Budi Ilhami
2003512081
Rombel 1
No. 22
BEHAVIORISM
INTRODUCTION
Question: What Is Behaviorism? Answer: Give me a dozen
healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up
in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become
any type of specialist I might select -- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchantchief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.
--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
The term behaviorism was first publicly appeared in Watson’s
Behaviorist Views (1913), a classic paper psychology. The establishment
of a school which implemented behaviorism was also committed.
The perception of learning theory of behaviorism is conditioning
influences behavior. The interaction with the surrounding is the moment
in which conditioning takes place. Responses to the conditioning as
stimulus create our behaviors.
It is very possible to reveal behavior systematically through a study
by not taking internal mental condition into account. As believed by
behaviorists that behavior is observable and cognitions, emotions and
moods are not objective as a field of study.
The behaviorist school of thought insists that behaviors is possibly
described scientifically without the presence of
thoughts and beliefs
(Baum: 1994).
One of the most celebrated behaviorists was Ivan Pavlov, who
examined classical conditioning although he did not constantly shared the
same ideas with behaviorism or behaviorists, Edward Lee Thorndike, John
B. Watson who rejected introspective methods and sought to restrict
psychology to experimental methods, and B.F. Skinner who conducted
research on operant conditioning (Fraley: 2001).
There are two types of conditioning namely classical conditioning
and operant conditioning. According to Papalia, Feldman, & Olds (2007)
“classical conditioning is a type of learning which based on the association
of a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a particular response with
another stimulus that does elicit the response”. In other words, classical
conditioning is technique in which a naturally stimulus and a response are
exposed simultaneously. Next, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with
the natural stimulus. In the end, even though the naturally occurring
stimulus is absent, the neutral stimulus appears to remind the response.
The earlier stimulus is called as the conditioned stimulus and the latter one
is called as conditioned response. For instance, when a student constantly
experiences unfortunate situations as stimuli in Mathematics class, he
eventually concludes that Mathematics is hard and he hates it. The latter
conditioning is operant conditioning. Morris and Maisto (2001) defines it
as “Behavior that brings about a satisfying effect (reinforcement) is apt to
be performed again, whereas behavior that brings about negative effect
(punishment) is apt to suppressed”. From the definition above, we
understand that operant conditioning (also known as instrumental
conditioning) is a method of learning through two kinds of consequence.
They are rewards and punishments. Through operant conditioning, those
two possible consequences emerge as reaction to a behavior.
HISTORY OF BEHAVIORISM
The presence of behaviorism in the beginning of 20th century
answered the problems of measurement when one dealt with “mentalistic
psychology”. Here we can use experimental methods accurately. One of
the principles of behaviorism is one needs to focus on observable behavior
of people and animals, not event in one’s mind which is not visible as
mentioned by John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner and others (Skinner:1984).
Some prominent events followed the presence of behaviorism. In
1863, Ivan Sechenov published Reflexes of the Brain. He introduced the
concept of inhibitory responses in the central nervous system. In 1900,
Ivan Pavlov began studying the salivary response and other reflexes. He
accidentally initiated an investigation of classical conditioning. It gave
great influence toward behaviorism in the early of 19th century until 20th
century. Even though at first he did not have the same opinion with other
behaviorist such as Thorndike, Watson and Skinner. In 1913, John
Watson's Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It was published. The article
presented the many of the main points of behaviorism. In 1920, Watson
and assistant Rosalie Rayner conducted the famous "Little Albert"
experiment. 1943 was the first
year of publication of Clark
Hull's Principles of Behavior. B.F. Skinner published Walden II which
described a utopian society founded upon behaviorist principles in 1948.
Noam Chomsky in 1959 published his criticism of Skinner's behaviorism,
"Review of Verbal Behavior." B.F. Skinner published his book Beyond
Freedom and Dignity, in which he argued that free will is an illusion in
1971.
Behaviorism possessed the same points with the psychoanalytic
and Gestalt movements in psychology for 2 centuries. On the contrary, it
had some differences from the Gestalt psychologist’s mental philosophy
(Gazzaniga: 2010).
It lost popularity in the second half of the 20th century due to the
presence of cognitivism (Friesen: 2005, Waldrop: 2002).
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING ACCORDING TO BEHAVIORISM
Key Features
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
Stimulus – Response
Classical
Conditioning & Operant
Conditioning
Methodology
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
Lab Experiments
Little Albert
Edward Thorndike (the cat
in a puzzle box)
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Reinforcement & Punishment
(Skinner)
Objective Measurement
Social Learning Theory
(Bandura)
Nomothetic
Reductionism
Basic Assumptions




Psychology should be seen as a
science, to be studied in a
scientific manner.
Behaviorism is primarily
concerned with observable
behavior, as opposed to
internal events like thinking.
Behavior is the result of
stimulus – response (i.e. all
behavior, no matter how
complex, can be reduced to a
simple stimulus – response
features).
Behavior is determined by the
environment (e.g.
conditioning).
Strengths





Scientific
Highly applicable (e.g.
therapy)
Emphasizes objective
measurement
Many experiments to support
theories
Identified comparisons
between animals (Pavlov) and
humans (Watson & Rayner Little Albert)




Skinner box (rats &
pigeons)
Pavlov’s Dogs
Bandura Bobo Doll
Experiment
Ethical Considerations
Areas of Application





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
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Gender Role Development
Behavioral Therapy (e.g.
Flooding)
Phobias
Behavior-Modification
Aversion Therapy
Scientific Methods
Relationships
Language
Moral Development
Aggression
Addiction
Limitations





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Ignores mediational
processes
Ignores biology (e.g.
testosterone)
Too deterministic (little
free-will)
Experiments – low
ecological validity
Humanism – can’t
compare animals to
humans
Reductionist
APPLICATION FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
Verbal behavior had been the attention of Skinner at the moment
he turned his focus from experimental to philosophical supports of
behavior (Skinner: 1957) and works related to language (Skinner: 1969).
To analyze Verbal Behavior functionally, vocabulary and theory
were arranged which received strong criticism of Chomsky (Chomsky &
Skinner: 1959).
Contingencies of Reinforcement (Skinner: 1969) is an essay in
which Skinner stated that one of human abilities regarding linguistics is to
give stimuli and manage their behavior as external stimuli do.
The reinforcement contingencies result differently on human
behavior as they posses what we call “instructional control”.
Therefore the study of interaction between the instructional control
and contingency control has been the main field among behaviorist. In
addition, the study aims at achieving instructions need constructing and
control over behavior managed by behavioral processes.
Behaviorism declares that language is a product of habitual action.
Its acquisition is the result of conditioning. Behaviorists reckon practice as
habit formation by exposing “correct” response reinforcement. Language
is studied through practice/drill as the main means without the presence of
helping to rationalistic explanation. Hadley (2001) mentioned that they
considered language acquisition a matter of practice or "operant
conditioning". Skinner (1957) as cited in Hadley (2001) stated that
"Behaviors that are reinforced will be learned". Below are some examples
on how operant conditioning can be applied in the classrooms: recognize
and reinforce positive behaviors and genuine task accomplishments,use
various types of reinforcement such as teacher approval
(praise,
smiles, attention, and pats on the shoulder),concrete reinforcement
(cookies, candies, and stationeries) and privileges (longer recess tim
eand more time with friends), reinforce good behaviors and punish bad ones
consistently, use schedule of reinforcement, such as surprise rewards, to encourage
persistance, use positive punishment as the last option, use negative punishment, such as
detention class, instead, punish students’ behavior, not their personal qualities, tell the
students which behavior is being punished.
We are able to apply classical conditioning to give positive and
pleasant events with learning and classroom activities, such as use
attractive learning aids, decorate the classrooms, encourage students to
work in small groups for difficult learning tasks, greet the students and
smile at them when they come to the classroom, inform the students
clearly and specifically the format of quizzes, tests, and examinations,
make students understands the rules of the classrooms, give adequate time
for students to prepare for and complete the learning tasks.
Behaviorism states that error fossilization must be avoided, so clear
correction must be done. Cook (2008) mentions that parents do not
normally perform corrective action towards utterances of their children
and when correction is given, it focuses more on meaning rather than
grammar. On the contrary, teachers give feedback to correct students’
mistakes grammatically.
Success in language learning according to behaviorist theory is a
result of extremely large number of drills, the closeness between L1 and
L2 and formation of language habit. In the beginner course behaviorist
theory is helpful, especially if students learn how to pronounce sounds.
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