Sometimes in psychology, being able to visually see a particular theory or concept can be tricky, but that is not the case when it comes to behaviorism. Behaviorism focuses on people’s behavior and the way it can change depending on their environment. It is a part of psychology that is more than just trying to examine the inside of the brain and that’s why it interests me so much. You are actually able to see the changes in someone if their environment around them changes rather than having to hook up some crazy machine to test the neurons in their brain. A more modern way of studying behavior is behavioral psychology and that focuses more on punishment and reinforcement and how those things will affect a person’s behavior.
For me, I’ve witnessed behavioral psychology all the time. For all my life up until high school I was a gymnast. Before every competition we would always practice our routines over and over again. After awhile, you start to get tired and seem to not care quite as much. Obviously our coach wasn’t able to watch all of us at the same time so we could get away with slacking a little bit. Towards the end of each workout, our coach would watch each of our routines one at a time. We called these “pressure routines.” If the routine was up to her standards we would be rewarded in someway, and if she did not approve of the routine there would be some sort of consequence. Since we knew we would be rewarded for a good performance, all of our routines suddenly got a little bit better, even though we were all exhausted. There were still times when we had to do the consequence, but for the most part people performed better and their behavior changed.
That example does not only touch on the topic of behaviorism and behavioral psychology, but also naturalistic observation. We knew that when we were being watched, we needed to perform to the best of our ability. However, at the times when our coach wasn’t watching us, we were able to take it easy to give ourselves a break. We wouldn’t slack off every practice, or take advantage of our coach on a daily basis, but there was an obvious difference in people’s performances when the pressure was on and they were being watched. In addition, it wasn’t just being watched that made behaviors change. The entire environment changed and became much more serious since our coach and teammates were watching. Because of these behavioral changes that occur when someone knows they are being watched or rewarded for something, psychologists know to be careful and aware of these things when study people’s behavior.
I used to notice a similar thing happen during soccer tryouts in high school. Toward the end of each day of tryouts people would be assigned teams and all the teams would scrimmage each other. By this point of the day everyone was exhausted and were more sluggish than in the morning. If the team knew that the coach was watching the other field during their scrimmage, most members would slack off a little more than usual, jogging rather than running and playing less aggressively. When they knew the coach was watching their game, however, all the players would sprint to the ball and play much more aggressively in order to impress the coach and show their dedication. Like the person who commented above me, I also feel that this is a part of human nature. People want to work their hardest when they know they are being judged, but tend to act differently when they think no one is watching. These are both great examples of both behavioral psychology and naturalistic observation.
I think that this is a concept that we can all definitely relate to. I think everyone can admit that they have acted differently when no one was watching. I believe it is simply human nature to do that. It is also human nature to “step up your game” when there is an incentive or consequence involved. If we know that the outcome will benefit or hurt us, we do everything in our power to get the results we want. We should all take the initiative to always strive to act our best even when not a single sole is watching, but that is much easier said than done. I think this story is a great example of behavioral psychology, and how different settings, punishments or rewards can really alter one’s behavior and actions. Everyone needs to be their own judge of what is right or wrong, even if no one is watching, or the whole world is watching.