Behavioral vs Cognitive Psychology in the Context of Organizational Behavior - Coursework Example

Behavioral Psychology vs. Cognitive Psychology Before going into the details regarding similarities, differences, advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches, let’s first understand the concept of learning based on behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology. Behavioral Psychology The other name is behaviorism. Introduced by John B. Watson in 1913, it is based on the concept that the behavior an individual possesses is a result of his observation, experiences and conditioning, and that the circumstances and the environment a person lives in are responsible for making him behave the way he does. Murray, Grossman and Kentridge (2000) define behavioral psychology as a “subset of psychology that focuses on studying and modifying observable behavior by means of systematic manipulation of environmental factors”. Behaviorists or behavior psychologists affirm that a behavior is to be studied and evaluated without giving any consideration to the inner mental condition of the individual. The behavior an individual shows in response to environmental stimuli results from two major kinds of conditioning, namely, classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning. This theory, put forth by Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson, suggests that a behavior can be assessed by watching how an animal or an individual shoes an unconditioned response by associating a neutral stimulus with a naturally occurring (unconditioned) stimulus. Pavlov experimented with dogs and conditioned them so that they salivated on the sound of bell ringing by associating the sound with their food. Operant conditioning. According to this theory, put forth by B. F. Skinner mainly, the future occurrence of a behavior depends on the outcome or consequences of that particular behavior in the past. Operant conditioning is of four types. Positive Reinforcement and Negative Reinforcement tend to support the behavior as under these two conditions, the individual experiences a good ending and thus repeats his experience in future. On the other hand, Punishment and Extinction tend to weaken the chances of future occurrences of a behavior as under these two circumstances, the individual has had a bad or neutral ending. Learning based on behavioral psychology. Behavioral psychologists carry on the process of learning by assuming that a person can be completely understood by observing his behavior. And how a behavior is to be learnt? It is done by learning an individual’s responses to environmental stimuli. This is basically a stimulus-response theory. The boss orders the employee to leave (stimulus) and the employee leaves (response). This means that “learning in humans and animals can take place through the association of a response with particular stimuli” (Psychologist World, 2009). Critical Evaluation- Behavioral Psychology Strengths. Behaviorism approaches are well designed and focused because of well organized ways of measuring behavioral responses. Classical behaviorism has a great advantage in developing techniques to treat mental abnormalities. For example, the conditioned fear response can be replaced with the opposite response by conditioning. Likewise, in Aversion Therapy, an individual can be made to learn a healthy behavior so as to overcome obsession, drug addiction, violent attitude or any bad habit. For example, a person who is addicted to drugs, might be given electric shocks while he is having drugs so that he can associate his drug-taking with the negative experience of shocks. Likewise, flooding is the treatment of a person’s phobia of simple things by simple conditioning of behavior. Weaknesses. Generally we know that human beings, and animals, have the capability of showing a wide variety of complicated responses to any kind of environmental stimulus, but according to behaviorists, these responses are only a combination of smaller simpler responses. Behaviorism emphasizes only on external behavior and not on mental thoughtfulness, processing, emotions, feelings, perceptions and beliefs. Thus, behaviorism “seems to miss the point that mental states are inner states which may go un-manifested in behavior altogether” (Oddie, 2003). Moreover, behaviorist approaches to stress management do not deal with the causes of stress or the effects of deteriorating responses to stressful situations; instead, they emphasize only on solutions. Behaviorism focuses on modifying individual’s behavior to be adaptive to the situation rather than modifying it to avoid problems in future. Some researchers also say that learning in behaviorism is reactive rather than proactive and is deficient in motivation (Tsapatsoulis, 2005). Cognitive Psychology The other name is cognitivism. “Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn” (About.com, 2010). This subset of psychology basically deals with how a person perceives a piece of information, processes it in his mind, responds to that, and stores that information for future reference. Major issues that are addressed in cognitive psychology are an individual’s perception, verbal communication, concentration, memory, problem solving, decision making and opinion processing capabilities. It focuses on how sensory input is altered into viewpoints and proceedings through the course of cognition. Cognitive psychology uses scientific research, experimentation and verification which make it different from other subsets of psychology. It affirms that human brain works under cause and effect approach and works on conclusions staying within the limitations of natural principles. Mind is said to be similar to a computer whose specifications are defined by cognitivism. Cognitivist researches tell us how much information can be stored in a human mind and how the brain brings together all sensory input to reach high level conclusions and opinions. Critical Evaluation- Cognitive Psychology Strengths. Congnitivism encourages learning which is more learner-oriented. Cognitive approaches have made it possible for the learners to improve their memory as cognitivism explains forgetfulness and researches into the temperament and organization of memory. It also helps an individual to enhance his problem-solving and decision-making capabilities. The educational curriculum has been structured to augment learning using cognitive research. In cognitive experiments, it is easy to collect information and data. Knowledge is properly organized. Cognitivism has worked with other fields of psychology to explain social learning theory and artificial intelligence. Weaknesses. Cognitive approaches are hard to apply to comprehensive audience because of requirement of too many resources and endeavors and user-oriented approaches. Also, theories have not been converted properly into “instructional design software”, according to Tsapatsoulis (2005). The corrective feedback reinforcement has also been suppressed. Moreover, cognitive learning is said to be too simple to explain complex brain functioning. Similarities Between Behaviorism and Cognitivism in Learning Theory Both are useful learning theories. Both approaches believe that learning processes should be purposeful and should be based upon experimental research findings. Both focus on the individual’s reactions to external stimuli. Both mainly consider the effect of the environment on the individual. Differences Between Behaviorism and Cognitivism in Learning Theory Behavioral psychology deals with observable responses to environmental stimuli whereas cognitive psychology focuses on internal mental states of an individual. Deubel asserts that “the view of mental activities as actions, as opposed to their being considered indications of the presence of a consciousness or mind as a separate entity, are central differences between behavioral and cognitive orientations” (2003). There are methodological differences between the two. Cognitivists often use computers to define the functioning of a human brain whereas behaviorists have never used computers. Behaviorism is said to be a thoughtless approach whereas cognitivism is believed to be brain-based or learner style approach. In behaviorism, the learner is a passive participant who simply responds to the external stimulus whereas in cognitivism, the learner is an active participant. Thus, learner control is emphasized on by cognitivism. In behaviorist learning, the whole learning process is divided into smaller tasks and modules whereas in cognitivist learning, the learning process is such structured in which learners expand their own understanding and test their perspectives. According to Atkins, behaviorists consider learning as an “extrinsic” feeling that is related to goal setting and achievement whereas cognitivists consider the learning process as “intrinsic” feeling that is related to considering success as an internal comfort for the learner as as cited in Deubel, 2003). Under behaviorist learning, teachers work on making the students understand what is being taught and set up rewards for them so that they are encouraged to further learn how to repond to a particular stimulus, whereas in cognitivism, the focus is on unobserved mental knowledge. Learning Organizations With the ever-increasing demands of learning and fast growing problems posed to us due to emerging technologies, there is need to address these problems at a higher level where families, society and organizations can play their role in enhancing the learning process. This concept is known as organizational learning and the organizations that promote such learning by following specific models and strategies are called learning organizations. Such organizations maintain a setup for its workers so as to stay at pace with the competitive world. Here, all the workers, independently and communally, put their effort in learning strategies, models and processes to achieve their desired results. They know that the standard of performance that is required of them in this era needs a good deal of learning and they care about it. This learning to do better and even better is worthwhile and personally gratifying. A learning organization actually is an ideal organization, an scheme, or a visualization but there are many organizations out there which are trying to frame this vision into reality. An example is The Society of Organizational Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Peter Senges (1990) Five Learning Disciplines According to Chawla and Renesch (2006), “the concept of learning organization took seed several decades ago and gained major recognition with the incredible success of Peter Senge’s 1990 book The Fifth Discipline”. Peter Senge presented the idea of a learning organization where all people are continually enhancing their learning capabilities to meet the goals. The theme behind is that the only those organizations can excel during phases of changes which are flexible and prolific in nature. This can only be done by making the people learn at all possible levels. The five disciplines presented by Peter drag the organization toward success through learning. These are: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision and team learning (Senge, 1994). The leader of an organization serves also as a teacher, and the employees are learners. As a manager, I would create an effective learning setup at all levels by applying Senge’s five learning disciplines. I would promote systems thinking by looking at the system from a broader perspective that would include overall structure and the whole cyclic processes going on rather than considering smaller events and processes. This would help in addressing the problematic issues on the whole. I would enhance personal mastery of all individuals by making them learn new techniques in which they would show their mastery and creativity. I would incorporate mental models by discussing the success as a complete picture produced by the minds collectively. I would encourage a shared vision of all employees by discussing and communicating with them. I would inculcate team learning rather than individualistic approach and would consider team as a fundamental learning unit. Benefits of Learning Organizations Being Adaptive A learning organization is capable of adapting itself in the ever changing working environment. Here, learners consider this change as a beneficial chance to enhance their learning capabilities. Merged Goals A learning organization meets several goals in one attempt, that is, it makes sure that the customers are satisfied and their goals are also met along with the continuity of learning. Empowerment All employees are equally empowered to pursue his independent learning. Managers are the teachers and the learners seek knowledge from all levels of expertise. Learning organizations tend to provide equal opportunities to learn where individual performances leads to the overall performance of the organization. Barriers faced by Learning Organizations Though Senge has clearly explained the ideal learning organizations, the problem to discover the interventions that can convert organizations into learning organizations still remains. Senge (1990) asserts that it can also be dangerous to give complete empowerment to the employees and to extract their personal mastery before the organization’s learning system is properly managed. It might be hard to convince all individuals at all levels to pursue learning so as to contribute in goal achievement. Socialization within Learning Organizations The information gap between the newcomers and the organizations can be filled in using socialization tactics. This helps in creating a healthy relationship between the two. Through socialization, the newcomers can be made to learn the roles, policies and procedures of the organization so that they learn how to participate effectively in the organization’s goal achievement. Conclusion To sum up, the overall organizational behavior or organizational culture can be improved by enhancing learning processes among the individuals, and this concept has very fairly been described by Senge. The five learning disciplines and techniques like socialization are vital for an organization to convert into a learning organization where all individuals play their role in the achievement of goals through team work and shared vision. References About.com. (2010). What is cognitive psychology? About.com: Psychology. Retrieved February 24, 2010 from http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/cogpsych.htm Chawla, S., & Renesch, J. (2006). Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrows Workplace. New York, United States: Productivity Press. Deubel, P. (2003). An investigation of behaviorist and cognitive approaches to instructional multimedia design. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia,12(1), 63-90. Murray, K., Grossman, D., & Kentridge, R. (2000). Behavioral psychology. Killology Research Group. Retrieved February 24, 2010 from http://www.killology.com/article_behavioral.htm Oddie, G. (2003). Behaviorism. Graham Oddie’s Philosophy. Retrieved February 24, 2010 from http://spot.colorado.edu/~oddie/behave.html Psychologist World. (2009). Behavioral approach. Psychology Articles. Retrieved February 24, 2010 from http://www.psychologistworld.com/issues/behavioralapproach.php Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. UK: Century Business. Senge, P. (1994). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. U.S.: Currency Doubleday, 1994. Tsapatsoulis, N. (2005, February). The constructivist - objectivist debate. Learning Principles and Approaches. Retrieved February 24, 2010 from http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~nicolast/courses/cs654/chapters/Chap04-08-01.htm Read More