Behaviourism is the theory that we can explain human and animal behaviour in terms of conditioning, and that psychological disorders are treated best by altering behavioural patterns. There are two types of conditioning used to explain behaviourism; classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning, also known as pavlovian or respondent conditioning, is based on natural instinct, it is a learning process where a neutral stimulus (sound of a bell) and a biologically potent stimulus (food) is used to elicit a response. Ivan Pavlov, who initially studied the digestive system of a dog, made the observation that his dogs salivated when they saw the technician that usually fed them, rather than in the presence of the food. He called this “psychic secretion.” He used this information in his experiments. He presented a neutral stimulus (the sound of a bell) and then gave the dog the biologically potent stimulus (food), after repeating this a few times, the dog began to salivate at the sound of the bell. He concluded that if a certain stimulus was present when the dog received its food, then eventually the dog would associate the stimulus with food and therefore salivate when they saw it.
The second type of conditioning is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning, or instrumental conditioning, is the learning where the behaviour of a human or animal is influenced by its consequences (punishment or reward). Thorndikes law of effect shows that when satisfying consequences are presented after a state of behaviour, that state is more likely to be repeated than if it was followed by negative consequences. Thorndike observed that when he trapped cats in homemade “puzzle boxes” they immediately tried to knock down a pole or pull a cord to escape. But after the cats were restrained before they were able to do this, they began to try finding their way out, as they were more likely to escape and not be restrained.
Behaviourism does have a place in the 21st century, it is used today to controlled behaviour in advertising, in schools and parenting with children, and even with pets in homes.
By Elizabeth Statham Langley Park School For Girls
