Essays on Behaviorism

            The fields of psychology and philosophy have been at odds on innumerable issues, from discussions on the individual to those concerning society. However, it cannot be denied that there is but a fine line that separates the two fields; as such, a level of interference is expected whenever a new theory in psychology arises,…

Ivan Pavlov “Classical” conditioning, a type of learning in the field of behavioral studies, is known for its early exploration into the principles of learning and conditioning. It encompasses the activation of a learned reaction by a stimulus. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist born in 1849 and died in 1936, was famous for his expertise…

Firstly behaviorism theories within psychology, generally believe that all behavior is learnt and can be shaped through principles of conditioning, which was suggested by two different psychologists, ‘Skinner’ and ‘Pavlov. This approach is to be able to understand different aspects of human behavior, this is sometimes referred to as the learning theory. These can result…

In 1912, sociologist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) coined the term “conspicuous consumption” to describe a fundamental change in people’s orientations. By this term, Veblen meant that our previous emphasis on hard work and saving was being replaced by an eagerness to show off wealth by the “elaborate consumption of goods.”   In The Theory of the…

Unconditioned Stimulus? unconditioned stimulus (US) is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus. Some more examples of the unconditioned stimulus include: * A feather tickling…

The purpose of the original marshmallow study was to understand when the control of deferred gratification, the ability to wait to obtain something that one wants, develops in children. Deferred gratification, or delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward. Generally, delayed gratification is…

“Abstract” This paper covers articles written by third party sources and one article written by Frederick Herzberg himself. The main focus of Mr. Herzberg’s theory of management is job satisfaction and its related factors. Unlike my previous papers, this paper specifically focuses on the Herzberg theory and aims to provide a detailed explanation. “Introduction” The…

Watson and Rosalie Rayner conducted important studies on psychology in 1920, which turned out to be one of the influential studies. “Conditioned Emotional Reactions” was a paper, which was based on experiments conducted by J.B. Watson with his assistant, Rosalie Rayner. This paper was also known as the “Little Albert” study.  The reason this study was…

The cornerstone of behaviorism psychology was the view that behavior should be studied as a product of objectively observable events instead of appealing to internal processes of the mind. John B. Watson famous “Little Alert Experiment” was best known as a case study showing and proving evidence of classical conditioning and also an example of…

The term reinforcement means to strengthen, it is used as a stimulus to increase the probability for a desired or a specific response. Within reinforcement there are various types of reinforcement to choose from. The main two types of reinforcement are positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement includes adding a stimulus followed by a specific…