...February 1, 2015 Abstract The theory of behaviorism is that human and animal behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning without any preconceived thought, but it can be defined by observable behavior that is researched. Behaviorism projects that individuals are products of their experiences and have become who they are because of conditioning. John Watson, who is credited with Behaviorism, made the comment that he could take “twelve healthy infants and take any one of them and mold them into any given occupation regardless of genetics, race, talents and/or abilities.”(Jenson, 2014) Watson felt that conditioning was a crucial part of behaviorism, as it was an extension of Pavlov’s discovery and his studies of stimulus-response reflexive relationships. In this paper the founding of behaviorism, the main components of the behaviorism theory, a brief description of 3 behaviorist experiments, and how behaviorism develops new behaviors will be discussed. Behaviorism and its effect on the learning process The founder of behaviorism is credited to John B. Watson. According to Watson, behavior was a subject matter in its own right, to be studied by the observational methods common to all sciences. This field of study and learning was founded in 1912, and it was formed as a reaction to the current focus on psychology at the time. In order to form this theory, John Watson studied the research of Ivan Pavlov. Watson felt that “psychology must have an empirical, objective...
Words: 1286 - Pages: 6
...In the philosophy of education when it comes down to teaching as a profession, there are things teachers should take into consideration. Teaching as a profession has many codes they have to abide by inside and outside of the work place. The philosophy of education normally promotes a specific type or vision of education, and/or which examine the definition, goals and meaning of education. While you read this philosophy you will see what I have noticed or feel what teachers should do when it pertains to the student and their education. Behaviorism in the psychology sense is a movement in psychology and philosophy that emphasized the outward behavioral aspects of thought and dismissed the inward experiential, and sometimes the inner procedural aspects. Behaviorism in the educational sense is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behavior, behaviorist learning theories emphasize changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response associations made by the learner. In the book “About Behaviorism” B.F Skinner stated that he believes that certain things about behaviorism or the science of behavior are wrong. For example, 1. Its ignores consciousness, feelings, and state of mind 2. It neglects innate endowment and argues that all behavior is acquired during the lifetime of the individual 3. It formulates behavior simply as a set of responses to stimuli, thus representing a person as an automaton, robot, puppet or machine 4. It...
Words: 1683 - Pages: 7
...nursing diagnoses, outcome identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation” (Petiprin, 2015 para.3). The nursing process guides the nurse to perform specific duties and make a decision regarding patient care. A variety of nursing theories are combined into the nursing process. Nursing theories have a strong impact on education, training and development of professional nurses. Nursing and Educational Theories Nursing and educational theories are important in the nursing profession. Nursing and educational methods are used to improve patient outcomes, and to educate the community and individual families. Heath promotion is a nursing theory designed to prevent illness and the maintain disease. Nursing Theory ”Health promotion emphasis on behavior in the direction of social and environmental Interventions” (WHO, 2015, P. 1). Health promotion makes families and communities aware of preventive methods of diseases. Health promotion emphases on maintaining a healthy lifestyle for families and communities. Health promotion also focuses on educational theories, behaviorism is one of three educational theories. Educational Theory Behaviorism holds an influential part in the study of psychology. In the 20th century behavior theorist thought learning was a noticeable change in behavior, which occurs when two events come together, a stimulus and a response (Aliakbari, Parvin, Heidari, & Haghani, 2015 para. 11). Early theorist thought learner who had behavioral reinforcement...
Words: 1104 - Pages: 5
...E-Leader Manila 2012 A Comparison of Two Theories of Learning -Behaviorism and Constructivism as applied to Face-to-Face and Online Learning Dr. Mary Anne Weegar Dr. Dina Pacis National University San Diego, CA, USA Abstract The two theories of learning discussed are Behaviorism and Constructivism. Skinner and Watson, the two major developers of the behaviorist school of thought sought to prove that behavior could be predicted and controlled (Skinner, 1974). They studied how learning is affected by changes in the environment. The constructivists viewed learning as a search for meaning. Piaget and Vygotsky described elements that helped predict what children understand at different stages (Rummel, 2008). Details of both theories illuminate the differences and connections between the behavioral and constructivist theories in relationship to how children learn and how their behavior is affected. How curriculum and instruction work with these theories to promote learning and how educators view learning with respect to both theories are also reviewed. Introduction Many students enrolled in institutions of higher education in the United States have had experience with both face-to-face and online classes. Educational researchers have begun to examine the technological characteristics of online classes which contribute to making online classes equivalent to face-to-face classes in relationship to their pedagogical effectiveness. The growth of online learning has changed the traditional...
Words: 5888 - Pages: 24
...Abstract This essay briefly describes behaviorism, gestalt, and structuralism. Brief examples of each approach are outlined under each topic. The common threads of behaviorism, gestalt, and structuralism are contrasted and compared in basic terms, and their influence on present-day psychology is discussed. Unit 1 – Individual Project This paper discusses three methods in the evolution of psychology: structuralism, behaviorism, and gestalt. To better understand the concepts of each, it’s important to list examples of each method, as well as compare and contrast the differences of each and how each impact modern-day psychology. Structuralism The structural approach to psychology sought to quantify the human experience, the human mind, in a scientific way (Reed, 2010). Simply put, structuralism is the study of how people respond to stimuli; it’s the study of human perception (Education Portal, 2012). It was thought that, through the process of Introspection, surface behavior held clues to deeply buried issues that could only be identified by the therapist (Narrative Therapy Chicago, 2012). An example of structuralism, with regard to therapy, was the use of Introspection, wherein the therapist would, for example, play a sound, or ask the patient to jump in the air. He would then observe the reaction to the stimuli, and ask, “How does that make you feel?” Between the unconscious reaction and introspective response of the patient, the therapist believed he could uncover...
Words: 876 - Pages: 4
...“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten” -B.F. Skinner Behaviorism is described as a developmental theory that measures observable behaviors produced by a learner’s response to stimuli. Responses to stimuli can be reinforced with positive or negative feedback to condition desired behaviors. Punishment is sometimes used in eliminating or reducing incorrect actions, followed by clarifying desired actions. Educational effects of behaviorism are key in developing basic skills and foundations of understanding in all subject areas and in classroom management. According to behaviorism, knowing is giving the correct response when exposed to a particular stimulus. The behaviorist is not concerned with how or why knowledge is obtained, but rather if the correct response is given. Yu Ching Chen’s web site on behaviorism states that, “Learning is defined as nothing more than the acquisition of new behavior”. In terms of the concept of learning, the process tends to be passive with regard to the behaviorist theory. The learner uses low level processing skills to understand material and the material is often isolated from real-world contexts or situations. Little responsibility is placed on the learner concerning his/her own education. Typical classroom instruction consistent with the behaviorist theory includes; classroom management, rote memorization, and drill and practice. Several examples of behaviorism used in classroom management...
Words: 938 - Pages: 4
...Aspects of Psychology Arnecia Anderson American Intercontinental University Aspects of Psychology In this assignment we were to get a healthier understanding about psychology. In this paper I chose three perspectives to research. The three perspectives I chose were Behaviorism, Cognitive, and Psychodynamic theories .I answered questions relating to the perspectives such as, how they are even related to today’s Psychology .I hope this paper is as informative to my readers as it was to me. Aspects of Psychology In this assignment we were to get a better understand psychology in the present day. With doing so I researched the various theories of psychology. I chose three perspective to talk about in my paper Behaviorism, Cognitive, and Psychodynamic theories. The word behaviorism converses to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson created on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. Behaviorism is also called behavioral psychology, which is a theory of learning established on the idea that all behaviors are learned through conditioning. What is conditioning? Conditioning transpires through interaction with the environment. Behaviorists trust that the environment around human beings forms our behaviors. For starters how a person was raised plays a big part in there...
Words: 914 - Pages: 4
...Behaviorism Kevin Tolbert ECE 430 Pilar Carroll June 16, 2012 Kevin L Tolbert 1234 Runway Dr (229)339-1440 ktmoney@gmail .com June 18, 2012 John Brown Daycare Director Miss Daisy Darlings 123 Blue Devil Way Tifton, GA 31794 Mr. John Brown, My name is Kevin Tolbert and I am a recent graduate at Ashford University. I hold a BA in early childhood education and graduated at the top of my class. I understand the importance of having a good education and would like to reach out to the kids of the future to help them understand the importance as well. I have a great passion for teaching and helping kids. I have three kids of my own, so I would say that I have experience in that field. I believe as adults we should take a great interest in educating our children as much as possible. We need to give our children every opportunity possible to achieve in education and in life. I am a hard working and determined individual who feels that I am the right man for the job. If I am hired I promise you that you won’t regret it; all I ask for is an opportunity. I thank you in advance. Sincerely, Kevin L. Tolbert All kids are different. One thing I have learned is that kids mimic things they see others do. For example, have you ever told your child to never say curse words but they listen to you saying them all the time? Next, you get that dreaded call from your child’s school saying your child has been saying curse words. This happens all the time with...
Words: 623 - Pages: 3
...negative reinforcement to incentivize poorly performing and troublesome students. In the western world, specifically the United States, people began to turn away from physically abusing students and began to look for more effective ways of educating the nation’s larval citizenry. It would be unfair to speak of education theories without mentioning Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as they together were of the first to put forth an effort towards understanding, among many things, how people think and why. Roughly 2000 years later, there were a growing number of educated individuals beginning to take second look at everything we thought we knew about being human. Among these people, there was Ivan Pavlov, who began ringing a bell, and not only did Clarence get his wings, but what was learned through the well-known story of Pavlov and his dogs also served as the impetus for John Watson and B. F. Skinner and their ground-breaking notion of Behaviorism. Behaviorism, simplified, is the theory that a person is the product of their environment, and to change a person’s behavior, one needs to simply adjust their environment. More specifically, the term behaviorism was coined by John Watson which he defined as a “theoretical perspective in which learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships” (Ormrod, 2010). Incidentally, this theory does not counter indicate the use of corporal punishment as a form of stimulus. The...
Words: 2323 - Pages: 10
...Behaviorism Kevin Tolbert ECE 430 Pilar Carroll June 16, 2012 Kevin L Tolbert 1234 Runway Dr (229)339-1440 ktmoney@gmail .com June 18, 2012 John Brown Daycare Director Miss Daisy Darlings 123 Blue Devil Way Tifton, GA 31794 Mr. John Brown, My name is Kevin Tolbert and I am a recent graduate at Ashford University. I hold a BA in early childhood education and graduated at the top of my class. I understand the importance of having a good education and would like to reach out to the kids of the future to help them understand the importance as well. I have a great passion for teaching and helping kids. I have three kids of my own, so I would say that I have experience in that field. I believe as adults we should take a great interest in educating our children as much as possible. We need to give our children every opportunity possible to achieve in education and in life. I am a hard working and determined individual who feels that I am the right man for the job. If I am hired I promise you that you won’t regret it; all I ask for is an opportunity. I thank you in advance. Sincerely, Kevin L. Tolbert All kids are different. One thing I have learned is that kids mimic things they see others do. For example, have you ever told your child to never say curse words but they listen to you saying them all the time? Next, you get that dreaded call from your child’s school saying your child has been saying curse words. This happens all the time with...
Words: 623 - Pages: 3
...Associate Level Material Lashay Dustin Appendix C Fill in the table below by classifying each philosophy as either teacher-centered or student-centered authority. Next, identify the main characteristics of that philosophy. (The first one is completed for you as an example.) Once you have completed the table, answer the questions below. Educational Philosophies Table |Philosophy |Teacher- or Student-Centered |Characteristics | | |Authority | | | | | | |Perennialism |Teacher-centered |Knowledge is enduring, seeks everlasting truths, views | | | |principles of existence as constant or unchanging, values the | | | |ability to reason, associated with idealism | |Progressivism |Student-Centered |An educational theory that emphasizes that ideas should be | | | |tested by experimentation | | ...
Words: 700 - Pages: 3
...even today. Behaviorism is, simply speaking, the analysis of a person’s response to his environment. John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner, and Edward C. Tolman would include their own varying details to accompany that definition. Most researchers in behaviorism concur that psychology should be considered as the study of behavior, not the study of the mental processes, and that behavior is caused by stimuli that abide in the external environment, not from the internal mind (Goodwin, 2008). From Watson’s first findings, which pushed behaviorism forward, Skinner proposed his own theory of behaviorism called radical behaviorism. Tolman believed that the important concepts of psychology could be deduced from the behavior displayed by rats traveling through mazes that he created (Goodwin, 2008). Even though they were thought of as behaviorists, their concepts and theories contrasted on a wide scale that went from Pavlov’s conditioning one end to the start of cognitive theory on the other end (Goodwin, 2008). Fundamental Perspective of John B. Watson John Watson (1878-1958) attended the University of Chicago where he studied under John Dewey. Dewey’s teachings did not satisfy him, and he soon decided to study under a functionalist psychologist named James Rowland Angell and Henry Donaldson, a physiologist. From their teachings, Watson began formulating his own beliefs, which would lead eventually to the establishment of what is called the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson’s...
Words: 1617 - Pages: 7
...Cognitive Psychologists’ Approach to Research 1 Why Make Assumptions? How Did Philosophers and Early Psychologists Study the Mind? ■ ■ ■ ■ Philosophical Underpinnings The Beginnings of Modern Psychology The Response: Behaviorism Behaviorism’s Success How Do Cognitive Psychologists Study the Mind? ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ What Behaviorism Couldn’t Do Failures of Behaviorism to Account for Human Behavior The Computer Metaphor and Information Processing The Behaviorist Response Abstract Constructs in Other Fields So What, Finally, Is the Cognitive Perspective? ISBN: 0-536-25527-X Cognition: The Thinking Animal, Third Edition, by Daniel T. Willingham. Published by Pearson Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. 2 Chapter 1 Have you ever wondered how we see or how we remember things? Have you ever contemplated the strange nature of attention? I didn’t think so. Most of the people I know do contemplate how the mind works, but only when their mind lets them down. They contemplate memory (“Why can’t I find my keys?”), attention (“I want to find my keys, so why can’t I concentrate?”), and vision (“How could I not see my keys when they were right in front of me the whole time?”). Questions such as “How does vision work?” seem somewhat interesting, but no more interesting than thousands of other questions. It’s like someone asking you whether you want to know about the history of guitar making. “I don’t know; maybe. Is it interesting?” Truthfully, “How...
Words: 15470 - Pages: 62
...Cognitive Psychology PSY/360 Cognitive Psychology From the 1920s to the late 1950s behaviorist dominated experimental psychology in the United States. This trend continued until individuals began to question whether behaviorism could accomplish what it had pledged. Individuals started to view behaviorism as “one which failed to provide any coherent characterization of cognitive processes such as thinking, language and decision-making” (Cognitive Psychology,” 2009, p. 2). The fall of behaviorism brought on the rise of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is one of the most recent additions to the psychology research field (Willingham, 2007). The development of cognitive psychology was precluded by several influential milestones in the discipline of philosophy and psychology. Prior to the development of cognitive psychology philosophers had asked fundamental questions about how human beings acquired knowledge. These philosophers sought to understand the origin of knowledge and how individuals gained understanding regarding the world around them. In addition, philosophers were equally curious about how individuals retained the information once it was acquired. Greek philosophers came up with good questions but did not have the means to obtain the answers they were seeking. Theses philosopher’s questions, however, paved the road for future scientific disciplines including cognitive psychology (Willingham, 2007). During the renaissance...
Words: 1028 - Pages: 5
...Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper PSY/360 December 10, 2013 In psychology there are several important factors and milestones in the development of cognitive psychology; each approach is important to the foundation of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology’s purpose is to study the mental process to give a better understanding of how individuals think, what they remember, and how they perceive and process information. If we were to consider psychology as a discipline; the question then becomes what key elements are important and why. The ancient researchers of ancient Greece approximately 2, 400 years ago, made notes of how individuals reacted to different situations; “We can see that the answers that Greek philosophers came up with were not accurate; but were their questions at least good ones?” (Willingham, 2007, p. 7) “ Many books will tell you that the Greeks’ lasting contribution lies in the questions they raised, which set the agenda for future philosophers and eventually for cognitive psychology” (Willingham, 2007, p. 7). During a period noted as the Dark Ages, “few contributions were added to the philosophy of mind between the time of Aristotle, who died in 322 B.C., and the birth of Descartes at the end of the 16th century” (Willingham, 2007, p. 8). During the Renaissance period, the platform of cognitive psychology began to take on a more personal form and its findings not only appealed to researchers but to individuals. “The Renaissance brought...
Words: 874 - Pages: 4
