Behaviorism Theory On The Theory Of Behaviorism Essay

In Psychology learning is seen as a change in behaviour caused by an experience. Behaviorism, is seen as a learning theory; an attempt to explain how people or animals learn by studying their behaviour. The Behaviourists Approach has two theories to help explain how we learn, Classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this task I will attempt to describe and evaluate this approach.

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.

Behaviorism is an approach concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviors, which also states that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment around the individual.

For many of years, psychologists and theorists have studied and tracked what influences a human 's growth, learning, and overall development. Although there are many different views of why people may develop the way they do, there is no true "correct" answer. According to learning theorist, B.F Skinner, he believed that all human behavior was determined by environmental influences. This is what as known as behaviorism. "Skinner referred to his own philosophy as 'radical behaviorism ' and suggested that the concept of free will was simply an illusion. All human action, he instead believed, was the direct result of conditioning" (Cherry, 2005). Throughout this paper my focus will be on learning theories- specifically the concept of behaviorism.

Behaviorism is a theory that is driven off conditioning or repetition of something. The behaviorism theory might be a good theory for the younger grades because they are still trainable per se. Even though this theory might be great for children in the younger grades that react well to color charts and behavior chart it might have the opposite effect on children that have disorders or mental disabilities as these children do not react well to with just repetition and conditioning. In reading the article “My way or the Highway: Beyond Behaviorism” I found some very eye opening things that show how applying this theory alone is unsuccessful, but when applied with other theories it can be beneficial. Let us take a closer look.

Behaviourist theory of learning can believe that learning occurs when the environmental stimuli produce a relatively permanent and observable change in a learner’s response (Barblett, 2015). For example when someone is taught a new behaviour it is changed by the environmental stimuli, which occurs a response. In behaviourism instructors or educators drive a specific behavioural outcome from learners through a set of learning objectives. In the 20th century B.F Skinner (1938) did major work on behaviour and its consequences. Skinner’s work was on behaviourism, namely operant conditioning; it means changing behaviour by the use of reinforcement, which is given by a desired response. Behaviourist strongly believe behaviour is learnt either by

Behaviorists seek to understand how environmental responses and simple actions shape our development and decisions. Behaviorists believe that human behavior is learned. This belief gives behaviorists the second title of learning theorists (Berger, 2008).

The behaviourist school of thought sought to prove that behaviour could be predicted and controlled. Often using animals in their experiments, they studied how changes in environment can affect behaviour. It was their belief that learning begins with a clean slate and that behaviour is acquired by conditioning. They suggest that the learner’s response to stimuli can be reinforced and directed using positive or negative feedback.

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

It proposes two main processes such as Cassical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) which is about learning by association, and Operant Conditioning (B.F Skinner) about learning from the consequences of our behavior. This approach mainly carries scientific methodology including controlled experiments and measurable behaviour. Behaviorism rejects the idea that people have free will, and has been criticised that underestimates the complexity of human behaviour. This approach doesn't concern too much about why human behaves in a way they do but place more emphasis on how to deal with the issues raised by a behaviour.

It is defined as behaviour changes or new behaviours that develop through associations between stimuli and responses, which results to either ‘classical conditioning’ or ‘operant conditioning’ (Gopee, 2011). This is also known as

“Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with evident and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behaviour, behaviourist-learning theories emphasise changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response links made by the learner. Behaviour is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead

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.

According to Eggen and Kauchak (2012) behaviorism is a theory that explains learning in terms of observable behaviors and how they’re influenced by stimuli from the environment. It defines learning as a relatively enduring change in observable behavior that occurs as a result of experience (Schunk,

Behaviorism is the point of view where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms