BEHAVIORISM

Andrea Nimo MalloCarmen Campos CamposLaura Louro Vázquez2ºA Bach

INDEX● 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 PávlovHe 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 DOGSPsychologist 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 WatsonJohn 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 SkinnerBurrhus 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 ConditioningOperant 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.

● 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.)

● 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 boxTo 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:● The majority of all behavior is learned from the environment after birth. ● Only observable behaviour not minds should be studied.

Contribution to society: ● 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...

● ...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:

● 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● 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