https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k Perspectives of Psychology en-us 2021-01-28 18:19:46 UTC 2025-10-27 23:07:59 UTC hello@padlet.com 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137906094 Behaviorism is a psychological perspective that explains the science of behavior by studying only observable behavior (eText).  It is a theory of psychology that claims all behaviors are learned through conditioning.]]> 2021-01-28 18:23:28 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137906094 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137907280 The first psychological work on behaviorism was carried out by Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov.  Pavlov worked with dogs, attempting to study the possibility of learned behavior, or conditioned reflexes.  When he gave dogs food, they salivated.  He then started pairing their meals with the ringing of bells.  Eventually, the dogs simply salivated at the sound of the bells, even with no food present.  This was one of the classic conditioning experiments.  John B. Watson studied Pavlov’s work and created his own psychological perspective known as behaviorism.  Watson did not support the study of the consciousness because he believed it was impossible to statistically measure.  Accordingly, he shifted his focus to observable behavior only because data was quantifiable.  His work pondered on the question, “Is it possible to control behavior?”   B.F. Skinner was a later behaviorist in the early 20th century that carried on the work of Watson and her legacy was rooted in her experiments in the “Skinner box.”]]> 2021-01-28 18:23:40 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137907280 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137909286 The general assumptions of a behaviorist perspective are as follows:
1. All behavior is learned from external sources
-Behaviorists assume that behavior is not inherited, it is learned.  People are conditioned to do certain actions in a scenario based on past experiences with that same scenario.  For this reason, behaviorists believe that they can study how we learn it and even control people’s behavior.  
2. Psychology is a science.  
-This assumption means that psychology needs data, just as all other sciences do.  This is why behaviorists regard some branches of psychology, which focus on unconsciousness, flawed.  There is no way to have consisten, quantifiable data that way.  External behavior, on the other hand, is quite quantifiable.
3. Humans and animals exhibit similar conditioning. 
-Many of the experiments and data that behaviorists have amassed over the years has come from animals.  This basic assumption simply qualifies that data in regards to its agreement with the human subject.
4. All behavior can be described as a response to a stimulus.  
-This simple assumption qualifies the attempt to control behavior using stimuli.  ]]> 2021-01-28 18:24:02 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137909286 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137910027 Strengths:
1. Behaviorism centers its work on observable, quantifiable data, in the form of behavior.  
-This makes it impossible for others to question the legitimacy of the experiments, a feat which some other perspectives cannot claim for themselves.
2. Behavioral experiments are universal and repeatable.  
-This form of experimentation does not differ person to person, or animal to animal.  All behavior of any organism is learned.  This means that any experiment can be repeated with any person and should yield the same result.  Other psychological perspectives may find difficulty in finding consistency between people.
3. Useful for conditioning behavior in the real world. 
-Behaviorism has been proven to be useful in therapy, schooling, parenting, child care, animal control, and many other real-world situations.  Behavior is learning how to be controlled, when need be, thanks to the work of behavioral psychologists.  

Weaknesses:
1.  Behaviorism dos not factor in biology.
-Behaviorism solely focuses on the observable, external realities.  However, biological factors can account for certain behavior.  This may vary person to person, which is yet another problem.  
2. Behaviorism does not explore the hidden, unconscious mind.  Watson founded behaviorism because he scorned Freud and Wundt for focusing too much on the mind.  Despite coming up with a brilliant perspective, there will always be mysteries left to explore about our minds.  It is important to delve into this unknown. In this sense, behaviorism is a bit one-dimensional.  
3. Learned behavior is not always conditioned, and it can reverse just as quickly as it was learned.
-Almost all of behavioral experiments have involved reinforcement, punishment, and observable conditioning.  Sometimes, behavior is instinct.  Additionally, learned behavior can become “un-learned” very quickly, showing that although behavioral conditioning can be fallible.]]> 2021-01-28 18:24:09 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137910027 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137911220 1. Learning strategies differ from person to person
-People learn in many different way.  People may be auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners, to name a few.  Thus, when behavioral psychologists attempt to control behavior by making it “learned,” results may vary from person to person because everyone learns differently. 
2. Does not account for cognitive activity
-Thoughts, motivation, and cognition are all factors that affect one’s behavior.  However, behaviorism ignores the influences of these phenomena and solely focus on the outcome that they all produce.  
3. Does not account for the social dimensions of learned behavior
-Behavior in people is affected by social situations.  This is obvious, as we are social creatures.  However, behaviorism usually ignores this becase it is hard to quantify.  A subject’s personality and social persona are not focused on in behaviorism.]]> 2021-01-28 18:24:21 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137911220 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137913913 Behaviorism’s relations to the other perspectives of psychology:

Behaviorism was an approach to psychology that was founded in response to Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic approach, which solely focused on the internal, covert actions of the mind and which stressed the importance of the unconscious.  Behaviorists thought that this idea was flawed, as it could not be tested reliably, since data was not necessarily empirical.  Behaviorism seems to pretty much be the opposite of psychoanalysis, as it focuses on observable, overt behaviors that behaviorists claimed are learned from the environment around us.  The cognitive perspective, while not dealing with the unconscious or the covert actions of the mind, focuses on the internal mental processes of people that can be “viewed” and recorded with brain scans and tests.  Again, behaviorism differs from this because behaviorism does not go inside the body.  For the same reason, behaviorism does not relate to the biological perspective, which deals with the biology of the body and mind.  In relation to the humanistic approach, which emphasizes the free will and drive to self-actualization of oneself, behaviorism contains some loose ties to it.  While humanism seems pretty subjective and without evidence, one can argue that the basic principles of it, such as free will, tie into decision making and how we determine our behavior.  The sociocultural psychological perspective can be tied into behaviorism, as part of it deals with the differences in behavior between cultures and the reasons for the discrepancies.  The evolutionary psychological perspective usually deals with the mental processes that are passed on universally, but evolution at its core can deal with the behaviors that allow organisms to survive and reproduce.

Looking at the comparisons between behaviorism and the other perspectives, I would say it is most similar to humanism and socioculturalism, and most different from the biological, cognitive, and psychodynamic approaches.  Behaviorism is very unique, especially in its solely external approach, as well as its perception about learned behavior.]]> 2021-01-28 18:24:51 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1137913913 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146322094 Classic Behaviorism Experiment: “Little Albert”]]> 2021-01-31 21:19:59 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146322094 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146347101 Skinner Box]]> 2021-01-31 21:37:54 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146347101 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146370604 2021-01-31 21:55:22 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146370604 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146370987 2021-01-31 21:55:45 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146370987 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146412260 2021-01-31 22:32:18 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146412260 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146412593 2021-01-31 22:32:39 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146412593 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146413249 2021-01-31 22:33:20 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146413249 210366mo https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146427298 John B. Watson]]> 2021-01-31 22:46:43 UTC https://padlet.com/210366mo/r41rvjio0b55wz3k/wish/1146427298