Learning Theories : Theory Of Behaviorism

One of the most well-known studies in psychology is behaviorism. Behaviorism psychology rose up between psychologists during the two world wars. When it was first mentioned, classical behaviorism, it focused on data that could be easily noticed, mental experiences, and usual activities1. Then behaviorism spread out into many other branches like methodological, radical, theoretical, and more2. The basic idea of behaviorism is how an “organism” responds to situation directed by external environment and internal biological process1.

One Psychologist who contributed a huge proportion to behaviorism is John B. Watson, it was at the Psychological school of Behaviorism he established it. John B. Watson was born in South Carolina in 1878, later in his life his father became absent from his life leading to wrongdoing that John Watson would never be at easy with. Eventually John Watson went to the University of Chicago to study Psychology where he found his interest in behaviorism. During this time, he was studying behaviorism became huge part of psychology in the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s. A new philosophy that John Watson published was, “The Behaviorist Manifesto” which is about a psychological view of behaviorist. The major goal of John Watson’s manifesto was to predict and show the controls of behavior, which led to him conducting experiments and research projects on animal behavior, child rearing and advertising.

Behaviorism is a scientific approach that humans and animals behavior can be studied and explained through examination, and shows how psychologists view different behaviors. Behaviorisms believes that learners behavior starts shaping through “stimulus – responses” (Behaviorism, 2007), and positive reinforcement (by giving rewards), or negative

A. Behaviorism, constructivism and cognitivism are relatively common theories used in the classroom as ways to approach student learning. Behaviorism focuses on observable behavior, such as students answering questions correctly, or being able to follow directions to complete a task as instructed. Characteristics of a classroom that uses behaviorism might be memorization of facts, writing vocabulary words, or a token reward system to inspire the desired behavior and decrease undesired behaviors. Constructivism, as indicated by the root word “construct,” focuses on the construction of new ideas, or expanding on what is already known. Students in a classroom using constructivism as a means for learning might seem more actively engaged

The learning approach is a behaviorist theory and only observable behaviour’s are studied. The theory

Though this theory mainly focuses on Skinner, another theorist named John B. Watson is mentioned. Watson believed that human behavior is the result of specific stimuli that elicited certain responses. His basic idea was that the conclusions about human development should be based on the observation of overt behavior rather than speculation. Watson was also a professor of psychology at Hopkins University and “By the time he left the field for good in the early 1930s, behaviorism had succeeded in taking center stage within American psychology” (Wozniak, 1997).

The movement was founded by John B. Watson, and one of his biggest premises was that thoughts were unobservable and, therefore, should not be studied. Actions, or behaviors, on the contrary, were the only objective aspects worthy of scientific inquiry. Such proponents of this theory include classic experimental psychologists such as Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. The major tenets of behaviorism are targeted at a stimulus and a response. For example, an individual was placed in this situation which caused them to behave this way.

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.

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.

Cognitive and behavioral learning theories tend to dominate modern discussions of learning theories. Employed in both educational and clinical settings, both have important contributions to understanding how and why individuals learn. Is one approach statistically better than the other, or do they each have their own place where one approach may be more effective under specific circumstances? Each theory has supporters who claim the efficacy of their theory is superior. Comparison of the theories is necessary to determine if one is significantly better than the other, or even if one theory may be slightly more effective than the other. Determining if one competing theory

“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

It is a fact that people learn differently. Some people learn by seeing, some by hearing, some by doing, and then others learn from a combination of these. For many decades psychologists, theorists, and scientists have all sought to prove to their peers, society and the world that not only do people learn differently but children and adult learning differ also. Learning theories are conceptualized frameworks which describe how individuals absorb, process and retain information. Behaviorists such as John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, Edward L. Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov and Edwin R. Guthrie believed that all learners were passive in nature and only responded to external stimuli. Behaviorism, as explored by the before mentioned, is a biological basis of learning and focuses exclusively on observable behaviors. This includes Thorndike’s theory of connectionism, Pavlov’s classical conditioning and the well-known conditioning theory from Skinner—the operant conditioning model. However, many researchers did not like the one-size fits all explanation of behaviorism. Cognitivism grew in response to behaviorism in an effort to better understand the mental processes behind learning. This challenged behaviorism with the idea that learning is the process of connecting symbols in a meaningful way; thus all knowledge is stored cognitively as symbols. Still, cognitivism didn’t account for individuality and the input-output model was seen as very mechanic. The social cognitive theory was developed

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.

Behavioral Learning Theories Most theorists agree that learning occurs when experience causes a change in a person's knowledge or behavior . Behaviorists emphasize the role of environmental stimuli in learning and focus on the behavior, i.e., an observable response. Behavioral theories are based on contiguity, classical and operant conditioning, applied behavior analysis, social learning theory and self-regulation/cognitive behavior modification. Early views of learning were contiguity and classical conditioning.

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.