Behavioral Approach

• John B. Watson (1878-1958) was an American psychologist who founded the behaviorist movement in psychology.
• The behaviorist perspective emphasizes the importance of environmental factors, such as reinforcement or punishment, in shaping human behavior.
• Behaviorism is the scientific approach to psychology that focuses on observable behavior.
• Watson believed that all human behavior is learned through conditioning, which can be either classical or operant.
• Classical conditioning involves pairing two stimuli together to create a new response.
• Reinforcement is the basis of behavior
• Two kinds of behavior: Respondent Behavior and Operant Behavior
• Respondent Behavior is the responses made to or elicited by specific environmental stimuli
• Respondent behavior occurs automatically and involuntarily
• Reinforcement –the act of strengthening a response by adding a reward, thus, increasing the likelihood that the response will be repeated
• Every response is elicited by a specific stimulus.
• Respondent behavior depends on reinforcement and is related directly to a physical stimulus.
• Operant Behavior –behavior emitted spontaneously or voluntarily that operates on the environment to change it.
• With operant conditioning, a behavior is made more likely to recur when it is immediately reinforced.
• Behavior that is rewarded will likely to occur in the future or will continue whereas behavior that is followed by punishment is likely not to be repeated.
• Positive Reinforcer - something added as a consequence of a behavior that increases the probability of its repetition.
• Negative Reinforcer - something removed as a consequence of a behavior that increases the probability of its repetition.
• Punishment - an unpleasant event that decreases the frequency of a particular behavior.
• Punishment - an unpleasant event that decreases the likelihood of a particular behavior being repeated.
• In classical conditioning, Behavior is elicited from the organism by the consequences of its actions
• In operant conditioning, behavior is emitted
• Emitted responses do not previously exist inside the organism; they simply appear because of the organism’s individual history of reinforcement or the species’ evolutionary history.
• OPERANT CONDITIONING, the procedure by which a change in the consequences of a response will affect the rate at which the response occurs.
• The key to operant conditioning is the immediate reinforcement of a response.
• The reinforcement does not cause the behavior, but it increases the likelihood that it will be repeated.
• The organism first does something and then is reinforced by the environment.
• Reinforcement, in turn, increases the probability that the same behavior will occur again.
• Shaping is A procedure in which the experimenter or the environment first rewards gross approximations of the behavior, then closer approximations, and finally the desired behavior itself.
• Three conditions in operant conditioning: A –Antecedent - refers to the environment or setting in which the behavior takes place. B –Behavior. C –Consequence
• Operant Discrimination is Reacting to some elements in our environment but not to others.
• Stimulus Generalization is A response to a similar environment in the absence of previous reinforcement
• Extinction is the process of eliminating a behavior by withholding reinforcement.
• POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT is any stimulus that, when added to a situation, increases the likelihood that a given behavior will occur.
• NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT is the removal of an aversive stimulus from a situation which also increases the probability that the preceding behavior will occur.
• POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT - Stimulus is presented
• NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT - Stimulus is removed
• Punishment is a consequence that decreases the frequency of the response it follows
• Punishment is The presentation of an aversive stimulus or the removal of a positive one.
• Positive punishment –addition of unpleasant stimulus
• ➢ Negative punishment –removal of pleasant stimulus