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behaviorism vs humanism

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Behaviorism vs. Humanism
Heather Murphy
PSY331: Psychology of Learning
Instructor Corey Pruitt
September 1, 2014

Behaviorism vs. Humanism Behaviorism and humanism are two theories of learning. Both theories are very important, and have many good qualities, which makes it difficult to say that one is better than the other. When it comes to learning, behaviorism does not consider mental processes, rather it looks at our response to stimuli in our environment. Whereas, humanism sees learning as personal, and is dependent on each individual self. Even though the two theories seem completely opposite of each other, there are some similarities between them pertaining to learning. Behaviorism is explained as behavior …show more content…

Behaviorists prefer to study animals because they feel they can be in a more controlled environment. Humanists disagree with this approach because humans and animals are not the same, and they react differently. Humanists believe that humans, not animals, are capable of thought, reason, and language; therefore animals should not be used in studying human behavior and thought (McLeod, 2007). Also, when performing studies, behaviorism uses a scientific approach, whereas humanism does not. The reason humanism uses a non-scientific approach is because it is very difficult to study emotions, feelings, and our consciousness scientifically. Therefore, interviews and other qualitative (individual) methods are used to study behavior (McLeod, 2007). In conclusion, you can see that both theories are important to our behavior and how it relates to learning. Though humanism ad behaviorism are quite different, they do have some similarities between them as well. Both theories suggest that we focus more on learning activities, rather than teaching activities in order to be a more effective learner. More importantly, we should focus on learning activities that pertain to each learner involved. The two theories also compare, in that they each utilize a set of principles and procedures. Whether it 's external or internal, there are procedures that

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