The Applications of Psychology

Behaviorism is a psychological approach that combines the elements of theory, philosophy and methodology. Behaviorism refers to that school of psychology that was founded by Watson. It was basically based on the assumption or belief that it is possible to change, train and measure behaviors (Drisoll, 2000). Behaviorism is a psychological school of thought that was established when Watson published his classic paper "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (1913). The terms behaviorism is, therefore, that psychological perspective whose its explanations about learning are actually based on the relationship that exists between the events in the environment and behaviors that can be observed rather than on internal processes. It came up in the early 20th century basically as a reaction to the "mentalistic" psychology, which often was incapable of making predictions that rigorous experimental methods could be a test (Watson, 2008).

When you first think of the word psychology, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, some people might say they don’t know or some would say it’s something that has to do with the mind and/or human behavior. Psychology which comes from the Greek term “psyche” is the study of mental processes and behavior; especially those affecting behavior in a given context. There are several schools of thought in psychology. These schools include: structuralism (Wundt), functionalism (James), gestalt (Wertheimer, Perls), psychoanalytic (Freud), behaviorism (Skinner), humanistic psychology (Maslow, Rogers), cognitive (Bandura), biological (many), and eclectic which is the combination of schools. Psychologists today apply these different schools when dealing with their subjects, depending on the issue at hand.

Through the years since John Watson initially fathered the theories behind behaviorism, there have been many theorists who have questioned his radical practices and elaborated on his methodologies. Yet, through the many controversies and skepticism, the theories of our modern day humanistic and more eclectic behaviorism are still deeply rooted in the early works of Watson.

The first way that Psychology applies to my life is the Motivation and Emotion part of it. Motivation is what drives you to conduct some type of activity. For example if someone is thirsty then they have to get up go somewhere

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

In 1913 Watson gave a lecture called “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”. It was in this speech that Watson proposed the idea of an objective psychology of behavior called “behaviorism”. John saw psychology as the study of people’s actions and their ability to predict and control their actions. This became known as the behaviorist’s theory. During the next few years, different ideas about behaviorism was studied. (Muskingum.edu) Behaviorism came to be widely accepted among psychologists and the general public, becoming a popular field of study in the 1920’s through the 1960’s. It was a huge contradiction to the views of the eugenics movement, which claimed that heredity was the primary force determining a person’s potential and behavior. Behaviorism, with its promise of the possibility of change, and even improvement. (A science Odyssey, published by

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).

What is psychology? What impact does psychology have on the world? What does it mean to be a psychologist? These are three important questions that will be investigated throughout this paper. Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behavior. Psychology influences many behaviors in the world without anyone noticing.

Behaviorism has been a topic of many controversies in the early stages of developing. This paper will present a synthesis of several articles discussing behaviorisms and its development through various schools of theories, in addition known researchers and conclusions. The first article that illustrates behaviorism is, “Behaviorism at 100” by Ledoux (2012), which details the last 50 years of the study of behaviorism. The next article is “Behaviorism” by Moore (2011), maps the beginning of behaviorism with B.F.Skinner and addressing functionalism and structuralism. The article named “Psychology as the behaviorist views it”, written by Watson (1913) put his emphasis the aspects of psychology and how behaviorist view introspection. Green (2009) article “Darwinian Theory functionalism and the First American psychological revolution”, is very adamant to have is readers to know that functionalism was the foundation that behaviorism was built. Clark (2004) article “The classical origins of Pavlov’s conditioning”, give insight into classical conditioning abroad and in the United States. The last article named “Little Albert’s alleged neurological impairment” written by Digdon , Powell and Harris (2014), focus on ethical concerns and that may have been overlooked. The synthesis paper will provide behaviorism and conclusions that can draw overall messages from the articles mentioned above.

Behaviorism is the scientific approach to psychology that is distinguished by logical-theoretical emphasis as is seeks to develop reasons for behavior (Moore, 2013). The theory of Behaviorism was developed by John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Uniquely, this theory states that personality is plastic and can be shaped by the environment or situational influences. Another difference from previous thoughts is

Many ideas were shared between Watson, Tolman, and Skinner who all played a role in the forming of behaviorism. They did, however, differ on some of their beliefs as well as their methods of study. At this time, methods of studying psychology as well as psychology in general were in the developing stages. Watson was largely credited with the foundation of behaviorism, however, he was by no means the only one to make contributions. There has been some debate as to whether Watson’s contributions were enough to make him the “founder of behaviorism.” It is important to examine contributions from several of the early

The behaviourist perspective is a scientific approach within psychology which claims that we are blank slates at birth and all human behaviour is learnt.Behaviourism was developed by John Watson in America in the early 1900s, (Cullis, T1999). Behaviourists focus on external conditions, learning and experience

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.

Although Watson was not the first to suggest an empirical and objective approach to psychological research he was the first to offer a coherent and organized program, and is often viewed as the catalyst for behaviorism, especially among American psychologists (Bewsbury, 2013). Perhaps the most famous behaviorist is B.F. Skinner (b.1904-d.1990). Skinner’s approach almost completely disregarded anything outside of observable behaviors, and his strict approach to looking at anything other than observable behaviors resulted in the development of the term radical behaviorism (Feist et al., 2013).