The Pros And Cons Of Behaviorist Theory

When Jake became highly anxious about his classes, a psychologist diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. However, the ways psychologist would look at the origin and treatment of Jakes anxiety would differ depending on the approach. A behavior approach would look at the environment around Jake, while the cognitive approach which would look at how Jake thinks. The humanistic approach would identify that Jake is not in harmony with his surroundings and look at the way he thought of himself.

Throughout the history of concepts such as behaviourism and the psychodynamic approach, there are many similarities yet there is also a variety of underlying differences between both approaches. The writer will compare and contrast these methods of investigation. By juxtaposing events, an in depth analysis will be analysed to further ones knowledge of each approach.

Pavlov developed the theory of Classical Conditioning. This is where certain stimuli can invoke particular behavior. He conducted his experiments on dogs, testing whether or not he could condition them to salivate at the sound of a bell. At first, along with the bell, he would hold up food, causing the dogs to salivate. After repeating this action numerous times, Pavlov would ring the bell without the food and found that the dogs would still salivate. The food acted as a positive stimulus to warrant a certain behavior while an unconditioned stimulus paired with it over time brought the same result.

The theory is that behaviour is determined by the external environment. It is a part of psychology that is not related to the study of consciousness instead the study of behaviour within itself. Behavioural theory was founded and influenced in the early 20th century by John B Watson, Ivan Pavlov and BF Skinner. John Watson theorized classical behaviourism which is the objective study of behaviour. Ivan Pavlov theorized classical conditioning where in an experiment dogs associated food with the arrival of the laboratory assistant through learned behaviour through an external stimulus. BF Skinner coined the term ‘Radical Behaviourism’ which theorizes that all action is predetermined and not

Socio-behaviorists often study how children 's experiences model their behaviors (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Behaviorism believes that what matters is not the development itself, but the external factors that shape children 's behaviors (Nolan & Raban, 2015). This theory demonstrates that teachers and mentors dominate and instruct child-related activities, and they decide what children should learn and how to learn (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Reinforcement, which is an essential factor that helps children to learn particular behaviors, generally refers to rewards and punishments (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Children are more likely to repeat actions that result in receiving praise; in contrast, they may ignore or abandon behaviors that make them get punishment. Nevertheless, Skinner points out that children learn nothing from the punishment. Instead, they may start to work out how to avoid it (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Another concept is classical conditioning (classical behaviorism) that emphasizes on the relation between stimuli and response. This concept embodies in a famous experiment, in which the food is presented to the dog when the bell rings, and the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus for the dog (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Likewise, if children receive toys in the condition that they behave well, then they will probably repeat this behavior to get the toys. Nevertheless, Pavlov 's theory of classical conditioning is somehow extreme, as it reduces

The theory behind behavior modification ethics has a reputation for its accomplishments and disappointments. In addition to this, there are many dangers in using physical punishment as behavior modification with the two primary modifiers of behavior being Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning. The outcome of using negative reinforcement has its share of benefits and downfalls in human behavior whereas; positive reinforcement seems to win over. Then there is the theory of Operant Conditioning of B.F. Skinner and what the public’s view on this theory is and how well it works.

Both behaviorism and psychoanalysis do not believe in the concept of free will in humans and they are both deterministic. Behavioral approach assets that the environment and the consequences of behavior control people while psychoanalysis believe that people are controlled by their unconscious drives. Through his observations, Freud believed that childhood experiences could lead to emotional problems in adulthood. Skinner in his experiment proved that behavior that produces pleasurable consequences is likely to be repeated whilst that which produces negative consequences is stamped out.

Watson 's classic paper, "Psychology as the Behaviourist Views It." It is best summed up by the following quote from Watson, who is often considered the "father" of behaviourism:

I do believe that the behaviorist theory is the better argument for reasons I will outline in this essay.

Behaviourism is considered one of the main subjects in psychology and the two main people who founded behaviourism were, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, also known as B.F Skinner and Ivan Pavlov who were famous for the work they did on classical and operant conditioning (Moderato & Presti, 2006). According to Moderato and Presti

His work mainly revolves around social learning theory. He also acknowledges with behaviourist learning theories of "classical conditioning" and "operant conditioning."

Victoria Ratcliffe at the University of Sussex in England conducted an experiment whether dogs can differentiate speech with meaningful words and sounds that only contain inflections. She brought 250 dogs into the lab. And then for each one, Ratcliffe put a speaker on either side of the dog's head. At first, she played commands that has meaningful words and then after some instances was just gibberish words. When dogs still heard meaningful command about 80 percent of the animals followed it. When the dogs heard the command with the same sound, most of them did not follow the intended command (Doucleff

Both Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning and Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning can be used every day in an ECCE setting. Today many school systems and childhood authorities follow Skinner’s and Pavlov’s theory by using the approach of positive reinforcement. This encourages good behaviour in the child making the behaviour more likely to be repeated again as they are rewarded and praised for their efforts in reading, writing and general learning. It is important that children’s efforts in a learning setting are rewarded as this will encourage the child to perform to the best of their ability. School authorities only use negative reinforcement as a last resort.

In 1913, the behaviorist movement began with the studies of John Broadus Watson (1878-1958), a pioneering figure in the development of the psychological school of behaviorism. He published an article entitled ' 'Psychology as the behaviorist views it ' ' in which he had the impression that psychology shouldn 't deal with what the people say that they think or feel, in other words, he reduced and dehumanized the human mind and its consciousness. To put it differently, he asserted a claim that the study of the human mind would be concerned only with people 's actions and behavior. Watson 's work relied upon the experiments of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936), a Russian Nobel laureate psychologist who had worked on animals ' responses to conditioning. For instance, in his best-known experiment, Pavlov rang a bell and then gave a dog some food. After repeating this pairing several times, the dog eventually treated the bell as a signal for food and began salivating in expectation of the treat, but having said that the dogs still produced saliva, when he rang the bell without bringing any food. At this time, they had been 'conditioned ' to salivate well every sound of a bell with the

Currently, a substitute teacher I teach five to thirteen year old students with and without special educational needs. I take on many different roles while substitute teaching and enjoy discovering, investigating and reflecting upon these vastly different classrooms and schools.