John B. Watson
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B. F. Skinner
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Albert Bandura
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What is behaviorism?
Behaviorism is the theory that focuses on observable behavior controlled by the environment. This was developed by John B. Watson.
What is Social cognitive theory?
Social cognitive theory is the theory that individuals learn from watching and observing other individuals and imitating their behavior.
John B. Watson
John B. Watson developed the behaviorism theory. Watson concentrated on what he could see, instead of focusing on the internal things that other psychologists studied. Watson created hypotheses based on observable behaviors. He also believed that every human was born a blank slate, and that he could form anyone into anything.
Watson believed a way we learned through our environment was through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is when one stimulus is paired with another stimulus in order to produce a reaction. The first stimulus is called the unconditioned stimulus. This is because the stimulus is a natural thing that hasn't been affected by anyone. The response that the unconditioned stimulus produces is called an unconditioned response because the response is natural. A conditioned stimulus would be a stimulus that is added into the experiment that initially means nothing but will have an effect and create a conditioned response, or a taught response.
For example, in the Little Albert Experiment by Watson, the unconditioned stimulus was a loud noise. The unconditioned response was fear. When Little Albert was presented with a rat, initially it meant nothing. When the loud noise was made with the rat present, Little Albert became scared. Eventually, whenever the rat was brought out, Little Albert became scared, even without the noise, because he had associated the rat with the noise. This makes the rat a conditioned stimulus. Albert's fear is now a conditioned response because initially he was not afraid of the rat. It wasn't until the noise was presented with the rat that he made the association.
Watson believed a way we learned through our environment was through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is when one stimulus is paired with another stimulus in order to produce a reaction. The first stimulus is called the unconditioned stimulus. This is because the stimulus is a natural thing that hasn't been affected by anyone. The response that the unconditioned stimulus produces is called an unconditioned response because the response is natural. A conditioned stimulus would be a stimulus that is added into the experiment that initially means nothing but will have an effect and create a conditioned response, or a taught response.
For example, in the Little Albert Experiment by Watson, the unconditioned stimulus was a loud noise. The unconditioned response was fear. When Little Albert was presented with a rat, initially it meant nothing. When the loud noise was made with the rat present, Little Albert became scared. Eventually, whenever the rat was brought out, Little Albert became scared, even without the noise, because he had associated the rat with the noise. This makes the rat a conditioned stimulus. Albert's fear is now a conditioned response because initially he was not afraid of the rat. It wasn't until the noise was presented with the rat that he made the association.
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner further developed the theory of behaviorism and introduced operant conditioning. While studying rats at Harvard, Skinner focused not on what happened before the response the rats gave, which was what Watson focused on. Instead, Skinner focused on what happened after the response. His hypothesis was that behaviors were controlled by the environment's response to them.
Skinner also developed the idea of reinforcement and punishment.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT - rewarding a behavior by giving something GOOD
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT - rewarding a behavior by taking away something BAD
POSITIVE PUNISHMENT - punishing a behavior by giving something BAD
NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT - punishing a behavior by taking something GOOD
For example, Billy gets an A+ on his spelling test. His mother gives him a cookie. She also washes the stain out of his favorite shirt.
Now let's say Billy gets an F on his spelling test. His mother gives him broccoli for dinner. She also takes away his video games.
Skinner also developed the idea of reinforcement and punishment.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT - rewarding a behavior by giving something GOOD
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT - rewarding a behavior by taking away something BAD
POSITIVE PUNISHMENT - punishing a behavior by giving something BAD
NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT - punishing a behavior by taking something GOOD
For example, Billy gets an A+ on his spelling test. His mother gives him a cookie. She also washes the stain out of his favorite shirt.
Now let's say Billy gets an F on his spelling test. His mother gives him broccoli for dinner. She also takes away his video games.
Albert bandura
Albert Bandura had a difficult time believing that behavior in people develops because of the environment's respsonse to it. Instead, Bandura came up with the idea that we learn by observing and imitating. His theory is called the Social Cognitive Theory because it involves watching other people (social), but also involves processing what these people are doing in one's mind (cognitive).
Bandura's most well known demonstration of the social cognitive theory is the Bobo Doll Experiment.
In this experiment, Bandura had three groups of children:
Group 1: Shown a video of adults acting violently towards the Bobo doll
Group 2: Shown a video of adults being non-aggressive towards the Bobo doll
Group 3: Not shown a video
After being shown the video, or in group three's case, not being shown the video, the children were brought into a room that had its very own Bobo doll.
The children in group 1 were far more aggressive towards the doll than those in groups 2 and 3.
This helped to solidify Bandura's hypothesis that behaviors can be learned through observation and imitation.
Bandura's most well known demonstration of the social cognitive theory is the Bobo Doll Experiment.
In this experiment, Bandura had three groups of children:
Group 1: Shown a video of adults acting violently towards the Bobo doll
Group 2: Shown a video of adults being non-aggressive towards the Bobo doll
Group 3: Not shown a video
After being shown the video, or in group three's case, not being shown the video, the children were brought into a room that had its very own Bobo doll.
The children in group 1 were far more aggressive towards the doll than those in groups 2 and 3.
This helped to solidify Bandura's hypothesis that behaviors can be learned through observation and imitation.