Cyp Core 3.1:

What is Watson’s Classical Conditioning? Classical Conditioning was found by Dr. Ivan Pavlov. Watson’s research was influenced by Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory. Watson made a research on children’s emotions using the Classical Conditioning model. According to Watson, love, fear, and anger are the three kinds of emotions inherited by humans (Hall 1988). He believed these emotions could be learned through conditioning. He formed his hypothesis and carried out an experiment. John B. Watson’s classical condition experiment was on a child named Little Albert. This experiment was while a child was playing with a rabbit, smashing two bars to make a loud noise behind the child’s head. After hearing the loud noise the child

      The theoretical proposition of this study is that one’s emotions can come from an external or an internal situation which creates a certain emotion for example afraidness. If this emotion is felt more than one time occurring at the same moment as something else for example seeing a spider or snake , the spider or snake will therefore will become connected with being afraid in your brain. This example is very similar to the one Watson used, which was rats he then said that us as humans were “not born to fear rats.” In fact, he said we learned this fear “through conditioning.” This led to one of Watson 's most famed experience that included the subject “Little Albert B.” It is clear the aspect of human behavior in which Watson was interested in is a person’s emotions.

Watsons experiment was inducing fear of a white rat into a baby boy whose name was Albert. This experiment was brought on by Watsons believed that infants have 3 “unlearned emotional responses: fear, rage and love” (Schultz & Schultz, 2011, pg 225). In his experiment with 8 month old baby Albert, he induced the fear of white rat into the baby by using classical conditioning, something that the baby did not fear before the experiment. He would have a white rat in front of the baby and then would make a loud noise to scare the baby this was him conditioning the baby to fear the rats due to the loud noise (Watson, Rayner,

One of the most famous American Psychologists, John B. Watson, conducted numerous experiments that helped establish a clearer understanding of how the human brain associates response to certain situations. In one of his more famous experiments, Watson tested the conditioned emotional response of a small child. This child, Albert, was eleven months old and was one of “the most developed youngsters ever brought to the hospital” (Watson, 1). It was noted that he never presented fear in any situation, and rarely ever cried. For this reason, Albert was a strong subject for testing throughout the conditioned response experiment. Ultimately, Watson hoped to answer the research question: “Are reactions and behaviors of humans a result of conditioning, or are they naturally implemented in humans from birth?”. However, before Watson began the experiment, he hypothesized that all behaviors are a result of conditioning. Similar to previous observations made, Watson’s goal was to implement stimuli, triggering an emotional response while a certain object was in the child’s possession. If Watson’s hypothesis was correct, a fear reaction would be triggered when the same object was shown to Albert.

Watson was the founder of the behaviorism perspective (Openstax,2016). Behaviorism is a school of thought that arose during the first part of the 20th century, which incorporates elements of Pavlov’s classical conditioning in the study of human emotion. (Openstax, 2016). For instance, he conducted an experiment using an infant called Albert and gave him a couple of things to play with such as a white rat, a rabbit, masks, etc. In the beginning he was not afraid but when Watson made a loud sound every time he touched the white rat Albert became afraid of it and any other thing that was furry. This is the outcome Watson wanted, for the child to condition a fear response and was his intention to produce a phobia and that demonstrated how fears can be conditioned (Openstax,2016). While Watson’s

In February of 1920 at The Johns Hopkins University, John Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner performed a controlled experiment that would show the effects of classical conditioning in humans. Drawing from the influence of earlier psychologists such as Ivan Pavlov, and inspiring many psychologists to come, Watsons’ experiment truly changed the field of psychology.

Watson was one of the most important American Psychologist who structure and brought to light the term behaviorism. He was known as the Father of Behaviorism, because he stated that

During the early 1900’s Pavlov, Watson and Skinner played essential roles in the development of behaviorism as it is known today. These psychologists began focusing their energy on behavior rather than structuralism and functionalism. They felt that a person’s conscious thought was not important and it was the act itself that was the key to understanding essentially why people do the things they do. Through Pavlov’s study, he was able to display the physical mechanics behind behavior, which are involuntary physical actions in response to certain stimulus. Watson, developed the bridge between behavior and learning, he

Watson: Well we just really learned a lot there. That was a great detailed explanation of pragmatism and functionalism. Coming back from all of that, I am now going to explain behaviorism from a behaviorist view. My idea of behaviorism was based upon the work of Pavlov. Behaviorism is basically what we learning from the association of things through different types of conditioning. In my opinion, behaviorism is objective and studies behavior without the use of mind and mental process. It can be observed through assessments. When I started at Watson, I wanted to separate psychology from philosophy and focus more on psychology and biology. I was more focused on working with my own work rather than the work of others. People didn’t understand how my work was related to psychology because it wasn’t directly related to the conscious. However, I knew what I was doing and believed that my work would bring forth a new beginning. To start working towards this new beginning I had to first redefine

When we think about psychology, it is normally thought about the study of the brain, the conscious and unconscious mind. However, there are many different divisions within the psychology field that focus on specific areas that introduce different theories. One of the divisions is the theory of Behaviorism. This theory was developed by John B. Watson and B.F Skinner. The theory implies that environmental stimulus can affect someone’s behavior.

Watson believed that ‘scientific study of psychology is to benefit social welfare, as we can predict and control human behaviour and therefore, change how society behaves’ (Schacter et el, 2012: 19). This then brings a certain methodology, as it can be repeated a number of times with the same outcomes. Behaviourist psychologists believe that humans and animals learn from a stimulus and a response. The response being either negative or positive will determine if we will

The Psychological Journal soon after published his lecture in which history now marks the formal beginning of the school of behaviourism (Henley, 2014). Watson was not the only one to make a contribution to Behaviourism many came before and after him.

The Behaviourism model concludes that all knowledge is gained not through biological influences, but from the learner’s environment, through Classical and Operant Conditioning. Watson believed that through Classical Conditioning, he could teach anybody anything and that all people started out as blank slates, ready to be programmed with information. The school of Classical Conditioning believes that people will learn through repetition and association, for instance, rote learning, or the association created between a teacher holding up their hand with a request for silence from the students. Classical Conditioning also assumes that the learner is entirely passive and that free will won’t come into play. Operant Conditioning Theory determines that learning will occur when actions are met with consequences of reinforcement, either

Watson’s project of Behaviorist Psychology has three mains objects. First all of all, it will discard all terminology and conceptualization regarding conciseness and mental state. Since it’s not a clear and exact terminology. Secondly, the object of psychology should be behavior and its method the observation of external visible and measurable behavior in an experimental setting. Behavior is reduced to observable stimuli and reactions in a physiological way. Lastly the goal of psychology now behaviorism, is the prediction and adjustments of stimuli, which leads to the goal of control of behavior. All organisms being human and animals adapt to their environment, to condition, control and predict these adjustments are useful. One had to adjust its behavior, and one had to change according to the environment. It’s important to empathize that the environment that we are presented in the Behaviorist model is a very "closed environment". It is stimulation and reproduction of a very limited, measurable and controllable set of stimuli chosen via the one conducted the

Each classroom is composed of a unique and diverse group of learners that have different abilities in the way they learn. Models of learning and various theoretical frameworks provide a “blueprint” to help teachers understand different theories across disciplines. Knowledge is everywhere and providing children with the proper tools on how to learn is essential in education. I believe that if I create a learning environment that allows children to grow socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically it will allow students a path to help meet their full potential as an individual. A few of the theoretical frameworks and theorists I have found most useful in my teaching experience and that have helped me developed my philosophy include Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey and Howard Gardner.