brief and useful information about the theory of behaviorism.

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In the name of God
Behaviorism
Fatemeh Bateni

2. z Behaviorism
 A branch of psychology and a theory of learning
 Began in 1913 by John Watson’s 'Psychology as the behaviorist views it'
 Focuses on the behavior that can be observed
 Uses different experimental procedures with the aim of studying observable behavior
 Studies the interaction that occurs between living beings and the stimuli of the
environment or external environment through a process called conditioning
 Has classical and operant conditioning

3. z Characteristics
 Psychology should be seen as a science.
 It denies the existence of the mind.
 It associates initial stimuli with neutral events.
 It studies the different behaviors that are subject to the laws of behavior.
 Particular actions are followed by something desirable or undesirable.
 Behaviors are treated as observable and not as an expression of a deep state.
 Behavior is a fruit of learned experiences not of innate factors.
 There is a constant association between stimuli and responses.

4. zIvan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist
best known in psychology for his
discovery of classical conditioning.
During his studies on the digestive
systems of dogs, Pavlov noted that the
animals salivated naturally upon the
presentation of food.
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is a process that involves creating an association between a neutral or
unconditioned stimulus with a natural stimulus that creates a conditioned response
to the previously neutral stimulus.

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Imagine a dog that salivates when it sees food. The animal does this automatically (2), it simply
occurs naturally. The food is the naturally occurring stimulus. If you started to ring a bell every time
you presented the dog with food, an association would be formed between the food and the bell (3).
Eventually the bell alone, the conditioned stimulus would come to evoke the salivation response (4).

6. zJohn B. Watson
Around the year 1913, the first theories
about behaviorism began to appear.
John Watson was the first to initiate the
new school of behaviorism. He focused
on what could be observed, studying only
the facts and behaviors that were visible
to the scholar’s eyes.
Different laboratory tests were started, thinking that one could get to know the way in which
a person or animal could react to a stimulus, to get to know what was in the mind.
By the beginning of the 20th century, Watson argued that observable behavior as an
object of study gave rise to behavior.

7. z
The Little Albert experiment was a
controlled experiment showing
empirical evidence of
classical conditioning in humans.
The study also provides an example
of stimulus generalization. It was
carried out by John B. Watson and his
graduate student, Rosalie Rayner,
at Johns Hopkins University

8. z Edward Thorndike
Edward Thorndike (1898) is famous in
psychology for his work on learning theory
that lead to the development of operant
conditioning within behaviorism.
He was perhaps best-known for his famous
puzzle box experiments with cats which led
to the development of his law of effect.
According to Thorndike's law of effect, responses that are immediately followed by a satisfactory
outcome become more strongly associated with the situation and are therefore more likely to
occur again in the future. Conversely, responses followed by negative outcomes become more
weakly associated and less likely to reoccur in the future.

9. z
He placed a cat inside a wooden box. The cat would use various methods while trying to get out,
however nothing would work until it hit the lever. Afterwards, Thorndike tried placing the cat inside
the wooden box again. This time, the cat was able to hit the lever quickly and succeeded in getting
out from the box.
In successive trials the cats would learn that pressing the lever would have favorable consequences
and they would adopt this behavior, becoming increasingly quick at pressing the lever.

10. zB.F. Skinner
Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant
Conditioning, but his work was based on
Thorndike’s (1898) law of effect.
Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of
Effect - Reinforcement. behavior which is
reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e.,
strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced
tends to die out-or be extinguished (i.e.,
weakened).
Operant conditioning
Skinner believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its
consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning. Operant conditioning (or instrumental
conditioning) focuses on using either reinforcement or punishment to increase or decrease a behavior.
Through this process, an association is formed between the behavior and the consequences of that behavior.
Skinner (1948) studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using animals which he placed in a
'Skinner Box' which was similar to Thorndike’s puzzle box.

11. z
Three elements in operant conditioning
 Positive reinforcement
 A response or behavior is strengthened by rewards
 Leading to the repetition of desired behavior
 The reward is a reinforcing stimulus
 Negative reinforcement
 Termination of an unpleasant state following a response
 The removal of an adverse stimulus which is ‘rewarding’ to the animal or person
 Strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience
 Punishment
 The opposite of reinforcement
 Designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it
 An aversive event that decreases the behavior that it follows

12. z
Skinner showed how negative reinforcement worked by placing a rat in his Skinner box and
then subjecting it to an unpleasant electric current which caused it some discomfort. As the rat
moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever.
Immediately it did so the electric current would be switched off. The rats quickly learned to go
straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box.
In Skinner’s experiment, each
reward led the rat closer to the
target behavior, finally
culminating in the rat pressing
the lever and receiving food.
In this way, shaping uses
operant-conditioning principles
to train a subject by rewarding
proper behavior and
discouraging improper behavior.

13. z Critical Evaluation
 An obvious advantage of behaviorism is its ability to define behavior clearly and to
measure changes in behavior.
 According to the law of parsimony, the fewer assumptions a theory makes, the better
and the more credible it is.
 Behaviorism looks for simple explanations of human behavior from a very scientific
standpoint.
 Behaviorism only provides a partial account of human behavior, that which can be
objectively viewed.
 Accepting a behaviorist explanation could prevent further research from other
perspective that could uncover important factors.
 Many of the experiments carried out were done on animals; we are different
cognitively and physiologically, humans have different social norms and moral values.

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