Sources and Implications of Different Perspectives of Behavior

A behaviourist perspective suggests that all behaviour is observable, objective and learnt from experience. It is believed that behaviour can be learnt and reinforced through operant conditioning and unconscious physical response can be learnt through classical conditioning.

The Behaviourist approach believe that human beings are able to learn all types of behaviours through the environment they grow up in, its believes that we learn these behaviours through using theories, such as, Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning and Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s Operant Conditioning.

Behavioral theory focuses on environmental influences and learned behavior through reinforcement, both positive and negative, punishment, and modeling. This a simple and logical concept and is expressed throughout not only humans, but in other species as well. A common example of behavioral theory at work is demonstrated when a young child touches a hot stove top for the first time. The child touches the hot

The basic assumption of the behaviourist approach is that all behaviour is learned through experiences a person has in their environment. From this we know that behaviourists are on the side of nature in the “nature vs. nurture” debate. In comparison bio psychologists will be firmly on the side of nurture.

Behaviourists focus on the influence of the environment, they chose not to be concerned with the internal mechanisms that occur inside the organism, they believe that your behaviour depends on what factors are present in the environment at any given time. Another big contributor to this approach is Ivan Pavlov who was made famous for conditioning in which he used dogs in an experiment.

First of all, there is the Structural-Functional perspective way people view drug addiction as. The structural-functional perspective is the role the drugs do for the person or the weakening of the norms. It is the way they affect the person and what it does to them that makes them be addicted to drugs. For some people drugs relieves them. It takes them away from their problems from a while and they feel stress free and because of that feeling they receive from the drugs they like it and continue to take more and more. Those with this type of perspective well most likely disagree with this view of drug addiction and would want the problem to decrease.

To understand addiction further, it is important to look at how drugs have neurological effects in a human body. Drugs can be ingested in various ways; while some are taken orally, some are smoked (cannabis) while others are injected directly into the blood stream (Heroin). Once in the body, they mainly affect the reward pathway in the brain, known as the dopaminergic pathway, which in turn gives pleasure. Even though all drugs affect the reward and motivation pathways in the brain, their speed depends on the way the drug has been consumed. Over constant use of drugs, the cognitive functions are impaired as the effects become more prominent in learning, memory

In Psychology learning is seen as a change in behaviour caused by an experience. Behaviorism, is seen as a learning theory; an attempt to explain how people or animals learn by studying their behaviour. The Behaviourists Approach has two theories to help explain how we learn, Classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this task I will attempt to describe and evaluate this approach.

Behaviorism believes that when we are born, our mind is a sort of blank slate, and over time our experiences and environment influence a persons behavior over time, this is where things such a classical conditioning comes in to play. For example if we receive positive reinforcement for an action, we are statically more likely to repeat that action as we have now associated the behavior with a positive reinforcement, the same would apply to a action that we received a negative reinforce or punishment for, we would then be less likely to repeat that behavior or action because we have now associated it a negative reinforce or punishment.

Drugs are substances that have physical and psychological effects on the body. Once an individual has taken drugs multiple times they start to build a tolerance. When tolerance is built an individual will up the dosage of the drug. Now the individual will be addicted to the drug. People are addicted to drugs to compliment physical and psychological dependence. There are many different types of drugs such as psychoactive drugs, stimulants, and hallucinogens.

The Behavioral Perspective: This perspective is based on environmental rewards and punishers to encourage or discourage behaviors. This is usually notes through direct observation of the particular act in the specific environment. Social cognitive learning is used to further explain values, expectations, and intentions of the individual. This theory was the main stream behaviorist theory for over 50 years, as it focuses on precision and objectivity. It is thought to have advanced science as a whole and has given psychology some of the most accurate and detailed finding to date.

“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

Eventually that addiction leads to drug tolerance. Tolerance is when drug user takes more and more of their drug of choice in order to receive the same type of euphoria feeling they once felt with smaller quantities.

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 is the point of view where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms