Behavioral Theories

John Watson O Father of American behavioral psychology O Believed that children are passive, and can be molded by conditioning (nurture not nature) O “Little Albert” experiment

Classical Conditioning Pioneered by Ivan Pavlov In classical conditioning, an unconditioned stimulus and an unconditioned response are associated with a neutral stimulus, to make a conditioned stimulus and conditioned response Unconditioned stimulus & unconditioned response: occur naturally; untrained Natural stimulus: creates no response Conditioned stimulus & conditioned response: does not occur naturally, but trained to associate together

“Little Albert” Experiment O Watson conducted experiment to research into classical conditioning, to build on Pavlov’s research O Little Albert, a toddler, was the subject of the study O Watson would expose Albert to different animals that he had no major response to; Watson then would begin to ring a loud bell every time Albert would touch the white rat. The bell would make Albert terrified. After several times of pairing the animal with the bell, Albert became terrified every time he saw the white rat. O Albert eventual began to generalize stimuli, which means he associated anything that remotely looked like the animal with the terrified response

“Little Albert” Experiment O What are the different parts of this classical conditioning? O Animals that elicit no major response: O Loud Noise making Albert terrified: O White rat making Albert terrified: O Anything that remotely looked like the white rat making Albert terrified:

Operant Conditioning This type of conditioning takes a stimulus and a response and adds a reinforcement or punishment to it to increase or decrease the behavior Most famous experimenter: B. F. Skinner Used pigeons in his famous “Skinner Box” to train them to press a button for food Type of training is called shaping: achieving a goal by taking small steps to it and rewarding at each step

Operant Conditioning : Reinforcement O Reinforcement: used to increase desired behavior O Two types: O Positive reinforcement: adding something as a reward to increase behavior O Negative reinforcement: taking something negative away to increase behavior

Operant Conditioning: Punishment O Punishment: decrease non-desired behavior O Two types: O Positive punishment: adding something unpleasant to decrease non-desired behavior O Negative punishment: taking away something pleasant away to decrease non-desired behavior

Social Learning Theory O The belief that children learn social behavior, such as aggression, through the process of observation learning, also known as modeling O Observational learning: learning a behavior through watching and imitating O Albert Bandura most famous experimenter O Bobo doll experiment

Bobo Doll Experiment O Experiment was done to show how aggressive behavior can be learned through observation O Bandura tested 36 boys and 36 girls between the ages of 3 and 6; he split them into 3 groups: 24 children would see an aggressive model, 24 children would see a non-aggressive model, and 24 children would see no model (as the control)

Bobo Doll Experiment O Stage 1: all groups of children were brought into a room with toys and pictures on the walls, while a video was playing – 1/3 of the children saw an adult being aggressive toward a ‘Bobo doll” (throwing it in the air, shouting) “boom pow!”, and 1/3 of the children saw a non-aggressive model (the person was playing quietly, ignoring the doll)

Bobo Doll Experiment O Stage 2: Each child (even the control group children) were taken separately into a room with lots of fun toys. Once the child started playing with the toys, the experimenter took them away, telling the child that he was going to reserve them for other children (this was the “aggression arousal stage”)

Bobo Doll Experiment O Stage 3: the children were each brought into another room with non-aggressive toys (a tea set, crayons, bears, plastic farm animals…) and aggressive toys (a mallet and peg board, dart guns, and a 3 foot Bobo doll). The child was left alone in the room for 20 minutes and their behavior was observed through a one-way mirror.

Bobo Doll Experiment O Results: O Children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non- aggressive or control groups O Boys were more likely to imitate a same-sex model than girls O Boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls.

Bobo Doll Experiment O Conclusion: O Social Learn Theory is supported – that children learn through observation and imitate that behavior