Bf Skinner Essays (Examples)

etrieved April 2, 2008, at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14125483.html
The Columbia World of Quotations. (1996). New York: Columbia University Press. etrieved April 2, 2008, from: www.bartleby.com/66/.

David, Daniel. "Quo Vadis Cbt? Trans-Cultural Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies: Interviews With the Current Leadership in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies." Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies; one 9/1/2007. etrieved April 2, 2008, at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1364057551.html www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95724398

Debell, C.S. (1992) B.F. Skinner: Myth and Misperception. Teaching of Psychology, 19(2), 68-73. etrieved April 3, 2008, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95724398

How Great Experiments eveal Our Humanity. (2004, March 7). The Washington Times, p. B08. etrieved April 2, 2008, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002086243

Jensen, ., & Burgess, H. (1997). Mythmaking: How Introductory Psychology Texts Present B.F. Skinner's Analysis of Cognition. The Psychological ecord, 47(2), 221+. etrieved April 2, 2008, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000445098

Levis, Donald J.. "The Negative Impact of the Cognitive Movement on the Continued Growth of…

Yes, rote behavior might require direct reinforcement. But "stimuli play a cognitive role as signals to the organism, leading to the formation of "cognitive maps" and to "latent learning" in the absence of reinforcement." For example, a child may learn how to kick a ball and receive praise from a parent, but the child honing his or her skill later in life is not merely seeking praise, but has learned something else from the skill, in contrast to what would be alleged by Skinner. Meanings that began as simple stimulus and response activities can be invested with a larger purpose. Tolman also placed less of an emphasis on biology, arguing that muscle movements were "too far removed from our perceptual capacities and explanatory purposes to provide suitable units for meaningful behavioral analysis," unlike kicking a ball, or playing soccer game (Hauser 2006). On a higher-level learning activity, the "incoming impulses…

B.F. Skinner's Motivation of Behavior
Skinner remains one of the most important contributors to the field of behaviorism. According to Skinner, individuals are often free to engage in some kind of behavior. However, most times, there are consequences associated with specific deeds or actions. Pleasant consequences are likely to motivate the kind of behavior that brought about the said consequences. This is what Skinner referred to as reinforcement learning. This text concerns itself with the modern-day application of reinforcement learning in both education and behavior therapy.

einforcement theory, in the words of Lussier and Achua (2009, p. 93), "purposes that through the consequences for behavior, people will be motivated to behave in predetermined ways." As the authors further point out, this particular theory makes use of behavior modification as well as operant conditioning. According to Skinner, the learning of some kind of behavior occurs via encounters with positive and negative…

BF Skinner's Beyond Freedom And Dignity
In Beyond Freedom and Dignity, psychologist B.F. Skinner argues that all human behavior, including consciousness, is a product of the social environment. This position is a notable departure from cognitive psychology, which focuses on the inner psyche of individuals. Skinner eschews the idea of unobservable inner phenomenon as unscientific, arguing that consciousness itself is socially constructed behavior.

Though Skinner rightly points out that all human activity has social roots, his rejection of core concepts such as individual autonomy and free will prove unsettling. For example, Skinner takes an extreme position on consciousness, stating, "it is not only not the special field of man, it is not within the range of a solitary man" (192).

By its very name, "behaviorism" focuses not on a person's thoughts and attitudes, but their actions. This is done through a system of differential reinforcements, wherein "we change the probability…

Skinner continued to work at various universities including the
University of Indiana and Harvard. Skinner was working at a time when the
interest in psychology and particularly behavioral psychology was high.
Skinner truly believed that an understanding of behavioral psychology would
help people. He opposed coercion and felt that society could be guided in
a positive direction through the use of positive reinforcement. For
Skinner, society should seek friendship, good health, balance, pleasures,
and as little unpleasantness as possible along with satisfying curiosity
(Vargas, 2006).
Eventually, Skinner turned his attention to the educational process in
an attempt to improve the world around him and satisfy his own curiosity.
The story goes that Skinner attended his daughter's school for Father's Day
and observed a math class. During the course of this class, he became
aware that not all the student were learning at the same rate and that they
were not…

Dialogue Between B.F. Skinner and Abraham Maslow
Maslow: So, Skinner, what are your views on behavior modification, to start this dialogue?

Skinner: I think that operant conditioning has a lot to offer the world in terms of behavior modification. Behavior can be reduced to a simple analysis of stimuli and response. After all, human learning is simply a result of a person's response to a stimulus. In this sense, adhering to the principles of operant conditioning can easily attain behavior modification.

Maslow: Let's make sure that I've got this right, Skinner. You're arguing that mental illness can be treated through a simple application of your principles of operant conditioning. I have to disagree that operant conditioning in behavior modification can be so universally effective. It's important to note that your style of first force psychology has some important and effective uses, specifically in treating some specific behavioral problems. Even second…

BFSkinner
Interview with B.F. Skinner

Describe your life and work in the field of psychology.

Please call me Fred. As a boy, I loved building things, especially if they solved problems. I'm still that way. I have a lot of interests, which I guess you could figure out by looking around my study. I do most of my reading in that chair and because my eyesight is poor, a bought a large magnifying glass with a strong light. To keep it from jiggling, I attached the lens with these hooks, pulleys and fishing line to a counterweight. I can put the lens wherever I want and it will stay in place.

If you're wondering about the cardboard over the clock face, I put that up because I found I was getting distracted by checking it all the time. I write my ideas in longhand on large blank sheets of paper…

Sigmund Freud and .F. Skinner are two of the most important theorists within the history of psychology and psychological development as a theory, but perhaps no two thinkers have developed psychological systems of analysis that could possibly clash with one another more vehemently. Indeed, both men would have profoundly disagreed on the most basic levels of even considering what psychology's basic function is. Sigmund Freud focused on a conception of psychology, known as psychoanalysis, in which he claimed that an observer could learn about elements of someone's mental state by speaking with them and making inferences from their observations. Freud created a concept of the unconscious and claimed that these unconscious structures were exceptionally important in defining our individual action. .F. Skinner on the other hand, argued that the mind was not at all the proper focus of study for psychology. Rather, Skinner argued that psychology should focus only on…

.F. Skinner, a behavioral learning theorist, states that behaviors are learned and learning is represented by a permanent change in behavior. The components of this theory are reinforcers -- good or bad. Most people think of reinforcers as rewards for good behavior. There are actually two types of reinforcers -- positive and negative. Positive reinforcers are when a stimulus is given, and negative reinforcers are when a stimulus is taken away. However, negative reinforcers are different than punishments. Punishing is when either taking away a positive reinforcer or adding a negative reinforcer.
He also says that changes in behavior are the result of an individual's response to events, or stimuli, in the environment. When a particular Stimulus-Response pattern is reinforced, the individual is conditioned to respond. This pattern is known as Operant Conditioning, and the distinct characteristic of this is relative to previous forms of behaviorism, when the organism can…

Skinner and Harlow to Investigating Influences on Behaviors.
One of the most common challenges for psychologists is: understanding the underlying motivations behind specific behavior. This is because there are a wide variety of theories that are providing different interpretations surrounding the primary causes. A good example of this can be seen with disparities in the philosophies of Skinner and Harlow in explaining human motivation. To fully understand each theory requires comparing and contrasting both approaches with one another. These elements will offer the greatest insights about the rationale behind individual behavior.

Skinner

Skinner was focused on the behaviorist approach. This is when there is an emphasis on how the actions (i.e. thoughts, feelings and deeds) of an individual will influence their conduct. According to Skinner, everyone is impacted by these actions throughout the course of their lives with a principal known as operant conditioning. This takes place based upon positive…

Childhood history for Skinner is a series of learning opportunities, which may or may not facilitate healthy adult functioning.
Focus of counseling and therapy

Getting to the root of childhood traumas is at the heart of Freudian therapy. This is often done by free association, or tapping into associations that the individual might not be immediately aware of, but inhibit mature social relationships. There is also a focus on understanding how a crisis at a stage during the child's psychosexual development has lead to a regression or a fixation in one of these states, and resulted in a malformed personality, such as an antisocial personality. Therapy for Skinner is focused on reconditioning the individual to no longer perform negative behaviors, and conditioning them to perform positive behaviors.

Human learning

Human learning in Freud is the imposition of the superego, or social rules and emotions (such as guilt) that curtail the…

Also, I believe that every kind of animal have their own natural instinct to communicate. Just like how Chomsky explains, a child is "built" to learn how to talk. It is part of survival. Chomsky coins the terms generative grammar and transformational grammar which explain the natural ability of the child to organize language according to a set of rules that would give rise to the formulation of an infinite set of sentences and the process that takes place in the evolution of these sentences to more complex forms. This, for me, is a more complete explanation of language acquisition. Although Skinner's may also play a part in the whole process, his theory seems incomplete.
ibliography:

Wikipedia Contributors (2006). ".F. Skinner." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 2, 2006 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.F._Skinner

Wikipedia Contributors (2006). "Language acquisition." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 2, 2006 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

Wikipedia Contributors (2006). "Noam…

psychological work of John B. atson, B.F. Skinner, and Edward C. Tolman, along with the impacts that these three had on society. This paper will also compare and contrast these three iconic psychologists.
Edward C. Tolman is said by author Bernard J. Baars to have been the "…only major figure" in the emerging field of behaviorism "…who advocated the possibility of mental representation" (Baars, 1986, p. 61). Baars writes that more than any other behaviorist Tolman "anticipated…the cognitive point-of-view… [and] thought it necessary to postulate events other than stimuli and responses" (61). Tolman has made significant contributions to psychology, including: a) the use of cognitive maps in rats; b) the "latent learning" he pioneered though the use of rats; c) the concept of "intervening variables"; and d) the discovery that rats don't just learn their movements "…for rewards" but rather they also learn when no rewards are given, backing up…

Starting from 19th century psychology, school of thought of behaviorist shared commonalities and as well ran concurrently with the 20th century psychology of psychoanalytic and Gestalt movements, however it was different from Gestalt psychologists' mental philosophy in significant ways. Psychologists who had major influences in it were Edward Lee Thorndike, John B. atson, they opposed method of introspective and advocated to use of experimental methods: Ivan Pavlov, investigated classical conditioning, but he was not to the idea of behaviorists or behaviorism: B.F. Skinner, he did his research on operant conditioning.
During second half of the 20th century, it was widely eclipsed that behaviorism was due to cognitive revolution. Even though behaviorism as well as cognitive schools of psychological thought tends to disagree in terms of theory, they have gone a head to compliment one another within applications of practical therapeutic, for example, cognitive-behavioral therapy has shown utility in treating some…

Technological Culture. Discussed: how it effects our life; B.F. Skinner; Aldous Huxley, and Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Technological Culture

The world has become a technological mecca, filled with gadgets and wonders that only a generation ago would have been impossible for the average citizen to envision, except perhaps in science fiction novels. However, today, the majority of households have at least one computer, if not more. The Internet allows one to access endless sources of information and to communicate with people around the world with a click of the mouse. Cell phones, once a handy luxury for professionals, are now carried by children and parents as a way to keep in touch. Technological advances in genetics has enabled scientists to clone species, and make remarkable leaps in medical research. The last one hundred years has brought mankind from the horse and buggy days to space age technology as a part of daily…

She developed "Cooperative Discipline' a new K-12 in-service training program...offers exactly what many schools are looking for." (Kyle 1991) the problem, as I see it, of Cooperative Discipline is that the students will always try for the least amount of 'punishment' for any perceived wrong committed. The teacher would have to be especially tough in order to counteract the attempt at leniency which would put the teacher and student back into an adversarial position. My classroom will have a set of rules that will be followed. Any flaunting of the rules will result in consequences that have been shared with the classroom since the initial class.
orks Cited

Curwin, R.L., (2002) Finding Jewels in the Rubble, Educational Leadership, Vol. 59 Issue

Glasser, . (2002) Unhappy Teenagers, New York: Harper Collins Publishing

James, G. (2006) Skinner's Utopia, ilson Quarterly, Vol. 30 Issue

Kounin., J., (1983)

Classrooms: Individuals or Behavior Settings? Monographs…

Human history shows us that the ruling elite have always tried to set the economic, educational, and social systems up in their favor and I don't believe it to be any different even in today's modern times.
"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." B.F. Skinner

Skinner's quote illustrates the unfortunate disconnect between what is learned and what is taught. There are many students who, when presented with a subject that is particularly interesting or motivating, actually learn about it. Skinner is saying that when people do not care about what they are learning about, and are no longer motivated to use the information, they forget it. But the fact that they were "educated" at one time or another never goes away. I agree with Mr. Skinner here because there are many examples of people who are not very intelligent who have gone to school…

Kenneth Kotovsky and Herbert A. Simon are concerned with the "Human acquisition of concepts for sequential patterns." Their goal is to understand how an individual can produce a serial pattern. The process is based upon a rule which was learned by the individual under discussion through induction. Their research involves the use of computer programming and formal languages. Its goal is to understand which problems are likely to be more challenging for the human mind. The program is presented in various types and its results are evaluated as being successful.

B.F. Skinner in "About behaviorism" presents his views regarding the human behaviour patterns. According to him, the manner in which people behave is deeply influenced by the environment where they live. One of the things which differentiates his view is the importance given to subjective factors, such as the individuals' personal thoughts and feelings (which the author considers to be…

Philosophy
While there is plenty to criticize in the work of Descartes, Locke, and Hume, one cannot justifiably claim that Jose Vasconcelos criticisms of traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge apply to these theorists if only because Vasconcelos' criticisms do not really apply to anything, as his criticisms are largely based on straw men. This is not to say that traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge should be free from criticism, but rather that the problems with these traditional views are more fundamental than Vasconcelos realizes, to the point that Vasconcelos suffers from many of these same issues. Essentially, both Vasconcelos and the previously mentioned authors suffer from a simply ignorance regarding the functioning of the human brain, the nature of consciousness and memory, and the evolutionary processes by which organisms and ideas evolve, with this ignorance born out of an implicit or explicit maintenance of…

Motivation in Behavior
a) What does Tolman's theory of animal learning tell us about the motivation for human learning?

Unlike John Watson, B.F. Skinner and the other strict behaviorists, or the ussian physiologists like Ivan Pavlov, Edward C. Tolman argued that the behaviorist theory that learning was a matter of stimulus-response (S-) and positive and negative reinforcement was highly simplistic. Although he rejected introspective methods and metaphysics, he increasingly moved away from strict behaviorism into the areas of cognitive psychology. In short, he became a mentalist without actually using that term to describe himself and concluded that all behavior was "purposive" (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 428). All of his experiments with rats moving through mazes at the University of Berkeley proved to his satisfaction that behavior was actually the dependent variable, with the environment as the independent variable, with mental processes as intervening variables. Tolman summarized this basic theory, which he…

Additionally, Edward C. Tolman was essentially aiming to understand cognitive processes through the implementation of behavioral methods. Through his experiments using rats, Tolman posited the idea that behavior was not simply a reaction to a particular stimulus (Walker 1984). ather, he believed that the concept of the mind could make actual connections between various stimuli. His concept of latent learning illustrates how the mind can learn without having to express an explicit response to a present stimulus. Instead, the mind learns with less obvious reinforcement that can occur after the removal of the stimulus that triggered the learning in the first place. Essentially, the knowledge gained from latent learning is not always expressed immediately, and rather develops inside the mind through unconscious processes that are drawn upon only when the environment would require them. The mind holds on to these pieces of memory to assist in more overt learning later…

Within months after Winfrey took over, the show went from last place in the ratings to overtaking Donahue as the highest rated talk show in Chicago. It was renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show. And the rest is history.
Considering her past, childhood and experiences and positive outlook in life, she didn't let anything deter her from reaching her goal and becoming successful. In fact, she uses them to inspire and reach out to others.

Conclusion

Self-confidence is an attitude which allows individuals to have positive yet realistic views of themselves and their situations. Self-confident people trust their own abilities, have a general sense of control in their lives, and believe that, within reason, they will be able to do what they wish, plan, and expect.

Surprisingly, lack of self-confidence is not necessarily related to lack of ability. Instead it is often the result of focusing too much on the unrealistic…

Walden Two: Human Nature and Society
The bourgeoisie naturally conceives the world in which it is supreme to be the best.

Karl Marx

People throughout history, since the beginning of time began, have been expressing dissatisfaction with the way the world is and trying to find ways to make it better. Along the way various fictional societies called "Utopias," after the book of the same name written by Thomas More in 1515 and 1516, were created in an image of perfectionism. These utopian communities, all somewhat different in many ways and often ultimately oppositional in form and function, nevertheless had one thing in common. Each one boasted proudly that it alone was worthy of the ultimate claim: a foundation of consummate judicial and moral principles with the ultimate result of effortless happiness and true freedom for all its people.

.F. Skinner admits that when he wrote Walden Two in 1945…

In this, the individual does soak up the behaviors of those he or she is associated with. Yet, this is out of mimicking others behavior, with no regard for self gain. On the other hand, Bandura placed more emphasis as development being based on a balance between the environment and one's internally set goals. From this perspective, the individual mimics behaviors that lead to the achievement of certain goals, specifically engineering a more personal purpose to what is learned.
Bandura can also be seen as contrasting the theories of Jean Piaget as well. Once again, the two place a huge role on the nature of social environments on learning and development. Still, there are clear differences. First, there are clearly issues in regards to when the stages of development actually occur. The two present different age ranges for the important stages. Then, there is the increased importance of the social…

" Nevertheless, the research to date indicates that participative management techniques can provide a major return on the investment. According to Angermeier, Dunford and Boss (2009, p. 127), "Employee perceptions of the extent to which their work climate is participative rather than authoritarian have important implications for critical work attitudes and behavior."
The research to date has confirmed that employees in highly participative work environments outperformed their counterparts in nonparticipative management organizations (Angermeier et al. 2009). For example, a study by Angermeier and his associates found that employees working in participative management settings provided 14% better customer service, committed 26% fewer clinical errors, demonstrated 79% lower burnout, and were 61% less likely to leave the organization than employees in more authoritarian work environment. According to Angermeier et al. (2009, p. 128), "These findings suggest that participative management initiatives have a significant impact on the commitment and productivity of individual employees."…

Vygotsky
Freud's theories of development have been profoundly influential upon literature and popular culture. Freud's theory of the Oedipal and Electra complexes suggests that all children form a sexual connection with their mother as their first, primary emotional impulse. Gradually, culture comes to channel children's emotions into more appropriate ways, so that after the repressive phase of childhood, adolescents form sexual attachments to people outside the family. Freud's influence upon educational theory is somewhat limited, given his focus upon the 'family romance.' B.F. Skinner, in contrast, took a diametrically opposed view to Freud and instead emphasized the ability of outside, deliberate forces to 'condition' a subject to engage in behaviors, through a series of rewards and punishments.

While to some degree, Skinner's methods are evident in the behavioral management of children in the classroom, Lev Vygotsky is probably the most influential of the major theorists of childhood development on education…

In fact, Piaget also identified empathy as part of the development process. Empathy "is more than the recognition of someone else's feelings, but rather a deeper understanding. Thus, empathetic reactions allow people to recognize that something is different from what is already familiar or acceptable to them, yet not be prejudiced by its unfamiliarity." (Piaget)
James anks incorporates all of these theories and many more into his belief that it is important in education to teach children how to think, rather than teaching them what to think.

y teaching children to understand all things and to be active in creating their own interpretations of past and current events. y helping students become critical thinkers, they will have the foundation to build a better society. James anks' concept of the Canon Debate identifies a major problem with schools. Western traditionalists believe that the history, culture, and literature of the Western civilization…

Morris, Smith and Altus (2005)
The work of Morris, Smith, and Altus (2005) entitled "B.F. Skinner's Contributions of Applied Behavior Analysis" states that the contributions made by B.F. Skinner were both "profound and practical." (p. 99) The behavioral pharmacologist, Dews describes such contributions as made by B.F. Skinner to be scientific advances that impact society through either bringing about a shift in the view of the individual of self or otherwise by "leading to substantive changes in his environment." (cited in Morris, Smith, and Altus, 2005, p. 99) Dews relates that Skinner established "a science of behavior -- the experimental analysis of behavior." (Morris, Smith and Altus, 2005, p. 99)

The definition of applied behavior analysis at the time of Skinner's founding of this field is reported to be found in JABA's first issue stating that it is "primarily for the publication of reports of experimental work involving applications of…

An article in the Journal of Sex Research brings attention to operant conditioning by juxtaposing - comparing and contrasting - it with the social learning theory that Julian P. Rotter developed. Social learning in fact embraces aspects of operant conditioning (which is also known as "radical behaviorism"), and Rotter assumed that "behavior is goal directed and emphasized expectations of reward and perceived values of rewards." Those rewards are the basis for a person to model his or her behavior after the behavior of others. "Rewards for desired behavior are presumed to reinforce that behavior," (Hogben, et al., 1998) Rotter asserted, and that part of his model matches up pretty closely with operant conditioning.

OPERANT THEORY IS the MOST PRACTICAL, APPLICABLE in EXPLAINING DEVIANT BEHAVIOR: In this scholarly article, the authors are alluding to behaviors related to sexual dynamics, in this case spousal abuse. For example, the reward that a deviant…

Canine Behavior: Genetics vs. Environment
The debate over nature vs. nurture as it applies to learning dates back over a hundred years. Certainly, during much of the 20th century, the distinction between learned and inherited behavior appeared much clearer than it does today. The concept that any type of behavior was either learned or merely developed without learning seemed a rationale and straightforward belief. esearch based on these expectations caused some scientists to conclude that rat-killing behavior among cats, for example, is a learned behavior rather than an instinctive one, that human fears are all acquired, or that intelligence is completely the result of experience. Learning theorists were arguing at this point that most behavior is learned and that biological factors are of little or no importance. The behaviorist position that human behavior could be explained entirely in terms of reflexes, stimulus-response associations, and the effects of reinforcers upon them…

" (7)
Chomsky warns of ideological motivations of some scientific paradigms, just as with the aforementioned racial emphasis of early anthropology. Here, Russell espouses a Platonic episteme by enunciating the expectations of behavior between different classes. While Plato philosophized that persons are born with the characteristics fitting of their caste, Russell envisages a society in which "ordinary" men and women are expected to be collectivized and, therefore, devoid of individual expression.

Jean Jacques Rousseau paid his respects to the philosophy of Plato, although he thought it impractical, citing the decayed state of society. This sort of romanticism has been downplayed by the modern scientific establishment, who denounce the noble savage theory of human nature. Humans are not born purely good, modern science maintains. Instead, evolutionary traits are promoted at the biological level, thereby giving rise to how people are. It is not society that corrupts, but rather an interrelationship between…

" (Herbig et al., 563) These motivational priorities, manifesting concretely in such terms as pay rate and personal interest, are relatively common throughout the working world. However, a point of distinction in this discussion may be raised from the fact that different cultures often produce distinct motivational forces. To this extent, the differences that are accounted for betwixt nations and demographics may be seen as directly pertinent to specific cultural realities within each of these contexts. Moreover, as our reading on the subject of significantly culturally divergent nations suggests, "the type of work goals whose pursuit is encouraged and rewarded depend in part on the prevailing cultural value emphasized in society." (Jaw et al., 2) This is consistent with our findings here thus far, including the intrinsic ideals of Maslow, which may be read to suggest that the exact manifestation of work values will be reflected on a larger social…

Defense mechanisms, the unconscious, coping mechanisms, self-actualization and archetypes are other examples. The ultimate and most useless example is the "little person," that resides in everyone and explains his behavior. These include ideas like soul, mind, ego, will, self and personality. Skinner, instead, suggests that psychologists should put their energies on what is observable, such as the environment and human behavior occurring in the environment (oeree).
Person-Centered Therapy

This therapy states three core conditions under which growth may occur (Mulhauser,

2011). These core conditions proceed from the assumption that a person naturally possesses the inner resources for growth. He is the best authority on his own experience. He also believes in his capability to realize his own potential for growth. The therapy, however, recognizes that the realization depends on favorable conditions. Under adverse conditions, a person is often denied unconditional acceptance and positive regard. He then fails to apprehend the…

Question 1
All the early pioneers of behaviorism including Watson were important to the development of psychology as a social science (Moore, 2011). In fact, Watson deserves the most credit for being the first person to propose behaviorism as a science, using the tools of the scientific method to measure human behavior. However, human behavior is remarkably complex and Watson’s early research failed to capture the nuances of human cognitive-behavioral responses. Pavlov built upon Watson’s foundation, and is probably the most famous of all the pioneering behaviorists. Pavlov’s famous dog experiments have become part of the common vernacular (Clark, 2004). Like Pavlov, B.F. Skinner focused on operant conditioning. However, Skinner took the entire concept of conditioning a step further by showing how stimuli could be manipulated to manipulate responses. Pavlov had yet to break free from the purely mechanistic methods of measuring human behavior. Skinner used behavioral research to show…

Labor
ehavioral Therapy vs. Freud's Psychoanalysis

Amazing advances have been made in the treatment of mental illness throughout the years (Merck, 2004). An understanding of what causes some mental health disorders has resulted in a greater sophistication in customizing treatment to the underlying basis of specific disorders. Thus, many mental health disorders can now be treated almost as successfully as physical disorders.

Most treatment methods for mental health disorders are either categorized as somatic or psychotherapeutic (Merck, 2004). Somatic treatments include drug therapy and electroconvulsive therapy. Psychotherapeutic treatments include individual, group, or family and marital psychotherapy; behavior therapy techniques; and hypnotherapy. There are many others, as well

Research reveals that for major mental health disorders, a treatment plan involving both drugs and psychotherapy is more effective than either treatment method on its own. This paper will discuss two treatment methods -- behavioral therapy and psychoanalysis -- in an effort to…

Consumer Behavior for Marketing
Understanding Consumer Behavior

Understanding consumers' perceptions is critical to marketing and advertising. Consumers are increasingly selective with regard to the advertising that they pay attention to and mass marketing is fast losing its effectiveness and appeal. There is any number of strategies that marketers can employ to increase positive consumer perception of their brands. Several suggestions follow: (1) Engage in socially responsible investing in causes that can reasonably associated with the company or the brand: Examples of this strategy can be seen in programs that Starbucks has established to give back to domestic communities and to engage in foreign communities in need. Sale of Ethos water provides a portion of the revenue to be used for infrastructure changes to communities that do not have reliable sources of clean water. The ed program -- a collaborative effort which extended to other firms -- used a portion of…

Violence is not just programmed and imitated, it is also chosen and controlled by the participant in a complex continuum of stimulus, response and participant interaction via other factors (Hoffman, 2007, 9).
Abstract

In an article by Stefan G. Hofmann entitled Cognitive Factors that Maintain Social Anxiety Disorder, it discusses the effects of social cognitive theory on social anxiety disorder (SAD). ecent studies have identified multiple psychological factors that could explain the maintenance of the disorder. The model that is constructed in the article makes the assumption that social apprehension is to be associated with unrealistic social standards. This also includes a deficiency in the selection of attainable social goals. When a person is confronted with challenging social situations, people with SAD shift their attention toward the anxiety. They view themselves negatively as a social object. In addition, they overestimate the negative consequences of a social encounter, believing that they…

Nonetheless, this does not make philosophy any less important in the field.
Philosophy today can be seen as a manifestation of the workings of the human mind, while psychology studies the mind itself. Philosophy is therefore a very important aspect in helping the psychologist understand the human mind. Philosophy is indeed responsible for the birth of psychology as a discipline in itself, as mentioned.

While the early philosophers, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, are responsible for many of the ideas in both philosophy and psychology today, the 17th century philosopher ene Descartes is known as the "father of modern philosophy" (Consciousness 9). All these philosophers made a specific point of studying what it means to be human and conscious.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung built upon the work of all the above philosophers in order to develop his theories of the conscious and the…

Latent learning; this is the type of learning that takes place oblivious of the reinforcements that are applied though these reinforcements can be useful later on in the process of learning. It is the education that is instantly expressed in a response that is obvious. Here, an organism may be learning but the information learnt is not instantly expressed (obert Jensen, 2006). For instance, a child may watch the elders set the table and they may not instantly set the table but will store that knowledge and information till the day and time that they will need it.

Insight learning; this is the understanding that one has even without much effort or many trials and errors. This type of learning allows the person to be able to form associations between events and objects that can help them solve new challenges that may come their way (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011 ). This…

Generally, it works by either giving a reward for an encouraged behavior, or taking something away for an undesirable behavior. y doing this, the patient often increases the good behaviors and uses the bad behaviors less often, although this conditioning may take awhile if the rewards and removals are not sufficient to entice the patient into doing better.
Existentialism is important to discuss here as well, and is often seen to be a very drastic way to examine human behavior. There are two types of existentialism. One is Atheistic Existentialism, and the other is Theistic Existentialism.

Atheistic existentialism has its basis in the statement that the entire cosmos is composed only of matter, and human beings see reality in two forms. Those forms are subjective and objective. People who believe in Atheistic Existentialism do not believe that anyone or anything specific made the world. They do not know whether it…

Individual Education Plan
In education it is important to understand the pedagogy and historical philosophical perspectives on educational theories to fully understand the educational plan in a comprehensive fashion. Understanding this element of an education plan can provide insights to education that can have practical consequences on implementation. This analysis will provide a background into three of such theories -- behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Furthermore, it will discuss how these theories may or may not be consistent with each of the thirteen disability categories under the IDEA and what challenges and obstacles may be present relative to these perspectives and an individual student's circumstances. It will further provide insights into how these theories may be relevant to different stakeholder involvement strategies in the individual education plan (IEP) for students. Finally, it will discuss how these learning theories can influence the style of instruction in the IEP.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is a…

Second, it suggests that once an appropriate curriculum has been compiled -- one that produces the appropriate results -- then this very same curriculum should produce the same results every time it is employed properly. And third, it suggests that language itself cannot be conceived of as anything other than a response to an external stimulus; therefore, we, as teachers, should not be concerned with the internal, conceptual aspects of learning a language, and only with the observable, verbal responses that our teaching techniques produce. Of course, these stand as direct consequences of accepting the theory of behaviorism within the context of teaching ESL; however, my experience has shown that, if anything, the version of behaviorism that allows for consciousness is the most beneficial for developing an efficient and successful approach towards teaching.
Unfortunately for the theory of behaviorism, this phenomenon is not easily explained without the existence of internal…

Psychology -- Contribution of Psychological Experiments
Philip anyard explains how Stanley Milgram came to be involved with research regarding the Nazi slaughter of millions of people in Europe during World War II. Milgram's obedience study of course had emotional and cultural meaning for him because he is Jewish. In fact he feels blessed that even though his family roots were in Europe in proximity to where the Holocaust took place, he was born in the U.S. And hence avoided the Nazi madness. What is the value of Milgram's research experiments? That is the crux of this section -- the value of Milgram's research into why people are obedient at pivotal moments -- including moments when human lives are at stake.

What does this particular method allow psychologists to study? In the first place, having someone in a room by himself giving shocks to a person he cannot see, a person…

Behaviorism
Compare and contrast 2 different behavioral theories/models of your choice.

Behaviorism vs. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

The father of behaviorism is widely acknowledged to be B.F. Skinner. Skinner attempted to develop an 'experimental' approach to human psychology, and based many of his foundational theories upon experiments with rats rather than humans. Skinner believed that operant conditioning was the best way to motivate individuals to adopt new behaviors, or to extinguish existing behavior patterns. "When a particular Stimulus-esponse (S-) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond" (Operant conditioning, 2012, Instructional Design). The focus of Skinner was upon externalities, rather than upon internal motivations of behavior.

For example, when dealing with someone who was a compulsive over-eater, rather than focusing on the psychological reasons the person felt compelled to overeat, Skinner instead would focus upon creating an environment that would reward healthy choices (such as buying a new…

Freud's Theory Of Repression
Freud is popularly known as the father of psychoanalysis and the idea of psychological repression of memories and urges, even though he was neither the first psychoanalyst or even the first to posit the existence of repression. His justifiable fame comes both from the way he popularized psychoanalysis, and from his further development of its theories. He is commonly attributed with creating the theory of the conscious and subconscious, of the many sexual complexes and drives which run our lives and our subconscious, and with the idea that things which are not socially acceptable will be hidden away within the subconscious. Freud called this process of burying the unacceptable aspects of life away into the subconscious regression, which he was to eventually succinctly defined thus: "the essence of repression lies simply in the function of rejecting and keeping something out of consciousness." (Rieff, 147) It is…

cognitive psychology, learning theories are significant in both their variety and the different ways in which researchers approach "knowing." Within the sphere of cognitive psychology the cognitive learning theory is among the most popular areas of study. The cognitive learning theory suggests that learning is a behavioral change based on the acquisition of information about the environment. Bandura (1986) suggested that what individuals think and feel about themselves necessarily impacts subsequent individual behaviors. As a theory of learning, social cognitive theory is based on the notion that individual's learn by watching others perform and that the internal thought processes people have are critical for a proper understanding of the individual (Santrock, 2008).
The two theories I choose to research for this assignment are Albert Bandura's observational learning theory and B.F. Skinner's theory of operant conditioning. While both theories involve theories of learning, the differences between the two theories are significant.…

andura's social cognitive theory is similar with Skinner's behaviorist theory, in so far as the role of the external environment on the individual is concerned. However, andura's theory differs from Skinner's in that the former extended the relationship between the individual and external environment to include, at the same time, the influence that the individual's behavior has on his/her external environment. andura's theory illustrates a seemingly 'reciprocal' relationship between the individual and the external environment: the latter affects the former in exchange for a positive outcome, while the former affects the latter as part of his/her continuous cycle of personality development (424).

From the discussion of these three perspectives of the psychology of human personality, significant differences that highlight the importance of each tradition emerge.

The humanistic tradition looks into the internal traits of the individual, positing that these internal traits are what ultimately shape the personality of a person.…

Terrell
One approach from the chapter that explains Terrell's behavior very well is the behavioral approach, especially the behaviorism of B.F. Skinner. By looking at the antecedents and consequences of the behavior we can determine what is being reinforced and Terrell's case. The vignette clearly states that Terrell's symptoms are disappearing once he is allowed to stay home, informing us that Terrell is being allowed to stay home when he feigns sickness. It is quite obvious that Terrell is being reinforced for feigning that he is ill according to B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning paradigm. The vignette does not allow us to determine the reason why he wants to stay home; however, it is not unusual for it a six-year-old boy to feel some anxiety regarding a new environment and separation from mother and we could hypothesize that Terrell is feeling some mild anxiety before going to school, this anxiety leads…

Behaviorist and Cognitive Theory
Psychology took a center stage and significant change in the early 20th Century when the behaviorism school of thought became dominant. This was a major change from other theoretical perspectives that existed before hence rejecting emphasis on unconscious and conscious mind. Behaviorism strove to see that psychology becomes a more scientific discipline in that focus will be mainly on observable behavior. This approach to psychology whereby the elements of philosophy, methodology and theory are combined. The primary tenet of behaviorism as it was expressed by JohnB.Watson, B.F Skinner in writing is that the primary concern in psychology should be the behaviors that can be observed both in humans and animals and not the unobserved events which take place within the minds of individuals. This school of thought maintains that behaviors can easily be described scientifically without recourse either to any psychological events that occur internally or…

The hold of behaviorism is emotional and cultural, and it has become such an invisible part of our educational system that we assume it is natural, rather than question its validity. Again, one returns to the idea of gold stars in the classroom -- it seems like they were always 'there' and no one ever introduced them as a 'learning theory.'
So why do we cling to our behaviorist beliefs? Several explanations are offered. Almost everyone alive today was educated and inculcated in behaviorism and a rewards system their entire life. Behaviorism is also superficially similar to the American system of meritocracy, where every person gets his or her just desserts and rewards also seem like a natural part of the capitalist system of exchange, of monetary transaction. The concept that 'I get this if I do this,' even the religious belief in heaven and hell, is a kind of…

" (1) Fearing its potential competition with Biblical modalities of understanding, some Christian patients may initially fear, even consciously avoid the modern practice of psychotherapy, seeing it as a mere scientific reductionism of the uniqueness of the human animal. Or, conversely, some may uncritically embrace counseling it as a better way of understanding the mind than the biology of the natural sciences, especially approaches as person-centered theory and transactional analysis.
However, the authors advocate a more critical, theologically informed appropriation of psychotherapy in relation to faith, suggesting therapy's compatibility with orthodox Christianity through the conscious and flexible integration of psychology and theology, and present the author's justification of what they call responsible eclecticism, endeavoring as they do to understand psychology on its original terms, and then to examine how such precepts relate to Biblical narratives and moral behavior.

One of the most important challenges or concepts offered by this book's…

Whereas the behaviorist and psychodynamic models contradict each other in their fundamental assumptions and focus, humanistic perspective does not necessarily contradict behaviorism or the psychodynamic approach, except that it considers both of those views as explanations of only portions of human behavior rather than all human behavior.

The Cognitive Perspective:

The Cognitive perspective broadens the study of human psychology even further than the humanistic perspective. In addition to considering all of the influential elements within the behaviorist, psychodynamic, and humanistic views, cognitive psychology also studies the combined contributions of knowledge, memory, previous experience, subconscious desires, external factors, and volitional thought on external behavior (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2005).

Cognitive psychology accepts many of the fundamental concepts of other schools of psychological thought, and much like the humanistic point-of-view, merely considers them incomplete explanations of human behavior rather than oppositional theories.

According to cognitive psychologists, even the most inclusive theories like humanistic…

humans have been intrigued by the workings of the human mind. Philosophers and physiologists pondered the questions that psychology, as an independent science, now addresses. Psychology is the study of mind and behavior, both in humans and animals. There exist many subfields within this discipline and as such, supporters of each may alter the aforementioned definition to emphasize their area of concentration.
Developmental psychology examines changes and growth over the lifespan. Child and adolescent psychology along with gerontology are subdisciplines of developmental psychology. The influence and effect others have on our feelings, behaviors, and thoughts describes social psychology. Personality psychology is the study of stable characteristics that influence behavior. Traits include aggressiveness, anxiety, and sociability to name a few. Experimental psychology, as the name implies, relies on the experimental method in its proceedings. Fields of research include cognition, sense perception, and memory. iological processes are the central concerns in physiological…

ene Descartes wrote "I think therefore I am," philosophers have considered the meaning, origin, and function of cognitive thought (Newman, 2014). Thinking in itself appears to be proof of one's own existence. Self-consciousness -- the awareness that one is thinking -- offers indelible proof of a higher order of thought. Yet paradoxically, thoughts also seem to arise seemingly unbidden from the recesses of the mind. The sources of thought have been attributed to everything from God to nothingness (Hauser, 2009). Moreover, the sources of individualized thought processes are related to socialization and acculturation as well as to innate sensations and belief systems. There are some trends of human cognition that may be universal, and others that are instilled through social norms.
Understanding the ways thought processes work is one of the most important aspects of being human. "Thinking is the extraordinary process we use every waking moment to make sense…

The field is social psychology, and the selected title is bullying. The articles selected as follows:
Mundbjerg Eriksen, T. L., Hogh, A., & Hansen, A. M. (2016). Long-Term Consequences of Workplace Bullying On Sickness Absence. Labor Economics, 43: 129-150. doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2016.06.008

This peer-reviewed article explores the effects of bullying at the place of work. The study done in the article indicates that sickness, boredom, and poor productivity are some of the results of bullying from among employees. The article is significant in that it helps to understand the effects of bullying at the workplace and hence aids in deriving ways to reduce its occurrence. The social setting at workplace relates to the social psychology effects as seen with the occurrence of bullying (Mundbjerg Eriksen et al., 2016).

Priest, N., King, T., Becares, L., & Kavanagh, A. M. (2016). Bullying Victimization and Racial Discrimination among Australian Children. American Journal of Public Health,…

Neo-behaviorism and Classical S-R Behaviorism
Behaviorism is regarded as an approach in the field of psychology that emphasizes the significant role of environmental factors in shaping people’s behavior. This approach of psychology emphasizes that environmental factors influence behavior more than intrinsic or genetic factors. Based on this school of thought, all behaviors are influenced by interactions with the environment and therefore focuses on stimulus-response behaviors. The behaviorist movement has attracted several varying perspectives among different psychologists including John Watson’s classical S-R behaviorism. Classical S-R behaviorism is an approach that postulates that all psychological functions can be explained through observable, overt, and measurable muscular movements, nerve impulses, and glandular secretions (Moore, 2011).

However, classical S-R behaviorism has attracted considerable criticism from various psychologists on the premise that it’s insufficient to account for the wide range of human behavior. One of the major criticisms of classical S-R behaviorism is from Edward C.…

From Skinner's perspective, Jane's abusive relationships with men are the result of being 'rewarded' for being stereotypically vulnerable or flirtatious in a feminine fashion: only by acting this way is she not beaten and rewarded with compliance from men. The causes of Jane's behavior are positive reinforcement for sexual behaviors and negative reinforcement for independence in the form of physical punishment. This pattern will continue throughout Jane's life, unless she is de-conditioned from such a behavior pattern. A therapist would try to find a new, alternative system of rewards for Jane, such as encouraging her to seek out an education, where she would be rewarded for qualities other than submissiveness and sexuality.
Neuroscience & biology

From a more physiologically-driven perspective, a therapist might see Jane's and her father's behaviors as a result of a chemical imbalance, such as a deficit or excess of certain neurotransmitters, like dopamine or serotonin. The…

Though there are "different" languages, they all have certain commonalities -- certain parameters that are set, and that can be "switched" in different ways to produce different languages, according to Noam Chomsky. Language acquisition is rendered somewhat less astounding in this perspective, as it is "hard-wired" into the brain. Children begin language acquisition by making vocal noises that eventually become words of the "target language" -- this works the same way with hand gestures for signing language. First words usually occur between 9 and 14 months, with the "word explosion" occurring around 18 months for most infants. B.F. Skinner saw language acquisition as "operant behavior" with reinforcement necessary; Chomsky argues that language is more automatic for humans, requiring less exposure and reinforcement than in Skinner's schema.
Video 13: 19:09-27:13

The case of Genie, who had been deprived of language (as well as other elements of development) until her early teens,…

Implicit in ogers' belief system was that clients must be in control of the therapy, and the therapist merely functioned as the guide.
Major School4: Cognitive-behavioral psychologists

Cognitive behavioral psychology is often a very time-sensitive type of therapy, with a specific goal, such as the elimination of a phobia or behavior. In contrast to humanistic or ogerian therapy, the cognitive-behaviorist directly challenges the client about his or her irrational belief systems.

The biology of psychology

The discipline of psychology has gradually shifted to a disease-based model, from Freud's psychoanalytic framework, reflecting the knowledge gained about how biological aspects of the brain affect learning, language memory, and behavior (Granek 2010). The more simplistic assumptions of the Freudian era, such as the idea that cold mothers produced autistic or schizophrenic children, or that sexual repression was the root of all diseases has fallen out of fashion. However, understanding how to heal individuals…

The model that emerged from the study proposes that there is a relationship of life mission with transformational learning and self-directed learning. Adult educators may improve their learning process when they provide some way for learners to understand their life's mission and relate it to learning. This may help the learning experience go from being teacher-directed to being more student-directed. The study suggests that purpose seeking must be included in emancipatory learning as well as awareness building (Kroth, p.134).
Stephen Brookfield recently published a study of the theory entitled epositioning ideology critique in a critical theory of adult learning about adult learning and how it differs from other types of theories. Looking at contemporary readings in adult educational, particularly those of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, as interpreted by Habermas, who taught "risk sliding into an exclusive engagement with the pragmatic dimensions of his thought to the exclusion of…