Theories Of Behaviorism

The Biological Approach is the theory that all the knowledge we have is innate, and our behaviour is caused by activity in the CNS. Obviously, this is the polar opposite of the behaviourist

Before Classical Conditioning even takes place, there is what one refers to as an unconditioned stimulus (US), which is something in the environment that naturally and automatically triggers an individual to respond. This in turn causes an unconditioned response (UR), which is a natural (meaning is has not been taught), reaction that occurs in the presence of an unconditioned stimulus. The next term we must be familiar with is neutral stimulus. A neutral stimulus (NS), can be either a person, place or object that does not produce a response until it is paired with the unconditioned stimulus. Imagine for example, your grandmother has just baked a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. As the cookies (the US) sit by the window to cool,

In an episode of the show How I Met Your Mother, one of the characters, Barney, spends years attempting to condition another character, Marshall. Every time Marshall would want to eat at Shinjitsu, Barney would sneeze. After years of Barney gradually associating sneezing with the want to eat at Shinjitsu in Marshall’s head, he begins utilizing classical conditioning by sneezing to get Marshall to want Shinjitsu (“Ducky Tie”). This is a rather interesting example because of the ridiculous nature of it, but also because of how possible it is to

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 behaviourist perspective believes in nurture and that all behaviour is learnt from environmental influences and experiences, due to this they reject the idea of free-will. They have a strong belief in scientific methodology and that only observable behaviours should be studied as behaviour can be objectively measured using scientific experiments. There are three keys strands of the behaviourist perspective, Classical conditioning, Operant conditioning, and social learning theory.

Classical conditioning is learning that occurs trough association can be defined as a type of learning in which a conditioned stimulus (sound of a bell, Pavlov) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) to evoke a response. In the early twentieth century Pavlov’s research included dogs that would start to salivate when food was presented. Pavlov suggested that salivation was a learned response. During the research a bell was rang when the food was presented, the dog salivated

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,

Classical conditioning will occur when two stimuli are paired on a consistent basis, causing a persistent reaction between the two. Throughout the span of my life, I have experienced several instances of

Behaviorism assumes that we are born as a blank slate and so equal at birth. The theorists believe that it is the environmental factors that shape our behaviour rather than genetic or biological differences. Behaviorism very much represents the nurture aspect of the nature-nurture

And example of operant conditioning is the training of rats to press a lever in order to obtain a food reward. The pressing of the lever (conditioned response) is associated with the food reward (unconditioned stimulus). After a training period, the rat will show the conditioned response of pressing the lever even without the presence of the unconditioned stimulus of the food.

Behaviorism psychology is, “The idea that psychology should restrict itself to studying objectively observable behavior.” ( Schacter, 2015, p 10.) All behavior is learned from a persons environment. For example a mother who has a child at a young age is more likely to have the same happen to there child then someone who a child in there late 20’s early 30’s. If a single parent brings a lot of different boyfriend/girlfriend’s around there kids then when the kid is older they will probably date a lot of people because they learned this from there

“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

This a kind of approach that basically focus on the psychology of the individuals. It uses various elements like psychology, philosophy, methodology

According to Eggen and Kauchak (2012) behaviorism is a theory that explains learning in terms of observable behaviors and how they’re influenced by stimuli from the environment. It defines learning as a relatively enduring change in observable behavior that occurs as a result of experience (Schunk,

Learning itself, cannot be observed as it is a hypothetical concept, but behavioural changes can be observed which lead to the assessment and understanding of what learning has taken place. Therefore when Psychologists use the term learning, they are referring to the process of learning, i.e. that technique or strategy which has been used to facilitate the learning.