Behaviorism

“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 — doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief
and, yes,zeven beggar-man and thief, regardless
of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors.”
–John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
I never wanted to use human subjects. I hated to serve as a
subject. I didn’t like the stuffy, artificial instructions given to
subjects. I always was uncomfortable and acted unnaturally.
With animals I was at home. I felt that, in studying them, I
was keeping close to biology with my feet on the ground.
More and more the thought presented itself: Can’t I find out
by watching their behavior everything that the other students
are finding out by using [human observers]?
Structuralism Functionalism Behaviourism

Gestalt
Psychoanalysis
psychology
Behaviorism states that behavior is merely an individual's
response to his environmental stimulus. It is guided by senses
and it can explain in terms of stimulus and response

They maintain that environmental focuses are more important

in behavior and shaping the personality of an individual. It
further points out that all behavior is learned in terms of its
interaction with the environment.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION

Behaviorism gave new ideas and innovations in the field of education.

It individualized self instructional programs involving teaching
machines and computer assisted instruction.

Behaviorism replaced punishments and unpleasant experiences by

rewards and reinforcement in teaching learning programs.

Technique of shaping behavior and behavior modification programs

advocated by Behaviorist has contributed a lot in dealing with back
ward and mal adjusted children in the class room.
What Is Behaviorism?
Behaviorism theory surmises that human and
animal behavior can only be explained by
conditioning. Behaviorists believe that psychology
should focus on measurable and observable
physical behaviors and how these behaviors can be
manipulated by changes in the external
environment. There is no room in behaviorist
theory for thoughts or emotions, in contrast to
other theories of psychology.
John B. Watson

E. L. Throndike

Ivan Pavlov

B. F. Skinner
Watson (1878–1958)
John Watson was the founder of behaviorist
theory. Quite innovatively for the time, he found
Freudian-based explanations of behavior too
theoretical and disagreed with the eugenic idea of
heredity determining how one behaves. Instead, he
believed that people's reactions in various
situations were determined by how their overall
experiences had programmed them to react.
In experiments he performed in the early 1900s he
showed that he could condition, or train, children to
respond to a certain stimulus in a way that was
different from what their normal response would be
in the absence of such training.
For example, one infant named Albert, who
had previously liked and attempted to pet a
white rat, was later conditioned by Watson to
come to fear it.
This was done by producing loud clanging noises
whenever the rat was brought into Albert's line of sight;
in a few weeks, the rat alone could induce tears and an
attempted flight response by the terrified baby. Because
Watson repeatedly stimulated Albert to feel fear when
the rat was present, the infant's experiences taught it to
be afraid around rats and react accordingly.
Albert not only feared rats but had been programmed
through the experiment to fear most other white and
fuzzy objects as well, from coats to Santa Claus beards.
Thorndike (1874–1949)
Edward Thorndike came up with the concept of instrumental
conditioning and, like Pavlov, reached his main conclusions using data
gained through animal-based experimentation.
The experiments included placing hungry cats in an enclosed
container, which Thorndike referred to as a puzzle box, from which
they had to escape in order to reach food. The first time a cat was
placed in this situation it escaped only after several failed attempts
and a single lucky successful guess (such as pushing the right button).
However, the time it took to escape decreased each time a cat was
returned to the box.
As the cats
continued to be
placed in the
puzzle box, they
became more
adept at
escaping the
box over time
The cats remembered which behavior was necessary
to escape and get the reward of food. If they had not,
it would take approximately the same time for them
to refigure it out and there would not be the trend of
a continually faster escape. Secondly, they were
clearly able to recognize their current situation (being
placed in the puzzle box) was identical to the last time
they were placed inside of the puzzle box, and
therefore that the same successful behavior used
before would achieve the same end result the next
time around: freedom and a feast.
Thorndike developed two main laws
concerning conditioning. The first was the law
of exercise, stating simply that the repetition of
a response strengthens it. Each time a cat was
placed in the puzzle box, it exhibited a stronger
inclination to perform the behaviors required,
exiting the box with increased proficiency and
in a shorter time span.
The second law, the law of effect, established
that behaviors were either strengthened or
weakened, depending on whether they were
rewarded or punished. Each time the successful
behavior was repeated, it was done so more
quickly because the cat no longer wasted time
performing other behaviors which had proven
unsuccessful and kept the animal imprisoned.
conditioning theory
The conditioning theory of learning describes a form
of learning where learning occurs as a result of
associating a condition or stimulus with a particular
reaction or response. Human behavior is shaped by
habits we pick up in response to certain situations in
life and is the outcome of learning by conditioning
theory.
Classical conditioning

Operant conditioning
The classical conditioning theory of
learning explains much of our daily
behavior and phobias.
For instance, an enclosed space is a
neutral stimulus that a person is
indifferent to. But after getting stuck
in an elevator, the person begins
associating that feeling of fear with
enclosed spaces, developing
claustrophobia.
Phases
Before Conditioning

During Conditioning

After Conditioning
Principles

Acquisition

Extinction

Spontaneous Recovery

Generalization

Discrimination
➢ In classical conditioning, acquisition refers to the period
when the stimulus comes to evoke the conditioned
response. Classical conditioning is a learning process that
involves pairing a previously neutral stimulus with a
stimulus that naturally evokes a response.
➢ In classical conditioning, extinction occurs when the
conditioned stimulus is applied repeatedly without being
paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
➢ Spontaneous recovery can be defined as the reappearance
of the conditioned response after a rest period or period of
lessened response.
➢ In the conditioning process, stimulus
generalization is the tendency for the
conditioned stimulus to evoke similar
responses after the response has been
conditioned.
➢ Classical conditioning is a type of learning that
involves forming associations between two stimuli.
In this process, discrimination is the ability to
differentiate between a conditioned stimulus
and other stimuli that have not been paired
with an unconditioned stimulus
 Operational conditioning
•B. F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist and a student of E. L.
Thorndike, contributed to learning by operant conditioning.
•Skinner theorized that if a behavior is followed by reinforcement, that
behavior is more likely to be repeated, but if it is followed by
punishment, it is less likely to be repeated.
•Skinner conducted his research on rats and pigeons by presenting
them with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or
punishment in various schedules that were designed to produce or
inhibit specific target behaviors.
•Skinner did not include room in his research for ideas such as free
will or individual choice; instead, he posited that all behavior could be
explained using learned, physical aspects of the world, including life
history and evolution.
•B. F. Skinner used shaping —a method of training by which successive
approximations toward a target behavior are reinforced—to test his
theories of behavioral psychology.
•Shaping involves a calculated reinforcement of a “target behavior”: it
uses operant conditioning principles to train a subject by rewarding
proper behavior and discouraging improper behavior.
•The method requires that the subject perform behaviors that at first
merely resemble the target behavior; through reinforcement, these
behaviors are gradually changed or “shaped” to encourage the target
behavior itself.
•Skinner’s early experiments in operant conditioning involved the
shaping of rats’ behavior so they learned to press a lever and receive a
food reward.
•Shaping is commonly used to train animals, such as dogs, to perform
difficult tasks; it is also a useful learning tool for modifying human
behavior.
Reinforcement- The process by which a
stimulus increases the probability that a
preceding behavior will be repeated.

Reinforcer- Any stimulus that increases

the probability that a preceding
behavior will occur again.
Positive reinforcer- A stimulus added to the
environment that brings about an increase in a
preceding response.

Negative reinforcer -An unpleasant stimulus

whose removal leads to an increase in the
probability that a preceding response will be
repeated in the future.

Punishment A stimulus that

decreases the probability that a
previous behavior will occur again.
Typical outcomes of different reinforcement
schedules