Human Environment Is An Insignificant Effect On Human Nature

Behaviourist approach has may strengths to its findings, there has a been a vast amount of experiments from other theorists that support the theory. However, many weaknesses can be highlighted. One is how using rewards or other means to shape behaviour can be argued that the individual is only motivated for these rewards which can encourage a shallow and materialistic style. Another limitation that can be mentioned is that that behaviourist research was widely carried out on animals, for instance Skinner’s rats, Watson’s cats and Pavlov’s dogs. We cannot compare human behaviour to that of an animal. We cannot be 100% certain that humans would act the same way as the animals experimented on (McLeod,2017). As well as this, another criticism states how even though you can change someone’s behaviour in one environment, what happens when the individual goes to a different environment where positive behaviour isn’t reinforced. O’Brien gives an example of if a teacher changed a challenging child’s behaviour at school but then the child went home to the same environment as before, the child would find it increasingly hard to stick to the changed behaviour (O’Brien 2016). I feel that I can relate to this with a child I have in my class. I have managed through positive reinforcement to change his behaviour that he showed in previous classes, however when communicating with his carer it is noted that his previous behaviour is still present in his home environment.

The statement also suggests that it was not only John Watson the founder of behaviorism who proposed the idea rather it was thought about before him. His rise and influence was probably because of introducing the idea at a time when it could be accepted by the time and tide of that period.

"The behaviourist approach has been a dominant influence in psychology, it represents one of the ‘hardcore' approaches, which has contributed a great deal to our understanding of psychological functioning " (Malim & Birch, 1998)

Watson believed that we are all born with blank minds, environment determines our behaviour, and behaviour is the result of stimulus and responses.

Behaviorism concerns primarily with observable behavior, rather than thinking or feeling. It focuses on external/observable behavior that can be measured objectively.

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.

According to McLeod (2017), behaviourism is an approach in psychology that focuses on scientific testing and investigating how environmental interactions cause all human behaviour to be learnt. Behaviourists do not focus on covert behaviour, such as feelings or thoughts, as they cannot be scientifically

a. The reason why she thinks this is because since she was raised in a family where english wasn't spoken perfectly then she wouldn't be able to do as well on certain tests that other, less intelligent people would do better in.

can be used to strengthen existing behaviors, as well as learn new ones. Principles of behaviorism can be

The enduring differences between individuals are an intriguing subject area in modern psychology. An interest in examining how people differ in their thinking, feeling and behaviour has developed over time. Even over 2000 years ago, Plato stated “No two persons are born exactly alike; but each differs from the other in natural endowments, one being suited for one occupation and the other for another”.

Author lives in Mississauga city, Canada. And her background is from one of the ethnic minority. In Canada Ontario is one of the populated provinces. Mississauga is situated in the Southern Ontario and 6th most populated city in the Canada and the part of the Greater Toronto area and lies on the shores of Lake Ontario. The city has a 713,443 population (Statistics Canada, 2011 Census). Toronto is the main destination for migrants to Canada and Mississauga city has a multicultural population.

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

“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

One strength of the Behavioural approach is that it is scientific. This is a strength because we can measure and observe behaviour which means we get reliable results. One major weakness of the Behavioural approach is that it ignores internal functions such as thoughts, cognition etc. For example, a large part of depression is made up of the thoughts and emotions of an individual, but

Likewise, Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory derives on the premise that humans learn and develop accordingly to our environment and not our genetics. The Sociocultural Level of Analysis in psychology states that people retain an individual identity as well as a collective identity and therefore base personality on a combination of