 Behaviorism suggests that all the behaviour can be

explained by environmental causes rather than by

internal forces.
 It is based upon the work of thinkers such as:
John B Watson
Ivan Pavlov
B.F. Skinner
JOHN B WATSON

Behaviorism, according to Watson, was the

science of observable behavior. Only behavior
that could be observed, recorded and measured
was of any real value for the study of humans or
animals. Watson's thinking was significantly
influenced by the earlier classical conditioning
experiments of Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov
and his now infamous dogs.
Watson's behaviorism rejected the concept of
the unconscious and the internal mental state of
a person because it was not observable and was
subject to the psychologist's subjective
interpretation. For example, Freud would ask
his patients to tell him their dreams. He would
then interpret the dreams and analyze what
these dreams were indicating in the person's
life Watson found this emphasis on
introspection and subjective interpretation to be
very unscientific and unhelpful in understanding
behavior.
 Core of Watson's Work
Watson is best known for taking his theory of behaviorism and applying it
to child development. He believed strongly that a child's environment is the
factor that shapes behaviors over their genetic makeup or natural temperament.
Watson is famous for saying that he could take a 'dozen healthy infants... and
train any one of them to become any type of specialist he might select - doctor,
lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief.' In other
words, he believed that you can expose the child to certain environmental forces
and, over time, condition that child to become any type of person you want. As
you might imagine, this was radical thinking and a type of behavioral control that
many people were not comfortable with at that time.
 The Little Albert Experiment
Little Albert experiment with John Watson and Rosalie Rayner. In his
most famous and controversial experiment, Watson put his theory on
conditioning to the test. The experiment became known as the 'Little
Albert' experiment. It involved an 11-month-old boy who was allowed to
play with various animals, such as rats and rabbits, that he was not
initially afraid of. But with repeated exposure, Watson and his assistant
and wife, Rosalie Rayner, began pairing the animal contact with a loud
clanging noise. When he touched an animal, the frightening noise
sounded. Over time, they conditioned 'Little Albert' to be afraid of the
animals. Watson believed that this proved that emotions could become
conditioned responses.
 IVAN PAVLOV

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist which is a bit

ironic due to the fact that he was a major influence
in the field of psychology specifically in Behaviorism.
Pavlov discovered the concept of classical
conditioning while studying the digestion in dogs.
 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

The rise in popularity of functionalism and structuralism in the early 1900s

spurred a revolution in psychology. It created many of the original subsets of
psychology, such as Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis.
Behaviorism is still widely used today, albeit it is very different from early
behaviorism. Unlike functionalism and structuralism, behaviorism did not
look at the mind. Behaviorism only studies observable, measurable
behavior. One of the first experiments that studied the behavior of animals
was performed by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, in the early 1900s.
Pavlov studied the effect of outside stimuli on body processes. His most
famous experiment involved the salivation reflex in dogs. The salivation reflex
is an involuntary, natural body process that occurs when food is in someone or
something’s mouth. In his experiment, he tried to create the salivation reflex
in the dogs when they did not have food in their mouth. To accomplish this, he
would turn on a metronome, and then give the dogs he was studying food.
Naturally, because food was in their mouth, they would salivate. However,
after doing this for a while, when he would turn on the metronome, the dogs
would salivate, even though they were not eating and there was no food in
front of them. This is an example conditioning.
B.F. SKINNER

Operant conditioning, also known as instrumental

conditioning, is a method of learning normally
attributed to B.F. Skinner, where the consequences
of a response determine the probability of it being
repeated. Through operant conditioning behavior
which is reinforced (rewarded) will likely be
repeated, and behavior which is punished will
occur less frequently.
Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning, but his work was based on Thorndike’s (1898) law of effect.
According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior
followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated.
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).
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.

A Skinner box, also known as an operant conditioning chamber, is a device

used to objectively record an animal's behavior in a compressed time frame.
An animal can be rewarded or punished for engaging in certain behaviors,
such as lever pressing (for rats) or key pecking (for pigeons).
Skinner identified three types of responses, or operant, that can follow behavior.
• Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior
being repeated.

• Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers
can be either positive or negative.

• Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment
weakens behavior.
We can all think of examples of how our own behavior has been affected by reinforcers and punishers. As a child you
probably tried out a number of behaviors and learned from their consequences.
For example, if when you were younger you tried smoking at school, and the chief consequence was that you got in with the
crowd you always wanted to hang out with, you would have been positively reinforced (i.e., rewarded) and would be likely
to repeat the behavior, Vice versa.
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