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BEHAVIORISM
Andrea Nimo Mallo
Carmen Campos Campos
Laura Louro Vázquez
2ºA Bach
INDEX
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What is behaviorism?
Iván Pávlov
○ Pávlov’s dogs
John Watson
○ “Little Albert” experiment
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
○ Operant conditioning
Assumptions
Contribution to psychology and society
Strengths and weaknesses
What is behaviorism?
The behaviorist movement began in 1913 when John Watson wrote an article
entitled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to the understanding of human and animal
behavior. It assumes that all behavior are either reflexes produced by a response to
certain stimulus in the environment, or a consequence of that individual's history,
including especially reinforcement and punishment, together with the individual's
current motivational state and controlling stimulus.
Behaviorism combines elements of philosophy, methodology, and psychological
theory.
Iván Pávlov
He was born the 26th September, 1849 in Riazán, Russia
and he died the 27th February, 1936 in San Petersburgo,
Russia. Pavlov studied medicine and chemistry and he
specialized in physiologist. He’s a russian scientist
interested in studying how digestion works in mammals.
He is known for making the classical conditioning that
refers to a learning procedure in which a biologically potent
stimulus is paired with a previously neutral stimulus. It’s is
a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus
acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was
originally evoked by another stimulus.
PÁVLOV’S DOGS
Psychologist Ivan Pávlov discovered classical
conditioning when he was studying digestion in
dogs. He noticed that his dogs began to salivate
when they heard sounds normally associated with
getting meat. He then designed an experiment to test
this phenomenon. He began ringing a bell
immediately before giving the dogs meat. After the
dogs had heard the bell and associated it with the
meat several times, they began salivating only at the
sound of the bell.
Classical
conditioning
is
considered
a
rudimentary, reflexive form of learning and has
been demonstrated in a variety of organisms.
Classical conditioning works with babies, dogs,
and other animals, but highly intelligent adults
can also be conditioned using classical
conditioning. Many forms of animal training use
forms of classical conditioning. For example, in
dog clicker training, dogs are conditioned to
associate a clicker with getting a treat reward.
After a period, the dogs begin to respond to the
clicker even when they are not given the treat.
John Broadus Watson
John Watson was an American psychologist who
established the psychological school of behaviorism
which opened in 1913 with the publication of his
article Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it. He was
born in Greenville (SC) on January 9, 1878 and died in
New York on September 25, 1958.
In his dissertation, "Animal Education: An
Experimental Study on the Psychical Development of
the White Rat, Correlated with the Growth of its
Nervous System", he described the relationship
between brain myelination and learning ability in rats
at different ages. This was the first modern scientific
document on the white rat’s behavior.
"Little Albert" experiment (1920)
In this experiment —which demonstrated that classical conditioning works in human
beings—, Watson was able to condition a previously unafraid baby to become afraid
of a rat. Classical conditioning plays a central role in the development of fears and
associations, although some phobias may be due at least in part to classical
conditioning.
The experiment consisted in placing a rat in front of a 9-month-old baby who had not
previously demonstrated any fear of rats, so he didn’t react. Then, Watson began
making a loud noise on several separate occasions while showing Albert the rat.
Albert cried in reaction to the noise and, after a period of conditioning, he cried in
response to the rat even without the loud noise. This is prototypical example of
classical conditioning.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B.F. Skinner,
was born on March 20, 1904 in Pennsylvania and he died on
August 18, 1990 in Massachusetts. He was an American
psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social
philosopher.
He led a pioneering work in experimental psychology and
he defended the behaviorism. He also wrote controversial
works in which he proposed the widespread use of
psychological technologies of modification of conduct, to
improve the society and to increase the human happiness,
as a way of social engineering.
Skinner’s theory: Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning can be described as a process that attempts to modify
behaviour through the use of positive and negative reinforcement. Through operant
conditioning, an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a
consequence.
Reinforcement comes in two forms: positive and negative.
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Positive reinforcers are favorable events or outcomes that are given to the
individual after the desired behavior.
Negative reinforcers typically are characterized by the removal of an undesired
or unpleasant outcome after the desired behavior. A response is strengthened as
something considered negative is removed.
Punishment, in contrast, is when the increase of something undesirable attempts to
cause a decrease in the behavior that follows. (As reinforcement, punishment can be
positive or negative.)
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Positive punishment is produced when unfavorable events or outcomes are
given in order to weaken the response that follows.
Negative punishment is characterized by when an favorable event or outcome
is removed after a undesired behavior happens.
Skinner’s experiment: The rat in the box
To demonstrate his theory, Skinner used an
invention created by him: the operant conditioning
chamber (or Skinner’s box) and a rat. He enclosed
the rat in the box, which in one of his walls had a
lever. The rat, who was hungry, started to look for
food. In its research, it pressed the lever and it
received a piece of food (that’s a positive reinforce).
When the rat was conditioned, Skinner changed the
reinforcement and the rat didn’t obtain anything.
After a while, This led to the extinction of the
behavior.
Behaviorists’ assumptions:
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The majority of all behavior is learned from the environment after birth.
Only observable behaviour not minds should be studied.
Contribution to society:
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Practical applications for education and the treatment of those suffering behavioural
disturbances.
Operant conditioning principles have been used in training animals.
Watson applied behaviourist theory to both child rearing and advertising, while Skinner
offered many suggestions regarding the large scale manipulation of behavior in society.
Contribution to psychology: language acquisition, moral development, attraction,
abnormality, aggression, prejudice, gender role identity…
Strengths: Behaviourism...
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...was very scientific. Its experimental methodology left a lasting impression on the subject.
...provided strong counter-arguments to the nature side of the nature-nurture debate.
...explained a great variety of phenomena using only a few simple principles.
...has produced many practical and effective applications.
Weaknesses:
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Ethologist argued that the behaviourists ignored innate and they also disagreed on using of
animals and laboratory experimentation (because of the difference between humans and
animals).
Cognitive psychologists think that behaviourism ignores important mental processes
involved in learning, while the humanistic approach disliked their rejection of conscious
mental experience.
Bibliography
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Watson
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/little-albert-experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGa1NaUFbaM
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/classical-conditioning
https://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
https://www.psychologistworld.com/behavior/pavlov-dogs-classical-conditioning.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning_chamber
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condicionamiento_operante
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrhus_Frederic_Skinner
http://www.theoryfundamentals.com/skinner.htm
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinneresp.html