Behaviorism

BEHAVIORISM
Question: What Is Behaviorism?
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 tobecome any type of specialist I might select -- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, andrace of his ancestors.
--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
Answer:
Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquiredthrough conditioning. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. According to behaviorism, behavior can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internalmental states.
There are two major types of conditioning:
1. Classical conditioning is a technique used in behavioral training in which a naturally occurring stimulus is paired with a response.Next, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with the naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response without the presence of the naturallyoccurring stimulus. The two elements are then known as the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response.

2. Operant conditioning Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumentalconditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.Major Thinkers in Behaviorism
* Ivan Pavlov
* B. F. Skinner
* Edward Thorndike
* John B. Watson
* Clark Hull
Important Events in Behaviorism
* 1863 - Ivan Sechenov's Reflexesof the Brain was published. Sechenov introduced the concept of inhibitory responses in the central nervous system.

* 1900 - Ivan Pavlov began studying the salivary response and other reflexes....