Carly Stockert

Professor Hawkes
Education Psychology
April 5th 2012
Behaviorism Theory
For the last century, psychologists have been studying the nature of
learning and in this process they have found a variety of theoretical
perspectives. (Ormrod, 2006). There are five different perspectives that put
learning into each category. These are behaviorism, social learning theory,
information processing theory, sociocultural theory, and constructivism. With
behaviorism, it is the theory that where peoples learning and behavior
comes from stimulus-response relationships. (Ormrod, 2006). To understand
student learning ability, scientists have looked more at a persons behavior
and their environment. These two factors are stimuli which influence an
individuals learning or behavior (Ormrod, 2006). Behaviorist theory plays a
huge role in every persons life and also has very many different aspects.
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are two different
variations of behaviorism. Classical conditioning is conditioning in which the
conditioned stimulus is paired with and precedes the unconditioned stimulus
until the conditioned stimulus alone is sufficient to elicit the response
(Dictionary). Russian Physiologist Ivan Pavlov defined elements of classical

conditioning. Pavlos used dogs in an experiment showing that salivation was

a learned response. He would pair the sound of a bell with the presentation
of the food when he feed the dogs. After several pairings, Pavlov found out
that the dogs began to salivate after hearing the bell. To test his theory he
would just ring the bell and not give them their food right away and he found
out that the dogs still salivated at the sound of the bell (Pavlov). This use of
conditioning is more seen in the classroom when the teacher creates a
positive environment to help students with any anxieties they might have
about a new environment. This is done when a teacher shows that it is fine to
be in front of the class and explaining new associations throughout the class.
In the classroom I would then have each of them come up to the front and
just talk about an interesting fact about themselves and what they want to
learn this year in school.
A later variation of behaviorism is operant conditioning. The most wellknown contributor to this theory is B.F. Skinner. The central principle of
operant conditioning is a response that is followed by a reinforcing stimulant
and when this happens, it is more likely to occur again. (Boeree) This
condition prompts the application of different kinds of reinforcements and
punishments that teachers have use each and every day in their classrooms.
A reinforce is any consequence, good or bad, that increases the
frequency of a specific behavior in different situations. There are two
different categories that come to reinforcements and those are positive and

negative. A positive response is when a response increases as the result of

the removal of a stimulus (Ormrod,2006). The other reinforcement is
punishment and this is the consequence that decreases the frequency of the
response it follows (Ormrod, 2006). Removal punishment is where a learner
has something they find desirable taken away because of their actions
whereas presentation punishment is when someone is given a new stimulus
and generally it is not something they find desirable. With operant
conditioning, each of these forms of reinforcements and punishments go
hand-in-hand. Some other reinforces are concrete, primary, secondary, and
intermittent. Teachers will use these in any way that they wish to with one or
a combination of the two. An example of this is if a group of students get a
project done on time and it is correct, they get to go to lunch 5 minutes
before the other students. This is a group contingency example of a positive
reinforcement because they are getting rewarded for a desired behavior. B.F.
Skinner tested operant conditioning by using a box called Skinners Box
and inside he had a mouse and a button that, if pushed, would release food
for the mouse to eat. This would be considered a positive reinforcement. He
then changed it to a negative reinforcement by having the button shock the
mouse each time that it would push it which made the mouse stop pushing
it. Behaviorism is very easy to see in a classroom setting with operant and
classical conditioning.
Shaping is a major part of behaviorism within the classroom and this
helps with all different kinds of learning. Shaping with a component of

behaviorism as it reinforces each small step toward a large behavior change.

An example of this is when a student has trouble with paying attention in
class and the teacher wants to gain their individual attention. The teacher
would give numerous reminders about paying attention and keeping on task
until the student would finally be fully focused on a subject. In the classroom,
shaping is something that happens all of the time because there are little
problems that are being solved over a period of time.
Behaviorism may not be the most commonly known theory in the
classroom today, but it is still a very big influence in psychology. (Chen) In
this paper it has been discussed that behaviorism has two main categories of
study, operant conditioning and classical conditioning. These two are based
off of stimulus and response. B.F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov are two men that
have made a great impact on behaviorism with each of their theories and
experiments. At any point in time, human response happens all the time
from a small situation to a large one. No matter what situation a person is in
and no matter how they react, it all comes back to behaviorism.

Work Cited
Boeree, George. "B. F. Skinner." My Webspace Files. 1998. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
Chen, Irene. "Behavioral Theories." Behavioral Theory. 2010. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
"Definitions." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, 2012. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. Essentials of Educational Psychology. Columbus: Pearson,
2006. Print.
"Pavlov's Dog Theory." Pavlov's Dog. Nobelprize.org, Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.