The theory of behaviorism a theory I have seen take place a lot in my life and has more power then I realized. The idea behind the theory is that behaviors can be triggered by a stimulus and that the behavior that takes place can be controlled based on receiving a reward or a punishment, in other words a stimulus-response relationship.
In the course textbook they talk about how John B Waston , the psychologist who came up with the theory of behaviorism , proved his theory by taking a baby and teaching him to be afraid of rats. To do this Waston took a baby who wasn’t originally scared of the rats and made loud scary noises every time the baby saw a rat. The noises would cause the baby to cry and be scared and because the noises only came when the baby saw the rat, the baby eventually developed a fear of rats. The baby’s behavior was controlled though a stimulus-response experiment and worked.
In my life I experienced the theory of behaviorism as a child with my mother trying to get me to make my bed. As a child and still to this day I don’t like making my bed in the morning, for me it always seemed pointless because no one other than me would have to see it. Unfortunately for me, my mother didn’t agree with that making the bed in the morning was pointless and one day decided that that if I didn’t start making my bed in the morning that I wouldn’t be allowed to what my favorite television show , Gilmore Girls, after school. Over time I learned that she was serious and because I loved that show my behavior began to change and I started making my bed every morning. To this day I still make my bed every morning, not because I have to, but because my behavior has been conditioned into doing so.
From my experience Waston was right, behavior can and is taught many of the time. After learning about it I see it everywhere, from parents teaching their children they have to eat dinner before dessert, to teachers teaching their students to raise their hands before they speak. Not only is it taught but the behaviors seem to carry on later throughout people’s lives (like with me still making my bed in the morning). Behaviorism is probably the source behind many people’s everyday habits.
I really enjoyed your post! I liked how you elaborated on the actual experiment by Watson and intertwined it with your own personal experience. I would have to agree with you that behavior is taught over time, especially when it comes to rewards and punishments. Like you brought up, we are so immune to raising our hands and eating dinner before desert, behaviorism is evident in our everyday routines. From something as simple as brushing our teeth every morning and every night to saying a simple thank you when someone does you a favor. For example, if we failed to brush our teeth or say thank you, we often received a punishment. For instance, being scolded. Therefore, we tried as hard as we could to properly perform these actions that were drilled in to our brains since we were very young. Eventually, these simple actions become second nature to us.
That is interesting that you completely changed your behavior for your favorite show. Behaviorism is not only used to teach behaviors in humans but animals too. I have a friend who trained his bird using behaviorism. He was able to get the bird to do tricks based of what he said. It was a reward system he used. when the bird did what he wanted when he said a word, it got a treat. now it doesn’t need treats to do tricks.