Summative Assessment • Create a 4 to 6 slide powerpoint that demonstrates a more detailed understanding of one of the five psychological perspectives we just looked at. The goal of the task is to demonstrate a solid understanding of the psychological approach from the historical point of view. (Slide 1) What perspective are you exploring? Who were the pioneers of this perspective? From a conceptual perspective. What is the rationale behind the approach? (Slide 2) Your project should cover the psychological approach from a practical perspective. What is one of the questions this approach has answered, or sought to explain? Provide a brief summary of their work related to the question you presented. (Slide 3) Results this perspective has produced. Provide a credible source with a brief summary related to the question you referenced in the previous question. (Slide 4) Lastly, your project should have a brief reflective response that considers why you chose the perspective you did, what appeals about it, in comparison to the others? Was there anything of note you found interesting in your research? Do you think this is the best approach to answering the questions of psychology? Why or why not? (Slide 5) Works Cited Slide. These are considered, "end notes". You may also use "foot notes", if you would like to provide your citations along the way instead. Exemplar (Slide 1) What perspective are exploring? Who were the pioneers of this perspective? From a conceptual perspective, what is the rationale behind the approach? Behaviorism – Can we measure, condition, and predict human behavior? The Main Concepts Of Behaviorism • Within the behavioral approach, psychology is typically analyzed and studied solely by observing human behavior in a controlled environment. Whereas some approaches to psychology may consider a person's own subjective and unique views, their feelings and emotions, behaviorism generally disregards this information and focuses on controlled observation and measurement of behavior, with its primary goal usually being control and prediction of behavior. • While the behavioral approach may not deny the existence of a person using their mind to process the stimuli around them, it is generally believed that behavior can be reduced to a series of "stimulus and responses associations." Behaviorists often use a series of controlled stimulus to predict and illicit a desired response or reaction in their subjects or participants. They often used animals as test subjects and attempted to draw parallels to predict human behavior. They worked under the assumption that human behavior was learned, and as a result could be conditioned, measured and predicted • This approach is often considered a reductionist (reducing the whole of human behavior into smaller components to simplify and understand it more easily) and nomothetic approach (establishing generalizations applicable to all individuals). Exemplar (Slide 2) Your project should cover the psychology approach from a practical perspective. What is one of the questions this approach has sought to research, explore further, or answer? Provide a brief summary of their work related to the question you have presented. B.F. Skinner's Behaviorism • B.F. Skinner was a behavioral psychologist that built his theory upon the ideas of Edward Thorndike and his law of effect. The Law of Effect was Thorndike's assertion that any behavior that generated a pleasant consequence would be repeated and anything that generated a negative consequence is likely to be stopped. • Skinner's Box is a famous example of a behaviorist experiment that sought to answer the question "can we condition behavior by providing a positive or negative response to that behavior." • Skinner used rats in his experiment and had them pull a lever (a voluntary behavior) with a positive consequence in the form of a food pellet. The rats soon learned to pull the lever as soon as they were put in the box. Exemplar (Slide 3) What results has this perspective produce through their research? Provide a credible source, and briefly summarize the findings related to the question you presented in the previous slide. Answering Skinner's Question • Skinner had introduced the notion of reinforcement to the law of effect, in that the positive or negative consequence reinforced the behavior. He used a shock effect as a negative consequence and if the rats pulled the lever they would stopped the electric shock effect. He even added a light to the box that would signal when the electronic shock was about to come to alert the rats to move towards triggering the lever to avoid the impending shock. https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html • This became the basis for our understanding of operant conditioning. It suggest human behaviors could also be conditioned by the addition or removal of positive and negative consequences. A lot of parenting uses these techniques for example. The ideas have been expanded to include punishment as a principle of the theory as well. Google Images "Key Concepts of Operant Conditioning" Exemplar (Slide 4) Provide a brief reflective response that considers why you chose to present the perspective you chose, what appealed about it, in comparison to the others. Was there anything particularly interesting of note in your research? Do you think this is the best approach to answering the questions of psychology, why or why not? Final Thoughts on Behaviorist Perspective • I chose to explore behaviorism because I liked the idea of trying to use a psychological experiment to program a certain behavior into people. It has a kind of science fiction component to it. I found it interesting to look at the difference between classic conditioning versus operant conditioning. One being voluntary behavior, yet still being conditioned, so the participant thinks they have freedom of will, but in reality, is it really free will if it is being conditioned. • I'm not sure this is the best approach as it seems a little too simplistic when considering the complexity of human thoughts, feelings and behaviors. That said some of the elements seem to pervade society in the forms of rewards programs, token economies and other examples like parenting, schooling and other institutional practices. Exemplar (Slide 5) Work Cited Sources for Works Cited in this Presentation • Slide One -"The Behavioral Approach" https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/behavior/the-behavioral-approach-topsychology-an-overview-of-behaviorism/ • Slide Two – "Operant Conditioning, What it is, How it Works" https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html • Slide Three – See this slide for an example of "foot notes". • Slide Four – Google Images - "Classic Conditioning v. Operant Conditioning Google Images "Skinners Operant Conditioning and Learning"
