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Hannah Bauer
Ed Psych
Dr. Hawkes
12 November 2015
Behaviorism
We have learned about various different learning theories, including,
behaviorism, social learning, and constructivism. The one that stuck out
most to me was behaviorism because it describes how students behave in
the classroom and even outside of the classroom. It also helps us as teachers
to understand how a students behavior affects their learning.
What does behaviorism mean to me? Well to me, behaviorism is a type
of learning that focuses on an individuals behavior. How they learn to
behave and where their behavior is learned from is also a part of
behaviorism. I think that their behavior is shaped from both positive and
negative reinforcement. There is a lot to the behavioral learning theory and I
will cover all of it in this informative paper.
The theory of behaviorism combines elements of philosophy,
methodology, and psychology theories. It was a reaction to depth psychology
as well as other traditional forms of psychology. Our book defines
behaviorism as the theoretical perspective in which learning and behavior
are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships, and

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motivation is often the result of deficit-based drives. It is based upon the idea
that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning (Behaviorism, Ormrod).
Behaviorism emerged in the early twentieth century by John B. Watson.
Watson saw psychology as the study of peoples actions with the ability to
predict and control those actions. This idea brought forth the behaviorist
theory, which he named after his new idea. In his earlier research, he
developed techniques to allow him to control and condition the emotions of
his subjects. His philosophy was more concerned with the effects of stimuli.
Watson introduced the concept of stimulus and response, which are
two primary things that every behavior needs. A stimulus is something that
influences an individuals learning or behavior. For example, certain stimuli in
our lives naturally lead us to behave in particular ways. The way a neighbor
smiles, or waves might make us feel good and prompt a response such as
Hope you have a good day! That reaction is called a response. It is a
specific behavior that an individual exhibits, whether good or bad.
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian psychologist known for his work in classical
conditioning. He defined condition responses and demonstrated that it could
be regarded as an elementary psychological and physiological process. This
work was groundbreaking. Conditioning occurs when there is interaction with
the environment. It is a learning process in which an innate response to a
potent stimulus comes to be elicited in response to a previously neutral
stimulus. This is achieved by repeated pairings of the neutral stimulus with

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the potent stimulus. There are two major types of conditioning; classical and
operant.
First, lets talk about classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a
type of learning that had major influences on behaviorism. It involves placing
a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex. It forms an association
between two stimuli resulting in a learned response. There are three basic
phases of this process. The first phase is called Before Conditioning. This part
of the process requires a naturally occurring stimulus that will elicit a
response automatically. Pavlovs most famous experiment is an experiment
that stimulated a response from dogs. He showed the existence of the
unconditioned response by ringing a bell and presenting a bowl of food to a
dog and measuring its salivary secretions. He found that any object or event
which the dogs learned to associate with food would trigger the same
response (Cherry).
During this phase of the process, the unconditioned stimulus results in
an unconditioned response. An unconditioned stimulus is one that
unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. The
unconditioned response is an unlearned response that occurs naturally in
response to the unconditioned stimulus. So, in Pavlovs experiment, when
the dogs smelled the food they were evoking an unconditioned stimulus. The
conditioned response to this would be the feeling of hunger in response to
the smell of the food (Santrock).

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Before I talk about the second phase, Im going to explain a very

important stimulus that Pavlov had introduced, and that is a neutral stimulus.
It is a stimulus which initially produces no specific response other than
focusing attention. In classical conditioning, when used together with an
unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned
stimulus. An example of this is if a teacher plays a song in the classroom, the
kids listen to it. The kids may not have strong feelings towards the song but
they still listen to it. When the song plays elsewhere outside of the
classroom, they dont react to the song which makes it a neutral stimulus
because it doesnt produce any strong reactions (Boyd).
During the second phase, the previous stimulus is repeatedly paired
with the unconditioned stimulus. At this point, the neutral stimulus becomes
the conditioned stimulus. A conditioned stimulus is a previously neutral
stimulus that eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. In Pavlovs
experiment, he rang a bell when he set out the dogs food. The whistle is
unrelated to the smell of the food, but the dogs knew that when the bell
rang, their food would be set out which triggered the conditioned response. A
conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral
stimulus, which happens in the third and final phase (Santrock).
The last two factors that affect conditioning are generalization and
extinction. Generalization is known as when a stimulus similar to the
controlled stimulus also elicits the controlled response, even if it has never
been paired with the uncontrolled response. An example of this could be

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when a child learns to talk on the phone he/she might accidentally pick up
the remote and put it to their ear, simply because they see the remote and
the telephone look alike.
Imagine you are working at a local grocery store. You recognize a
mother and her young son that come in the store regularly. The son seems to
always scream when they get to the checkout until his mother agrees to buy
the son candy. You witness this happen almost every time the pair come into
the store. One day, the mother decides not to buy the son candy, the child
became even more upset when he was denied the candy. A few weeks later,
you see them at the store, but he does not scream for candy anymore. This
is because you have witnessed extinction. Extinction is the disappearance of
a previously learned behavior when the behavior is not reinforced (Cherry).
As was stated early, operant conditioning is the second major type of
conditioning. Operant conditioning is when behaviors are followed by
desirable consequences they tend to increase in frequency. When the
behaviors produce results, they vanish. It has a reinforcer or reinforcement
and punishment. A reinforcer is any response that increases the frequency of
a particular behavior. There are two types of reinforcement, positive and
negative (Cherry).
Positive reinforcement is giving something pleasant after a behavior
which increases the probability that that behavior will continue. An example
of this could be that a student gets a good grade on a test, and they found

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that studying helped them get that grade, so in turn they studied for the rest
of their tests. A negative reinforcement is taking away something unpleasant
as a result of the behavior that is acceptable. An example is not studying for
a quiz, so the student does poorly on it (Cherry).
Presentation punishment is a punishment involving presentation of a
new stimulus, presumably one a learner finds unpleasant. An example of
presentation punishment is when a teacher makes a child do extra
homework when they disrupt the rest of the class. Removal punishment is
punishment involving removal of an existing stimulus, presumably one a
learner finds desirable and doesnt want to lose. An example of removal
punishment is when a parent takes away their childs game system because
he did not complete his homework because he was playing play station all
night (Cherry).
In conclusion, behaviorism is learned and presented in many different
ways. I chose behaviorism because it was one of the theories that I had
enjoyed learning about the most. I enjoyed learning about the many different
psychologists and what they had discovered. Behaviorism is a theoretical
way in which learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of
stimulus-response relationships.

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Works Cited
"Behaviorism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Boyd, Natalie. "Neutral Stimulus." Study.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Cherry, Kendra. "How Is Extinction Defined in Psychology?" About.com Education.
N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Cherry, Kendra. "What Is Behaviorism and How Does It Work?" About.com
Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
"Classical Conditioning." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big Ideas to Guide
Effective Teaching. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.
Santrock. "Theories of Learning in Educational Psychology." Pavlov and Classical
Conditioning. N.p., 1988. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.