Behaviourism
Behaviourism is a psychological theory that focuses on observable behaviors rather than internal mental processes. It emphasizes the role of the environment in shaping and controlling behavior through conditioning and reinforcement. Behaviourists believe that behavior can be studied scientifically and that learning is the result of associations between stimuli and responses.
8 Key excerpts on "Behaviourism"
eBook - ePubTheories of Counselling and Psychotherapy
An Introduction to the Different Approaches
- Stephen Joseph(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Academic(Publisher)
...Today, Watson’s best-known paper was one he published in 1913 entitled ‘Psychology as the behaviourist views it’. In this paper, Watson argued that the science of psychology could only progress if it was concerned with observable behaviour. By making observable behaviour into the focus of study, psychology could aspire to become a science. Mistakenly, however, Behaviourism is sometimes seen as a school of thought whose adherents believe that there is no such thing as mental experience. Rather, Watson’s argument was that mental concepts were not observable and therefore were not properly the focus of scientific inquiry. This approach to the study of psychology was, of course, in direct opposition to the study of psychoanalysis. Behavioural approaches assumed that it was not necessary to be aware of one’s behaviour or the factors controlling it in order to function effectively (Skinner, 1971). Many psychologists today would still adhere to the view that psychology should be concerned with observable behaviours that can be reliably measured, and, although it is also now common for psychologists to speculate on the unobservable processes of the mind, the influence of Watson in shaping modern psychology as a scientific discipline was great. Unlike psychodynamic therapies, the behaviourist is committed to providing scientific evidence for the effectiveness of the therapy. Other influences, aside from Pavlov and Watson, on the development of behavioural psychology were the important work of Thorndike and Skinner. B.F. Skinner and operant conditioning Whereas classical conditioning is concerned with the pairings of an unconditional stimulus with a conditional stimulus to produce behaviour, operant conditioning (sometimes called instrumental conditioning) is a process that is concerned with how that behaviour is maintained...
eBook - ePub- Julian Leslie(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Again, he saw this as a step towards the explanation of changes in human behaviour through identifying a general law of learning, or behavioural process. The development of psychology as an independent scientific discipline was advanced by Watson's proclamation of 'Behaviourism' as an alternative to the rather unscientific 'mentalism' that had preceded it. Watson promoted the view that psychologists should ensure, above all, that their approach was scientific, and that this could be achieved by focusing exclusively on subject matter that could reliably be observed. On this principle, the focus should be on human and non-human animal behaviour, and also on the careful specification of the environment in which that behaviour occurs. The approach instituted by Watson was much modified and enhanced by Skinner, whose work had an impact from the time of his early publications in the 1930s. In this period the approach became known as behaviour analysis, and was strongly but not exclusively associated with Skinner. Some of Skinner's contributions were methodological; he developed a simple but widely applicable piece of apparatus, now generally known as the Skinner box, for studying aspects of the behavioural process first investigated by Thorndike, and he identified a measure of behaviour, the rate of response, that could be measured in that apparatus and that also turned out to be useful in a wide range of applications. His conceptual or theoretical contributions were also numerous. The most important of these was the realization that the learning process first studied by Thorndike, and which is now called operant conditioning, is a process of selection. The interaction between the behaviour of the individual and the environment of that individual results in some categories of behaviour being selected, and thus becoming relatively more frequent while others become less frequent in that environment...
eBook - ePubWays of Learning
Learning Theories for the Classroom
- Alan Pritchard(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...2 Behaviourism and the beginnings of theory The ideas of Behaviourism have their roots in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although it is possible to trace some ideas back to Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and David Hume (1711–76). John Watson (1878–1958), an American working in the realm of this new philosophy of psychology, is widely accepted as one of the earliest proponents of Behaviourism. He is believed to have first used the term ‘Behaviourism’ (though he probably used the American spelling). Watson came to the view that psychology could only ever become a true science if it became a process of detailed objective observation and scientific measurement. This notion of observation and measurement became central to the work of behaviourists. Any consideration of mental process, which is by definition unobservable, fell outside their self-imposed range of interest. So, behaviourist approaches to and explanations of learning developed out of the study of what can actually be seen. As we will see, this approach to developing a psychological theory of learning ignores much of the hidden mental process that later workers in the field have come to explain and to hold as crucially important to our understanding of the complex activity that makes up different types of learning. Advances in neuroimaging techniques, as we will see later, make this an even more important element of any work investigating learning. Behaviourism is based around the central notion of a response being made to a particular stimulus. This apparently simple relationship has been used to describe even the most complex learning situations. At its simplest, we can observe behaviour, which we can refer to as ‘learnt behaviour’, in a wide range of diverse situations. For example, a performing seal will respond to a particular stimulus – the sound of a hooter or the presentation of a fish – by raising itself up and slapping its flippers together as if clapping...
eBook - ePubPsychology and Adult Learning
The Role of Theory in Informing Practice
- Mark Tennant(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 7 Behaviourism Background Gauging the initial reaction of people to different psychological theories can be very instructive. For example, psychoanalysis is often peremptorily dismissed as an affront to common-sense knowledge, a reaction which is typically diluted with further exploration. By way of contrast, the vocabulary of Behaviourism (conditioning, reward, punishment, stimulus, response) is usually received sympathetically because it is consistent with the casual observations we make about human behaviour. It is only when the origin of this vocabulary is made explicit that we balk and reassess our position. This chapter is the product of just such a reassessment. It is usual to attribute the beginning of Behaviourism to John Watson, who published Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It in 1913. He argued, as did others to follow, that psychology should be redefined as the study of behaviour and that it should abandon the examination of inaccessible and unobservable mental events. In this way the scientific obligation to be ‘objective’ would be fulfilled. Watson assumed that most of our behaviour is acquired through learning, which is to say that it is the result of environmental rather than biological influences. Thus the study of learning and the conditions under which it occurs became the core project of Behaviourism. Naturally, the type of learning which attracted the attention of the behaviourists was the acquisition of stereotyped responses (e.g. Pavlov’s dogs salivating when a bell rings) and the acquisition of observable and quantifiable skills and knowledge (e.g. recalling a list of nonsense syllables). Also, in order to identify the environmental influences on learning, it was necessary to conduct experiments in carefully controlled environments...
eBook - ePubPersonality Psychology
The Basics
- Stanley Gaines Jr.(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...S. Hall & Lindzey, 1978). In the present chapter, we will consider behaviourist perspectives on personality, which are inspired to varying degrees by Pavlov’s (1926/1928) reflexology. We will learn that behaviourist theories – especially B. F. Skinner’s (1938) operant reinforcement theory, which reflects Skinner’s principle of environmental determinism (i.e., throughout individuals’ lives, behaviour can be explained completely by influences that exist outside the individuals; Schellenberg, 1978) – have been criticised for their relative neglect of within-person influences on behaviour. However, we will also learn about certain neo-behaviourist responses – particularly Daryl Bem’s (1972) self-perception theory – that acknowledge the usefulness of personality constructs as related to (but not necessarily causing) individuals’ behaviour. BASIC ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING BEHAVIOURIST PERSPECTIVES A central premise among behaviourist perspectives on personality is the conviction that, in order to understand why individuals speak and act as they do, one must consider the impact of the social and physical environments within which persons engage in particular forms of speech and action (Ewen, 1998). At a minimum, behaviourist theories pose important conceptual challenges to Sigmund Freud’s principle of psychic determinism (i.e., beyond the age of 5 or 6, the speech and action of individuals can be explained completely by influences that exist within those individuals; Schellenberg, 1978). However, behaviourist theories vary in terms of their (de-)emphasis on personality constructs as causes or antecedents of individuals’ speech and action (C. S. Hall & Lindzey, 1978). As noted by J. F. Brennan (2003), Behaviourism developed partly as a response to functionalism (concerned with the “how” and “why” of consciousness, or individuals’ mental processes), which was associated with the self-theory of William James (1890/2010) and the instrumental pragmatism of John Dewey (1909)...
eBook - ePubPerspectives on Behaviour
A Practical Guide to Effective Interventions for Teachers
- Harry Ayers, Don Clarke, Anne Murray(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- David Fulton Publishers(Publisher)
...2 The behavioural perspective The behavioural model The focus of this perspective is on a person's overt, observable and measurable behaviour. It excludes all reference to cognitive or unconscious processes. This approach is based on the theory that an individual's overt and observable behaviour unless genetically influenced is the result of that individual's learning. Learning occurs through Classical and Operant conditioning, the result of environmental influences. An individual's behaviour is the result of that individual's past and present learning experiences. The main focus would be on current environmental events that are assumed to be controlling, that is triggering and maintaining, the observed behaviour. This approach adopts a scientific or empirical methodology that emphasises structure and objectivity with regard to assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation. Classical conditioning (I. Pavlov) Classical conditioning occurs when conditioned associations occur between stimuli and responses. Pavlov saw behaviours as chains of conditioned associations. CS----------UR (bell elicits attention) US----------CR (food is presented every time after the bell is rung and then salivation occurs) CS----------CR (bell eventually elicits salivation without food being presented). CS = conditioned stimulus UR = unconditioned response US = unconditioned stimulus CR = conditioned response In this example, the dog has learnt to salivate to the sound of the bell as well as to the food. However if food never follows after the sound of the bell finishes, the dog will cease salivating at the sound of the bell. As another example, a teacher shouts at a student eliciting that student's attention. The student stops talking and the teacher points at the same time as, or just after, shouting. The student therefore associates pointing with shouting...
eBook - ePub- Fay Short, Phil Thomas(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...human mind and linked to work in medicine and philosophy However, animal research in the early 1900s produced results that could be generalised to human behaviour (Thorndike, 1898; Pavlov, 1928) This led to psychology being redefined as the study of human behaviour Tabula rasa Behavioural approach focuses exclusively on observable and measurable behaviour Emphasises the importance of nurture Humans are born as a tabula rasa or blank slate on which experience writes the patterns of their future behaviour Major advances in the behavioural approach Initial interest in the behavioural approach Thorndike identified the Law of Effect in 1898 Proposed that behaviour can be predicted and controlled according to consequences ‘Animal intelligence: an experimental study of the associative processes in animals’ published in 1898 Pavlov presented at the International Medical Congress in Madrid in 1903 Reported physiological research revealing a system of conditioning to explain human behaviour Introduced the idea that psychological processes can be studied scientifically Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes: Twenty-Five Years of Objective Study of the Higher Nervous Activity Behavior of Animals published in 1928 Formal establishment of behavioural approach Watson published the Behaviorist Manifesto in 1913 Foundation of the behavioural approach ‘Psychology as the behaviorist views it’ published in 1913 Skinner...
eBook - ePubPsychology in Historical Context
Theories and Debates
- Richard Gross(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Cognition, thinking, believing, feeling, and so on are private events and therefore inaccessible – and unverifiable – to anyone else and so should be excluded from a science of Psychology. To the extent that most (if not all) Psychologists would agree with the principle of inter-subjective verifiability, they would regard themselves as Methodological Behaviourists (Blackman, 1980; Skinner, 1987). Belief in the importance of empirical methods, especially the experiment, as a way of collecting data about human (and non-human) behaviour, which can be quantified and statistically analysed, is now what most Psychologists believe and practice (i.e. mainstream Psychology). So, what was revolutionary in 1913 has become ‘orthodox’ and taken for granted. (For a critique of mainstream Psychology, see Chapter 3.) Watson’s legacy According to Mills (1998), ‘Historians agree that Behaviourism was the dominant force in the creation of modern American psychology’ (p. 1). In addition to the three major aspects of the manifesto highlighted above, Behaviourism focused on adjustment to change (what Watson called ‘habit’) as the central focus for psychological research, and a pragmatic focus on using psychological research to solve real-world problems. Although others had also identified these themes, Watson did much after 1913 to flag them before both fellow Psychologists and the general public. Much of today’s Psychology still reflects Watson’s Methodological Behaviourism, according to which behaviour is taken as an index of events occurring ‘in other universes of discourse’ (Lattal and Rutherford, 2013, p. 3). Pause for thought … 1 What do you think Lattal and Rutherford mean by this reference to ‘other universes of discourse’? As Malone (1982) puts it, behaviour remains the ‘ambassador of the mind’...
