Learning, from the Perspective of Behaviorism, Skinner
Uploaded by tyson_626 on Feb 03, 2005
THE LEARNING THEORY
BEHAVIORISM:
BEHAVIORIST GORDON ALLPORT
AND BURRHUS SKINNER
INTRODUCTION
The behavoristic approach has exerted a strong influence on American Psychology. The basic ideas of behaviorism are: human behavior is a product of the Stimulus-Response interaction and that behavior is modifiable. It has triggered scientific experiments and the use of statistical procedures. Most importantly, it has turned the attention of psychology to solving real behavior related problems. The behavorist believe behavior should be explained in terms of environmental stimuli. It is not necessary to go into the postulating of inner mechanisms or traits because it creates additional mysteries that need to be explained. Though with the behavoristic approach its known that certain environmental conditions tend to procedure certain types of behavior, and with this less tedious process. (Stevenson n.p.g)
To get a better understanding of this theory I’ve selected two behaviorists, Gordon Allport and B.F. Skinner; well known for their approaches in the study of behaviorism.
GORDON ALLPORT
ALLPORT’S EARLY YEARS
Gordon Allport was born to Montezuma, Indiana, in 1897, the youngest of four brothers. A shy boy, he was teased and lived a fairly isolated childhood. (textbook 191) His father was a country doctor, and this meant that his father’s patients were always in the house. Everyone in his house worked hard. His early life seemed to be pleasant and uneventful.
I have looked in many resources and I’ve come to the conclusion that not too many people went into depth about the childhood of Allport. What was known about his is Allport received his PH.D. in Psychology in 1922 from Harvard, following in the foot steps of his brother Floyd, who became an important social psychologists. (Allport 67) Though in all of the research I did, this was always mentioned: When he was 22 he traveled to Vienna. He had arranged to meet with Sigmund Freud. There was at first silence, though no longer be able to take the silence, Gordon blurted out an observation he had made on his way to meet Freud. He mentioned that he had seen a little boy on the bus that was very upset at having to sit where a dirty old man had sat previously. Gordon thought that this child had learned this from his mother, a very neat and apparently a domineering type. Freud, instead of taking it as a simple observation, took it to be an expression of...