Who is the founder of behaviorism theory

Beginning with Maslow and Rogers, there was an insistence on a humanistic research program. This program has been largely qualitative not measurement-based , but there exist a number of quantitative research strains within humanistic psychology, including research on happiness, self-concept, meditation, and the outcomes of humanistic psychotherapy Friedman, Carl Rogers — was also an American psychologist who, like Maslow, emphasized the potential for good that exists within all people.

Rogers used a therapeutic technique known as client-centered therapy in helping his clients deal with problematic issues that resulted in their seeking psychotherapy. Unlike a psychoanalytic approach in which the therapist plays an important role in interpreting what conscious behavior reveals about the unconscious mind, client-centered therapy involves the patient taking a lead role in the therapy session. Rogers believed that a therapist needed to display three features to maximize the effectiveness of this particular approach: unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy.

Unconditional positive regard refers to the fact that the therapist accepts their client for who they are, no matter what he or she might say. Humanism has been influential to psychology as a whole. Both Maslow and Rogers are well-known names among students of psychology you will read more about both men later in this text , and their ideas have influenced many scholars. Improve this page Learn More. Skip to main content. Psychological Foundations.

E The Law of effect was effectively co-opted into the principle of reinforcement for the sake of providing more easily testable experimental conditions. Skip to content Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: Trace the chronological development of the psychological school of behaviorism Develop an understanding of major themes pertaining to behaviorism Recognize important contributors to behavioral learning theory.

Exercises Review Questions: 1. Less; More b. Less; Less c. More; Less d. More; More 2. Law of effect; organisms will initiate actions which will yield a pleasurable effect b. Law of effect; organisms will initiate actions that impede the presence of an non-pleasurable effect c.

Principle of Reinforcement; an organism is more likely to pursue behaviors which are reinforced d. Principle of Reinforcement; an organism is less likely to pursue behaviors which are not reinforced e.

None of the above. Critical Thinking Questions: 1. Personal Application Question : 1. Glossary: conditioned reflex: an animal or human produced a reflex unconscious response to a stimulus.

Answers to Exercises Review Questions: 1. E The Law of effect was effectively co-opted into the principle of reinforcement for the sake of providing more easily testable experimental conditions 3.

E Critical Thinking Questions: 1. Previous Section. Behaviorism, also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning.

Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shape our actions. According to this school of thought , behavior can be studied in a systematic and observable manner regardless of internal mental states.

Strict behaviorists believed that any person can potentially be trained to perform any task, regardless of genetic background, personality traits, and internal thoughts within the limits of their physical capabilities.

It only requires the right conditioning. Behaviorism was formally established with the publication of John B. Watson 's classic paper, "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. Simply put, strict behaviorists believe that all behaviors are the result of experience. Any person, regardless of his or her background, can be trained to act in a particular manner given the right conditioning. From about through the mids, behaviorism grew to become the dominant school of thought in psychology.

Some suggest that the popularity of behavioral psychology grew out of the desire to establish psychology as an objective and measurable science. At this time, researchers were interested in creating theories that could be clearly described and empirically measured but also used to make contributions that might have an influence on the fabric of everyday human lives. There are several principles that distinguish behavioral psychology from other psychological approaches.

According to behavioral psychology, there are two major types of conditioning, classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical Conditioning. Classical conditioning is a technique frequently used in behavioral training in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a naturally occurring stimulus.

Eventually, the neutral stimulus comes to evoke the same response as the naturally occurring stimulus, even without the naturally occurring stimulus presenting itself. Throughout the course of three distinct phases, the associated stimulus becomes known as the conditioned stimulus and the learned behavior is known as the conditioned response.

Operant Conditioning. Operant conditioning sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through reinforcements and punishments. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. When a desirable result follows an action, the behavior becomes more likely to occur again in the future. Responses followed by adverse outcomes, on the other hand, become less likely to happen again in the future.

The classical conditioning process works by developing an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

In physiologist Ivan Pavlov's classic experiments, dogs associated the presentation of food something that naturally and automatically triggers a salivation response with the sound of a bell, at first, and then the sight of a lab assistant's white coat. Eventually, the lab coat alone elicited a salivation response from the dogs.

During the first part of the classical conditioning process, known as acquisition , a response is established and strengthened. Factors such as the prominence of the stimuli and the timing of presentation can play an important role in how quickly an association is formed. When an association disappears, this is known as extinction , causing the behavior to weaken gradually or vanish. Factors such as the strength of the original response can play a role in how quickly extinction occurs.

The longer a response has been conditioned, for example, the longer it may take for it to become extinct. Behaviorist B. Skinner described operant conditioning as the process in which learning can occur through reinforcement and punishment. Softer determinism of the social learning approach theory as it recognises an element of choice as to whether we imitate a behavior or not. Behaviorism is very much on the nurture side of the debate as it argues that our behavior is learnt from the environment.

The social learning theory is also on the nurture side because it argues that we learn our behavior from role models in our environment. The behaviorist approach proposes that apart from a few innate reflexes and the capacity for learning, all complex behavior is learned from the environment. The behaviorist approach and social learning are reductionist ; they isolate parts of complex behaviors to study.

The behaviorists take the view that all behavior, no matter how complex, can be broken down into the fundamental processes of conditioning. It is a nomothetic approach as it views all behavior governed by the same laws of conditioning.

However, it does account for individual differences and explain them in terms of difference of history of conditioning. The behaviorist approach introduced the scientific methods to psychology. Laboratory experiments were used with high control of extraneous variables. This gave psychology more credibility. However the behaviorists use animal experiments as it assumes that humans learn in the same way than animals.

Behaviorism has experimental support: Pavlov showed that classical conditioning leads to learning by association. An obvious advantage of behaviorism is its ability to define behavior clearly and to measure changes in behavior. According to the law of parsimony, the fewer assumptions a theory makes, the better and the more credible it is. Behaviorism, therefore, looks for simple explanations of human behavior from a very scientific standpoint.

However, behaviorism only provides a partial account of human behavior, that which can be objectively viewed. Important factors like emotions, expectations, higher-level motivation are not considered or explained. Accepting a behaviorist explanation could prevent further research from other perspective that could uncover important factors. Many of the experiments carried out were done on animals; we are different cognitively and physiologically, humans have different social norms and moral values these mediate the effects of the environment therefore we might behave differently from animals so the laws and principles derived from these experiments might apply more to animals than to humans.

In addition, humanism e. Humanistic psychology also assumes that humans have free will personal agency to make their own decisions in life and do not follow the deterministic laws of science. This is known as an idiographic approach. Freud also rejects the idea that people are born a blank slate tabula rasa and states that people are born with instincts e. They emphasize the role of nature over nurture. For example, chromosomes and hormones testosterone influence our behavior too, in addition to the environment.

Cognitive psychology states that mediational processes occur between stimulus and response, such as memory , thinking, problem-solving, etc. Despite these criticisms, behaviorism has made significant contributions to psychology.

These include insights into learning, language development, and moral and gender development, which have all been explained in terms of conditioning. The contribution of behaviorism can be seen in some of its practical applications.