This essay will discuss how the behaviourism theory can explain human behaviour. Psychology is the science of behaviour, mind, experience and mental processes. ‘All behaviour is observable and measurable’, it is what we say and do or what we see or hear, meaning the behaviour of a child or an adult is observable if they express how they feel. There are different theories that behaviourist use that help psychology describe human behaviour, for example the behaviouristic theory which expands psychology into many groups that could not be studied by introspection, and the social learning theory which is how people acquire new behaviours by observing and imitating others. This essay will cover three theorists who studied the field of behaviourism
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Pavlov was the creator of ‘Classical Conditioning’. Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus evokes a response because of being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response (McLeod, S. 2007). In his experiments, Pavlov showed that dogs began to salivate to neutral stimulus such as a buzzer after it was associated with another stimulus that naturally evokes salivation such as food. The experiment included Pavlov showing the unconditioned response by presenting a dog with a bowl of food and measuring its salivary by implanting test tubes into the cheeks of the dog. Pavlov soon discovered that he could make the dog salivate to stimuli that don’t usually make animals salivate, such as the sound of a buzzer. Pavlov paired food with the sound of the buzzer; he then found that the dog started to salivate to the sound of the buzzer.
In conclusion this resulted in Pavlov’s dog to salivate when they heard the sound of a buzzer as they had become ‘conditioned’ to associate the sound of a buzzer with eating. (Collins et al., n.d.). This theory represents that behaviour can be conditioned and can be changed due to psychological endorsements.
Moreover John B Watson reinforced this idea of classical conditioning on to a child, which helps prove that Pavlov’s theory works, as criticisms may suggest his theory was unreliable as it was experimented on animals which are easy to train.
John B Watson (1913)
Pavlov was the creator of ‘Classical Conditioning’. Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus evokes a response because of being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response (McLeod, S. 2007). In his experiments, Pavlov showed that dogs began to salivate to neutral stimulus such as a buzzer after it was associated with another stimulus that naturally evokes salivation such as food. The experiment included Pavlov showing the unconditioned response by presenting a dog with a bowl of food and measuring its salivary by implanting test tubes into the cheeks of the dog. Pavlov soon discovered that he could make the dog salivate to stimuli that don’t usually make animals salivate, such as the sound of a buzzer. Pavlov paired food with the sound of the buzzer; he then found that the dog started to salivate to the sound of the buzzer.
In conclusion this resulted in Pavlov’s dog to salivate when they heard the sound of a buzzer as they had become ‘conditioned’ to associate the sound of a buzzer with eating. (Collins et al., n.d.). This theory represents that behaviour can be conditioned and can be changed due to psychological endorsements.
Moreover John B Watson reinforced this idea of classical conditioning on to a child, which helps prove that Pavlov’s theory works, as criticisms may suggest his theory was unreliable as it was experimented on animals which are easy to train.
John B Watson (1913)