Behaviorism

943 Words2 Pages

There are many intriguing branches of psychology, but behaviorism captured many aspiring psychologists and young minds in the 1920s and 1930, and has been the dominant orientation since the mid 30s. Behaviorism was the radical revision of the method of psychological research. Consciousness was not accepted at the time and behaviorism called for the ban of introspection. Behaviorism is a branch of psychology that started with John B. Watson’s “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.” Even though considered innate, researching this topic will show behavior is learned more by environmental factors through modeling and observing. The founder, Watson, created classical conditioning, and later B.F. Skinner contributed with operant conditioning. Watson’s evidence was his most famous experiment, the “Little Albert Experiment.” Behaviorism had a rough start. Even though it was created in 1913, it didn’t really take effect until the 1920s/30s. At age 35, John B. Watson wrote a piece called “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it” in 1913 for a meeting at the New York branch of the American Psychology Association at Columbia University. He had gone to John Hopkins University and was considered an “animal behavior man” by many. One of the most referenced parts of his speech, known by many people who have studied psychology and have not, is “Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science.” In Watson’s speech, his main point was the method of psychological research should be revised. Introspection should be thrown out, and it should be replaced with interpreting behaviors while the organism is conscious. There was also a new “Theory of Learning.” It stated behaviors are learned by environmental stimuli and conditioning and behaviors should never be studied by internal states like cognitions, emotions, and moods, given they are

Open Document