It is universally understood that individuals experience change whether it be their basic schema or their everyday actions. These changes occur on various occasions throughout one’s life time. However, how these changes occur is undecided between theorists. Two important theories are the biological/evolutionary and learning theories. Learning theories can be understood through two theorists- B.F. Skinner, and John Watson. Biological/evolutionary theories are explained and enhanced by David Buss and Hans Esnyeck. The learning theories attempt to understand individual changes by studying the idea of learnt traits, characteristics and actions. Whereas biological/evolutionary theories attempt to understand the functions of these changes. Have chosen …show more content…
This belief can be seen through two processes- the first being individuals are born with a specific phylogeny sequence that allows individuals to solve problems in a particular way and the effect of epigenetics, The second way being through the process of adaption and ontogeny’s. Phylogeny refers to inherited genotypes, and epigenetics is “the non-genetic influences on genotype expression” (Webster). Adaption is the “the adjustment or changes in behavior, physiology, and structure of an organism to become more suited to an environment.”(Buss.D.) Ontogeny refers to the characteristics of an individual developed as a result of experiences. I believe that the Biological/Evolutionary psychology theory can be used to understand my Sea Cadet experience because in cadets you are forced to adjust to your environment or else you do not rank up or receive medals and awards. The idea of having to adjust your schema and actions to fit and strive in your environment is like the idea of adapting to your environment-adapt or die. Everyone is born with specific predisposition to look and behave a certain way, this is due to the individual’s phylogeny. My great grandfathers and grandpas were in the military, my grandmother was a commanding officer of a Navy League corps-Navy League is Cadets for kids 9-12 years of age. My Aunts and Uncles on my father’s side were all in cadets, and my Mother and …show more content…
Skinner and John Watson, through their theories we are introduced to Classical and operant conditioning, modelling and shaping. Classical conditioning is the process repeatedly pairing two stimuli to obtain a response that is first elicited by the second stimulus, and is eventually elicited by only the first stimulus. Operant conditioning is the type of learning in which behavior is controlled by consequence. The key concepts being positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment. Positive is the idea of giving something and negative is the process of taking something away. Modelling is where individuals learn without any specific verbal direction and learn solely on imitation of others. Shaping is when an individual is reinforced for some approximation towards a goal behavior. It is important to know the brief of the 4 strategies of learning theories to understand how they were used throughout Cadets. When you are learning drill the movements are usually broken down into 4 steps, we do this as a form of shaping the division learns one move until they complete it on time and as one, was they achieve this they are reinforced with the next step in sequence. Another often used process is that of classical conditioning. When an officer walks into a room it is expected for everyone to come to attention and the highest rank says “sir/ma’am”. When individuals are new to the military
B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two is the fictitious account of an eclectic group’s visit to a modern utopian community started by psychologist T.E. Frazier. Authors often depict “perfect societies” in novels, as the subject holds wide appeal and great creative opportunity. Aldous Huxley envisioned a Brave New World; Lois Lowry wove the tale of The Giver. What sets Walden Two apart from such books? Simply stated, Skinner’s work truly does not seem as if it belongs in the fantasy or fiction genre, as the others do. The novel reads as an actual experiment, albeit one performed in a text-only version of the world. The author perfectly follows the steps of a scientific investigation throughout the plot, meeting nearly all goals of the scientific enterprise. This approach leaves readers practically incapable of brushing the novel’s bold statements off as fiction: to do so feels equivalent to denying a proven reality.
B.F. Skinner was a empiricist in my opinion he believed that only basically after experience one can formulate a theory. Another reason why I believe Skinner was a empiricist do to his book published in 1957 "Verbal Behavior. Which, had set the way for behaviorism which means basically it's like a child born with a blank slate feeling them up with knowledge that is obtained through experience so in actuality this is related to empiricist. Empiricist is a "Philosophy. the doctrine that all knowledge isderived from sense experience." (Dictionary.com) Skinner was already relating to empiricist when he created this book in 1957 and making it clear what is view on life was. Furthermore Skinner is know for his famous quote "Education is what survives
“Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior” (Cherry). Positive reinforcement which is praising a person for doing something good verses negative reinforcement which is an unpleasant remark a punishment. B.F. Skinner did an experiment on a rat, the rat was taught to push two buttons, one to receive food and the other was a light electric shock. The rat tried both buttons and realized which button was good and which one was bad. This experiment goes to show that upon the rewards and punishment system one can learn their rights from their wrongs through a series of lessons. Kincaid and Hemingway both use operant conditioning to show human behavior under stimulus control.
Skinners studies included the study of pigeons that helped develop the idea of operant conditioning and shaping of behavior. His study entailed making goals for pigeons, if the goal for the pigeon is to turn to the left, a reward is given for any movement to the left, the rewards are supposed to encourage the left turn. Skinner believed complicated tasks could be broken down in this way and taught until mastered. The main belief of Skinner is everything we do is because of punishment and reward (B.F. Skinner).
For my reflection paper I chose to write about chapter 9 that talks about lifespan development. This chapter grabbed my attention and I found it most interesting. In the textbookit discusses how there are certain factors that uncontrollably make us who we are. Those factorsare "unique combination of genes you inherited from your biological mother and father. Another is the historical era during which you grew up. Your individual development has also been shaped by the cultural, social, and family contexts within which you were raised." (Pg.352) The patterns of our lives are because of developmental psychology. "Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain growth, change and consistency though the lifespan. Developmental
The discussion as to whether nature or nurture were the driving force shaping our cognitive abilities, was for a long time considered interminable. In the 18th century, Locke and the English empiricists claimed that individuals were born with a tabula rasa and only experience could establish mind, consciousness and the self. On the continent, Leibniz envisaged the self as a monad carrying with it some knowledge of a basic understanding of the world. Until the 1960s, this dispute was still very vivid in the behavioral sciences: B. F. Skinner's school of behaviorism in the USA postulated (as reflexology did earlier) general rules for all types of learning, neglecting innate differences or predispositions. K. Lorenz was one of the protagonists of ethology in Europe, focusing on the inherited aspects of behavior. It was Lorenz who ended the antagonistic view of behavior in showing that there indeed are innate differences and predispositions in behavior where only little learning occurs. Today, it is largely agreed upon that nature and nurture are intimately cooperating to bring about adaptive behaviors. Probably only in very few cases ontogenetic programs are not subjected to behavioral plasticity at all. Conversely, the possibility to acquire behavioral traits has to be genetically coded for.
Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner, an American behavioral psychologist, is best known for his experiments on changing behavior. With behavioral psychologists Pavlov and Watson as his inspiration, Skinner formulated his theory of operational conditioning. His idea of “shaping” behavior is prevalent in the parenting and teaching techniques of children and students.
Learning is defined as relative, permanent change that occurs in an organism’s behavior caused by the influence of its environment. Theories of learning have changed over the years to incorporate more of the complex structural and functional processes behind learning, yet we are still not completely clear on how learning occurs as a whole. Learning is of the following types: Simple learning (habituation, sensitization), Associative learning (classical, operant, aversion) and Complex (imprinting, latent, vicarious)
According to numerous references in the field of Psychology, a cognitive psychologist is an individual that studies topics such as thinking, problem-solving, learning, attention, memory, forgetting, and language acquisition, among several others. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes, and its core focus is on how people acquire, process, and store information. While great research has been done within the field of psychology, there are individuals such as B.F. Skinner who criticize its strides, purposes, and research methods.
Skinner argues that ‘learning is accelerated by reinforcement: a stimulus that increases the probability of a response’ called ‘operant conditioning’ and it is not reliant on what triggered the response but...
The birth of psychology was in December of 1879, at Germanys University of Leipzig (Myers, 2014, p.2). In 1960, Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener defines psychology as “the science of mental health” (Myers, 2014, p.4). However, two provocative American psychologists, John Watson and B.F Skinner, redefined psychology in 1920. They redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behavior” (Myers, 2014, p.4). The problem arose when psychologists realized people could not observe feeling or thought so they needed to come up with a new definition for psychology. We define psychology today as “the science of behavior and mental processes” (Myers, 2014, p.4). Psychology includes many subfields such as human development, social behavior,
Various perspectives on behavior have changed the face of psychology over the centuries. Some of the most influential of these theories on behaviorism were made by John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Edward C. Tolman. The manner in which behavior is modified has become a growing debate in the aspect of which technique is more reliable and effective. The theories from these three men have become a foundation for many different schools of thought throughout modern psychology. Through their research, many modern psychologists have grown a better knowledge on why people react and behave during certain situations or in different environments. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the various theories of Watson and Skinner to that of Tolman.
B.F. Skinner is a major contributor to the Behavioral Theory of personality, a theory that states that our learning is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, modeling, and observation. An individual acts in a certain way, a.k.a. gives a response, and then something happens after the response. In order for an action to be repeated in the future, what happens after the response either encourages the response by offering a reward that brings pleasure or allows an escape from a negative situation. The former is known as positive reinforcement, the latter known as negative reinforcement (Sincero, 2012). A teenager who received money for getting an “A” is being positively reinforced, while an individual who skips a class presentation is being negatively reinforced by escaping from the intense fear and anxiety that would have occurred during the presentation.
“Behavior theory consists of ideas about how human actions and emotions develop, are sustained, and are extinguished through principles of learning” (Walsh, 2010). Positive and negative reinforcement is used to help manipulate the behaviors of the individual. The theory has been used to help eliminate unwanted behaviors. In addition, behavior theory has been use primarily with children, and persons with developmental disabilities. According to Walsh (2010) behavior theory evolved in the 1960s from a field of philosophy to the field of science. Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning, which plays a major role in behavioral theory. Classical conditioning is the process of learning through ones surroundings, conditioned, and unconditioned stimuli and response. B. F. Skinner discovered operant conditioning the process of learning to influence the future responses to the environment (Clark, 2004). The two concepts has been used throughout the behavior theory to help assist clients with unacceptable behaviors that is occurring. The combination of the two concepts has been a very helpful aspect to the behavior theory. Both concepts offer a different approach or solution to the behavior of the client.
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning both played a key role in the history of the study of learning, but, as argued by B.F Skinner, there are key differences to be noted between the two (Gleitman, Gross, Reisberg, 2011).