Behaviourism
“Behaviourists explain maladaptive behaviour in terms of the learning principles that sustain and maintain it. Discuss this statement and show how a behaviourist’s approach to therapy is in stark contrasts to a psychoanalytic one”
BEHAVIOURISM:
(bĭ-hāv'yə-rĭz'əm)
n.
A school of psychology that confines itself to the study of observable and quantifiable aspects of behaviour and excludes subjective phenomena, such as emotions or motives.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this essay is to discuss why behaviourists explain the maladaptive behaviours in terms of the learning principles that sustain and maintain it. We will attempt to show why the behaviourist approach is in stark contrast to the psychoanalytical approach. We will try looking at the different theories and concepts, from Pavlov through to Skinner, Watson and Bandura’s theories. What applications are there to this approach, are there any ethical considerations we must take into account? We are required to make a comparison between the approach of the behaviourists and the psychoanalytic by demonstrating both approaches and positions of the theories.
APPROACH
The behaviourist’s approach in which learning and experience determine what a person would become, in other words the environment influences the development of the individual. Behaviourists didn’t concern themselves with the internal mechanisms which occur inside the organism. In 1913, John Watson (of Little Albert experiment) founded the behaviourist approach by setting out its main assumptions on an article in the journal The Psychological Review.
John Watson stated in the review ““Psychology as the
Behaviourist views it is a purely objective experimental branch
Of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and
Control of behaviour. Introspection forms no essential part of
Its methods...” (Watson, 1913)
So only observable events, and not mental states, are the
BEHAVIOURISM:
(bĭ-hāv'yə-rĭz'əm)
n.
A school of psychology that confines itself to the study of observable and quantifiable aspects of behaviour and excludes subjective phenomena, such as emotions or motives.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this essay is to discuss why behaviourists explain the maladaptive behaviours in terms of the learning principles that sustain and maintain it. We will attempt to show why the behaviourist approach is in stark contrast to the psychoanalytical approach. We will try looking at the different theories and concepts, from Pavlov through to Skinner, Watson and Bandura’s theories. What applications are there to this approach, are there any ethical considerations we must take into account? We are required to make a comparison between the approach of the behaviourists and the psychoanalytic by demonstrating both approaches and positions of the theories.
APPROACH
The behaviourist’s approach in which learning and experience determine what a person would become, in other words the environment influences the development of the individual. Behaviourists didn’t concern themselves with the internal mechanisms which occur inside the organism. In 1913, John Watson (of Little Albert experiment) founded the behaviourist approach by setting out its main assumptions on an article in the journal The Psychological Review.
John Watson stated in the review ““Psychology as the
Behaviourist views it is a purely objective experimental branch
Of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and
Control of behaviour. Introspection forms no essential part of
Its methods...” (Watson, 1913)
So only observable events, and not mental states, are the