BEHAVIOURISM

1. C.S.I COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
L. M.S COMPOUND
PARASSALA
NAME OF THE STUDENT SHAJINA J. S
OPTIONAL SUBJECT ENGLISH

4. Behaviorism is a systematic approach to the
understanding of human and animal behavior.
The theory implies that the learner responds to
environmental stimuli without his or her mental
state being a factor in the learners behaviour.
Individuals learn to behave through conditioning.

5. FAMOUS BEHAVIOURISTS
IVAN PAVLOV
EDWARD THORNDIKE
JOHN WATSON
B F SKINNER

6.  JOHN B WATSON is often considered as the
father of behaviourism.
 According to JOHN B WATSON behaviours can
be measured ,trained and changed.
 According to Pavlov learning process consists of
formation of association between stimuli and
reflexive responses.
 Thorndike’s trail and error or behaviour
connectionism showed how an organism tries
out various possible responses to a stimulus
situation until one proves to be appropriate.
OVERVIEW

7. They believed in the objective study of
behaviour .
The chief emphasis was an environment.
The method of learning was conditioning,
which they believed to be the key to the
understanding of behaviour.

8. SKINNERS’S OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant conditioning was developed by B.F.
Skinner in 1937 and deals with the modification of
"voluntary behaviour" or operant behaviour.
Operant behavior operates on the environment and
is maintained by its consequences.
Reinforcement and punishment, the core tools of
operant conditioning, are either positive (delivered
following a response), or negative (withdrawn
following a response).
Skinner created the Skinner Box or operant
conditioning chamber to test the effects of operant
conditioning principles on rats.

9. From this study, he discovered that the
rats learned very effectively if they were
rewarded frequently. Skinner also found
that he could shape the rats' behavior
through the use of rewards, which could,
in turn, be applied to human learning as
well.

11. PAVLOV’S CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Although operant conditioning plays the largest role
in discussions of behavioral mechanisms, classical
conditioning (or Pavlovian conditioning or respondent
conditioning) is also an important behavior-analytic
process .
Pavlov's experiments with dogs provide the most
familiar example of the classical conditioning procedure.
In simple conditioning, the dog was presented with a
stimulus such as a light or a sound, and then food was
placed in the dog's mouth. After a few repetitions of this
sequence, the light or sound by itself caused the dog to
salivate.

12.  The idea of classical conditioning helped
behaviorist John Watson discover the key
mechanism behind how humans acquire the
behaviors that they do, which was to find a
natural reflex that produces the response being
considered..

15. LIMITATIONS OR DRAWBACKS
This approach doesnot consider the
importance of genetic inheritance.
This approach considers human
beings as a machine.
Experiments done on animals cannot
have the same results in human
beings in the social learning process.