The document outlines behaviorism in psychology, emphasizing that behavior is primarily shaped by environmental factors rather than internal thoughts or feelings. Key figures discussed include John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, and Edward Thorndike, highlighting their contributions to classical and operant conditioning. It also critiques behaviorism for its one-dimensional approach, neglecting free will and internal influences.

1. Behaviorism
in
psychology

3. Nadeem Shoukat
MS Clinical Psychology

4. BEHAVIORISM
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
IN
PSYCHOLOGY

5. Outline
1. Introduction
2. Major thinkers
3. Assumptions of Behaviorism
4. Goal of Behaviorism
5. Subject matter of Behavioral Psychology
6. Techniques of Behaviorism
7. Criticisms of behaviorism

6. Behaviorism Intro.
• Term Behaviorism was coined in 1913.
• Behaviorism suggests that all behavior can be explained by
environmental causes rather than by internal forces.
Behaviorism is focused on observable behavior.
• Behaviorism argues that there is no mind, no thoughts, no
feelings, and the only important thing to consider is behavior.

7. Major Thinker
1. John B Watson
2. Ian Pavlov
3. Throne Dike
4. B.F Skinner

8. John Broadus Watson (1878- 1958)
• J.B. Watson was American psychologist, established the psychological
school of behaviorism
• Humans are born with a few reflexes and the emotional reactions of love
and rage. All other behavior is learned through stimulus-response
associations through conditioning.
• His famous experiment was little albert experiment.

9. Little Albert Experiment
• Watson and Rayner selected an infant named Albert, approx. 9 months of
age, he was tested and was judged to show no fear when successively
observing a number of live animals (e.g., a rat, a rabbit, a dog, and a
monkey), and various inanimate objects (e.g., cotton, human masks, a
burning newspaper).
• Two months after testing Albert's apparently unconditioned reactions to
various stimuli, Watson and Rayner attempted to condition him to fear a
white rat. This was done by presenting a white rat to Albert, followed by a
loud clanging sound (of the hammer and steel bar) whenever Albert
touched the animal. After seven pairings of the rat and noise (in two
sessions, one week apart), Albert reacted with crying and avoidance when
the rat was presented without the loud noise.

10. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Ivan Pavlov was a noted Russian physiologist.
• Researched the physiology of digestion in mammals.
• This research led to his interest in conditioned reflexes.
• Discovered classical conditioning.
• Pavlov’s dog is a well-known experiment in which Pavlov used
classical conditioning
• Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904

11. Classical Conditioning
• Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an
environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.
• It is a type of learning when an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) such as food produces an
unconditioned response (UCR) such as salivation. If a neutral stimulus such as a bell is
paired with UCS to get UCR and this is repeated, the neutral stimulus will create the
response of salivation. The neutral stimulus is now the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the
response is a conditioned response (CR).
Stage 1 (B4 Learning) Food (UCS) Salivation (UCR)
Stage 2 (During Learning) Bell (CS)+ Food (UCS) Salivation (UCR)
Stage 3 (After Learning) Bell (CS) Salivation (CR)

12. Classical Conditioning
Behaviorists have described several different phenomena associated with classical
conditioning.
1. Acquisition - Acquisition is the initial stage of learning when a response is first
established and gradually strengthened.
2. Extinction - Extinction is when the occurrences of a conditioned response decrease or
disappear.
3. Spontaneous Recovery - Spontaneous Recovery is the reappearance of the conditioned
response after a rest period or period of lessened response.
4. Stimulus Generalization - Stimulus Generalization is the tendency for the conditioned
stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned.
5. Discrimination - Discrimination is the ability to differentiate between a conditioned
stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

13. Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)
• As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and motivations
could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested, we should
look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior.
• He developed an Operant Conditioning apparatus there which became
better known as Skinner Box.
• He used to study behavior of rats in it initially and then of pigeons and got
the idea that some sort of Reinforcements needed to see or observe
Behavior.
• His work involved learned responses to an environment rather than
involuntary responses to a stimuli.

14. Operant Conditioning
• Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates
upon the environment to generate consequences.”
• Operant Conditioning (or instrumental learning) is the processes whereby
learned responses are controlled by the consequences. There are two main
processes involved in operant conditioning: Reinforcement & Punishment
1) Reinforcement occurs when a response is strengthened by an outcome.
There are two types of reinforcement, negative & positive reinforcement.
2) Punishment occurs when a response decreases the likelihood of the
behavior reoccurring. There are also two types of punishment, negative and
positive punishment.
Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement
Getting something good like food Removing something bad like pain
Positive Punishment Negative Punishment
Getting something bad like punish Removing something good (toffee)

15. Operant Conditioning
In operant conditioning, schedules of reinforcement are an important component of the learning
process. When and how often we reinforce a behavior can have a dramatic impact on the strength
and rate of the response.
Continuous Reinforcement - In continuous reinforcement, the desired behavior is reinforced every
single time it occurs. Generally, this schedule is best used during the initial stages of learning in
order to create a strong association between the behavior and the response. Once the response if
firmly attached, reinforcement is usually switched to a partial reinforcement schedule.
Partial Reinforcement - In partial reinforcement, the response is reinforced only part of the time.
Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly with partial reinforcement, but the response is more
resistant to extinction. There are four schedules of partial reinforcement:
1. Fixed-ratio schedules are those where a response is reinforced only after a specified number
of responses.
2. Variable-ratio schedules occur when a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number
of responses. Gambling and lottery games are good examples of a reward based on a variable
ratio schedule.
3. Fixed-interval schedules are those where the first response is rewarded only after a specified
amount of time has elapsed.
4. Variable-interval schedules occur when a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount
of time has passed. This schedule produces a slow, steady rate of response.

16. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)
• Studied animal behavior and the learning process
• Laying the foundation for modern educational psychology.
• Thorndike looked at how cats learned to
escape from puzzle boxes.
• His finding was that cats consistently showed
gradual learning through trial & error.
• These led Thorndike to formulate first his
Principles of Learning and then his Theory of
Learning that became the foundation of
modern educational psychology.

17. Principles of Learning
Learning is the result of association forming between stimuli and
responses. Such associations or habits become strengthened or
weakened by the nature and frequency of the S-R pairings. Thorndike
specified three conditions that maximizes learning:
1. The Law of Effect S-R bond is strengthened when consequence is
positive and weakened when consequence is negative.
2. The Law of Readiness The more readiness the learner has to
respond to stimulus, the stronger will be the bond between them.
3. The Law of Exercise The more an S-R bond is practiced, the stronger
it will become.

18. Assumptions of behaviorism
• The key assumption of behavioral psychology is that-if psychology is
to be science, it must study only that which is observable namely
behavior.
• Learning occurs through interactions with the environment.
• The environment shapes behavior
• Taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings and emotions
into consideration is useless in explaining behavior.

19. Goal of Behaviorism
• The goal of behaviorism is to explain relationships between
antecedent conditions(stimuli), behavior (responses),and
consequences(reward, punishment, or neutral effect).
• Watson was very much influenced by Ivan Pavlov’s animal studies
(Classical conditioning) so he began to give his ideas by observing the
behavior through that study.

20. Subject matter of Behavioral Psychology
The subject matter of psychology should be the “objective observable
actions of organisms”. The only things which could be objectively
analyzed and quantitatively measured are overt responses emitted by
organisms.

21. Techniques of Behaviorism
• Chaining: The skill to be learned is broken down into the smallest units for
easy learning.
• Shaping: modifying the existing behavior of a child into the desired behavior.
• Prompting: Ref to providing appropriate assistance to the child. Incl verbal &
visual cues, Physical guidance, Demonstration
• Modeling: learning a new behavior by watching and imitating others
engaging in the behavior.
• Fading: Refers to systematic withdrawal of all the training procedure.
• Generalization: Once a skill is learned in a controlled envmt, the skill is
trained in more gen settings

22. Criticisms of behaviorism
• Behaviorism is a one-dimensional approach to understanding human behavior
and that behavioral theories do not account for free will and internal influences
such as moods, thoughts and feelings.
• Behaviorism does not account for other types of learning, especially learning that
occurs without the use of reinforcement and punishment.
• People and animals are able to adapt their behavior when new information is
introduced, even if a previous behavior pattern has been established through
reinforcement.
• Behaviorist researchers often do animal studies of behavior and then generalize
their results to human beings. Generalizing results in this way can be misleading,
since humans have complex thought processes that affect behavior.
• Behaviorists often underestimate the importance of biological factors.
• By emphasizing the situational influences on personality, some social-cognitive
theorists underestimate the importance of personality traits.

23. Message to all viewers
"‫ں‬‫ی‬‫چ‬‫سو‬‫ھا‬‫آچ‬‫ہ‬‫ش‬‫ی‬‫م‬‫ہ‬"
Nadeem Shoukat
Clinical Psychologist

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