Introduction
In this essay I will talk how behaviourism and social learning theory contribute to our understanding of learning, the strengths and weaknesses of the theories of Psychologists B F Skinner and Stanley Milgram and also critically discuss the limitations of their theories. Then finally weigh up how Skinner has impacted the understanding of behaviour.
How Behaviourism and Social Learning Theory contribute to the understanding of learning
Behaviourism is the theory that human beings and animals can be conditioned to act a certain way. This started with the observations from Pavlov in 1902, in which he conducted and experiment with a dog. He started his theory from the idea that there are many things a dog does not have to learn.
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Watson took the observations of Pavlov and proposed that he was able to explain all aspects of human psychology using this theory. This theory is called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is the theory that a person learns a new behaviour through the process of association. Two stimuli are brought together to produce a new association with that person or animal. For example before conditioning, a person may associate the smell of perfume with happiness, this is an unconditioned stimulus. However during conditioning they may instead associate the smell of perfume with a specific person. At this point the unconditioned stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus. After conditioning, the person whom found the perfume to be associated with a specific person, now finds the smell of that perfume to be attractive. This is a conditioned response. As well as this, John B Watson conducted the Little Albert Experiment. Pavlov demonstrated that classical conditioning worked on animals, but Watson wanted to find out if it also worked on humans. Little Albert was 9 months old, and was tested on his reactions to various animals and objects which included a rat, rabbit, monkey, as well as various masks. He showed no fear to any of them, however did show a reaction when a hammer struck a steel bar behind him, causing him to cry. When Little Albert was 11 months old, he was again presented with the rat, however seconds later the hammer struck the steel bar. This was
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.
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
Little Albert an 11 month old boy was chosen as the participant. Watson identified that a white rat did not provoke any fear response in Albert, so it was a neutral stimulus. Little Albert was then exposed to the white rat, but every time he reached out to touch it Watson would make a loud noise. Albert would get frightened and start to cry. After repeating this several times, Albert started getting frightened just by seeing the rat. Just like the bell in Pavlov's experiment, the white rat had become a conditioned stimulus to Albert. Watson therefore concluded that even complex behaviour such as fear was a learned response.
Behaviourism is a psychological approach that emphasis on environmental factors influencing observable human behaviour. This approach consists of two main processes: Classical conditioning which means learning things by associating them with something e.g. if you ate Chinese food before and it made you feel queasy and unwell then the next time you see Chinese food you will associate it to that experience you had before. Operant conditioning which means learning things by positive and negative reinforcement and association e.g. when you do well in school and your parents buy you the game you’ve always wanted (positive reinforcement).
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
The behaviourists believed that all behaviour is learned through the environment. They suggest that we learn through classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
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.
Food was the unconditioned stimulus, the bell was the conditioned stimulus, and salivation was the conditioned response. Pavlov’s work showed that the conditioned response could be reduced or eliminated by presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus. Generally this required several pairings or a pairing for an extended period of time to be successful. This process is called extinction. John Watson, in his famous Little Albert experiment, was able to build on Pavlov’s work when he conditioned a young child to fear a white rat using a loud noise. Joseph Wolpe studied Watson’s work. Wolpe was able to reduce fear in cats by feeding them in various feeding situations (Abramowitz, Deacon, & Whiteside, 2010). He created a hierarchy of feared situations for the cats. He began by feeding the cats in the least threatening situation and gradually was able to move to the most threatening situation (Abramowitz, Deacon, & Whiteside, 2010). He noticed that the cats became
This essay will demonstrate a knowledge and understanding and discuss the concept of social learning theory, whilst taking into consideration and explaining the way children learn and develop. This essay will focus on the overall concept of this theory and will explore the work of the theorist Albert Bandura and how he contributes to the role of the adult and their understanding of social learning. This essay will then examine the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner in relation to the work of Bandura. Using this theoretical perspective it can benefit the adult by understanding of children’s learning and social development. Furthermore, this essay will link into practical and reflect upon and analyse the relationship between theory and practice.
Although a variety of factors are seen to influence alcohol consumption among students (especially college students), peer influence has surfaced to be one of the most dominant predictors of the initiation and continuation of alcohol use in an institution stetting (Borsari and Carey). Through the concept of social learning theory, it is clear that the effectiveness of peer influences is determined by peer relationships. Specifically, modeling and cognitive processes are able to describe how peer relation influences alcohol usage. Modeling occurs when an individual imitates or acquires new behaviors through observation of others (Maisto, Carey and Bradizza). Behaviors that are rewarded are more likely to be mimicked than those that are
The Little Albert Experiment set out to further the understanding of classical conditioning in regards to humans. The experiment was performed by John Watson and Rosaline Rayner in 1920. The experiment focused on emotionally conditioned responses or CERs. Fear, or more specifically the fear of rats, was the specific CER which they attempted to create through classical conditioning. Like in all classical conditioning examples and experiments, there was an unconditioned response, an unconditioned stimulus, a conditioned stimulus, and a conditioned response. The unconditioned response was fear in response to the unconditioned stimulus of a loud noise, more specifically the banging of a steel bar using a hammer. The conditioned stimulus was rat, which before the experiment was met by Albert with only joy and curiosity, and after the experiment would cause Albert instead fear. After 7 pairings of the white rat and the loud noise, Albert began to “demonstrate fear of the rat even without the noise” (Huffman and Dowdell, 2015). A conditioned emotional response had thus successfully been created through the
Akers and Sellers (2013) has stated that social learning theory is an expanded theory of differential association processes and improves it with differential reinforcement and other principles of the behavior theory. They added classical conditioning (the sharpening of involuntary reflex behavior); discriminative stimuli (internal stimuli that lead to signals for behavior); schedules of reinforcement (rewards and punishment ratio following behavioral feedback); and other theories of behavior (Akers & Sellers, 2013).
During 1920, the unforgettable experiment The Little Albert Experiment was performed by the father of behaviorism, John B. Watson. To him it was an innate unconditioned response. Because of his thought he wanted to test his knowledge. John B. Waston choose to use the principle “classical conditioning”. Classical Conditioning is “a type of behaviourism first demonstrated by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov in the 1890s.Through a series of experiments he demonstrated that dogs which normally salivated when presented with food could be conditioned to salivate in response to any stimulus in the absence of the original stimulus, food. He rang a bell every time a dog was about to be fed, and after a period of time the dog would salivate to the sound of the bell irrespective of food being presented.” ( Saul McLoed, 2008).
Behaviourism is a concept which dismisses that humans possess freewill. Behaviourism states that all behaviour is learned, also that all behaviour is conditioned either by means of 'association ' or 'reinforcement '. Behaviourists believe that everyone is born 'tabula rasa ' which means that the human mind is viewed as having no inherent ideas. They believe that any psychological dysfunctional behaviour can be dealt with and the behaviour can simply be 'unlearned '. The difference between Behaviourism and other disciplines is that it states that human beings are simply passive receptors of stimulus-response. Behaviourist psychology began to surface at the beginning of the 20th Century, however it can be drawn back to the empiricist philosopher Aristotle who thought that the only knowledge we know of the world is achieved through our sensory experiences. Within Behaviourism, there is Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is learning a new behaviour through the process of association. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist developed this theory. He did this by researching digestive systems of dogs. (McLeod, S. A.
According to Waltman (2003) Behaviourism is a theory of animal and human learning that only