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Overview of the Behaviorist School

The document discusses the Behaviorist school of thought in psychology. It emerged in response to the industrial revolution which changed human labor and behavior. Psychologists sought to analyze, predict, and control human behavior. Edward Thorndike established an influential lab and conducted experiments on cats to understand learning. His "laws of learning" included the law of effect, stating that behaviors reinforced by rewards are learned; the law of exercise, that repeated behaviors are learned through repetition alone; the law of recency, that the most recent behavior is best remembered; and the law of belongingness, that only relevant behaviors to a situation are learned. The Behaviorist school analyzed learning as responses to environmental stimuli and conditioning.

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109 views5 pages

Overview of the Behaviorist School

The document discusses the Behaviorist school of thought in psychology. It emerged in response to the industrial revolution which changed human labor and behavior. Psychologists sought to analyze, predict, and control human behavior. Edward Thorndike established an influential lab and conducted experiments on cats to understand learning. His "laws of learning" included the law of effect, stating that behaviors reinforced by rewards are learned; the law of exercise, that repeated behaviors are learned through repetition alone; the law of recency, that the most recent behavior is best remembered; and the law of belongingness, that only relevant behaviors to a situation are learned. The Behaviorist school analyzed learning as responses to environmental stimuli and conditioning.

Uploaded by

Murtaza Meer Vistro
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

BEHAVIORIST SCHOOL

Introduction
Greatest development – mankind history –
industrial revolution – 18th century
Rational approach – speculative methods by
Greeks
IR – deep impact - development of human
thoughts – ultimately psychology discipline
As industry developed – manual to machine labor
– number of changes human behavior
Manual labor to factories – production increase
rapidly
Imperative for producer – predict & control
human bevaior – so to sell more
Another aspect – productivity & consumption –
human behavior – need for study human behavior
arose
Psychologists – analyzing, predicting, controlling
human behavior
School of thought – Behaviorist school – into
being.

Definition:
The Behaviorist Approach. Behaviorism,
also known as behavioral psychology, is a
theory of learning which states all behaviors
are learned through interaction with the
environment through a process called
conditioning. Thus, behavior is simply a
response to environmental stimuli.

EDWARD LEE THORNDIKE


American Behaviorist, philosopher, psychologist
1874 – 1949
After studies - harward uni – established lab –
experiment on cats – most famous experiments
Contribution – laws of learning
Based upon his experiments, he proved how
learning takes place – which he called “laws of
learning.

Law of effect – Law of Exercise – Recency effect –


Law of belongings

Law of Effect: LEP – Edward - response -


satisfaction – attached to situation – means – act
performed – reinforced by rewards – bring
satisfaction - act learnt & reoccur in future.

For example1: If an animal such as a cat is


rewarded with food if it performs a certain act,
the act shall be learnt by the cat.

For example2: If you study and then get


a good grade on a test, you will be more
likely to study for the next exam.
For example3: If you run a red light and
then get a traffic ticket, you will be less
likely to disobey traffic lights in the
future.

Law of Exercise:
States - rsponses repeated –
stamped in & learnt – no focus on
reinforemnet thru satisfaction – individual
performing certain act repeatedly – learnt
– in other words, Exercise constantly
performed – learnt.

Law of Recency Effect:


In experiment – last cat –
reinforced – learns quickly
For example if a cat is rewarded for the last
act which it performs in a series of acts, the
last one shall be learnt by the cat. Therefore, as
the name implies, the law relates to the most
recent act performed by the subject which is
learnt by it.

Law of Belongingness
The law of belongingness states that only
relevant responses that ―belong‖ to the
learning situation are learnt. For example, the
moving of paws by the cat in the puzzle box is
learnt but not pricking of ears.

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