top of page

Behaviorism

Basic Assumptions of Behaviorism Include:

​

  1. All behavior is learned from the environment.  

  2. Psychology should be seen as a science.  

  3. Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion.

  4. There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals.

  5. Behavior is the result of stimulus-response.

​

McLeod, S. A. (2017). Behaviorist approach. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html

More about my

personal learning experiences

Typing, Evolution, and Twins, Oh My!

June 17, 2018

 

My touch typing subject in high school would be a good example of behaviorism.  The stimulus would be the class objectives and expectations set by the curriculum.  The response would be the student’s typing performance measured across time. The outcome is very objective: your grades depended on the accuracy and speed by which you’re able to finish the typing exercises. The faster and more accurate you are, the better your grade.  Another example of positive reinforcement that was used to reward performance was the social recognition and achievement gained if a student won the school’s annual typing contest.  

​

One of the pros of the behaviorist theory is that it’s probably the theory that has achieved the most results when it comes to learning.  I even think that Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection could be the ultimate illustration of behaviorism. If learning is defined as a change in behavior, then creatures learn through mutation in order to adapt to the changes in their environment.  The positive consequence: continued survival of the species.  The negative consequence: the species dies out because it didn’t adapt quickly enough. 

​

It’s hard for me to come up with a disadvantage because when I think of behaviorism and its definition (changes in behavior are shaped by the environment), if you look deeply enough and examine the reinforcements involved, even the other learning models have some elements of behaviorism in them.  In Constructivism, for example, learners continuously test their hypotheses through social negotiation.  In that case, the positive reinforcement that would determine if that learning “sticks” would be things like social acceptance and positive feedback.  

​

However, there are some things that behaviorism can’t explain, like the learned behaviors of some twins who were raised in different environments.  A famous case would be the “Jim twins:” They were adopted apart when they were four weeks old by different couples who didn’t know each other.  When these two Jims finally met in person when they were 39, they demonstrated strikingly similar behaviors which couldn’t be explained by their environments.

​

​

 

References:

Ahh, Now I See Where I Went Wrong

June 18, 2018

 

Reading class summaries and the pros and cons of behaviorism, I wondered if I may have been understanding it differently.  I had a hard time seeing drawbacks to behaviorism.  After all, isn’t much of what we do shaped by how we were rewarded or punished for it?  

​

B.F. Skinner said: “Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.”  It sounds controversial, but how many of us, as children, wanted to be what our parents were, or wanted what they wanted us to be?  Or on the flip side: how many of us, as children, decided that there was no way on earth we were going to be like our parents?   Those are all decisions that have been influenced by the environment we grew up in. 

​

It was while I was searching for B.F. Skinner’s quote about shaping children that I came across other things that he believes.

 

There were many things he said that I agree with, including: 

  • “A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances.  The real mistake is to stop trying.”

  • “The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.”

  • “I don’t deny the importance of genetics.  However, the fact that I might be altruistic isn’t because I have a gene for altruism, the fact that I do something for my children at some cost to myself comes from a history that has operated on me.”

 

And then I read:

  • “I have to tell people that they are not responsible for their behavior.  They’re not creating it; they’re not initiating anything. It’s all found somewhere else.”

  • “I did not direct my life.  I didn’t design it.  I never made decisions.  Things always came up and made them for me.  That’s what life is.”

 

And I was like, “Whoa whoa whoa whoa back the truck up.”

​

That was when I realized the limitations of behaviorism.  I did read about it, but there’s a big difference between reading a statement like “the role of the teacher/instructor is to promote learners’ positive or desired responses (behaviors) by providing appropriate stimuli and continual positive reinforcement,” and a statement like “people…are not responsible for their behavior.”  

 

Taken to its logical conclusion, behaviorism says that choice is actually just an illusion.  While I recognize the critical role of positive and negative reinforcement in influencing behaviors, to say that people are therefore not responsible for their behavior seems a little extreme.

​

 

References:

 

How do my experiences relate to the learning theories discussed in the course?

bottom of page