BEHAVIORISM AND SOCIAL LEARNING

HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE BEHAVIOR OF HUMAN ACCORDING TO PSYCHOLOGY.   

BEHAVIORISM:

Many learning theories are based on  behaviorism. Behaviorists think that all the things that people do, from acting to thinking and feeling, are behaviors. People learn as they are conditioned by experience. What a person is feeling or thinking is not as important as what a person doing. Biological make-up or person's background is not as important as the experiences a person has. Learning is understood as a change in behavior. Two important theorists who hold this perspective are watson and skinner.

John Watson believed that things we can observe directly (stimuli and response, or S-R) should be the focus of study. Watson said that he could take any child and turn them into anything he wanted - from doctor to thief- if he had complete control over their environment. Watson's most famous experiment shows how he thought stimulus-response associations could be controlled.

watson conducted an experiment with a nine-month-old baby, Albert. He taught Albert to fear a "neutral stimulus". The stimulus was a white rat . at first, Albert was curious and wanted to play with the rat. But watson played a loud, frightening sound whenever the rat appeared. As a result of the conditioning with the noise, Albert cried whenever he saw the rat.

B.F Skinner believed that reward(or reinforcement) and punishment from children's behavior. According to his theory, when we want a child to behave in certain way, we watch for the behavior and follow it with positive reinforcement. For example, we might smile, praise the child, or offer a new toy. behaviors that we do not want  can be discouraged by punishment. For example, we might take away privileges or frown to show disapproval.

social learning theory:

social learning theory builds on behaviorist theory. It includes inner motivation. It also challenges the idea that learning represents a change in behavior. Alfred Bandura is associated with social learning theory.

Alfred bandura thought that when we the child observes, he or she learns behavior such as helping, sharing, selfishness, or aggression. They even learn the ways people expect boys and girls to act differently. Children watch and listened to others around  them. social learning theory talks about three things that people need to learn and model behavior . These are retention( remembering what one observed), reproduction(ability to reproduce the behavior), and motivation(good reason) to want to adopt the behavior. Bandura later introduced more cognitive elements to his theory. He began to focus on motivation as well as environment as factors that influence learning. He introduced the idea of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is person's belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. bandura believed self-efficacy is a powerful influence on how people think, behave, and feel.

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