Behaviorism facts for kids
Behaviourism is a way of studying how living things act. It focuses only on what can be directly seen and measured. Behaviourists look at how different things (called stimuli) cause certain actions (called responses).
This approach does not consider unseen things like feelings or thoughts. Even though we know the mind is important, behaviourists believed we could study actions without knowing what goes on inside the brain. They thought all behaviour could be observed and understood from the outside.
A main idea in behaviourism is that all human behaviour is learned. Behaviourists thought that learning happens through classical conditioning or operant conditioning. This means our past experiences shape how we act. They did not believe that instincts or heredity (traits passed down from parents) played a big role.
They supported the idea of the blank slate. This means babies are born with an empty mind, like a clean page. They believed that all knowledge and experience is learned as a person grows up. Modern evolutionary psychology disagrees with this idea.
Many important scientists helped develop behaviourism. These include C. Lloyd Morgan, Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner.
Pavlov studied classical conditioning using dogs. He observed how dogs naturally produce saliva (water in their mouths) when they see food. Thorndike and Watson did not think we should study people's inner thoughts. They wanted psychology to use only experiments and things that could be measured. Skinner's work focused on shaping behaviour using rewards (positive reinforcement) instead of punishments.
Today, ideas from behaviourism are used in cognitive-behavioral therapy. This type of therapy helps people with anxieties, phobias, and some forms of addiction.
As a scientific theory, behaviourism has mostly been replaced by cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology also looks at mental processes, like thinking and memory.
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What is Conditioning?
Conditioning is a type of training where a desired behaviour is created. This happens by connecting a stimulus (something that causes a reaction) with a specific action. Some behaviours are natural reflexes that people and animals are born with. Babies have inherited reflexes that help them eat and survive. These reflexes are not taught; they are unconditioned.
Classical Conditioning Explained
Classical conditioning is also known as Pavlovian conditioning. It is when a learned stimulus causes a natural reaction. This helps explain how people learn new reactions to different things.
For example, if wind blows into your eyes, you blink automatically. This is a natural reflex. In classical conditioning, a new thing can be made to cause that same blink.
Fear conditioning is when something that was once neutral starts to cause fear. A famous example is the Little Albert experiment by Watson and Rayner. They studied how babies react emotionally. Little Albert would cry when he heard a loud noise. The researchers then made the loud noise happen when he saw a white rat. Soon, Little Albert would cry just from seeing the white rat. This was called a 'conditioned emotional response'. After a while, he would cry at the sight of any small, white, furry object, even his stuffed animal.
Operant Conditioning Explained
Operant conditioning is also known as instrumental conditioning. Scientists like Thorndike and Skinner studied this type of learning. It involves learning through rewards and punishments.
Related topics
See also
In Spanish: Conductismo para niños
