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Psychological Theories Essay, Research Paper

Psychological Theories and Theorists

In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt started the first laboratory for studying humans. This is the reason he is called the father of Psychology (F. McMahon, J. McMahon, and Romano 12). Since Wundt first started his laboratory there have been great strides made in the field of Psychology. Many theories about what the human is and how we develop have arisen. Some theories have come and gone, but four approaches have survived up to the present. I will discuss three of the four that have been of interest to me, in further detail.

The Behavioral Model dates back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of the first psychologists to lay the foundation for behaviorism was Edward Thorndike. He conducted different experiments on animal learning. In 1898 Thorndike conducted an experiment using cats. In this study he put cats in a cage, put food outside the cage, and timed how long it took the cats to learn how to unlock the door to get to the food. Continuing this over and over again, Thorndike found that the cats would repeat behaviors that worked successfully escaping more quickly each time. Soon thereafter he proposed the law of effect:

Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, be firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be more likely to recur; those which are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort to

the animal will, other things being equal, have their connections with that situation weakened, so that, when it recurs, they will be less likely to recur. The greater the satisfaction or discomfort, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond (Robinson 115-116).

What Thorndike didn t know was he was just starting to scrape the surface of behaviorism. Psychologists were starting to turn away from the research on the mental processes that they couldn t see and beginning to study behavior that could be observed directly. Among some of these psychologists was a man by the name of Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was one of the great pioneers of psychology even though he was a physiologist. In 1904 he received a Nobel Prize for his studies of digestion. What Pavlov didn t know was, he was about to stumble upon one of the most important principles of learning and behavior. In Pavlov s experiment he gave a dog food to evoke saliva flow. Pavlov found that if he rang a bell each time he fed the animal, the dog would eventually come to salivate in response to the bell alone. A conditioned reflex had been established. This form of learning called classical conditioning (also referred to as Pavlovian conditioning) in which a person or animal associates one stimulus for another. This theory was the basis for future behaviorists to conduct their research. One of Pavlov s followers was a man by the name of John Watson. Watson is considered by many to be the founder of behaviorism (Durand and Barlow 21). The experiment that people most associate with Watson is his experiment with a little boy named Albert. Watson and a colleague would show Albert a fluffy white rat. Albert was not afraid of the animal and enjoyed playing with it. However, each time the boy would reach for the rat the researchers would make a loud noise behind him. After about five times of this, Albert began to show fear each time the rat came near. The researchers then determined that Albert showed fear towards any white fluffy thing. This experiment was the first

example ever recorded in a laboratory of producing fear of an object not previously feared (Durand and Barlow 22). Watson s view of behaviorism can be summed up best in his opening paragraph from an article he wrote:

Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist s total scheme of investigation (Fancher 319).

After Watson other behaviorists emerged with their theories of behaviorism. B.F. Skinner was one of the leading behaviorists of his time. In 1938 he published The Behavior of Organisms, in which he laid out the principles of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior changes as a function of what follows it (positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement). This idea is a lot like Thorndike s law of effect the only difference is Skinner took Thorndike s simple notations and developed them into a variety of complex ways to apply to many behaviors. Skinner was very influential in the behaviorist movement and in helping shape other theories of psychology. The important aspect of behaviorism is that the learner is viewed as adapting to the environment and learning is seen largely as a passive process in that there is no explicit treatment of interest in mental processes. The learner merely responds to the demands of the environment. The downside of behaviorism is it takes away from a person s free will. Another problem is that the theory doesn t take into account what is going on

in your life. Finally, the behaviorist theory sees us as little more than robots (B. McMahon, J. McMahon, and Romano 15).

Psychoanalysis is a system of viewing the individual as product of the unconscious. This theory developed by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century was the leading theory of its time. The theory did not emerge suddenly,

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