Behaviorism
A lot of psychologists believe that people acquire certain behaviours and attitudes through association of a certain event to another event or entity. The first advocate of behaviourism is Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, who became known for his classical conditioning theory. As a physiologist, he studied the digestive system but his most popular contribution was the incidental discovery he made in one of his digestive system studies. He conducted an experiment with dogs by giving them food and measuring the amount of saliva through a surgically placed tube in the dog’s cheek. But, Pavlov observed that in some cases, the dog began to salivate even before food was placed in its mouth. Even the mere sight of the food or the sound of footsteps of the assistant bringing the food already causes the dog to salivate. He termed this phenomenon as classical conditioning, or associating one stimulus with another.
Another prominent behaviourist is Edward Thorndike, an American psychologist who was particularly intrigued with animal intelligence. With his experiments with animals, Thorndike arrived at three significant laws: the law of effect, the law of exercise, and the law of readiness. The law of effect suggests that living organisms acquire a certain behaviour because it produces a positive or pleasing effect. But, if the effect is considered negative or unpleasing, the living organism does not integrate that certain behaviour. The law of exercise stipulates that living organisms acquire certain behaviour through repeated occurrences of that certain behaviour. In short, it became the root of the adage “practice means perfect”. The law of readiness indicates that living organisms only acquire certain behaviour when they are ready or open to accepting it. No matter how a certain behaviour is paired with a pleasing effect or practiced through numerous trials, but if the living organism refuses to accept it, then the behaviour will still not be internalized.
Closely related with Thorndike’s theory is the proposition of B. F. Skinner, another behaviourist. He conducted an experiment with rats through an apparatus known as the Skinner box. Through his experiment, he introduced the theory on operant conditioning that explains how organisms learn behaviour through ways that effect reinforcement. Skinner focused on the importance of reward and punishment in shaping human behaviour. Reward increases the likelihood that a certain behaviour will be repeated while punishment decreases the likelihood of the behaviour’s repetition. He also enumerated schedules of reinforcement: the fixed-interval (FI) schedule (the response produces reinforcement after a fixed period of time), the variable-interval (VI) schedule (the actual period of reinforcement is unpredictable), the fixed-ratio (FR) schedule (the reinforcement is administered after a set number of responses), and the variable-ratio (VR) schedule (the average number of responses required before administering the reinforcement varies).