Freedom-Determinism Debate

Between the 1920s and the 1950s the behaviourist approach was often primarily used. Behaviourists thought that psychology should be viewed as scientific, therefore theories within the approach consisted of controlled observations and measurements of behaviour which resulted in quantitative data, sometimes through the process of experiments. Within this perspective there is no room for free will, as all behaviour and thoughts are determined by the environment (Don, K. 2015), this is also the case from the biological aspect as they

Determinism (as defined by Webster) is “A doctrine that acts of the will, natural events, or social changes are determined by preceding events or natural causes”. Likely, the most radical definition of determinism would state that all events in the world are the result of a previous event, or a combination of previous events. Within the realm of the all encompassing radical determinism there are philosophies that are somewhat better thought out or backed by science. One example of this is Genetic Determinism. We know that people are in some way determined by their genes both physically and behaviorally, as the human DNA is applied. Two categories of genetic determinism are Genetic Fixity and Innate Capacity.

Three major events in the early twentieth century greatly influenced Skinner’s work: Darwin’s theory of evolution, Freud’s psychoanalysis, and Pavlov’s approach to conditioning. Darwin asserted that all life forms evolved from simple forms and that the selection of characteristics contribute to the survival of each individual. Skinner believed that Darwin’s ideas could be applied to behaviorism and coined the idea of “selection by consequences” to explain why people act how they act. Psychoanalysis began in the early 1900s and Freud focused on the idea that people are driven by their unconscious and that adult behaviors are formed in childhood. Skinner agreed with a few of Freud’s ideas; both psychologists believed that behavior has predictable effects and is not a result of free will. However, Skinner rejected Freud’s idea that the id, ego, and superego cause behavior. Pavlov’s

B. F. Skinner believed that a human being’s behavior is influenced and determined by external factors. He believed that free will and an individual’s freedom of choice was non-existent. I believe that Mr. Skinners ideas of operant conditioning for society is not a good idea.

There is a debate occurring in the world of psychology revolving around the way people’s behavior is based on either nature or nurture. Both of these, again, deal with psychology and are both aspects of behavior that are products by one of two realms. One being inherited through genetics and the other

It is a conventional wisdom for everybody that certain physical characteristics are predetermined before we are born as they come from genetics: color of the eyes, hair, body structure, color of skin etc. Each person has its own unique genetic code. This fact has led many scientists to think that a set pf psychological characteristics are predetermined too. For example, mental abilities, behavioral patterns, speed of speech etc. This is a so-called

Determinism is when one’s behavior is thought to be influenced by either an internal external force. An example of an internal force would be natural things such as your thought process and hormones, while external forces would include the way you were raised and your life experiences. Accepting a deterministic psychology, then we can make strong attempts to predict human behavior, which means psychology comes into play, along with the physics or chemistry realms of science. Although psychology may not be considered a science without a deterministic view, in the twentieth century science was much less deterministic than previous studies and ideas. For example, small actions can lead to big changes; the extermination of a beehive could lead to all of the flowers in the surrounding area to die. Several behaviorists believe that whatever type of environment we are in, determines most our actions. The behavior that is

Is human behavior predictable where everything we do is predetermined or do we have the capability of freely choosing our behavior? When we come to a decision in our lives, do we display a typical, humanistic reaction based on what we have observed, or do we make unpredictable, free will responses to puzzle onlookers? Some psychologists believe that humanistic behavior is predictable because humans react in ways they have observed from other humans. For example, our teachers could have said, “Please behave,” which was a psychological tactic for us to subconsciously connect behaving with acting the right way. Unfortunately, we can become “trapped” in our early development years based on our ancestors’ positive or negative behavior. Before we

The article talks about three theorists and their theories. These theorists include Skinner, Kantor, and Michael. Skinner is known for his reinforcement theory, however, he had writings of the environmental settings under which behavior may occur. Differential reinforcement of responding in the presence of discriminative stimuli is how Skinner believed stimulus control over behavior is developed. Discrimination describes a certain functional relationship between antecedent events, behavior, and consequences that deliveries to a variety of circumstances. With this said, variables that are separate from the accessibility of reinforcement may also affect the probability that behavior will happen. Skinner offered several processes to

With the study of psychology, we have discovered the minds, and bodies and all of its functions of humans in the past and the present. Psychologists help in doing this, as they have created the information that we know, trust and use to figure ourselves and others out. A psychologist in particular that have done such is, B.F Skinner. Burrhus Frederic Skinner, better known as B.F Skinner helped in shaping the study of Behaviorism. Behaviorism is the theory that human and animal behavior that are explained in terms of conditioning without appeal to thoughts or feeling. He helped in determining this theory by creating; behaviorism, operant conditioning, reinforcers,

In the context of behavior and mental structure, human development can be viewed from two major angles, namely evolutionary psychology or the historical change of humans by natural selection, and individual psychology or the psychological/personality development and maturation of each individual person. All modern behavioral therapies are based on the fundamental principle that behavior, both normal and abnormal, is learned, albeit with the relatively hard-wired input of biological and genetic makeup. In general, behavior are determined by our personalities, and personality theories recognize that personality is made up by our view of our self, others, and the world. Everyone is born with a biological and genetic predisposition to act in a certain way in response to environmental input. Whether

There have been many famous individuals who have contributed to education. BF Skinner, William Glasser, John Dewey, and Lev Vygotski are four notorious men in the history and impact of education. Bf Skinner (1904) was a behaviorist who his most widely known for his theory of operant conditioning and the Skinner box. His created this theory to study human behavior. Operant conditioning includes positive and negative reinforcement as well as positive and negative punishment. Positive reinforcement is giving a person a reward when the child behaves well. The opposite of positive reinforcement is negative reinforcement which is the removal of a something negative to increases the likelihood of positive behavior. Negative punishment is the removal of something positive to eliminate bad behavior. Positive punishment is when something negative is added to a situation to decrease bad behavior. B.F. Skinner had a significant influence on education. He believed that behavior can only be changed through learning. His discoveries through operant conditioning can be used in education in classrooms today. When a child’s behavior starts to change, that is a signal to the teacher that the child has learned from previous experiences. For example when a child raises his or her hand to be called on in class, they wait patiently because the student knows from previous experiences that talking when the student is not supposed to is bad behavior. The student then waits patiently to avoid being

Burrhus Skinner is one of the best known behaviourist theorists. He applied ideas taken from his works with rats and pigeons to children. Behaviourists define learning as something that “people do in response to external stimuli”. (Muijs and Reynolds, 2005, p21) Skinner argued that changes in the behaviour of children are as a result of their response to events (stimuli) that have happened to them. This process is known as operant conditioning which suggests that if a response to stimuli is followed with a reward or encouragement, this response is likely to occur again. This then leads to the idea

Skinner, or more properly, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, is one of the most widely known psychologists of the 20th century. Skinner’s in 1948 stated, in which learning was facilitated by applying his theory in daily life of humans. Reinforcement is simply defined as "the effect of a reinforcer" (Lefrancois, 2006). Some issues concerning the control of human behaviour on his research, studies and beliefs of learning. Skinner’s write, “science will increasing our power to be more influence, change, and control human behaviour” (p. 1057). Other than that, in the other article, Skinner wrote that “any list of values or things is a list of reinforcement in conditioned or unconditioned” (p. 1064). We can understand that values in our surrounding create behaviour that will affect the behaviour in terms of reinforcement. Based on (PsycINFO, Conger & John J, Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol 17, 1956, 296-305) reinforcement theory is explanation of rewards behaviour, even in the case of the man is apparently punished by such behaviour. Stated by Skinner’s, reinforces typically change the types of a respons and it can only be considered reinforces when it immediately connected to the behaviour. Skinner believed that we do have simply more productive to study observable behaviour that happened rather than internal behaviour events in such of mind. Skinner also believed that the best way to understand behaviour is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences based on the environment. Last but not least, reinforcement can then be broken down into positive and negative

Part 1: There have been many famous individuals who have contributed to education. BF Skinner, William Glasser, John Dewey, and Lev Vygotski are four notorious men in the history and impact of education. B.F. Skinner (1904) was a behaviorist who his most widely known for his theory of operant conditioning and the Skinner box. He created this theory to study human behavior. Operant conditioning includes positive and negative reinforcement as well as positive and negative punishment. Positive reinforcement is giving a person a reward when the child behaves well. The opposite of positive reinforcement is negative reinforcement which is the removal of something negative to increase the likelihood of positive behavior. Negative punishment is the removal of something positive to eliminate bad behavior. Positive punishment is when something negative is added to a situation to decrease bad behavior. B.F. Skinner had a significant influence on education. He believed that behavior can only be changed through learning. His discoveries through operant conditioning can be used in education classrooms today. When a child’s behavior starts to change, that is a signal to the teacher that the child has learned from previous experiences. For example when a child raises his or her hand to be called on in class, they wait patiently because the student knows from previous experiences that talking out of turn is bad behavior. The