Behaviourism.

What is behaviourism?
Behaviourism is a psychological theory that suggests that all human behaviour can be
explained by observable and measurable factors, rather than by internal mental processes
or unconscious influences. It focuses on the external stimuli that elicit a response, and the
reinforcement or punishment that follows the behaviour.

Pavlov.
One of the fundamental principles of behaviourism is classical conditioning, which was first
explored by Ivan Pavlov in his famous experiment with dogs. Classical conditioning involves
pairing an initially neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus, or CS) with an unconditioned
stimulus (UCS) that naturally elicits a specific response (unconditioned response, or UCR).
Over time, the neutral stimulus becomes associated with the UCS, and is able to elicit the
same response on its own. He investigated this by conditioning a dog to salivate at the ring
of a bell. This process of learning is often used to explain the development of phobias and
other emotional responses. For example, a person may develop a fear of dogs after being
bitten by one.

Skinner.
Another important concept within behaviourism is operant conditioning, which was
developed by B.F. Skinner. Operant conditioning focuses on the consequences that follow a
behaviour, and how these consequences influence the likelihood of the behaviour occurring
again. Skinner proposed that behaviours that are reinforced by pleasant consequences are
more likely to be repeated, while behaviours that are punished or not reinforced are less
likely to be repeated. Reinforcement and punishment play a crucial role in shaping
behaviour, and behaviourists believe that they are the primary mechanisms through which
individuals learn and acquire new behaviours. Reinforcement refers to the strengthening of a
behaviour by providing a positive consequence, while punishment refers to the weakening of
a behaviour by providing a negative consequence.

Bandura.
Bandura’s experiment on observational learning is known as the Bobo doll experiment. This
experiment demonstrated the power of observational learning in shaping behaviour and has
helped us in understanding human behaviour, socialisation, and even aggression. To
conduct the experiment, Bandura had three groups of children. The first group watched an
adult beating and verbally abusing a Bobo doll with negative reinforcement. The second
group watched an adult verbally abuse and beat the Bobo doll with positive reinforcement.
The third group served as a control and did not witness any adult behaviour. Afterward, each
child was placed in a room with the Bobo doll and other toys, and their behaviour was
observed.The children who observed the aggressive model were more likely to imitate
aggressive behaviour toward the Bobo doll. On the other hand, children who had observed
the non-aggressive model or had not witnessed any adult behaviour were less likely to
display aggressive behaviour toward the doll.

Learning theory vs social learning theory.

The main difference between the learning theory and the social learning theory is the
observation of the consequence. For example, the learning theory could be demonstrated as
a child observing an aggressive behaviour and imitating it without seeing the consequence
of the behaviour that they’ve imitated on the person they imitated. However, social learning
theory is when the consequence is observed and they still choose to imitate the behaviour
despite a possible negative consequence.