Behaviorism
Overview
Behaviorism is concerned with areas of human behavior, which can be observed and measured. Behaviorists’ believe that overt behaviors are responses to environmental stimuli, in combination with an individual’s experiential history, motivational state and other, stimuli. Behaviorist learning theories, thus, emphasize the changes in an individual’s behavior that results from the learner exhibiting stimulus-response associations (Zhou and Brown, 2015).
Important terms/concepts in behaviorism include stimulus, response, conditioning, reward, punishment, reinforcement. A stimulus can be an object or event that can be observed or experienced by a participant. A response is a reaction to a stimulus, object or event in the environment. Humans and animals can naturally respond to a stimulus, or can be trained to respond in a particular way to a stimulus. The training of the stimulus-response relationship is called conditioning. The repetition of rewarding desired behaviors and punishing undesired behaviors is called reinforcement.
Behaviorism is concerned with areas of human behavior, which can be observed and measured. Behaviorists’ believe that overt behaviors are responses to environmental stimuli, in combination with an individual’s experiential history, motivational state and other, stimuli. Behaviorist learning theories, thus, emphasize the changes in an individual’s behavior that results from the learner exhibiting stimulus-response associations (Zhou and Brown, 2015).
Important terms/concepts in behaviorism include stimulus, response, conditioning, reward, punishment, reinforcement. A stimulus can be an object or event that can be observed or experienced by a participant. A response is a reaction to a stimulus, object or event in the environment. Humans and animals can naturally respond to a stimulus, or can be trained to respond in a particular way to a stimulus. The training of the stimulus-response relationship is called conditioning. The repetition of rewarding desired behaviors and punishing undesired behaviors is called reinforcement.
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Key Concepts
Classical Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
- A style of learning that involves pairing, so that neutral-stimulus elicits a similar response to a potent-stimulus.
- Discovered accidentally by Ivan Pavlov as he studied his dogs
- Involves rewarding desirable behavior, and punishing undesirable behavior.
- Discovered by B.F. Skinner who trained animals to press a lever to receive food.
- Corresponds to this notion as it can be defined as an approach that combines principles of learning with principles of cognitive psychology.
- Developed by Albert Bandura to help explain how a person’s personality develops from a social context in which learning occurs
Practical Suggestions for Educators
Rewarding and/or Encouraging Desirable Behaviors
Ignore to Extinguish Undesirable Behaviors
Rewarding and/or Encouraging Desirable Behaviors
- Teachers may choose to reinforce desirable behaviors with verbal encouragement. When a student acts kind, helpful, compassionate and/or patient with another student, the teacher may acknowledge that behavior with positive verbal feedback and encourage the student to continue the behavior.
Ignore to Extinguish Undesirable Behaviors
- Teachers may choose to ignore undesirable behaviors by ignoring the behavior, or noticing the behavior but not acknowledging it with verbal feedback. Alternatively, the teacher could acknowledge the undesirable behavior with negative, verbal feedback. Negative, verbal feedback could be effective if it brings unwanted attention to the student. However, if the student desires the attention of the teacher and other students, negative verbal feedback may encourage the undesirable behavior. Consequently, it may require trial and error to determine a students motivation. Furthermore, it can be difficult not to impose on undesirable behavior when it begins to interfere with the learning of other students in the classroom.
- According to behaviorist principles, consistency of responses from teachers is important for reinforcing desirable behaviors and extinguishing undesirable behaviors. Thus, it is important for teachers to consistently encourage desirable behaviors and consistently ignore or give feedback to undesirable behaviors. However, in an absence of desirable behaviors and overwhelming undesirable behaviors, teachers may need to find alternatives schemes for reward and extinguishing.
- In the classroom setting, certain types of rewards may be more desirable. For example, students who show desirable behaviors may be given privileges or exemptions for their behavior. However, having these privileges or exemptions presented to them in front of other classmates may create hostility or resentment. Thus, teachers must establish an ethical and fair way to reward positive behavior. The students could contribute to determining the rewards at the start of the school year.
- Alternatively, teachers might need to experiment to determine what type of response most effectively extinguishes undesirable behavior, within reason. Teachers may find that drawing unwanted attention to certain attention to certain students quickly extinguishes their behavior, compared to other students who cease undesirable behavior when it is ignored. Trial and error are needed to determine the most effective approach to extinguishing poor behavior.
Resources
- Bandura, A. Social Learning Theory; General Learning Press: New York City, 1971.
- Skinner, B. F. The Behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. New York: Appleton-Century. 1938
- Kim, J.; Lim, J.; Bhargava, M. The role of affect in attitude formation: A classical conditioning approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 1998, 26, 143-152.
- Zhou, M.; Brown, D. Educational Learning Theories; Galileo, University System of Georgia, 2015.
- Standridge, M.; Fitz, R.; Johnson, J.; Hassard, J.; Stein, E. Behaviorism in the Classroom. Weekly Digest #69. 2017. http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/7/23/weekly-digest-69
- Nebel, C. Behaviorism in the Classroom. 2017. http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/8/10-1
- Dowd, M. How to Use Behaviorism in a Classroom. https://www.theclassroom.com/use-behaviorism-classroom-8156621.html
- Cascio, C. How Will I Apply Behaviorist Philosophy in the Classroom? https://education.seattlepi.com/apply-behaviorist-philosophy-classroom-3322.html