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Preston University
EMBA Assignment
BEHAVIORISTIC FRAMEWORK
Stimuli – Response
Response = Stimulus + Environment + Learning
The scope of the Operant
Theory of Behavior
Prof: Asim Naseer’s Assignment
Submitted By Jamaluddin Panhwar
Registration No. 1552-410036
Dated : 16th January 2011
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What is..“Behaviorist Framework”
Behaviorist Framework is the second theory of human & animal
behavior. In Behaviorist Framework human behavior is explained with
as stimulus-response.
A stimulus brings out a response in an individual and results in learning.
The stimulus- response relationship explains the physical reflexes in
human beings. For example, when a person is pricked with a pin, he
immediately flinches.
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To further understand this theory let us examine the two elements of this theory
Stimulus
What is Stimulus: any change in an organism’s
environment that causes to the organism to react. It is a
fancy way of saying “cause”.
Stimulus – singular
Stimuli – plural
Example: Food, Smell, Heat, Cold.
Response
Response: how the organism reacts to a stimulus and results in a change in behavior. It
is a fancy way of saying “effect”.
Example: Getting a drink when you are thirsty.
Stimulus - Response
The behavioristic Theory has two conditions
Classical Conditions
Unlike the earlier psychologists Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson focused on
observable behaviors rather than the evasive mind. The behavioristic Theory
explained human behavior with the help of stimulus-response experiments.
A stimulus brings out a response in an individual and results in learning. The
stimulus- response relationship also explains the physical reflexes in human
beings. For example, when a person is pricked with a pin, he immediately
flinches.
Hence Stimulus Elicits Response (S-R)
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.. Condition
Operant
The classical conditions was further studied by B.F. Skinner and he named
his findings as “Operant behavior”The Operant Behavior indicates
voluntary or learned behavior. Through his operant conditioning
experiments, Skinner emphasized the importance of stimulus-response
relationship.
He found that the consequences of response explain more about behavior
than the stimuli that elicit response.
According to Skinner The stimulus serves as a cue to manifest certain
behavior and does not actually cause the behavior. An individual responds in
a particular way to the stimulus and this results in certain consequences. He
believed that behavior is a function of its consequences.
For instance, an organization passes a circular to its employees asking them
to stay longer in order to increase the production to meet the increasing
demand. Here, the circular is the stimulus. The employees may increase the
production. This is the response. If the increase in productivity is rewarded,
it is the consequence. Skinner explained that certain behavior can be
expected from an individual by creating a positive consequence desired by
him.
The behaviorist approach is based on the environment. Though cognitive
processes like thinking, expectations and perception do exist, they are not
needed to manage or predict behavior. However, some behavioral scientists
believe that the cognitive variables do have a role in the behaviorist
approach. Continuous research efforts have led to the emergence of a new
area called social learning approach which incorporates both cognitive and
behaviorist concepts.
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History
Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson were the pioneers of the behaviorist theory.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (September 14, 1849 - February
27, 1936) was born in a small village in central Russia.
After reading Charles Darwin, he found that he cared
more for scientific pursuits and left the seminary for the
University of St. Petersburg. There he studied chemistry
and physiology, and he received his doctorate in 1879.
He continued his studies and began doing his own
research in topics that interested him most: digestion
and blood circulation. His work became well known,
and he was appointed professor of physiology at the
Imperial Medical Academy.
The work that made Pavlov a household name in psychology actually began
as a study in digestion. He was looking at the digestive process in dogs,
especially the interaction between salivation and the action of the stomach.
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He realized
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system. Without salivation, the stomach didn't get the message to start
digesting. Pavlov wanted to see if external stimuli could affect this process,
so he rang a metronome at the same time he gave the experimental dogs
food. After a while, the dogs -- which before only salivated when they saw
and ate their food -- would begin to salivate when the metronome sounded,
even if no food were present. In 1903 Pavlov published his results calling
this a "conditioned reflex," different from an innate reflex, such as yanking a
hand back from a flame, in that it had to be learned. Pavlov called this
learning process (in which the dog's nervous system comes to associate the
sound of the metronome with the food, for example) "conditioning." He also
found that the conditioned reflex will be repressed if the stimulus proves
"wrong" too often. If the metronome sounds repeatedly and no food appears,
eventually the dog stops salivating at the sound.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 –
August 18, 1990) was an American
psychologist, author, inventor, social
philosopher, and poet. He was the Edgar
Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard
University from 1958 until his retirement in
1974.
Skinner invented the operant conditioning
chamber, innovated his own philosophy of
science called Radical Behaviorism,[6] and
founded his own school of experimental
research psychology—the experimental
analysis of behavior. His analysis of human behavior culminated in his work
Verbal Behavior, which has recently seen enormous increase[citation
needed] in interest experimentally and in applied settings.
Skinner discovered and advanced the rate of response as a dependent
variable in psychological research. He invented the cumulative recorder to
measure rate of responding as part of his highly influential work on
schedules of reinforcement. In a June, 2002 survey, Skinner was listed as the
most influential psychologist of the 20th century. He was a prolific author
who published 21 books and 180 articles
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