MODULE 6 Flashcards
All behaviors are learned through
conditioned interaction with the
environment.
BEHAVIORISM
Early Pioneers of Behaviorism
B.F. Skinner
John B. Watson
Edward Lee Thorndike
- Behavioral Analysis
- Focused on observable behavior in building theories of human personality
- Radical Behaviorism: A doctrine that
avoids hypothetical constructs (ego, traits,
drives, needs, hunger, etc.) - He rejected the notion of volition or free will
Burhuss Frederic Skinner
A doctrine that
avoids hypothetical constructs (ego, traits,
drives, needs, hunger, etc.)
Radical Behaviorism
Prediction, control, and description are possible in scientific behaviorism because behavior is both determined and lawful.
SCIENTIFIC BEHAVIORISM
- Father of Behaviorism
- According to Him, personality can be shaped by controlling the environment
John B. Watson
The process in which an automatic, conditioned response is paired with a specific stimuli.
A neutral stimulus is
paired with an unconditioned
stimulus
This is repeated until the
neutral stimulus can bring
about a previously
unconditioned response,
now called the conditioned
response
Classical Conditioning
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my
own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee
to take any one at random and train him to become any
type of specialist I might select—a doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief, and yes, even into beggar-man and thief,
regardles of his talents, penchants, abilities, vocations,
and race of his ancestors.”
John B. Watson (1926)
“Human behavior does not stem from an act of the will, but like any observable phenomenon, it is lawfully determined and can be studied scientifically.”
DETERMINIST PERSPECTIVE OF BEHAVIORISM
Two kinds of conditioning:
- Classical or Respondent Conditioning
- Operant or Skinnerian Conditioning
- An experiment conducted by
Watson in 1920 - Involved Little Albert, an
11-month-old baby, a white rat,
various objects, and a loud
noise - Example of Classical
Conditioning
THE “LITTLE ALBERT”
EXPERIMENT
___ occurred as the child cried
when presented with objects
similar to the white rat, like a
fur coat, a rabbit, and Watson
wearing a Santa Claus beard
Stimulus generalization
This occurs as an organism does
something and it is then immediately
reinforced by the environment.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
- The first psychologist to
systematically study the
consequences of behavior, having
worked with animals and then
humans - Proposed the Law of Effect: learning
takes place mostly because of the
effects that follow a response
Edward Lee Thorndike
Behaviors are learned through reinforcement and punishment. Behaviors followed by positive
consequences are more likely to be repeated, while those followed by negative consequences
are less likely to be repeated.
Thorndike’s theory of learning
