Skinner vs. Bandura - 2199 Words

Behaviorism has been a major school of thought in psychology since 1913, when John B. Watson published an influential article. Watson argued that psychology should abandon its earlier focus on mind and mental processes and focus exclusively on overt behavior. He contended that psychology could not study mental processes in a scientific manner because they are private and not accessible to outside observation. In completely rejecting mental processes as a suitable subject for scientific study, Watson took an extreme position that is no longer dominant among modern behaviorists. Thus, most behaviorists view an individual’s personality as a collection of response tendencies that are tied to various stimulus situations. A specific situation†¦show more content†¦For example, I clowned around in class and gained appreciative comments and smiles from schoolmates. This social approval reinforced my clowning-around behavior. If such behavior would have been reinforced with som e regularity, it would have gradually become an integral element of my personality. Similarly, whether or not I developed traits such as independence, assertiveness, or selfishness depended on whether I got reinforced for such behavior by parents or by other influential persons. â€Å"Negative reinforcement occurs when a response is strengthened (increased in frequency) because it is followed by the removal of a (presumably) unpleasant stimulus â€Å"(Skinner, p.67). Do not let the word negative here confuse you. Negative reinforcement is reinforcement. Like positive reinforcement, it strengthens a response. However, this strengthening occurs because the response gets rid of an aversive stimulus. Consider a few examples: I rush home in winter to get out of the cold. I clean my house to get rid of a mess. Parents gave in to my begging to halt my whining. Negative reinforcement plays a major role in the development of avoidance tendencies. As you have may notices, many people tend t o avoid facing up to awkward situations and sticky personal problems. This personality trait typically develops because avoidance behavior gets rid of anxiety and is therefore negativelyShow MoreRelatedThe Theory Of Behaviorism Operant Conditioning993 Words   |  4 PagesAbstract Behaviorism takes on many forms, B.F. Skinner liked to call his form of behaviorism Operant Conditioning. He would rather study observable behavior rather than internal mental events. He felt that was the best way to see how one may react to a particular stimuli and how one would handle the situation. Skinner believed that if a behavior is reinforced the behavior will continue. This had a two sided effect. If the bad behavior was reinforced the bad behavior would continue. Such as the goodRead MoreOperant Conditioning : The Response Of The Operant928 Words   |  4 PagesBehavior is based upon rules o Behavior can be controlled o Behavior can be predicted Bandura’s and Mischel’s Basic Assumptions (Olson Hergenhahn, 2011, pp. 323-355) †¢ Social-Cognitive Theory – Behavior originates in social and cognitive ways o Freedom vs. Determinism ï‚ § Humans do not have a free-will ï‚ § Human behavior is goal-oriented ï‚ § One can influence both behavior and environment o Mind-Body Relationship – Thoughts are not confined to cognitive action but are a product of advanced brain function Rogers’Read MoreThe Development of Psychological Disorders1013 Words   |  5 Pagespsychological disorders (Santrock, 2011, p. 23). According to Erickson, development happens throughout life. His developmental theory has eight stages. 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Nature, or genetics is often believed to be the most important aspect of a persons’ upbringing, as nature is something very intrinsic to any one person. However, many debate that nurture, or the care and encouragement of any human life, trumps nature. The earliest (proofs?) and rebuttals of these theories have been honed and developed over time by specific psychologists and educational theorists – all who hoped to proveRead MoreLanguage Acquisition1336 Words   |  6 Pagestheories and interactionist theories) and write an evaluation of them.Consider the stages of language acquisition in the evaluation of these theories. Human language development is a huge debate between Nature Vs Nurture within theorists of various fields in psychology.There are three major schools of thought that will be mainly focused on; behaviourist, nativist (rationalist) and interactionist(cognitive and social). The cognitive approach and social contextRead MoreThe Theory Of Language Development1606 Words   |  7 Pagesexperience from people around us to use language but we do not need to be trained to speak. Behaviourist approach- B.F. Skinner believes that language is developed through operant conditioning and that children receive rewards for using language. Skinner believes children develop language through motivating operations, discriminative stimuli, response, and reinforcing stimuli. Skinner also believes that children learn through prompting, shaping and imitation of others. Personality Development is understood