2. Behaviorism
◦ Behavioral psychology is the study of external behavior
◦ Behavior is objective and observable, where as what goes on in one’s mind can never really be known or
measured (the mind is a “black box”)
◦ Behavior is the response of an organism to stimuli
◦ “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own special world to bring them up in and I’ll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him to be any type of specialist I might select – a doctor, a
lawyer, artist…” (Watson 1924)
◦ Pavlov (1927), a Russian physiologist discovered classical conditioning in dogs
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3. Behavior & Human Behavior
◦ Behavior: Refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment.
Behavior can be conscious or unconscious, overt, and voluntary or involuntary.
◦ Human-Behavior: It is the collection of activities performed by human beings and influenced by culture,
attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, persuasion or coercion.
◦ Example of Human Behavior:
◦ Skills
◦ Responses: Acceptance, Rejection, Resistance, Answer, Ignorance etc.
◦ Life: Dreaming, Sleeping, Awake, Human Communication, Desire, Hunger, Thirst.
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4. Classical Conditioning
◦ Explains some learning of involuntary emotional and physiological responses.
◦ Dog drooling when it smells food and later when it hears a bell
◦ Classical conditioning can face “extinction”, where the learning is undone.
◦ This can happen naturally (the dog stops getting meat when music is played)
◦ Or can happen through some type of therapy in the case of severe anxiety reactions
◦ Ex: people who are afraid to fly….
◦ Remember: Classical conditioning is more than forming an association – it is an involuntary, physiological response
◦ Hearing a teacher, roommate, boyfriend/girlfriend say to you, “We need to talk”. Upon hearing this phrase your
stomach “flutters”.
◦ The point is, we learn to associate a stimulus with a response, and eventually our body does this automatically in the
presence of the stimulus. Our response is involuntary
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5. Operant Conditioning
◦ American psychologist - influential from the 1930’s - 60’s – developed Operant Conditioning
◦ He believed that behavior is sustained by reinforcements or rewards, not by free will.
◦ Famous for the skinner box & the teaching machine
◦ Often worked with pigeons & rats and applied what he learned with these animals to human learning
◦ This involves conditioning voluntary, controllable behaviors, not the automatic physiological responses in
Classical Conditioning
◦ With Operant Conditioning the Response comes before the Stimulus (the opposite of CC)
R S
Behaviorism/Behavior 5
7. Consequences for Behaviors
◦ Positive Reinforcement – You behave in a certain way that results in a reward, and as a result, you are more
likely to repeat that behavior
◦ Negative Reinforcement – You behave in a certain way that results in the removal of something unpleasant,
and as a result you are more likely to repeat that behavior.
◦ In both cases, something happened that you saw as “good” and as a result, you exhibited the behavior more.
◦ Punishment – A consequence that follows a behavior so that you do the behavior less often in the future.
◦ Punishment can involve adding something (paying a fine) or involve removing something you like.
◦ In both cases, adding something or removing something, you perceive it as “bad” and as a result, you exhibit
the behavior less
Behaviorism/Behavior 7
8. Differences Between Negative Reinforcement &
Punishment
◦ Negative reinforcement: Something unpleasant is removed & as a result you are more likely to do it again
◦ Something happened that was “good”
◦ Punishment: A consequence happens that you don’t like and you are less likely to do it again. The
punishment can add something or take something away.
◦ Something happened that was “bad”
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9. Different Types of Behaviors
◦ Efficiency Investment Behavior: This behavior is one-shot action. As such it is a clearly identifiable
individual event, which usually involves some amount of information processing prior to the action.
◦ Habitual or Curtailment Behavior: This type of behavior usually entails unconscious decisions, routines.
Routines are those activities that repeated frequently without conscious thinking.
◦ Compulsive Behavior: This behavior is defined as performing an act persistently and repetitively without
leading to an actual reward or pleasure. It could be an attempt to make obsessions go away.
◦ Prosocial Behavior: It consists of actions which benefits other people or society as a whole such as helping,
sharing, donating, cooperating and volunteering.
Behaviorism/Behavior 9
10. Principles of Human Behavior
◦ Almost all human behaviors is learned.
◦ All behaviors occur for a reasons
◦ No behavior occur “Out of Blue”
◦ Behaviors continue to occur because they are effective.
◦ Behaviors stop occurring when they are ineffective.
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12. Norman Behaviors
◦ When an individual is able to function adequately and performs daily living activities efficiently and feels
satisfied with his lifestyle, he is said to have normal behavior.
◦ Characteristics of Normal Behavior:
◦ A perception of reality
◦ A positive attitude towards own-self, accepting weaknesses and taking pride in strengths.
◦ Adequate in work, play and leisure.
◦ Willing to use problem solving approach in life process.
◦ Capacity to adopt oneself to current situation.
◦ Capacity for withstanding anxiety and stress.
◦ On a psychological or Behavioral Level, we can’t have an ideal model of a man or ideal behavior to be set as
standard norm.
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13. Factors Affecting Human Behavior
◦ Attitudes: The degree to which the person has favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior in the
response.
◦ Social Norms: This is the influence of social pressure that is perceived by the individual (Normative Beliefs)
to perform or not perform a certain behavior.
◦ Perceived Behavioral Control: This construct is defined as the individual’s belief concerning how easy or
difficult performing the behavior will be.
◦ Genetics : Patterns of behavior are influenced by inheritance from parents.
◦ Core Faith & Social Culture: Shape our religious faith, philosophical thinking and emotional wellbeing..
◦ Creativity: Pushes people past their Comfort Zone.
Behaviorism/Behavior 13
14. Abnormal Behaviors
◦ It is defined as behavior that is disturbing (socially unacceptable), distressing maladaptive (or self-defeating),
and often the results of distorted thoughts (Cognition).
◦ Behavior that is harmful to the self or to others with serving interest of the self.
◦ Emotional reactions inappropriate the persons situation.
◦ Erratic Behavior i.e., behavior that shifts unpredictably.
◦ Characteristics of Abnormal Behavior:
◦ Change in persons thinking process, memory, perception and judgement.
◦ Reduced work efficiency and General Stamina.
◦ Forgetfulness.
◦ Unable to cope with stresses
◦ Develops Anxiety and worries at the slightest disturbance in daily routine.
◦ Lack of Self Confidence, Gratification and respect for self & others.
Behaviorism/Behavior 14
15. Organizational Behavior
◦ It is the academic study of organizations, examining them using the methods of economics, sociology,
political science, anthropology and psychology.
◦ Related practice disciplines include human recourses (HR) and industrial psychology.
◦ Organizational studies are the study of individual (Learning, Perceptions, Personality, Values and Attitudes)
and group dynamics (Groups at Work, Leadership and Communication) in an organizational setting as well as
the nature of the organizations themselves.
◦ Organizational behavior is becoming more important in the global economy as people with diverse
backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently.
◦ A variety of methods are used in organizational behavior studies.
◦ Quantitative methods, Computer Simulations, Qualitative methods.
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16. Shaping New Behaviors
◦ Shaping is a process of reinforcing a series of responses that increasingly resemble the desired final behavior
◦ When a desired behavior occurs rarely or not at all, we use shaping
◦ First reinforce any response that in some way resembles the desired behavior, then one that is closer etc.
◦ Think of animal training or the hyper kid who can’t sit in his chair in class – do things in small steps
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