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Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
Running head: BEHAVIORISM
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
Nicole R. Terrell
James Madison University
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Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
Abstract
Behaviorism, based on the assertion that environmental stimuli elicit behavioral changes that
cause certain consequences and reactions in organisms, is a theoretical perspective that has
become a seminal facet of the psychological realm involving learning and behavior theory.
Esteemed theorists, such as Edward Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, John Watson, and
Albert Bandura have each formulated and tested their own views of behavioral concepts. By
doing so, they have created a concrete foundation from which researchers can comprehend and
test new and innovative methods of understanding and altering behaviors in organisms. When
utilized in a learning environment, behaviorist approaches can act as liaisons between teaching
methods and knowledge acquisition. This creates a clear path towards meaningful learning that
can be readily accessed throughout the course of one’s lifetime.
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Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
The theory of behaviorism focuses on the premise that certain stimuli within a particular
environment cause organisms to react, or behave in a specific manner. When an organism is
exposed to a specific stimulus repeatedly, the resulting behavioral reaction becomes prominent
within the organisms mentality, thus formulating a meaningful learning response that presents
itself over an extended period of time (Blackbourn, 2006). Loosely based on the Gestalt Theory
of Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), which asserts that situations should be viewed as a
combination of its parts, rather than as separate, individual entities (Goodwin, 2007),
behaviorism focuses on the root causes of behavioral reactions. As a foundational theoretical
perspective, behaviorist approaches are evident in a variety of teaching and learning situations,
and find their roots within the educated views of many famed theorists in psychological history.
Edward Thorndike (1927), one of the forefathers of the behaviorist approach to learning,
created the groundwork from which to build the structured, concrete theory now known as
behaviorism today. According to Thorndike, learning occurs through the formulation of a bond
between exposure to the sensory data and the impressions that were made on the mind as a result
of this exposure (as cited in Blackbourn, 2006). The “bonds” and “connections” formed from
these processes are keys to the creation or destruction of certain habits, with their occurrence
being defined by three specific laws derived from Thorndike (1927) himself.
The first law, known as the Law of Readiness, makes the following assertions:
“A. When a conduction unit is ready to conduct, conduction is satisfying”
“B. For a conduction unit ready to conduct, not conducting is annoying”
“C. When a conduction unit is not ready for conduction and is forced to conduct,
conduction is annoying” (Blackbourn, 2006)
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Throndike’s second law, the Law of Exercise, states that mental connections and
behaviors are either strengthened or weakened through the repetition (law of use), or ceasing
(law of disuse) of certain practices that are meant to being about a specific response.
(Blackbourn, 2006). Lastly, Thorndike’s third law, the Law of Effect, focuses on the
consequences of a behavior. Simply stated, behavioral responses that elicit positive results or
consequences increase the strength of the connection between the stimulus and the behavioral
response, and lessen the connection and response frequency when unfavorable consequences
occur (Blackbourn, 2006). In culmination, these important laws create the framework from
which behaviorism was formed in that they define the cause and effect relationship that occurs as
a result of organisms coming into contact with certain stimuli.
It was from Thorndike’s theoretical framework that John Watson (1878-1958), known as
the founder of traditional behaviorism, generated his theory of how behavior is affected by
certain stimuli. According to Watson, psychology is a science that should be viewed objectively,
where one looks at all angles of a situation, and bases assumptions on both observations and
behavioral measurements. The goal of the psychological sciences should be to build a concrete
understanding of the relationship between stimuli and the behaviors that elicit certain
consequences as a result of these stimuli. Furthermore, the concept of conditioning should be
taken into account in terms of organisms’ long-term, repetitive responses to these stimuli over an
extended period of time (Goodwin, 2007). Watson successfully demonstrated this
“conditioning” response with his 1920 study of “Little Albert”, where an infant of the age of
eleven months was conditioned to be fearful of a white rat because Watson exposed the rat to the
boy while simultaneously implementing a loud noise. This conditioned the boy to associate the
white rat with the loud noise, causing a fearful response.
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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Focusing on John Watson’s opinions with regard to the practice of conditioning an
organism’s responses through consequential results over one’s lifespan, B.F. Skinner formulated
an advanced approach to eliciting desirable and undesirable behaviors in organisms. Skinner
believed that situations that exude certain consequences, doled out by either an individual facet
or the natural surrounding environment, determine whether or not a specific behavior will
reoccur in the future. Due to the fact that individual organisms react differently to certain
situations, each of us has a unique idea of how we can and should react when certain stimuli
present themselves (Wasieleski, 2008). Furthermore, behaviors will recur through an extended
period of time only if the individual is exposed to a stimulus at a gradual pace, with the stimulus
being introduced through a repetitive process. For example, a child may see that his classmate
receives a lollipop every time she gets all of her spelling words correct. If his classmate
repeatedly spells all of her words correctly on every test, the child will see her getting this reward
more frequently, and comprehend the relationship between getting a good grade and receiving a
prize, thus resulting in a behavioral learning experience and supporting the constructs of operant
conditioning. However, if the girl only receives the lollipop once in a while, even though she
usually gets all of her words correct, the child may not make the connection between the good
grade and the candy.
To explain Skinner’s operant conditioning techniques more clearly, one must focus first
on the Three-Term Contingency that Skinner formulated to validate the idea that specific stimuli
will always elicit specific responses or consequences. This contingency culminates the
following events when dealing with environmental stimuli:
1. An event occurs that sets the stage for a response, based on past experiences
where such a response elicited a certain consequence based on that stimulus
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2. The actual behavior or the response to that behavior
3. The consequence will only occur if the desired response occurs
("Operant Conditioning." 21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook. 2007).
Based on this Three-Term Contingency, Skinner proposed a series of reinforcement and
punishment types, organized into what we presently know as the “Skinner Box”, as a means of
identifying what types of consequences result from the occurrence of certain events or situations.
For example, a child that performed well on a test would receive a free pizza for doing a good
job (positive reinforcement). The teacher is adding a stimulus through a reward in order to elicit
high test grades in the future. However, the teacher finds that there are a few students who have
not performed well on tests. To remedy this situation, she enforces a new policy in which the
students are not allowed to play outside at recess, which takes away a positive aspect of their
day, and reduces their chances of performing poorly on future exams due to the fact that they do
not want to lose their recess time (negative reinforcement). The teacher has taken away a
positive stimulus to help deter the negative consequence of receiving a poor grade. Therefore,
the concept of reinforcement hinges on the idea that one wishes to increase or decrease the
probability of a particular response in the future.
Conversely, the goal of punishment is to decrease the likelihood of a behavior in future
situations. For example, an individual accidently forgets to pay their credit card bill, and makes
a late payment. The credit card company then charges a late fee. Based on this consequence, the
individual has learned to make payments on time so that they do not incur extra costs (positive
punishment). The addition of the late fee has decreased the chances of making a late payment in
the future. On the other hand, this individual finds that he overspends money when he goes to
the mall. Therefore, he stops making trips to the mall, so as to avoid spending so much money
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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(negative punishment). In this situation, the person has removed himself from the stimulating
situation in order to stop himself from overspending.
Based on these assertions, the combination of reinforcement and punishment practices
create the framework of what operant conditioning is meant to do. We exude certain behaviors
based on what the consequences will be, and avoid situations where those results are not
desirable. This concept illustrates the true essence of Skinner’s theory, while taking into the
account the visions of John Watson (1913) and Edward Thorndike (1927), notably through the
comparison of operant conditioning and the Law of Effect. When certain behaviors result in
positive consequences, the behavior is more likely to occur in the future because one expects the
positive consequences to reoccur. Consequently, when a specific behavior results in a negative
consequence, one would be less likely to elicit that behavior again, so as to avoid the negative
situation that may result from it. The acts of reinforcement and punishment work as learning
tools by shaping desirable and undesirable behaviors. This illustrates the cause and effect
relationship between behavioral action and consequences.
Behaviorism began to dominate the world of psychology during the 1920’s, and led other
researchers to explore the many facets of this school of thought. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) also
relied greatly on John Watson’s views regarding conditioning, and formulated an in-depth
approach to behavioral roles in the psychological sciences. Specifically, Pavlov chose to direct
his focus towards classical conditioning practices. Using dogs as his subjects, Pavlov created an
experiment in which he forced the dogs to salivate by putting a type of meat powder
(unconditioned stimulus) on their tongue. After doing so, he included sounds involving the
calibration of equipment (a neutral stimulus) when forcing the dogs to salivate (unconditioned,
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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reflexive response), and eventually observed the fact that the dogs salivated (now a conditioned
response) as a result of the experimenter’s presence and the equipment calibration sounds (a
conditioned stimulus) (metronome – predicts the arrival of food and is a conditioned stimulus),
even when the meat powder variable was removed from the experiment (Escobar, 2007).
Pavlov’s experiment on classical conditioning is one of the most innovative and
successful experiments of its kind in that it clearly exhibits the behavioral responses of an
organism based on certain stimuli, and represents the brain’s ability to create certain associations
between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. It culminates the very essence of Watson’s
(1920) viewpoints regarding lifetime conditioning, while paralleling the ideas behind
Thorndike’s (1927) Law of Exercise, where repetition of certain stimuli results in the
strengthening of certain behaviors. The ability of organisms to create mental connections such
as these between environmental stimuli and behavioral reactions encapsulates the very essence of
successful learning, and provides a legitimate argument for the reasons as to how and why
certain habits are formed.
As the concept of behaviorism adapted through the years to adapt to changing
psychological views, different perspectives regarding this theoretical framework became more
prominent. Albert Bandura (1959), a renowned researcher in the field of behavioral studies, took
on a slightly different approach to understanding behavioral learning tendencies and formulated
what we know today as the social learning theory. This area of study was focused primarily on
modeling behavior, as how this affects individuals within a learning environment (Cox, 2005).
One of Bandura’s (1961) most famous experiments regarding social learning theory was his
Bobo Doll Study where he showed a video to children in which a woman beat an inflatable doll.
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After viewing the video, Bandura (1961) placed the children in a room with toys, including the
inflatable doll, and discovered that these children mimicked the behavior of the woman rather
than socialize and play with their peers. This study represents a prime example of the effects of
modeling on the creation of learned behaviors, creating a direct link between behaviorist theories
and social learning approaches.
Bandura’s (1959) social learning theory contained four steps involved in the process of
modeling behavior. The first step, involving attention, asserts that individuals who pay a higher
amount of attention as an observer have a greater chance of learning. The second step,
concerned with retention, focuses on the ability to remember what one has witnessed or
observed. The third step, regarding reproduction, addresses the ability of an individual to
recreate a specific observed behavior. Lastly, the fourth step of Bandura’s social learning theory
explains motivation, or the reason why an individual chooses to model a particular behavior
(Cox, 2005). In combination, these four steps represent the reasoning behind why organisms are
so impressionable in terms of learning situations, and how easily a developing mind can be
taught to exhibit a particular behavior, based solely on observation alone.
Bandura’s social learning theory is loosely based on the concepts of B.F. Skinner in terms
of reinforcement and punishment. According to Bandura (1959), motivation to model a
particular behavior can occur for a variety of reasons, including promised and vicarious
reinforcement, promised and past punishment, and vicarious punishment. Despite his inclusion
of punishment as a means of determining motivational factors, Bandura (1959) felt that
reinforcement strategies were more vital to the development of behaviors than punishment
factors were, mainly because punishment does not urge an individual to exhibit a specific
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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behavior. However, he makes it clear that each type of motivator holds some relevance with
regard to influencing behavior models. Motivators support the theories of reinforcement and
conditioning proposed by B.F. Skinner (1936) and John Watson (1913).
In a practical setting, the theories of behaviorism have been utilized in a variety of ways
throughout psychological history. A wide variety of research has been conducted regarding
behavior modification, resulting in a breadth of new knowledge that can be used to explore how
and why we respond to certain stimuli in a particular way. One of the most useful ways by
which to incorporate this research into a real life situation is to consider the behavior of
employees in terms of their productivity and turnover intentions. Organizations often find
themselves at odds with their workers because they are not receiving the proper amount of work
output from their employees. Furthermore, turnover rates are often high when production levels
are low. This effects both personal and organizational goals, and inhibits the ability of the
company to properly provide services to their customers. These situations represent an
opportunity to incorporate behavioral perspectives into the work culture in order to modify
employee behaviors in terms of productivity and turnover cognitions.
In terms of using behavior modification to increase productivity in the workplace,
simplistic variations of the operant conditioning approach can be used to alter certain behaviors.
For example, Deckop, Konrad, Perlmutter, & Freely (2006) conducted a study that explored how
human resource practices affected the overall satisfaction and turnover rates of employees who
were former welfare clients. They found that employees who received better healthcare benefits
and financial incentives were more likely to remain satisfied and stay with the organization.
Furthermore, Deckop et al. (2006) determined that the use of employee appraisal was a positive
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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factor in terms of employee satisfaction. Based on these findings, one could assert that the
addition of financial incentives and appraisal by management led to higher levels of satisfaction
(and possibly productivity), thus supporting Skinner’s theory regarding positive reinforcement.
The principles of operant conditioning can therefore be applied even in the most simplistic form,
so as to increase the chances of positive behaviors occurring (i.e. higher production and
satisfaction), and avoid having to continue to pay employees who are simply not getting the job
done.
Modeling certain behaviors in order to positively influence changes within employees’
current productivity rates and abilities is an innovative way to incorporate behavioral principles
into the workplace. The consideration of transference of knowledge practices, which has
become an increasingly important element in determining organizational success, can be used as
a basis from which to create a nexus between these two principles. According to Kalling (2003),
individuals who are highly motivated to search out new knowledge are more likely to be
successful in learning and utilizing new information in a useful manner. Therefore, motivation is
a key factor in supporting the process of transferring knowledge because employees who are
motivated to learn will be open-minded to learning new techniques. Through the lens of Albert
Bandura’s (1959) social learning theory regarding modeling behavior, one can assert that
managers must model positive behaviors in terms of showing the satisfying aspects of being
open to knowledge transfer practices. This can be accomplished by modeling positive behaviors
such as showing enthusiasm for one’s job, as well as acting as the “go to” person when
something in the office goes wrong. Other employees may see how the manager’s positive
attitude helps them to appreciate their job, and may be open to learning new knowledge so that
they too can experience satisfaction with their careers.
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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One of the greatest advantages of viewing situations through the eyes of a behaviorist is
that the concept of experience is largely incorporated into the foundation of the learning
perspective itself. B.F. Skinner’s experiments on operant conditioning exemplify the fact that we
are often conditioned to elicit certain responses based on our experiences with those situations in
the past. Therefore, we base our reactions on our feelings towards previous outcomes. This
concept makes up a large part of the adult learning process as a whole, and can be subtly applied
when one is instructing adult learners. According to Malcolm Knowles (1990) (Thompson,
2004), the theory of andragogy asserts that adult learners use their past experience in their
present endeavors to help foster the learning process. This supports B.F. Skinner’s findings in
that an adult learner who has had a positive experience with certain teaching methods in the past
(such as technology-supported lectures), will be more responsive to similar learning situations in
the future. Furthermore, adults who have experienced positive situations in the classroom might
be more likely to return to school because they may expect to have the same experience again.
The concept of repetition in supporting behavioral constructs is an incredibly vital aspect
of behavioral theories, and represents part of the reason why this learning approach is so useful.
A large part of learning takes place through repeatedly exposing learners to certain stimuli, as
represented by Ivan Pavlov’s experiments on classical conditioning. A concept known as the
spacing effect, where it is thought that providing information repeatedly while placing different
events in between each repetition will increase one’s ability to recall information (Explicit
Memory, of Educational Psychology Encyclopedia, 2007), supports this assertion further. These
ideas can be applied to the workplace through the implementation of training interventions,
where employees can repeatedly hone their skills to and stay abreast of the latest knowledge
available in their area. By taking into account behavioral viewpoints, managers can better
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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comprehend the necessity of training their workers, so as to increase the capabilities of the
employees to more efficiently achieve both personal and organizational goals.
Despite the fact that behavioral approaches have been successful in explaining why we
react to stimuli in a certain way, one of the downfalls to this approach is that we have not figured
out how to accurately modify certain types of negative behaviors. This is increasingly evident in
our criminal justice system. Despite the fact that we have long-term jail sentences and the death
penalty written into the punishment aspect of our laws, we still find that there are increasing
numbers of repeat offenders. This directly contradicts Skinner’s theory that implementing
negative punishments will deter an individual from repeating the same acts in the future.
Situations such as these leave us with the question of how to properly motivate individuals to
avoid illegal situations when the utilization of punishment mechanisms does not work.
From a personal standpoint, the behaviorist approach has proven to be affective
throughout the entirety of my life. We are predisposed to learn through imitation and social
networks from the time that we are infants. This process is vital to our development, and often
determines the type of individual that we will grow up to be. For example, working in the field
of criminal justice, I come across a wide variety of defendants on a daily basis. Many of them
have families with a long history of criminal activity, with their parents and siblings having been
convicted of similar crimes. This illustrates to me as an observer that these kids are taking part
in illegal activity because this is what their parents have done. The behavior of their parents has
taught their children that it is okay to commit crimes. This represents a prime example of why it
is so important to remember that your children are always watching you, and make judgments on
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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future situations based on how they saw you react to them in the past, this depicting the modeling
relationship described by Bandura (1959).
I have also found that children are more apt to respond positively in school settings when
the facets of positive and negative reinforcement take place. For example, as petty as it may
seem, I was always petrified of getting my name put on the board in elementary school because
this was a punishment that the teacher had instilled to help identify those students who were
misbehaving that day. This tactic worked well for me, because I wanted to avoid the
embarrassment of being singled out like that. Therefore, the reinforcement techniques she used
were successful in keeping me out of trouble. However, I have found over the years that the
constructs regarding operant conditioning are somewhat simplistic in nature, and do not deter
many individuals from committing bad acts (as stated above regarding repeat offenders in the
criminal justice system). Therefore, further research in this area may be needed to better address
the behavioral needs of the adult population.
The theory of behaviorism is made up of a variety of approaches that address the reasons
why we react to stimuli in a particular manner, and how these reactions effect our overall
functioning in the real world. These learning constructs explain how we intake and process
information from a developmental standpoint, and aim to focus on how we can modify our
behavior in order to be more successful in our lives, from both an internal and external
standpoint. The culmination of theories contributed to the area of behaviorism by Thorndike,
Watson, Pavlov, Bandura, Skinner, and many others have elicited a wide range of positive
applications within the organizational world, as well as within the general constructs of modern
day life. Based on these assertions, further research may aim to expand upon current behavioral
Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
constructs, and address a wider range of situations that require a change in behavior, perhaps
involving specific age groups and their needs.
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Behaviorism: An In-Depth Perspective
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