Behaviorism

Definition

Behaviorism is a learning theory that came to prominence in the late 19th century and which asserts that learning is a process where an individual’s behavior is shaped and reinforced by a given stimulus in the environment. Behaviorists argue that the mind is a black box that cannot be understood reliably, and that the only way to accurately understand behavior is to scientifically record measurable responses to stimuli in test subjects such as dogs or mice (McLeod, 2018a).¹ In the middle of the 20th century, behaviorism branched out into classical conditioning, the original theory, and operant conditioning which introduced the notion that operant behavior can be modified by positive and negative reinforcement or punishment (McLeod, 2018b).²

Personal Behaviorist Learning Experience: Pros & Cons

Learning scenario: Learning to formulate questions correctly in a target language.
Observable behavior: Some asked questions correctly, others made mistakes.
Stimulus: Points that could be spent on treats and other goodies.
Response: Students would correct their behavior to get more points (external motivation)

In my original learning experience, I described a situation where the teacher invited speakers of a target language to provide the students with an authentic learning experience where students had to ask the foreign guests general questions in the target language. Since the students found this authentic activity interesting on its own, they did not require any form of extrinsic motivation as would have been the case in a behaviorist approach.

However, had the teacher felt the need to, she could have made use of a behaviorist component to further motivate those who were not intrinsically motivated by that experience.

This could have been achieved by using a point system where students would have been given points for asking questions correctly.

In this alternative scenario, students’ motivation would have become extrinsic since they would have been conditioned to respond to an external stimulus, in this case the points, and “learn” the correct response – “correctly” asking questions in the target language. From an operant conditioning perspective, giving out points is a positive reinforcement since it reinforces the target behavior (asking correct questions) (McLeod, 2018b).²

The prospects of earning points would have become the basis of their motivation.

Prior to this activity, the teacher would have had to condition the students to respond appropriately by creating an association between points and reward. For example the teacher could have reinforced the association between points and reward by allowing students to exchange their points for treats after class.

The drawbacks of solely relying on behaviorism as the only learning theory are many. For starters, some learners may simply not have the same response to a given stimulus. In the case above, many of the students in class either didn’t care about the rewards or did not quite understand how they worked. Additionally, Pavlov’s results on dogs are not necessarily easily reproduced on a large group of human learners who obviously exhibit much more complex behavior. Third, rewarding students for things they already enjoy (intrinsic motivation) can sometimes have the opposite effect. For instance, rewarding a child who already enjoys playing the piano may make them feel like they are being obliged to play and cause them to enjoy it less over time. Finally, there are also some learning scenarios where behaviorism is simply inadequate such as in the case where intrinsic motivation may be more desirable as was described in the original authentic learning experience.

1. Mcleod, S. A. (2007, February 5). Pavlov’s Dogs. Simply Psychology. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html[↩]
2. Mcleod, S. A. (2007, February 5). Skinner – Operant Conditioning. Simply Psychology. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html[↩][↩]