). In other words, individuals will respond either positively or negatively to a stimulus. In turn, they will learn from this based on positive or negative feedback. Positive feedback is seen as a reward, which reinforces the behavior, contributing to repetition of the behavior. Conversely, negative behavior may be ignored, or a form of punishment may be present. In this case, the behavior will cease (Cranton, 2014). The basis of this theory is that every individual desires positive reinforcement, and will avoid the negative (Spencer & Lange, 2013). Learning is observed through a change in behavior (Cranton,

One Psychologist who contributed a huge proportion to behaviorism is John B. Watson, it was at the Psychological school of Behaviorism he established it. John B. Watson was born in South Carolina in 1878, later in his life his father became absent from his life leading to wrongdoing that John Watson would never be at easy with. Eventually John Watson went to the University of Chicago to study Psychology where he found his interest in behaviorism. During this time, he was studying behaviorism became huge part of psychology in the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s. A new philosophy that John Watson published was, “The Behaviorist Manifesto” which is about a psychological view of behaviorist. The major goal of John Watson’s manifesto was to predict and show the controls of behavior, which led to him conducting experiments and research projects on animal behavior, child rearing and advertising.

John B Watson created the theory of Behaviorism. (Culatta, 2015) Behaviorism has a major impact on my learning style. The instructor dictated how I will learn with the assignments that are given to me. By the instructor grading the paper, I am writing, as an A through F, positive or negative, will change by behavior to adapt to the circumstances of the class and what the instructor wants

Behaviorism psychology is, “The idea that psychology should restrict itself to studying objectively observable behavior.” ( Schacter, 2015, p 10.) All behavior is learned from a persons environment. For example a mother who has a child at a young age is more likely to have the same happen to there child then someone who a child in there late 20’s early 30’s. If a single parent brings a lot of different boyfriend/girlfriend’s around there kids then when the kid is older they will probably date a lot of people because they learned this from there

This quote ties in to our topic of discussion, psychologist or any researcher at that matter will always be questioning. This is how we have come to learn as much as we have today. The psychologist were always coming up with new ideas and concepts and challenging them until they figured out how behavior works. Behaviorism is a school of thought that was joined from no other than John B. Watson. Behaviorism is the theory or doctrine that human or animal psychology can be accurately studied only through the examination and analysis of objectively observable and quantifiable behavioral events, in contrast with subjective mental states. Behaviorism was a movement in psychology and philosophy that emphasized the outward behavioral aspects of thought and dismissed the inward experiential, and sometimes the inner procedural, aspects as well; a movement harking back to the methodological proposals of John B. Watson, who coined the name. There are a couple of main components within behaviorism, operant and classical conditioning.

Behaviorism is a theory in psychology and philosophy that emphasizes the outward behavioral aspects of thought. The theory is that human as well as animal behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Behaviorism, the doctrine, is committed in its fullest and most complete sense of the truth of the following three sets of claims.

An apparent advantage of behaviorism is that it has the ability to clearly define behavior and measure changes in behavior. According to the law of parsimony, the fewer assumptions a theory makes, the more credible it is. Therefore, behaviorism looks for simple explanations of human behavior from a very scientific viewpoint. One of the main assumptions from the humanistic approach is that humans have free will and not all behaviour is determined but behaviourists feel quite differently about this concept. Behaviourism was founded by John B. Watson in the year 1913. Watson once said “Psychology as a behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is … prediction and control.” Watson had hoped to eliminate internal mental states such as the unconscious since he believed that it was non-existent since it is unobservable. This is one reason why Freud criticizes behaviorism since it does not take the influence of

John B. Watson was a pioneering figure in the development of the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson was one of the early American psychologists to break Freudian notions that our unconscious mind was behind most of our behavior (Watson E. 1999). Behaviorism according to Watson was the science of observable behavior. Only behavior that could be observed, recorded and measured was of any real value for the study of humans or animals (Watson E 1999). Watson is best known for taking his theory of behaviorism and applying it to child development. Watson is famous for saying that he could take a dozen healthy infants and train any one of them to become any type of specialist he might select (Watson E. 1999). He believed that you can expose the child to certain environmental forces and overtime conditioned that child to become whatever type of person you want.

Psychology is a science that focuses primarily on the study of the mind, but it can also be the study of behavior. “Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate and behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent behavior will happen again." The study of only behavior in Psychology is called Behaviorism. The Psychologists who study the school of Behaviorism go by the title of Behaviorists or Behavioral Psychologists. Behaviorists have their own theories and principles that they follow in their study.

One of such concept earlier theorized is the concept of behaviorism. The concept of behaviorism tries to explain the rationale behind human behavior. Its main goal is the prediction and control of behavior. It submits that a person’s behavior is dependent on the interactions and/or stimulus from the environment regardless of the person’s thoughts or feelings, genetic background or personality traits. Hence, through a conditioning system delivered through interactions within the environment, a behavior can be learned or

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.

"Behaviorism began as a reaction against the introspective psychology that dominated the late 19th and early 20th centuries"(Behaviorism 2). There are numerous factors that contribute towards the behaviors of various different animals. Behaviorism is a general subject including the different aspects within it, number of animals with behavioral issues, how animals should be treated and what enforces their behavioral characteristics. To begin this essay about behaviorism, it 's beneficial to include some deep information within. This helps to understand the meaning of the study itself.

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.