Psychology Ip 1
SSCI206-1301B-28 Aspects of Psychology
AIU Online
March 30, 2012
Abstract
Since the origin of psychology, all thoughts and terms have changed many times. With every new psychologist comes a new way of thinking and learning from our experiences and surroundings. We live to survive and the brain adapts with this and learns many new ways to keep the body going. This paper will analyze three early perspectives of psychology and give examples of how they co-exist and also how much they are different.
Early Perspectives of Psychology Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism is the theory learning by the idea that every behavior human’s encounter is achieved through conditioning. Behavior is passive and it only responds to an environmental stimulus. When we are born we are considered blank and we learn from positive and negative reinforcement. Both reinforcement techniques will acquire that we will do that same positive action again or stop doing that negative action all together. We adjust our behavior based on what we have learned through positive and negative experiences. A great example of behaviorism is an experiment conducted by psychologist B. F. Skinner, also known as the father of behaviorism, this experiment was known as the Skinner box. This experiment reinforced certain behaviors by using food to train a rat. This operant chamber would have a rat press a middle button in a series of three buttons and it would get a food pellet. This positive reinforcement would determine the rat’s future behavior by letting the animal learn that when pressing the middle button, the rat would receive a food pellet. As the experiment continued the rat would press the middle button more than the other two (Editorial Board, 2011). Cognitive psychology, also known as cognitive theory is the theory that tries to determine behavior through the understanding of the development of thinking. This helps us determine how humans interact and understand the world.
AIU Online
March 30, 2012
Abstract
Since the origin of psychology, all thoughts and terms have changed many times. With every new psychologist comes a new way of thinking and learning from our experiences and surroundings. We live to survive and the brain adapts with this and learns many new ways to keep the body going. This paper will analyze three early perspectives of psychology and give examples of how they co-exist and also how much they are different.
Early Perspectives of Psychology Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism is the theory learning by the idea that every behavior human’s encounter is achieved through conditioning. Behavior is passive and it only responds to an environmental stimulus. When we are born we are considered blank and we learn from positive and negative reinforcement. Both reinforcement techniques will acquire that we will do that same positive action again or stop doing that negative action all together. We adjust our behavior based on what we have learned through positive and negative experiences. A great example of behaviorism is an experiment conducted by psychologist B. F. Skinner, also known as the father of behaviorism, this experiment was known as the Skinner box. This experiment reinforced certain behaviors by using food to train a rat. This operant chamber would have a rat press a middle button in a series of three buttons and it would get a food pellet. This positive reinforcement would determine the rat’s future behavior by letting the animal learn that when pressing the middle button, the rat would receive a food pellet. As the experiment continued the rat would press the middle button more than the other two (Editorial Board, 2011). Cognitive psychology, also known as cognitive theory is the theory that tries to determine behavior through the understanding of the development of thinking. This helps us determine how humans interact and understand the world.