The Psychology Theory Of Psychology Essay

Behaviorism was the staple of psychology from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. It started as a concept from Pavlov’s famous experiment where he came across the phenomenon of classical conditioning. Unfortunately it wasn’t until much later that the concept of conditioning became a paradigm for psychologists worldwide. Not long after Pavlov’s experiment was published a man named John Watson would soon pioneer a new scientific front in the field of psychology.

The theory of operant conditioning is that a response can be conditioned in a person and become a learned behavior by reinforcing the

Learning is a fascinating concept. Everyone does it and everyone always has, but not everyone explores its eclectic process. That being said, through the course of history, it has been studied vehemently. Ivan Pavlov, a behaviorist, had some groundbreaking research on subclass of learning called classical conditioning. Coming across it incidentally, he discovered that dogs would salivate not only from eating food, but anything associated with them getting fed. Anything unnatural in their feeding process, he termed as the conditioned stimulus, which would result in the conditioned response of them salivating (Daniels). Though classical conditioning seems rather simple and commonsensible, the information psychologists have gathered from it has been revolutionary. It has shown psychologists the very basics of how we learn and adapt as organisms and opened the door for other studies (Myers 268). According to psychologists, learning is the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors (Myers 268).

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).

Behaviourists use two types of processes to explain how people learn: classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) and operant conditioning (Frederic Skinner).In classic conditioning, individuals learn to associate stimuli when they occur together to a response. Therefore individuals learn to produce an existing response to a stimulus that is presented. Take for instance little Albert. The little boy that was classically conditioned to respond with anxiety to the stimulus of a white ray by Watson and Rayner.

Behaviorism is a theory that human or animal psychology can be studied through examination of observable behavioral events. Behavior is a subject matter in its own right; it is also the functioning of an organism that entails communication or exchanges with its environmental settings (Moore, 2011). it is also the functioning of an organism. One way Skinner influenced the field of psychology was by building a conditioning chamber or known to society today as the Skinner Box. A rat was placed into the Skinner Box which had a lever and a food tray. If the rat were to hit the lever, food would drop out onto the tray. After the rat hit the bar on accident and a food pellet would drop, Skinner observed that the rate the bar was hit increased and remained high until the rat was no longer hungry (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, Nock, 2014, 18-19). Skinner assumed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the reasons of an action and its result. He called this method operant conditioning which expanded the field of psychology. Operant conditioning is changing the behavior of an organism or being by reinforcement (Mcleod,

The classical conditioning is a condition that focuses on the learning process in which a biological potent stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus, a good example is Pavlov dog salivating (Corey, 2016). Operant conditioning focuses on the involvement of learning in which behavioral can be influenced by the consequences. The social learning approach is different from the Classical and Operant condition; its main focus is understanding the behavior of the environmental event that occurs with the individual. This approach is significant in identifying the way the environment can affect a person behavioral

Investigate how psychology can be used to understand specific behaviours, and examine how it can be applied to the work of General Practitioners and social workers

Finally behaviourism is based on the theoretical assumption that behaviour is learned through ones environment. This behaviour is learned through classical or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is the way in which an organism learns to associate two stimuli such that one stimulus comes to elicit a response that was originally elicited only by the other stimulus (Holt, 2012). Holt describes operant learning as the way in which behaviour is influenced by consequences that follow it (Holt,

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

Then a previous thought of unbiased motivation is put together with a logically motivation. Ultimately, the formerly impartial incentive arises to arouse the reaction devoid of the existence of the logically happening stimulus. "The two elements are then known as the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response". As people learn fresh ways of doing things; then usually bad actions and habits change. They are more than willing to make the changes with each time they use the new ideas.

Classic Conditioning, defined by Richard A. Griggs, is learning that one stimulus signals the arrival of another stimulus. (141) A stimulus is a phenomenon perceived by the senses. When an initial stimulus is presented within a setting, the response to stimulus is referred to as a reflex. A reflex is a natural and automatic response to the initial stimulus without conscious thinking involved. The first encounter of a given stimulus is referred to as an unconditioned stimulus and the reflexive response is the unconditioned response. However, if the initial stimulus is repetitive, it will become a learned pattern referred to as a conditioned stimulus. When the conditioned stimulus is presented then the reflexive response becomes a learned habit, the conditioned response, as a result of constant repetition of the cyclical phenomenon. (142-143)

Classical conditioning is the theory that involves a subject learning a new behavior by the process of association. A naturally occuring stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) is paired with a response (the unconditioned response). Then, a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) is paired with the unconditioned stimulus and eventually the conditioned stimulus produces the initial response of the unconditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus being present. The response, therefore, becomes the conditioned response. This study had a major influence on the psychological study of behaviorism. “Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment” (Cherry 1). Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning says that we learn behaviours by associating the response to the stimulus. An example of this can be found from the work of Ivan Pavlov. In the 1890s Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, carried out some experiments with a dogs. He noticed that when a dog eats food, they salivate: this is an unconditional response to an

I chose Gestalt Psychology for my first perspective, it is how people experience objects and perceive things as a whole. Gestalt allows us to look at everyday objects and distinguish them from their surroundings. Without the Gestalt Theory people would see every atom that made up a whole object. As I look at my computer screen, I do not see every little atom, I see the screen as a whole. From this perspective, learning objects as a whole instead of each individual part is beneficial because it allows us to open our minds for new learning experiences. However, there may be things in life that do not provide enough visual clues to determine what it is supposed to be.