Theory Analysis of the Experiments of Kohler

Inspiration. Although John Watson made tremendous waves in the study of behavioral psychology, he was not the first to explore it. Much of his inspiration was drawn from the ideas of Ivan Pavlov, one of his most known achievements being the conditioning of dogs. In the experiment, Pavlov was testing to see if he could make dogs, which would salivate in the presence of food, salivate over the sound of a bell by ringing it in the once the dogs were to be fed (How to Train a Brain, 2014).

the “Skinner box”. He found that he was able to train rats to press a

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

His most famous experiment is the Little Albert experiment. He gave a little boy by the name of Albert a white furry rat. He let Albert love and play and get attached to the rat. Later on, he would give the rat to Albert and when he went to touch it, Watson would play a loud sound, frightening the child. He continued this until one day he gave Albert the rat without playing a loud noise. Albert was still frightened of the rat. This is the same thing they did to the children in Brave New World to condition them to not like or want books or nature.

B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human

Thereby, Skinner produced experiments whereby rats would navigate through mazes to achieve the goal of a box containing food. His interest was the behaviour of the rat, taking the right turn to achieve the desired result, food. To begin with the rats would take the wrong turn but with experience, they became more skilful. The rats learning behaviour was measured in two ways, firstly the length of time it took from start to end and secondly, the reduction in errors. This was a lengthy experiment which led Skinner to produce ‘the Skinner box’. Whereby, rats learnt to press a lever and pigeons learnt to peck a key in order to attain food, also known as behaviour shaping. This experiment lacks ecological validity as the animals are kept in a controlled environment which is dissimilar to their natural habitat. However, the results which were attained could not have been possible in natural circumstances. Skinner wanted to observe if behaviour could be learned through reaching a desired outcome such as positive reinforcement which needed to be

The first animal life he saw was what seemed to be a primitive type of human that could not talk. Upon approaching them they were ambushed and taken captive by apes with guns on horses. These apes strangely could talk and reason. These apes captured the humans and locked them in cages like violent, dumb, dirty animals.

Our first experiment to talk about was the twin experiments, which involved switchings around twins body parts, and blood, sometimes even torturing one to see how the other reacts, giving one a certain treatments, starvation, disease, injuries, etc., a few estimated reasonings by Ushmm.orgs JOSEF MENGELE article

Jane Goodall was actually one of the first scientists to give names to her test subjects instead of numbers. Jane Goodall was also the first person to observe chimpanzees eating meat and using tools. Since she studied chimpanzees so much, she knew and discovered a lot about them.

Charles Darwin began his scientific breakthroughs and upcoming theories when he began an expedition trip to the Galapagos Islands of South America. While studying there, he discovered that each island had its own type of plant and animal species. Although these plants and animals were similar in appearance, they had other characteristics that made them differ from one another and seem to not appear as similar. Darwin questioned why these plants and animals were on these islands and why they are different in ways.

Using squirrels he began to use a reward system to train them, noticing that the squirrels can relate doing one form of action to get a treat. This experiment proved very promising and went onto applying the same training techniques to other animals and

Watson is known as the father of behaviorism. He was born on January 9, 1878 in Greenville, South Carolina. He attended Furman University at 16 and graduated with a master’s degree. Watson then attended the University of Chicago where he became interested in the field of psychology. Watson received his doctorate 1903 and later became an associate professor of psychology at John Hopkins University. John B Watson established behaviorism when he delivered his lectured entitled “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It” at Colombia University. Watson’s most famous experiment was the “Little Albert” experiment. In the experiment Watson conditioned a child to fear a white rat. He did so by pairing a white rat with a loud noise. Watson was asked to retire from Hopkins because of an affair he was having with his assistant. After leaving John Hopkins University Watson began working for an advertising agency where he used his knowledge of behaviorism to improve the effects of

(Cherry, Page 1)Maslow’s work during this time brought about his theories and during his early career he studied monkeys. (Boeree, Page 1) He found out in his studies with monkeys that they take care of some needs before others such as if they were hungry or thirsty they would tend to drink first because you can go many weeks without food but when it comes to water you can only go a couple of days without it.(Boeree, Page 1) He also found out that if you are thirsty but someone has put a choke hold on you than you are probably going to get air before you try to get a drink. (Boeree, Page 1)

One of the most prominent and influential psychologists of the twentieth century, B.F. Skinner was known as a behavioral psychologist, philosopher of science, and an educational innovator. Throughout his life he did experimental work with animals to discover how patterns of behavior are learned. His initial work was primarily conducted with animals, and later in life he started to work with humans and apply his learning from his pigeon studies to human behavior. He focused on the individual and wrote about how to restructure social systems to improve the quality of life.

This was due to his belief that psychology should be studied as internal processes that were mediated socially and then culturally communicated. He conducted experiments ‘on-site’ in schools and playgrounds and showed that field testing had immense benefits and could be used in place of laboratory testing or as a follow-up method.