Fundamental Precincts of Behaviorism - Essay Example

? Behaviorism John B. Watson established the psychological school of thought pertaining to behaviorism. Evidently, in Watson’s psychology review paper, the fundamental precincts of behaviorism were based on notion that beliefs could be changed, trained and measured. To this end, behaviorism or behavioral psychology is based on the notion the all behaviors resulted from conditioning. This condition process manifests itself through an active environmental interaction. Thus, the implication connoted by behaviorist is that environmental stimuli responses determine behavior. In the development of behaviorism, notable scientists such as Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson and Albert Bandura played critical roles. Pavlonian Classical Conditioning In retracing the history of behaviorism, the renowned physiologist, Ivan Pavlov is credited with pioneering the classical or pavlonian conditioning. Evidently, the classical conditioning was arrived at accidently. It was during Ivan Pavlov’s scientific experimentation with dogs that the fundamentals of classical conditioning began to take root. Pavlov was observing at the physiological response of salivation in dogs when subjected to feeding. Evidently, whenever Pavlov approached the dogs, they would incidentally begin salivating. Interestingly enough, this phenomenon was constant whether Pavlov was bringing them food or not (McLeod, 2007). At this juncture, Pavlov developed an initial theory that there existed some things that are not essentially learnt by dogs. A case in point was the salivating response in which the reflex is naturally fixated in the dog. Thus, he termed the phenomenon as an unconditioned response. An unconditioned response is basically a stimuli reflex that is disassociated from learning. To this end, Pavlov scientifically discovered the presence of an unconditioned reflex by showing a dog some food and proceeding to measure its amount of salivary excretions. However, it is of essence to note that Pavlov discovered that the dogs had developed a new characteristic whereby they associated his lab assistant with. Evidently, the salivating increased whenever the dogs saw his lab assistant. Previously, the did not exhibit this behavior with his lab assistant. Consequently, Ivan Pavlov concluded that this newly acquired behavior must have been learnt by the dogs. The dogs had developed the behavior of associating his lab assistant with food; which would instantly trigger increased salivation. To this end, Pavlov believed that a learning process by the dogs had led to the newly acquired behavior. The behaviorist fundamentals show that the lab assistant was previously a neutral stimulus. The neutrality state is justifiable due to the lack of a response. However, over time the dogs had learnt to associate the lab assistant (neutral stimuli) with food (unconditioned stimulus). In order to ascertain this theory, Pavlov incorporated a bell to be used as a neutral stimulus. Incidentally, the bell was rang at around the same time when the dogs were about to be fed. This procedure was repeated several times until whenever the bell was rang on its own without food, it triggered an instantaneous salivation from the dogs. As a result, the dogs had learnt a new behavior by developing an intricate relationship between the food and the bell. This response is what became termed as a conditioned response due to the fact that it was learnt. Moreover, the neutral stimulus from henceforth changed to a conditioned stimulus. Classical Conditioning John B. Watson is credited with publishing the article entitled, ‘Psychology as the behaviorist views it’ In the article, Watson demonstrated all the fundamentals of human psychology by the use of classical conditioning. It is of essence to note that Watson’s conditioning perspective drew inspiration from Pavlov’s observations. To this end, Watson theorized that the aspects of human emotional responses and speech were basically derivatives of stimulus and response. Interestingly enough, Watson was in total objection to the ideals or realities of the consciousness or mind. To prove his theory, Watson sought to prove that Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning on animals was applicable to humans. To this end, Watson used a 9 month old boy named Albert in testing his responses when subjected to various responses. Little Albert was shown a monkey, various masks, a rabbit and a white hat. Evidently, Albert showed no fearful reaction to all stimuli. However, when the white rat was presented, a hammer was hit on steel bar stationed behind, Albert’s head, he immediately burst into tears. The experiment was repeated when Albert was 11 months old whereby the rat was presented and at the same time the hammer was struck. The tearful was reaction was constant after 7 tests were repeated in seven weeks. Over time, the presence of the rat alone was enough to initiate tearful bursts by little Albert even without the sound of the hammer’s noise. Consequently, Watson had proved that classical conditioning was successful in eliciting a phobia response. After the conditioning process, further observations on Albert in the proceeding months revealed a decline in the phobia of the rat. Evidently, is termed as extinction. Social Learning Theory Albert Bandura was equally another behaviorist scientist who proposed his social learning theory. Bandura believed that development in behavour was spurred by the observational learning from the environment. To this end, Bandura believed that children oberve personalities or models in society. Evidently, these models exude feminine or masculine tendencies that are available for observation and imitation. As a result, children devote their attention to observing the mannerisms of models in society. Afterwards, these observations are encoded in their minds which are letter imitated regardless of gender appropriateness. Interestingly enough, the imitations by the child are driven by the sexual similarities with the model. As a result, there is a high probability that the child will imitate behavior of persons of similar sex. Moreover, upon imitation of the observed behavior, the models around the child elicit a response that is either a punishment or reinforcement. To this end, if the consequences arising from the imitation are positive, the child will continuously repeat the behavior. Thus, the behavior is being reinforced. Moreover, Bandura asserts that reinforcement can be either positive or negative. In addition, it can be either internal or external. An external reinforcement occurs when the child is seeking approval from peers or parents. On the other hand, internal reinforcement arises from the innate feeling of happiness accrued from approval. Moreover, there exists another form of reinforcement that is vicarious. Evidently, vicarious reinforcement manifests itself when the child is takes into consideration the effect on other people as a result of choosing whether or not to imitate a models behavior.Furthermore, a further process known as identification occurs in the social learning theory. This is an occurrence evident in another model whereby adoption of other observable values, behaviors, attitudes and beliefs are adopted by the child. Evidently, behaviorism is an essential fundamental of historical psychology formulated between 1920 and 1950. Moreover, it is based on several assumptive precincts of behavioral analysis and methodology. These include, Watson’s perspective on psychology as a science, observable behavour as theorized by Bandura and Pavlov’s responsive behavior resulting from stimuli reaction (McLeod, 2007). References McLeod, S. (2007,). Pavlova??s Dogs. Simply Psychology - Psychology Articles for Students. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.htm McLeod, S. (2007). Behaviorism. Simply Psychology - Psychology Articles for Students. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/behavior.html McLeod, S. (2008). Classical Conditioning. Simply Psychology - Psychology Articles for Students. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html McLeod, S. (2011). Albert Bandura | Social Learning Theory. Simply Psychology - Psychology Articles for Students. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html Read More