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Bf skinner theory of personality
Origin of behaviorism
B.f. Skinner contribution to psychology
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The school of psychological thought that B.F. Skinner is most well known for is that of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the psychological theory that individuals are born as blank slates, and that all actions are essentially learned responses to environmental stimuli. Before Skinner, behaviorism had its roots in scientists and psychologists such as John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and Edward Thorndike. Their theories and experiments of conditioning responses to external stimuli based on other stimuli were very convincing to Skinner, who began developing the school of behaviorism into an applicable ideology. In order to understand Skinner’s theory, one must first understand the theory of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning, most notably theorized …show more content…
But is spanking an effective form of punishment? That is, does it actually stop the “bad behavior,” or does it simply make things worse? One study conducted by Murray A. Straus, David B. Sugarman, and Jean Giles-Sims seems to suggest that child spanking has a negative effect on the child’s behavior as he or she matures. In their 1997 study “Spanking by Parents and Subsequent Antisocial Behavior of Children,” they sampled 807 mothers of children aged six to nine years old to determine if a causal relationship existed between corporal punishment as a child and antisocial behavior later in life. The results were very clear: Forty-four percent of the mothers reported spanking their children during the week prior to the study and they spanked them an average of 2.1 times that week. The more spanking at the start of the period, the higher the level of ASB 2 years later. The change is unlikely to be owing to the child 's tendency toward ASB or to confounding with demographic characteristics or with parental deficiency in other key aspects of socialization because those variables were statistically controlled (Straus, Sugarman, Giles-Sims, …show more content…
Brigitte Vittrup and George W. Holden surveyed 108 children aged six to ten years old after they watched videos of children being disciplined by either spanking, reasoning, withdrawing privileges, or time-out. The results show most children rating reasoning as the fairest form of punishment, and spanking as the least fair. This research illustrates that when parents spank their children, they are doing so in a manner that the children think is unfair, and therefore unnecessarily antagonize the child as opposed to disciplining him or her in a way that is
Swat! The entire store tries not to stare at the overwhelmed mother spanking her three-year-old whaling son. As if the screaming tantrum wasn't enough of a side show at the supermarket. This method, or technique perhaps, has been around for decades, even centuries. Generations have sat on grandpa’s lap and listened to the stories of picking their own switch or getting the belt after pulling off a devilish trick. So why then has it become a major controversy in the past few decades? The newest claim is that spanking and other forms of physical punishment can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Brendan L. Smith uses many case studies and psychologists findings in his article “The Case Against Spanking” to suggest that parents refrain from physically punishing their children due to lasting harmful effects.
According to Gewirtz and Peláez-Nogueras (1992), “B. F. Skinner contributed a great deal to advancing an understanding of basic psychological processes and to the applications of science-based interventions to problems of individual and social importance.” He contributed to “human and nonhuman behavior, including human behavioral development, and to various segments of the life span, including human infancy” (p. 1411). One of Skinner's greatest scientific discoveries was “single reinforcement” which became sufficient for “operant conditioning, the role of extinction in the discovery of intermittent schedules, the development of the method of shaping by successive approximation, and Skinner's break with and rejection of stimulus-response psychology” (Iversen, 1992, p. 1318).
At Harvard, B.F. Skinner looked for a more objective and restrained way to study behavior. Most of his theories were based on self-observation, which influenced him to become a enthusiast for behaviorism. Much of his “self-observed” theories stemmed from Thorndike’s Puzzle Box, a direct antecedent to Skinner’s Box. He developed an “operant conditioning apparatus” to do this, which is also known as the Skinner box. The Skinner box also had a device that recorded each response provided by the animal as well as the unique schedule of reinforcement that the animal was assigned. The design of Skinner boxes can vary ...
Being physically aggressive by spanking your child leads them to be physically aggressive as well. According to the Pediatrics Journal, spanking 3-y...
B.F. Skinner was considered the father of behavioral approach to psychology and a noticeable spokesperson for behaviorism. According to Corey (2013), he advocated radical behaviorism. In other words it placed a primary importance on the effects of environment on behavior. Skinner was a determinist; he did not consider that humans had free choices. He recognized the existence of feeling and thoughts, but disagreed about them causing humans action. In its place, he underlined the cause-and-effect links between objective, observable environmental conditions and behavior. Skinner claimed that more than enough attention had been given to the internal states of mind and motives, which cannot be observed and changed directly and not enough focus
Skinner is not a cognitive psychologist because he does not see evidence of an inner world of mental life that is relative to analyzing behavior nor to the physiology of the nervous system. In other words, he does not think the brain and its mental functions have proven enough evidence to verify their effectiveness in analyzing behavior within the field of psychology. Skinner has chosen not to be a cognitive psychology because of his belief that behavior cannot be changed by changing “the minds and heart of men”- yet that is the overarching purpose of cognitive psychology. Skinner believes that there is more to changing behavior such as the inclusion of altering the environments, both physical and social, in which we live. Without doing so, Skinner believes it is impossible to change
The researchers find that frequent use of corporal punishment on three-year-olds (spanking more than twice over the course of a month) was associated with increased aggressive behavior at five years of age…even "minor" forms of corporal punishment, including spanking, increase children's risk of aggressive behavior
Every parent has differing beliefs in how a child must be disciplined. A child’s undesirable behavior is a cause for a parent to spank them to correct them. Simple mistakes made by children, who have yet to develop cognitive reasoning, are not deserving to experience pain. By definition in the psychological world, corporal punishment is used in like terms with spanking. It is the “use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not to injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behavior” (Straus 3). There are countless of studies that has been done by psychologists on the effects
Finally, we need to know more about the personal resources of parents that can lessen the incidence of spanking. It is found that spanking sharply decreases as the parent ages. Despite ideological motivations, parents can and should be trained to understand alternative strategies of discipline (Day 93).
As we grow a foundation of rules are applied to us to help guide our behavior in the choices we make as we age. A certain modification is exerted, and we learn what we want by having our consequences corrected due to this behavior. A choice to spank a child, slap, pinch, hit with an object nearby, or make them eat unpleasant substances to curb their behavior are types of physical punishment. Surveys have documented majority of parents whom were physically punished growing up to punished their own children as they were. Research also indicates short-term consequences within a child from being physically punished which may cause the child to begin bullying other children, aggressiveness is shown, behavioral problems, enduring low self-esteem, becoming petrified of their own parents, and believing it is okay to lay a hand on another. The abuse of physical punishment can get a person arrested with a jail sentence, loss of custody, and in extreme cases horrifying injuries cause death to an individual (“Physical Punishment”, 2012). Two-thirds of Americans still approve of spanking their children, even after studies have shown this type of physical punishment can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children (Smith,
The use of spanking is one of the most controversial parenting practices and also one of the oldest, spanning throughout many generations. Spanking is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behaviour. Although spanking exists in nearly every country and family, its expression is heterogeneous. First of all the act of administering a spanking varies between families and cultures. As Gershoff (2002) pointed out, some parents plan when a spanking would be the most effective discipline whereas some parents spank impulsively (Holden, 2002). Parents also differ in their moods when delivering this controversial punishment, some parents are livid and others try and be loving and reason with the child. Another source of variation is the fact that spanking is often paired with other parenting behaviours such as, scolding, yelling, or perhaps raging and subsequently reasoning. A third source of variation concerns parental characteristics. Darling and Steinberg (1993) distinguished between the content of parental acts and the style in which it was administered (Holden, 2002). With all this variation researchers cannot definitively isolate the singular effects of spanking.
Historically in most cultures across the world, parents have always been seen as the ones who have the responsibility of disciplining their children and therefore they have the right to spank them when they feel it is appropriate for disciplinary purposes. Spanking is therefore an age old practice that has been used to ensure that children can grow up in an upright manner and in line with the societal expectations and norms. During the early years, it was the norm that rearing a child involved the focus on ensuring they grow up with discipline and that children should not be spoilt by soothing them when they cry for example when they have been disciplined It is however important to note that this view saw significant changes during the 1950s and 60s after a publication by Spock in 1946 which contained arguments against spanking and urged the
Some people believe spanking a child is child abuse, and that it causes the child to grow up aggressive and violent. This would mean that every child that is spanked during their developmental stages will grow up to be an example of bad behavior. However, there is no actual data or information that can confirm that spanking a child will cause a child to grow up to be violent or too aggressive. Children have been trained to obey rules or a set code of behavior for centuries. It is the best way to mold a child to be a respectable adult, and they can pass on the behavior to their future children. It may not always happen, but its pretty effective.
The common view of most psychologists is that parents should not spank their children. The American Psychological Association (APA) opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools, juvenile facilities, child care nurseries and all other institutions, public or private, where children are cared for or educated. This includes the institution of the family. Spanking can escalate toward physical abuse, potentially injuring the child, and can contribute to later emotional and behavior problems, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. It’s also less effective than alternative disciplinary tactics, and it’s a hard habit to break, the organization also says. During the last decade, studies have shown that children who get spanked are more likely than their peers to display behavior and emotional problems later in life. The more frequently they’re spanked, the more harmful the consequences tend to be. As far back as 1950, psychologists began experimenting with the idea that physical force used against a child taught the child to be aggressive. In other words, spanking taught the child to hit others. The more children are spanked,...
It has been said that “spanking trains children ‘in violence and domination’, even when it’s moderate” (Saunders 1)...