Behaviorism

Behaviorism

1. Characteristics

   • Behavior is determined by the environment
   • Problem-solving through trial and error
   • learning outcome-habit formation
   • Emphasis on external motivation through reinforcement.
   • environmental factors in influencing behavior
   • Behavior is the result of stimulus–response
   • Issues
     • Free will vs Determinism
     • Nature vs Nurture
     • Holism vs Reductionism

2. Skinner

   • Radical Behaviorism
   • the goal of psychology should be to predict and control behavior.
   • the role of genes and biological components in behavior
   • he concepts of operant conditioning and shaping.
   • A utopian society founded upon behaviorist principles.
   • free will is an illusion

3. Watson

   • Psychology as the behaviorist views it
   • Methodological Behaviorism
   • prediction and control of behavior
   • the mind is tabula rasa at birth.

4. Pavlov

   • the results of an experiment on conditioning after originally studying digestion in dogs.
   • Pavlovian Conditioning
     • Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) > Unconditioned Response (Salivate)
     • Neutral Stimulus (Metronome) > No Conditioned Response
     • Conditioned Stimulus (Metronome) > Conditioned Response (Salivate)

5. Thorndike

   • The First to apply psychological principles to the area of learning.
   • Reinforcement
     • Responses that produce a satisfying effect
     • Discomforting effect become less likely to occur again
   • Cats of the puzzle box experiment

6. Bandura

   • Social Leaning Theory and Personality development
     • combines both cognitive and behavioral frameworks.
   • Observational Learning
   • Mediational Processes
     • Hhumans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences.
     • Attention:
     • Retention
     • Reproduction
     • Motivation

7. Limitations

   • Ignores mediational processes
   • Ignores biology
   • Too deterministic
   • Experiments – low ecological validity
   • Humanism – can’t compare animals to humans