Development of Behaviorist school of learning; from Watsonian Behaviorism to Sociobehaviorism

1. Behavioral (learning)
Approach
PREPARED BY:
ANEEKA BATOOL

2. Outline:
Introduction
Learning process
What is Behaviorism?
a) What is Classical Conditioning?
b) What is Operant Conditioning?
c) What is Observational Learning?
Roots of Behaviorism – Major Characters
(Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, Skinner)
Three stages of Behaviorism
◦ Watsonian behaviorism
◦ Neobehaviorism
◦ Sociobehaviorism
The fate of Behaviorism
Behaviorism in a nutshell
Behaviorism in Classroom
Biblohraphy

3. Introduction
What is Learning?
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that is the result of experience.
During the first half of the twentieth century, the school of thought known as behaviorism
rose to dominate psychology and sought to explain the learning process.
The three major types of learning described by behavioral psychology are:
classical conditioning
operant conditioning
observational learning

4. Rationalists - humans have an innate capacity for the development of
language, and that we are genetically programmed to develop out
linguistic systems in certain ways.
Empiricists - the learner’s experience is largely responsible for
language learning. Language learning is seen as the result of external
forces acting on the organism rather than the programmed unfolding of
language through internal biological mechanisms.
BEHAVIORISM
is the chief empiricist theory of learning.

5. Classical Conditioning
What is Classical Conditioning?
Classical conditioning is a learning process in which an association is made
between a previously neutral stimulus and a stimulus that naturally evokes a
response. Classic conditioning occurs when a natural reflex responds to a
stimulus.
The most popular example is Pavlov's observation that dogs salivate when
they eat or even see food. Essentially, animals and people are biologically
"wired" so that a certain stimulus will produce a specific response. In Pavlov’s
classic experiment, the smell of food was the naturally occurring stimulus that
was paired with the previously neutral ringing of the bell. Once an association
had been made between the two, the sound of the bell alone could lead to a
response.

6. Classical Conditioning in the
Classroom
Playing soothing music, dimming the lights to calm and relax
students
Unintentional classical conditioning:
◦ Test anxiety
◦ Math anxiety
◦ Public speaking anxiety
◦ General school anxiety

7. Operant Conditioning
What is Operant Conditioning?
 Behavioral or operant conditioning is a learning process in which the
probability of response is increased or decreased due to reinforcement or
punishment. So, operant conditioning occurs when a response to a stimulus is
reinforced.
 First studied by Edward Thorndike and later by B.F. Skinner, the underlying idea
behind operant conditioning is that the consequences of our actions shape
voluntary behavior.
 Basically, operant conditioning is a simple feedback system: if a reward or
reinforcement follows the response to a stimulus, then the response becomes
more probable in the future.

8. Operant Conditioning in
Teaching
Teachers can deliberately use operant conditioning with their students
(training)
How someone reacts to our behaviors determines whether or not we
continue the behavior
◦ if we are rewarded for something we will likely do it again - do you do this
as a teacher?

9. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
Behavior
Increases
Behavior
Decreases
Positive
Reinforcement
Negative
Reinforcement
Punishment
Presence of Pleasant
Stimulus
Absence of Unpleasant
Stimulus
Presence of
Unpleasant Stimulus

10. Observational Learning
What is Observational Learning?
Observational learning is a process in which learning occurs through
observing and imitating others.
Four important elements are essential for effective observational
learning: attention, motor skills, motivation, and memory.

11. Important People
The following are some of the major figures associated with learning and the behavioral school of psychology.
◦ Ivan Pavlov (Pavlovian or classical conditioning)
◦ Edward Thorndike (S-R framework of behavioral psychology)
◦ John Watson (Radical Environmentalism)
◦ B.F. Skinner (Neo-behaviourism)

12. Three stages of behaviorism
◦ 1913-1930: Watsonian behaviorism
◦ 1930-1960: Neo-behaviorism
◦ 1960-present: Socio-behaviorism

13. Watsonian behaviorism
John B. Watson (1878 – 1958)
◦1913: Watson declared war
◦Dealt solely with observable behavior
◦Rejected mentalistic concepts
◦Goal: prediction and control of behavior
◦1924: Watsonian behaviorism preeminent in US

14. Watsonian behaviorism
 Watson said that any existence of a mental life is false. Thus, he argued that mental
activity could be observed.
 Watson called language a “manipulative habit.”
 Watson also uses an experiment that he and his wife conducted, where they conditioned a
baby to say “da-da” when he wanted his bottle.
 "Twelve infants" quotation.
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at
random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man
and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and
I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years.”

15. Neo-behaviorism
2nd form of behaviorism
◦ Skinner (Tolman, Hull)
The rat as an important research subject
◦ Assumption that one could generalize from rats to other animals and
humans
◦ Simple, easy to study, readily available

16. Dealt only with observable behavior
No presumptions about internal entities
◦ The “empty organism” approach
◦ Internal physiological and mental events exist but not useful to science
Skinner advocated a system with no theoretical framework
◦ Not averse to all theorizing
◦ Warned against premature theorizing
◦ Large numbers of subjects / statistics not necessary
Skinner’s behaviorism

17. Criticisms of Skinner’s behaviorism
◦ His extreme view that only observable behavior
could be studied
◦ His opposition to theory
◦ His willingness to extrapolate beyond the data
to possible real life solutions
◦ The narrow range of behavior studied
◦ His position that all behaviors are learned

18. Socio-behaviorism:
the cognitive challenge
Socio-behaviorism
◦ Combination of behaviorism and cognitive theory
◦ Studies humans in social situations
◦ The third form of behaviorism

19. Albert Bandura (1925-)
Social cognitive theory
◦ Research focus: observation of the behavior of humans in interaction
◦ Emphasizes the role of reinforcement in learning and behavior modification
◦ Reinforcer effective if
◦ Person is consciously aware of what is being reinforced
◦ Person anticipates the same reinforcer if the behavior is repeated

20. Vicarious reinforcement
◦ learning by watching other people’s behavior
◦ seeing the consequences of their behavior
◦ Assumption: Humans anticipate outcomes
◦ Behavior can be regulated by
◦ Imagining consequences, and
◦ Making a conscious selection of the behavior to manifest
Albert Bandura (1925-)

21. ◦ Greater emphasis on cognitive processes than Bandura
◦ Four cognitive principles determine behaviors
◦ Expectation of amount and kind of reinforcement
◦ Estimation of probability the behavior will lead to a
particular reinforcement
◦ Differential values of reinforcers and assessment of their
relative worth
◦ Different people place different values on the same
reinforcer
Julian Rotter (1916-)

23. The fate of behaviorism
Cognitive challenge to behaviorism from within modified the behaviorist
movement
Socio-behaviorists still consider themselves behaviorists
◦ Are contrasted with radical behaviorists like Watson and skinner who do
not deal with presumed internal states
◦ Skinnerian behaviorism peaked in the 1980s
◦ Declined after skinner’s death in 1990
Today’s behaviorism, particularly in applied psychology, is different from
forms it took from 1913 (Watson) to 1990 (Skinner)
In an evolutionary sense, the spirit of behaviorism still lives.

24. Behaviorism in a nutshell
Learning is defined by the outward expression of new behaviors
Focuses solely on observable behaviors
A biological basis for learning
Learning is context-independent
Classical & Operant Conditioning
Reflexes (Pavlov’s Dogs)
Feedback/Reinforcement (Skinner’s Pigeon Box)

25. Behaviorism in the Classroom
Rewards and punishments
Responsibility for student learning rests
squarely with the teacher
Lecture-based, highly structured

26.  Behaviorism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974).
Skinner, B. F.: About behaviorism. New York: Knopf, 1974.
Zuriff, G.: Behaviorism: A Conceptual Reconstruction. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985
Descriptive behaviorism versus cognitive theory in verbal operant conditioning. Spielberger,
Charles D.; Denike, L. Douglas Psychological Review, Vol 73(4), Jul 1966, 306-326.
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/f/behaviorism.htm
References