Running Head: Behaviorism: A Conglomerate of Internal Psychological Processes
Behaviorism: A Conglomerate of Internal Psychological Processes
Linda Faniel, William Thurston Carolyn Beasley & Cathy Washington
Atlanta Metropolitan College
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Behaviorism: A Conglomerate of Internal Psychological Processes
Behaviorism is first and foremost concerned with discernible and quantifiable aspects of
human behavior. Through developed testing and studies behaviorist learning theories accentuate
changes in behavior that result from stimulus response relations made by the learner. Learning is
universally defined as a progression that brings collectively cognitive, emotional, and
environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or manufacture changes in
one's knowledge. Voluminous amount of studies and observations is needed to directly decipher
the process of learning and behavior of the human mind.
However, behaviorists who conducted the premature research on behaviorism
experimented with animals and identified the types of learning that acquired as operant and
classical conditioning. According to Van Putten (2009), “operant conditioning is a form of
learning in which consequences of behavior produce changes in the probability that the behavior
will occur” (p. 125). For instance, Thorndike, another behaviorist, experiment with the hungry
cat in a box. The cat had to learn to open the latch, so it could be rewarded with the fish outside.
The cat made several ineffective responses at opening the box, until eventually stepping on the
treadle and releasing the latch. When the cat was placed back into the box, it made fewer
mistakes in order to open the latch. Eventually, it was able to open the box immediately (Van
Putten, 2009, p. 125). However, this form of conditioning can be seen occurring in the classroom
on instances where the teacher rewards a student for making a correct response or when
something is removed such as recess for inappropriate behavior. Additionally, behaviorist, Ivan
Pavlov developed the classical conditioning concept. Van Putten (2009), asserts “classical
conditioning is “a type of learning in which an organism learns to connect, or associate, stimuli”
(p. 122). For example, Pavlov experiment with the food, dog and the bell. Pavlov put food in
front of a dog which made him salivate, then he paired the food and a bell (natural stimulus
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Behaviorism: A Conglomerate of Internal Psychological Processes
paired with conditioned stimulus) and after a while the dog would salivate just to the bell even if
there was no food causing the conditioned response (Van Putten, 2009, p. 123). Conversely, in a
classroom setting an illustration of classical conditioning would be establishing a positive
classroom environment to facilitate students in overcoming anxiety or fear. Combining an
anxiety producing situation, such as testing, with a pleasant surrounding helps the student learn
new associations. The student will learn to relax instead of feeling anxious.
Nevertheless, there are critics who dispute the behaviorist form of teaching in the
classroom. One criticism according to Hall (Behaviorist Theory,”n.d) is that “the theories are
overly simplistic to accurately explain the complexity of behavior and “that reinforcement can
actually act to "undermine intrinsic motivation"(para. 4). However there are supporters that
consider the behaviorist method to be effective. As the results illustrates from a study conducted
to examine the effect of direct instruction, which is a behaviorist form of teaching, on the
performance of middle school students identified as at-risk for failure in mathematics.
The subjects for the study were seventh grade students who failed the state administered yearly
math assessment at least twice, who were from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The students were given a curriculum based pre and post test. Kelly, Gersten & Carnine (as
cited in Flores & Kavlor, 2007, p.84) states “that students’ mean for the pre-test was
20 % with scores ranging from 0-57%.” During, the study, the students received fourteen
lessons in a direct instruction fraction program for seven weeks. Although, the experiment was
conducted for a short period of time, there was a significant increase in the students’
performance. Flores et al., (2007) reports “that the mean for the post-test was 77% with scores
ranging from 36-100%, with the majority of the students scoring above 75% and only three
students with lower scores (p. 89). The overall results from the study according to Flores et al.,
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Behaviorism: A Conglomerate of Internal Psychological Processes
(2007 ) were that “one third of the students performed below 50% on the pre-test and performed
above 50% on the post-test, and twenty six of the thirty students performed above 75% on the
post with many improving by 50% or more (p. 89 )”. The result from this study indicates that the
behaviorist form of teaching can be effective in improving the academic achievement of
students.
The philosophical frameworks behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are
learning theories that attempts to describe, explain and predict how learning occurs. Although,
which theory is most effective in the classroom will continue to be debated, the behaviorist form
of teaching has been present in the classroom for decades and will continue to exist. As, the
results prove, if teachers are properly trained to administer behaviorist teaching models there
might be significant gains in closing the achievement gap that subsist in our school systems.
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Behaviorism: A Conglomerate of Internal Psychological Processes
References
Flores, M. M., & Kaylor, M. (2007). The Effects of a Direct Instruction Program on the
Fraction Performance of Middle School Students At-risk for Failure in
Mathematics. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 34(2), 84-94. Retrieved from
EBSCOhost.
Hall, R. (n,d). Behaviorist Theory: Retrieved from
http://medialab.mst.edu/rhall/educational_psychology/2001/vl1b/behavior
new.html
Van Putten, A. (2009). Exploring Learning: U.S: McGraw-Hill.
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Behaviorism: A Conglomerate of Internal Psychological Processes
Resources
Links for more on Behaviorism:
Videos:
Behaviorism in Education
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8xMsq11-hs
Theories of Learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq9XIrNGgoQ&feature=fvsr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLjV4fvr-aY
Sites:
http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/behaviorism/behaviorism.html
http://viking.coe.uh.edu/~ichen/ebook/et-it/behavior.htm
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