Behaviorism To Teach Human Behaviors. Author’S Name. Institutional

Although the intellectual roots of the behaviorism movement predate Watson’s ideas, there were other contemporary academic individuals within the field of psychology is identified him as the founder of this movement to move toward the study of behavior. Behaviorism began in the roots of the American Progressive Movement of 1880 to 1920 when Social Darwinism was taken seriously (Behjamin, 2014). Darwin demonstrated the morphological and behavioral ties that could be found between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom (Behjamin, 2014). During this movement, the American Social Science Association where psychology had not emerged as a formal discipline recognized by other academic sciences (Mills J. , 1998). Many of the individuals other than Darwin including Copernicus, Romanes, Morgan, and Thorndike were working with animals in comparative psychology which is a subfield of animal psychology (Behjamin, 2014). Also during this time, William James was noted to advocate for a separation of philosophy and psychology through his publications indicating the need for its inclusion as a natural science (Mills J. , 1998). Literature also indicates the roots of behaviorism can be traced back to the laboratory of the sociologist Franklin Henry Giddings that created the “sympathy scale” (Mills J. , 1998). This scale proposed that it can measure the levels of sympathy that can be identified between the races (Mills, 1998). There were many criticisms of the lack of an objective

Determinism is the belief that your future is fixed or determined, either by what you have genetically inherited or by your social environment and experience. The alternative to determinism is choice and interaction this is the belief that people can take control of their own lives through the choices they make. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘free will’ viewpoint.

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.

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.

As humans, free will is something we commonly assume we have. When evaluating what free will is, we become less certain. David Hume calls it “the most contentious question of metaphysics.” In simplistic terms, free will is having the ability to determine your own plan of action. There is a relationship between free will and freedom of action and causal determinism that must be evaluated to have a complete understanding of free will. There are compatibilist views that believe in free will and incompatibilist views that imply there is no free will. Free will is also related to both theological determinism and logical determinism.

Behaviorism has been a topic of many controversies in the early stages of developing. This paper will present a synthesis of several articles discussing behaviorisms and its development through various schools of theories, in addition known researchers and conclusions. The first article that illustrates behaviorism is, “Behaviorism at 100” by Ledoux (2012), which details the last 50 years of the study of behaviorism. The next article is “Behaviorism” by Moore (2011), maps the beginning of behaviorism with B.F.Skinner and addressing functionalism and structuralism. The article named “Psychology as the behaviorist views it”, written by Watson (1913) put his emphasis the aspects of psychology and how behaviorist view introspection. Green (2009) article “Darwinian Theory functionalism and the First American psychological revolution”, is very adamant to have is readers to know that functionalism was the foundation that behaviorism was built. Clark (2004) article “The classical origins of Pavlov’s conditioning”, give insight into classical conditioning abroad and in the United States. The last article named “Little Albert’s alleged neurological impairment” written by Digdon , Powell and Harris (2014), focus on ethical concerns and that may have been overlooked. The synthesis paper will provide behaviorism and conclusions that can draw overall messages from the articles mentioned above.

In part five of the textbook, Philosophy: The Quest For the Truth, the concept of freedom of the will and determinism is discussed in great lengths. The argument of free will and determinism between psychologists and philosophers has existed for centuries. People who are determined assume that outside, as well as internal forces, determine behavior. In addition to this they understand that although this is true in their eyes, people are free to choose their own behavior. According to the textbook, Philosophers assume that people seem to accept determinism, which is defined as being, “the view that events are determined or necessitated by preceding physical causes and the laws of nature (394)”. This being valid brings up many questions that

Imagine that there is clear reasoning behind every event in each and everyone of our lives that we cannot control nor manipulate in any way. This is where the argument of “free will vs. determinism” comes into play. The concept of determinism states that outside factors affect our decisions and “free will” and “motivation” are just illusions that conceal the true beliefs towards human behavior (McLeod, 2013). This concept has a lot of support and most behaviorists argue against free will. To put it simply “free will” is the idea that most of our decisions come from within our minds and we are able to change our behaviors (McLeod, 2013). The argument between free will and determinism has scientific evidence for each creating a good amount of

Behaviorism assumes that we are born as a blank slate and so equal at birth. The theorists believe that it is the environmental factors that shape our behaviour rather than genetic or biological differences. Behaviorism very much represents the nurture aspect of the nature-nurture

To understand the ways these two approached used in psychology, we must understand their definitions. According to the lecture, reductionism is the belief that human mind and behaviors can be explained by breaking down into smaller component parts. Reductionists believe that the best way to understand why humans behave the way they do is to look clearly and closely at the very simple parts that make up our system in order to make the simplest explanations. Reductionism is actually based on a scientific assumption called parsimony, which is saying

To refresh everyone’s memory of my primary teaching philosophy. Since my main focus is on behaviorism, I thought I would focus on behaviorism solely, as not to overload this exercise and not to tax my peers, (and I hope I can call you my peers), any more than necessary. As you may know behaviorism deals with the consequences of positive and negative behavior. Behaviors can be rewards or punishment. As I stated in last week’s exercise, reward can consist of praise, token rewards like stickers, treats, food. Punishment can consist of no breaks, extra duties after class, detention, and taking away items. As I stated earlier, I am more of a positive approach to behaviorism. Positive tokens are more effective than negative approaches. In only

“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

The Behavioural approach (also called the learning theory) focuses on the belief that our environment, e.g. people, experiences and learning, influences the development and behaviour of an individual whilst thinking the internal functions, such as thoughts and cognition, are impossible to observe, so they are not apart of the scientific approach to psychology. This theory is also based on the concept of ‘explaining behaviour through observation. Behaviourists assume individuals are born as a blank state (tabula rasa), meaning they do not think biology and cognitive functions influence our behaviour, only our environment does. A large idea that the theory hold is that behaviour can be broken down into stimulus-response units. Stimuli are anything environmental that triggers an individuals’ senses, for example, a student being asked to complete an assignment (stimulus) would respond by completing the assignment. Stimulus-response theories form the basis of classical or operant conditioning, which suggests animals and humans can learn through the relation of a response to any certain stimuli.

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.

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.