Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are

acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. According to behaviorism, behavior can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental states. There are two major types of conditioning: 1. Classical conditioning is a technique used in behavioral training in which a naturally occurring stimulus is paired with a response. Next, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with the naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response without the presence of the naturally occurring stimulus. The two elements are then known as the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response.

One of the best-known aspects of behavioral learning theory is classical conditioning. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone could produce the salivation response. In order to understand how more about how classical conditioning works, it is important to be familiar with the basic principles of the process.

The Unconditioned Stimulus

The unconditioned stimulus is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus.

The Unconditioned Response

The unconditioned response is the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus. In our example, the feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food is the unconditioned response.

The Conditioned Stimulus

The conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. In our earlier example, suppose that when you smelled your favorite food, you also heard the sound of a whistle. While the whistle is unrelated to the smell of the food, if the sound of the whistle was paired multiple times with the smell, the sound would eventually trigger the conditioned response. In this case, the sound of the whistle is the conditioned stimulus.

The Conditioned Response

The conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. In our example, the conditioned response would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle.

Classical Conditioning in the Real World

In reality, people do not respond exactly like Pavlov's dogs. There are, however, numerous realworld applications for classical conditioning. For example, many dog trainers use classical conditioning techniques to help people train their pets. These techniques are also useful in the treatment of phobias or anxiety problems. Teachers are able to apply classical conditioning in the class by creating a positive classroom environment to help students overcome anxiety or fear. Pairing an anxiety-provoking situation, such as performing in front of a group, with pleasant surroundings helps the student learn new associations. Instead of feeling anxious and tense in these situations, the child will learn to stay relaxed and calm. Ivan Pavlov "Science demands from a man all his life. If you had two lives that would not be enough for you. Be passionate in your work and in your searching."--Ivan Pavlov

Best Known For:

y y y

Classical conditioning Research on physiology and digestion. 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology.

Birth and Death:

y y

Ivan Pavlov was born September 14, 1849 Died February 27, 1936

Contributions to Psychology:
Ivan Pavlov's discovery and research on reflexes influenced the growing behaviorist movement, and his work was often cited in John B. Watson's writings. Other researchers utilized Pavlov's

work in the study of conditioning as a form of learning. His research also demonstrated techniques of studying reactions to the environment in an objective, scientific method. Principles of classical conditioning

Acquisition
Acquisition is the initial stage of learning when a response is first established and gradually strengthened. For example, if you are trying to teach a dog to shake in response to a verbal command, you can say the response has been acquired as soon as the dog shakes in response to only the verbal command. Once the response has been acquired, you can gradually reinforce the shake response to make sure the behavior is well learned.

Extinction
Extinction occurs when the occurrences of a conditioned response decrease or disappear. In classical conditioning, this happens when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus. For example, if the smell of food (the unconditioned stimulus) had been paired with the sound of a whistle (the conditioned stimulus), it would eventually come to evoke the conditioned response of hunger. However, if the unconditioned stimulus (the smell of food) were no longer paired with the conditioned stimulus (the whistle), eventually the conditioned response (hunger) would disappear.

Sponteneous Recovery
Spontaneous Recovery is the reappearance of the conditioned response after a rest period or period of lessened response. If the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are no longer associated, extinction will occur very rapidly after a spontaneous recovery.

Stimulus Generalization
Stimulus Generalization is the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned. For example, if a rat has been conditioned to fear a stuffed white rabbit, it will exhibit fear of objects similar to the conditioned stimulus.

Discrimination
Discrimination is the ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an unconditioned stimulus. For example, if a bell tone were the conditioned stimulus, discrimination would involve being able to tell the difference between the bell tone and other similar sounds.

2. Operant conditioning

"The consequences of behavior determine the probability that the behavior will occur again" -B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner Is Best Known For:

3. Operant conditioning 4. Schedules of Reinforcement

Birth and Death:

y y y

B. F. Skinner was born March 20, 1904 He died August 18, 1990 Operant Conditioning B.F. Skinner is famous for his research on operant conditioning and negative reinforcement. He developed a device called the "cumulative recorder," which showed rates of responding as a sloped line. Using this device, he found that behavior did not depend on the preceding stimulus as Watson and Pavlov maintained. Instead, Skinner found that behaviors were dependent upon what happens after the response. Skinner called this operant behavior. Schedules of Reinforcement In his research on operant conditioning, Skinner also discovered and described schedules of reinforcement:

What Is Operant Conditioning?

Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. Operant conditioning was coined by behaviorist B.F. Skinner, which is why you may occasionally hear it referred to as Skinnerian conditioning. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and motivations could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior. Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences" (1953). In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit each and every day.

Examples of Operant Conditioning

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions. In these examples, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in behavior, but operant conditioning can also be used to decrease a behavior. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable behaviors. For example, a child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class. This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors.

Components of Operant Conditioning

Some key concepts in operant conditioning: Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the behavior it follows. There are two kinds of reinforcers: 1. Positive reinforcers are favorable events or outcomes that are presented after the behavior. In situations that reflect positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by the addition of something, such as praise or a direct reward.

2. Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavorable events or outcomes after the display of a behavior. In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant. In both of these cases of reinforcement, the behavior increases. Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows. There are two kinds of punishment: 1. Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as punishment by application, involves the presentation of an unfavorable event or outcome in order to weaken the response it follows.

2. Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs when an favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs. In both of these cases of punishment, the behavior decreases.

Edward Thorndike

Best Known For:

y y y y

The Law of Effect Often called the father of modern educational psychology Animal research Trial-and-error theory of learning

Birth and Death:

y y

Edward Lee Thorndike was born August 31, 1874 in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. He died on August 9, 1949.

Thorndike's Early Life:

Edward Thorndike was the son of a Methodist minister and grew up in Massachusetts. While he was a very successful student, he initially disliked his first psychology course. His interest in psychology grew after reading the classic book The Principles of Psychology by William James. When he graduated from Wesleyan University in 1895 with a bachelor of science degree, Thorndike then enrolled at Harvard University to study English and French literature. During his first semester, however, he took a psychology course taught by William James and by his second trimester he had decided to switch his study concentration over to psychology. He later moved on to Columbia University where he studied under the guidance of psychologist James McKeen Cattell. After earning his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1898, Thorndike briefly took a position as an Assistant Professor of Pedagogy at Case Western Reserve University. In the year 1900, Thorndike married Elizabeth Moulton. He then took a job as a psychology professor at the Teachers College at Columbia University, where he would continue to teach for the rest of his career.

Thorndikes Work and Theories:

Thorndike is perhaps best-known for the theory he called the law of effect, which emerged from his research on how cats learn to escape from puzzle boxes. According to the law of effect, responses that are immediately followed by a satisfactory outcome become more strongly associated with the situation and are therefore more likely to occur again in the future. Conversely, responses followed by negative outcomes become more weakly associated and less likely to reoccur in the future.

Contributions to Psychology:
Through his work and theories, Thorndike became strongly associated with the American school of thought known as functionalism. Other prominent functionalist thinkers included Harvey Carr, James Rowland Angell and John Dewey. Thorndike is also often referred to as the father of modern day educational psychology, and published several books on the subject.

Thorndike was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1912 and became one of the very first psychologists to be admitted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1917. Today, Thorndike is perhaps best remembered for his famous animal experiments and for the law of effect.
The law of effect principle developed by Edward Thorndike suggested that responses closely followed by satisfaction will become firmly attached to the situation and therefore more likely to reoccur when the situation is repeated. Conversely, if the situation is followed by discomfort, the connections to the situation will become weaker and the behavior of response is less likely to occur when the situation is repeated.

Famous Quote by John Watson:

"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 beggarman 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." John B. Watson, Behaviorism, 1930

John B. Watson Is Best Known For:

y y

Behaviorism Little Albert Experiment

Born:
John B. Watson was born January 9, 1878.

Died:
He died on September 25, 1958.

John Watson's Early Life:

John B. Watson grew up in South Carolina. While he later described himself as a poor student, he entered Furman University at the age of 16. After graduating five years later with a masters degree, he began studying psychology at the University of Chicago. Watson earned his Ph.D. in psychology in 1903.

John Watson's Career:

Watson began teaching psychology at John Hopkins University in 1908. In 1913, he gave a seminal lecture at Columbia University titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, which essentially detailed the behaviorist position. According to John Watson, psychology should be the science of observable behavior. "Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness," he explained (1913).

The "Little Albert" Experiment:

In his most famous and controversial experiment, known today as the "Little Albert" experiment, John Watson and a graduate assistant named Rosalie Rayner conditioned a small child to fear a white rat. They accomplished this by repeatedly pairing the white rat with a loud, frightening clanging noise. They were also able to demonstrate that this fear could be generalized to other white, furry objects. The ethics of the experiment are often criticized today, especially because the child's fear was never deconditioned.

Leaving Academia:
Watson remained at John Hopkins University until 1920. He had an affair with Raynor, divorced in first wife and was then asked by the university to resign his position. Watson later married Raynor and the two remained together until her death in 1935. After leaving his academic position, Watson began working for an advertising agency where he remained until he retired in 1945. During the later part of his life, John Watson's already poor relationships with his children grew progressively worse. He spent his last years living a reclusive life on a farm in Connecticut. Shortly before his death, he burned many of his unpublished personal papers and letters.

Contributions to Psychology
Watson set the stage for behaviorism, which soon rose to dominate psychology. While behaviorism began to lose its hold after 1950, many of the concepts and principles are still widely used today. Conditioning and behavior modification are still widely used in therapy and behavioral training to help clients change problematic behaviors and develop new skills.