Behaviorism

https://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html

1. Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior.
2. All behavior is learned from the environment.
3. Behavior is the result of stimulus-response.
4. There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals.
5. There are two main types of behaviorism. Methodological behaviorism and radical behaviorism.
6. The goal of methodological behaviorism is the prediction and control of behaviorism. The mind is a blank slate after birth.
7. Radical Behaviorism was founded by B.F. Skinner and agreed with methodological behaviorism but radical behaviorism says that in contrast to methodological behaviorism, the mind is not a blank slate, but rather born with innate behaviors.

Pavlov

https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html

1. Pavlov trained his dogs to salivate when they heard the footsteps of the assistant who gave them food instead of salivating when getting the actual food.
2. Pavlov discovered that an object or event related to food would stimulate the dogs to salivate.
3. This way he triggered a neutral stimulus (the footsteps) to become a conditioned stimulus and trigger a conditioned response (salivating).
4. The stimuli have to be presented closely together. This is called the law of temporal contiguity.
5. If the time between stimuli is too great, the learning will not occur.
6. This study is called ‘classical conditioning’ and is classical in the sense that it is the first systematic study of basic laws of learning / conditioning.

Classical conditioning

https://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html

1. Classical conditioning is learning through association. There are two stimuli linked closely together to produce a new learned response.
2. Watson believed that he could condition children from birth to become whatever he wanted to if he had his own specified world.
3. Watson and Rayner experimented on a 9-month-old infant. They showed various stimuli and with the rat they would make a loud, startling noise. This scared Albert and make him burst into tears.
4. 7 times over 7 weeks 2 months later they did it again. Albert began to develop a phobia of the rat. He would ever show signs of fear if he saw things he would associate with the rat.
5. This meant that classical conditioning could be used to create a phobia, an irrational fear.
6. This can happen with for example a student that is bullied at school. School may become associated with fear.

 

Operant conditioning

https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

1. Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence.
2. B.F. Skinner proposed the form of operant conditioning.
3. Skinner’s views were slightly less extreme than those of Watson. He believed that we have a mind, but it is more productive to study observable behavior.
4. Skinner based his work on Thorndike’s law of effect. According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated and for behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely.
5. There are two types of reinforcers. Positive and negative reinforcements.
6. Negative reinforcements work by the removal of an adverse stimulus. This feels rewarding to the person or animal.
7. Positive reinforcements work by adding a positive consequence to an action that the person or animal finds rewarding.
8. Punishment weakens behavior and is immediate.