...Perspectives Paper Name PSY/310 July 23, 2012 Instructor Perspectives Paper Introduction Even though psychological perspectives evolve as psychology matures, there are some perspectives that remain relevant 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...
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...Perspective Paper María D. Rodríguez University of Phoenix December 14th, 2009 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY: I certify that the attached paper is my original work. I affirm that I have not submitted any portion of this paper to any previous course, and neither has anyone else. I confirm that I have cited all sources from which I used language, ideas, and information, whether quoted verbatim or paraphrased. Any assistance I received while producing this paper has been acknowledged in the References section. I have obtained written permission from the copyright holder for any trademarked material, logos, images from the Internet, or other sources. I further agree that my name typed on the line below is intended to have, and shall have, the same validity as my handwritten signature. Student's signature (name typed here is equivalent to a signature): Maria D. Rodriguez __________ Perspective Paper Human beings by nature are inquisitive. Knowing where one comes from and what aspects separates one from other individuals has been in our nature since humans discovered having five toes on each foot. The approach of psychology basing the study on the fact that behavior can be researched without consideration of the inner state of the mind is known as behaviorism. Behaviorism is said to be both a philosophy as well as a psychological movement. Radical behaviorism Early in the 20th century, behaviorism initiated with the work of John B. Watson, an American...
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...re used Perspectives Paper Psychology as we know is the study of the mind and human behavior. Since earlier years, there has been research performed to find out how individuals think, feel, and act. There are many different perspectives that psychologists use as a means of studying human behavior and how individuals think and feel. One of those perspectives is known as the Behavioral Perspective. The main focus of this perspective is behaviors that are learned. The difference between behaviorism and other perspectives is that its emphasis is placed on behaviors that can be observed, not on internal states (Cherry, 2014). There are many major thinkers that made contributions to the Behavioral Perspective, and their theories have been valuable, and serve as a basis for the schools of thought in modern psychology. In this paper, I will be comparing and contrasting the Behavioral Perspectives of John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner, with the perspectives of another major thinker known as Edward C. Tolman. The main focus of John B. Watson and of B. F. Skinner was behaviorism while Edward C. Tolman’s focus was Cognitive Behaviorism (Cherry, 2014). John B. Watson’s Perspectives John B. Watson was a major thinker and also a psychologist who was later known as the father of behaviorism. During part of the 20th Century, he dominated with his perspective of behavior. Watson’s theory of psychology was that it was based on behaviors...
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...Associationistic Theories of Watson and Skinner History credits John B. Watson as the founder of behaviorism. His disliking of the structuralism and functionalism approaches led Watson to consider psychology a science of behavior. Rather than focusing on methods like introspection, Watson strongly suggests that psychological research involve examinations of the measurable and observable behaviors. In his classic study of Little Albert, Watson demonstrates how learning of fear can occur through the principle of classical conditioning. Watson and other behaviorists like B.F. Skinner also emphasize that environmental factors affect and determine behavior. Skinner took the study of behaviorism to the next level by proposing concepts like mind, consciousness, and feelings were neither measureable or observable and were, therefore, not necessary in explaining behavior. Skinner claims that one can explain behavior by analyzing the conditions present before a behavior occurs and by analyzing the consequences that follow the behavior. The principles associated with Skinner’s operant conditioning suggest personality as a function of environmental influences rather than unconscious thoughts and feelings. However, this belief faces criticism for paying little attention to emotions and internal processes. By examining the theories of Watson and Skinner, one can better understand by classical and operant conditioning by explaining their major themes and evaluating their effectiveness...
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...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 subject matter and that the events to be investigated as possible causes of behavior must also be described objectively and verified empirically through experimental research (Jensen, 2014).” This latter point meant that introspection would have to be abandoned, for it was unscientific. Watson presented the goals of psychology...
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...components of behavior. Behaviorism focus on behaviors that can be observed only. Behaviorism deals with the consequences of behavior and those behaviors can be rewarded or punished. (Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2006). An overview of the behavioral perspective. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. ) HISTORY Behaviourism is derived from the belief that free will is an illusion. According to a pure behaviourist, ( John B. Watson (1878-1958)) human beings are shaped entirely by their external environment. Alter a person's environment, and you will alter his or her thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Provide positive reinforcement whenever someone perform a desired behaviour, and soon they will learn to perform the behaviour on their own. (Ivan Pavlov: 1891) The term behaviorism refers to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. Behaviorism was established with the publication of Watson's classic paper "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (1913). The origins of behaviorism grew out of the ideology of the American...
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...Perspectives Paper Psychological perspectives have changed as the field of psychology has progressed. There are few perspectives that have core values that have remained steadfast even in today’s pool of theories. John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Edward Tolman, all of these men had theories that remain the foundation for many schools of thought in psychology today. John B. Watson John Watson believed that psychology should be a purely objective science with its sole purpose as the study of observable behavior, prediction, and control. He adamantly thought the removal of introspection and consciousness would promote psychology as an experimental science (White, 2011). Watson believed that introspective studies had not scientific value and observing varied states of consciousness had not place in the true science of psychology. Watson’s greatest challenge was his inability to assimilate psychoanalysis into behaviorism. He was fascinated with Sigmund Freud’s theories and struggled for years to understand some of his processes without success (Goodwin, 2008). His “Little Albert” experiment was an effort to explain psychoanalytic concepts by using classical conditioning (Goodwin, 2008). He believed behavior was purely elicited, and that people did not experience emotions, but emotions were a response to some other stimuli. In his “Little Albert” experiment, Watson conditioned the young child to fear a rat by pairing the rat with a loud disturbing sound (Cherry, n.d.). His...
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...In: Philosophy and Psychology Reflection Paper The “Little Albert” Experiment was conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Raynor. Watson was interested in showing that emotional reactions could be classically conditioned or learned in people. He based his research off of Pavlov’s research with dogs. The participant in the experiment was “Albert B”, as Watson called him, but became known as Little Albert. Around 8 months, Little Albert was placed in a room and an experimenter stood behind him and made a loud noise by striking a hammer on a steel bar. He began to cry after hearing the sound a few times. At the age of 9 months, Watson and his counterpart, Rosalie Raynor, exposed Albert to a series of stimuli including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks, and burning newspapers and observed the boy’s reactions. He initially showed no fear of any of the objects. The next time Albert was exposed to the rat, Watson made a loud noise by striking the hammer on the steel bar. Naturally the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing the rat with the loud noise Albert began to cry by just simply seeing the rat. They also observed that stimulus generalization had occurred. Albert feared not just the white rat, but also a wide variety of similar white objects and furry objects. In this experiment the neutral stimulus was the white rat, the unconditioned stimulus was the loud noise, the unconditioned response was fear, the conditioned stimulus was the white...
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...Behavioral Models of Personality Critique Draya Ashlee Ashford University Abstract This paper explores my knowledge and opinions on the Behavioral Models of Personality (BMP). This article will show the various theories of BMP present Behavioral Models of Personality Critique Personality is the combination of characteristics and qualities that mix together to form an individuals very distinctive character. The ability to have an perfectly untainted personality may be unheard of, and for many may sound ridiculous. Different models of personality help us to categorize the different aspects of one’s personality, how a personality problem can be recognized, and how to effectively treat an personality illness. I will critique the behavioral model of personality by looking at the theories present , the major contributors to the field, the different methods of inquiry , along with the strengths and weakness of the model , and how possible future research may be done to further elucidate the role of this model in understanding personality. The behavioral model of personality closely focuses on the “emphasis on studying what is observable challenged psychology and` personality researchers to meet higher empirical standards.” (Magnavita, J.J. 2012). Such observable events that occur inside of the human mind, which are acted outside of the human mind , better known as our actions. It is usually based on inductive thinking...
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...Perspectives Paper December 17, 2012 Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a perspective that became dominant during the early half of the 20th century thanks to prominent thinkers such as B.F. Skinner, and John B. Watson. The basis of behavioral psychology suggests that all behaviors are learned. Conditioning is the process of learning to react to the environment. Many theorists contributed to the theories of classical and operant conditioning, some theorists being Skinner, Watson, and Tolman. Each theorist contributed their own theories proven to impact a part of psychology. Many behaviors have been previously conditioned in the human species by the environment. Skinner, Watson, and Tolman all made their contributions to psychology with theories and proven statistics. John B. Watson John Watson proposed the idea of an objective psychology of behavior called "behaviorism." He saw psychology as the study of people's actions with the ability to predict and control those actions. His idea became known as “the behaviorists” theory (Goodwin. 2008). Theorists such as Skinner, Watson, and Tolman all had one common idea; that psychology was defined as the natural science of behavior, objective in its study, and was a pattern of adjustment functionally dependent upon stimulus conditions in the environment, and was emphasized in theory and research. Watson also used animal subjects...
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...Jean Watson and by John Paley, who each have taken markedly distinct approaches to conceptualizing nursing care in a theoretical construct. This paper will provide a discussion of Jean Watson’s background, including educational preparation and process of developing her Care Theory as well as her career high points, discussion of Jean’s Watson’s Care Theory, including major points, discussion of John Paley’s background, including education preparation and his career high points, brief discussion of Friedich Nietzsche, specifically his major philosophical beliefs, compare Jean Watson’s Care Theory with the ideas presented in John Paley’s article, and contrast Jean Watson’s Care Theory with the ideas presented in John Paley’s article . Jean Watson, who hails from West Virginia, was educated at the University of Colorado where she earned a baccalaureate degree in nursing, 1964. She also earned her master’s degree in psychiatric-mental health nursing, and her doctorate in educational psychology and counseling at University of Colorado. While serving as dean of University of Colorado School of Nursing, she was instrumental in the development of a post baccalaureate nursing curriculum in human caring that would lead to a career professional clinical. She was appointed Distinguished Professor of Nursing and endowed Chair in Caring Science at the same university. Watson has published numerous books describing her philosophy and her theory of human caring. The fundamental paper for...
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...Perspectives Paper In the world of psychology there are many perspectives, a few which will be looking at is of John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner and also that of Edward C. Tolman. They will also be contrasted and compared to each other in their views as to regarding how each perspective relates to the modern-day psychology. You will see the differences in their perspectives as well as what motivated them to come up with them. Each man had ideals of his own and ways that they expressed them and these were just some of those ways. They were behaviorist in their own right and their ideals to expand on their knowledge and to help society better itself come to pass with those ideals. Starting with John B. Watson, his perspectives were centered on classical conditioning. He believed that behaviorism was the way to go. It was the new movement. He believed that introspection forms no essential part of methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon readiness with which lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness (Goodwin, (2008). He felt more comfortable around animals than he did humans when it came to studying psychology so he settled for studying functionalist psychology, especially comparative psychology. He started out his first study with rat mazes and the hypothesis about kinesthetic sense. It was done in 1907, in which they would remove parts of the rat’s senses in some, like the eyes, middle of the ears, whiskers, or...
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...several reasons. First, the experimental design and process was not carefully constructed. Watson and Rayner did not develop an object means to evaluate Albert's reactions, instead relying on their own subjective interpretations. Secondly, the experiment also raises many ethical concerns. ABSTRACT When dealing with the observation of what we can learn from watching the behavior of the person there would be a lot of factors and conditions that would have to be ethically applied which is why John Watsons case of Little Albert leaves a lot of questions. Psychological testing and theories all play a significant part in psychology. Over time people have learned what to do and what not to do. Ethics seem to always be a question especially when dealing with psychology. I think this is true because there always seems to be some type of controversy to the science and experimentation of it. In the name of science there have been experiments and studies that have been questionable and whether or not they were ethical or not. Over the years a considerable amount of controversy has taken place due to one specific study. This study was over a little boy whom they called Albert and was conducted by John B. Watson, known as the founder of behaviorism, with the aid of his assistant later turned wife Rosalie Rayner. This test by Watson has brought up many questions and debates. It is no wonder that Watson choose the experiment or study on little Albert, he himself had somewhat of a rebellious...
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...Behaviorism and Its Effect on the Understanding of Learning AIU Online Abstract This paper focuses on a brief summary on the history of behaviorism, starting with experiments conducted by Franklin Henry Giddings and Ivan Pavlov, a sociologist and a physiologist whom established the groundwork for behaviorism, particularly in America. In addition, this paper also explains the main components of behaviorism, which are classical conditioning and operant conditioning, connectionism, and the contiguity theory. It moves forward to explain four experiments that are popular through the study of behaviorism: the reason behind conditioned salivation in Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, conditioned responses in humans through Watson’s little Albert experiment, Thorndike’s research with cats and a puzzle box to demonstrate the law of effect through the use of reinforcements, and B.F. Skinner’s experiment with rats to prove how an organism learns through operant conditioning. Finally, this paper examines how, according to behaviorists, there are three principles of learning new and intricate behaviors, known as shaping, chaining, and fading. Behaviorism and Its Effect on the Understanding of Learning Behaviorism suggests that an organism learns from its environment. It is the result of the association between a stimulus and a response. An organism learns new behavior through classical or operant conditioning. It is a theory that does not base its ideals on emotions or prior knowledge. Some say behaviorism...
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...The two researchers did in certainty utilize what they found in Photograph 51 as the reason for their popular model of DNA, which they distributed on Walk 7, 1953, and for which they got a Nobel Prize in 1962. Kink and Watson were additionally ready to assume the vast majority of the praise for the finding: When distributing their model in Nature magazine in April 1953, they incorporated a commentary recognizing that they were "fortified by a general information" of Franklin's and Wilkins' unpublished commitment, when truth be told, a lot of their work was established in Franklin's photograph and discoveries. Randall and the Cambridge research center chief went to an assention, and both Wilkins' and Franklin's articles were distributed second and third in a similar issue of Nature. All things considered, it gave the idea that their articles were simply supporting Kink and...
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