Behaviorism
Prior to the 1920's, psychology was known as "the science of mental life." However, John B. Watson dismissed the idea of cognitive psychology and instead, suggested that it should be redefined as "the science of observable behavior." He claimed that science is found through observation. After all, it is impossible to observe people's thoughts and feelings, but one can observe a person's behavior. From that point on, behaviorism became yet another key theory in the study of psychology. Behaviorism focuses on what an organism does; any action that can be observed and recorded. It is defined as "a belief that behavior is determined by forces in the environment beyond our control, rather than by the exercise of free will" (Myers, 1998, p. 15). Since free will cannot be measured, than it must not exist. Behaviorists view the world in terms of stimuli and responses and examine the influence of the environment on organisms' responses. To explain how behaviorism views learning, it is important to understand the concept of B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning and E.L. Thorndike's law of effect. Skinner was concerned with actions that operate on the environment. He ran experiments on pigeons in which he put a
A behaviorist teacher does not attempt to help students in their personal and emotional lives, or believe that knowledge creates perception. A behaviorist teacher is focused on observable behavior only. What a student thinks is of no concern, but rather, what they do is significant. Therefore, perhaps the most important behaviorist teaching method is to use reinforcement as a consequence in order to establish environmental conditions that control student behavior in the classroom. By doing this, a behaviorist teacher can strengthen what they deem as desirable behaviors and weaken or get rid of what they feel are unwanted behaviors. pigeon in a "Skinner" box and watched it peck at various things. Then, he began giving the pigeon food once it pecked at a specific set of keys, and since food is desirable to the bird, it began to frequently peck at the same out with easy things and successively making things harder, students can more readily learn and perform complex behaviors.
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Approximate Word count = 1163
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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