Origins of Behaviourism
Introduction
In the field of psychology, there are tremendous observations as well as innovations by different researchers. Psychoanalysis was also deliberated to be among the earliest medicines. Even though there were limited experiments undertaken in this field, studies were done in a bid to upsurge the limpidity of this subject. For that reason, numerous observations were done in the field of psychoanalysis, with one of them being Behaviorism. Behaviorism refers to the facet in which learning is observed which to some extent relies on the characteristics of an individual based on the environment within which they live and the way the environment shapes their lifestyle. Likewise, it centers on the supposed aspect which is responsible for monitoring how human beings, as well as any other living organisms, tend to operate through discerning how their different mental activities function.
- Trace the Origins and Behaviourism and the Impetus for its Development
Behaviorism started a long time in early 1897 a period when researchers such as Pavlov were able to carry out some experiments to find out the reasons why human beings tend to behave in a specific manner (Skinner et al., 2010). For instance, Pavlov used a dog and a bell as a means of studying the reaction of the dog when the bell rang. On the other hand, in the early years of the 20th century, Watson who was also a behaviorist carried out his experiments where he used a little boy whose name was Albert in the year 1913 to gain knowledge regarding classical conditioning (Watson, 2017). Watson placed a rat in front of the 11-month-old child but the child looked at the rat with a lot of curiosity and did not seem to fear it. Watson would then make a loud noise while behind the baby either by knocking a steel bar with a hammer making the child cry due to the noise. After some time, Watson would then bring the rat and on seeing the rat Albert would cry because of the noise that was made when initially saw the rat, even though at this point Watson did not make any noise. This experiment was significant for depicting the impact of criticism and ethical issues in human life.
- Discuss behaviorism as the 2nd major force in psychology.
Behaviourism as the second major force of psychology is used in the revelation of the areas of nature lying deep in the human insentient that serve to dismiss one’s full capacity. In concept, when one develops consciousness of the location and nature of such insentient hurts, they can be able to resolve them cognitively and logically. This force has consequently made major advancements in the field of psychology because it is currently adopted in psychiatry, and is used with people suffering from addiction as well as those with psychiatric issues.
- Why is behaviourism a “better” alternative than the first power of psychology which was the Freudian psychoanalytic theory?
The Freudian psychoanalytic theory is the primeval practice of therapy in the history of medicine (Thorndike & Bruce, 2017). On the contrary, behaviorism which is the second significant force in the field of psychology has attested to be a very stout method of detecting the major aspects contributing to the behavior of human beings. Psychologists like Watson presented some concepts behind human behavior by carrying out experiments to ascertain the rationality of the theories. This makes behaviorism a more significant option concerning psychology as opposed to the psychoanalytic theory which focused on the edifice of the human mind (Skinner et al, 2010). Behaviourism is reliable in the psychological facet of human behavior since researchers were able to undertake their own research to ascertain the validity of their theories and positive results were also established.
On the other hand, behaviorism is centered upon behaviors that can be observed, hence making it easier to compute and gather data when conducting research. This is so because experiments together with research are critical components in the provision of explanations and clear suggestions about a particular phenomenon. Watson and Pavlov essentially believed in initiating the studies of discernible behaviors as opposed to those which cannot be measured or otherwise observed such as the insentient and inhibited sexual desires which are the basis for Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Also, actual therapeutic techniques like behavioral intervention rely on behaviorism, unlike psychoanalysis, which relies on the human mind and consequently tends to blame a specific individual for the mistakes of another person. For instance, according to Feud’s psychoanalytic theory, the behaviors of a child are determined by early childhood experiences. The theory does not put into consideration the effects of the environment which surrounds the child, the people who play with the child, and how the society itself makes the child develop certain behaviors (Skinner et al, 2010). The behavior, therefore, relies on how the parent treats the child at the oral stage of development, which is a period when the child is not able to comprehend whatever is happening. Through living out the main factors which affect the behaviors of a child, this weakens the whole concept of psychoanalytic theory.
Also, Freud’s analytical theory is established on the unconscious mind, which in itself is hard to test and to define (Thorndike & Bruce, 2017). Besides, no scientific evidence has proven the significance of the unconscious mind. In other words, the unconscious mind is still an unknown phenomenon in psychology, thus it is not realistic to make assumptions out of it. Also, the theory depends on the current mindset of a person, without considering other factors that surround the person. The theory is limited in its research, due to the reason that it does not focus on the wider area which surrounds the person and how the locality might impact the behaviors of the person. However, behaviorism focuses on the underlying factors which affect the person thus coming up with reasons as to why the person develops a specific behavior. The assumptions made by behaviorism can also be proved, but Psychoanalytic assumptions cannot be proved.
According to psychoanalytic theory, psychic energy is only produced by the libido. The energy is then released via biotic means which are commonly known as drives which have two dissimilar parts, which are biotic need as well as psychological need (Thorndike & Bruce, 2017). For instance, when a person feels hungry it leads to a physical need for and also the desire to eat which is a psychological need. The two forces are dependent on each other hence they work together. In as much as this approach seems good, it cannot be proven, nor has it ever been tested. For this reason, the approach becomes less reliable, as opposed to behaviorism, which proves the reasons why a person would develop certain behaviors because of a punishment (Skinner et al, 2010). For example, if people are arrested for committing crimes and sentenced for a certain period, the fear of being arrested discourages most people from indulging in evil deeds. This consequently explains why most people observe the rule of law. The punishment approach is applicable in different fields and is also relevant in explaining the reasons why behaviorism is much better as opposed to the psychoanalytic theory which does not provide empirical evidence thus its application is limited, making behaviorism the best approach.
In behaviorism, learning may occur through relations, for instance, in Pavlov’s conventional experiments, dogs associated the appearance of food. Food is something that makes one salivate, thus the dog linked the bell with food, making it salivate, therefore whenever the dog hard the bell, it started salivating. The same applies to human beings, who are accustomed to taking lunch at a specific time, and at lunchtime, they would feel hungry or crave food, which also explains the importance of Pavlov’s experiment in real-life situations (Skinner et al, 2010). Behaviourism can thus be measured and explained based on the experiments provided, making it a far better approach as compared to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.
- Major Contributors in the Development of Behaviourism Theory
Multiple psychologists have majorly contributed to the development of behaviorism theory, through offering advancements to the works of their predecessors. In this section, this paper will focus on Frederic Skinner, Edward Thorndike, and Edward Tolman as the major contributors to the development theory.
Fredric Skinner
Skinner as a psychologist was influenced by the works of his precursors such as Watson, Pavlov, and Edward Thorndike. In a bid to enhance the works of his predecessors, Skinner conducted research that was based on determining behavior through negative together with positive reinforcement and established operant conditioning (Skinner et al, 2010). Operant conditioning is a behavior alteration practice which he developed in distinction to conventional theory. The psychologist conducted an experiment whereby he placed a rat in a unique cage which was named the Skinner box. The box consisted of a bar or pedal on one wall which causes slight machinery to discharge a food pellet into the confine when pressed. The rat occasionally moves through the cage, and when it presses the pedal unintentionally a food pellet is released. The operant, therefore, represents the behavior just afore to the reinforcer which is the food pellet. After a short period, the rat can understand to step on the foot pedal whenever it feels hungry. This, therefore, results in one of the principles of operant conditioning which is conduct followed through a reinforcing inducement leading to an increased likelihood of that behavior befalling in the future.
The behavior will continue, however, if the rat presses the pedal and it does not get food, the behavior will stop since the food pedal will no longer release the food. In so doing, this results in a different principle of operant conditioning, which basically means failure to reinforce stimulus consequently leads to a reduced possibility of that behavior happening in the future. Nonetheless, if the pellets machine is turned back on whereby pressing the pedal releases food, the rat will adapt to the behavior quickly as compared to the initial period when it was put in the cage. This is so because the reoccurrence of the reinforcer takes place in the setting of reinforcement antiquity which goes back to the period the rat was initially reinforced into the cage, resulting in what is popularly known as Schedules of Reinforcement. Operant conditioning can, therefore, be applied in psychology and in real-life situations whereby people are rewarded for good deeds, hence encouraging them to continue doing better (Skinner et al, 2010).
Edward Thorndike
Edward Thorndike was a dominant psychologist who is credited with the creation of contemporary psychology. He developed the law of effect, after undertaking the puzzle box experiments using cats. His principle submits that a response followed by a successful result is more probable to recur. The law of effect, therefore, proposes that behavior which is met by a negative result is less likely to occur in the future (Thorndike & Bruce, 2017). For instance, if an employee arrives at work early then the boss notices and rewards the employee this action of rewarding the employee will motivate the employee to arrive at work early an action that will be most likely to occur more often.
To realize the law of effect, Thorndike conducted an experiment whereby he places a cat inside a puzzle box with a small lever leaving a piece of outside the box. He would then sit back and observe the efforts made by the cat to obtain the meat while recording the duration it took the cat to find its way out of the box (Thorndike & Bruce, 2017). Ultimately, the cat would press the lever and the door would open allowing the cat to get the meat. Because pressing the lever occurred unintentionally, the cat was most likely to do the same thing soon. The law of effect influenced operant conditioning by Skinner since Skinner based operant conditioning on the dictates of the law of effects.
Edward Tolman
Tolman introduced latent learning a type of learning which is not obvious in the behavior of the learner at the time when the learner is learning. Nonetheless, this learning is manifested when an appropriate inspiration and situation appears. This idea had been earlier on introduced, but Tolman advanced it further. According to Tolman, human beings are involved in latent learning every day as they either walk or travel the same route daily and study the localities of different buildings and objects. This learning becomes obvious only in situations when one is required to find a specific building. To understand latent learning, Tolman conducted the following experiment (Skinner et al, 2010).
Tolman built a maze, where three groups of rats had to find their way out of the complex maze (Skinner et al, 2010). At the end of the maze, there was food and some rats ate the food while others did not, to other rats they only found the food ten days later. The first group was rewarded every time they got to the end of the maze, the second group was taken out of the maze when they reached the end, and later on, placed back to the maze and given food when they reached the end. Finally, the third group was not rewarded every time they got to the end of the maze, hence it took them a longer period to get the food box since they were not motivated. This explains why one may not be interested in something since it may not be of importance to the person while another person may see its importance since getting such a thing may earn the person a reward.
References
Kline, P. (2014). Psychology and Freudian Theory: An Introduction: Routledge.
Skinner, B. F, Pavlov, I., Watson B. J., Bailey B., M., Bekhterev, V., & Tolman E, C. (2010). Behaviourist Psychologists. Amazon.
Thorndike, E. L., & Bruce, D. (2017). Animal intelligence: Experimental studies.
Watson, J. B. (2017). Behaviorism. Taylor & Francis.
