Learning about the theory of Behaviorism in class has reminded me a lot about my efforts to train my dog. The theory of Behaviorism, as taken from our class lecture says, “mental events are triggered by external stimuli which leads to behaviors.” Basically this means that reinforcements can be used to encourage a behavior, and punishments can discourage a behavior. Many people have heard of the famous case study where the dogs were trained to salivate at the sound of a bell. This happened because the dogs repeatedly received food immediately after hearing a bell ring. This repetition caused the dogs to expect food once they heard the bell, whether or not food was present.

In the case of training my dog, a Newfoundland named Guinness, I reinforce behaviors with treats or praise. When she does something that I don’t want her to do, I discourage the behavior by ignoring her. While going to puppy training class, I was able to teach her regular commands with the help of an instructor, things such as ‘sit,’ stay,’ ‘come,’ ‘lay down.’ However, it wasn’t until I began teaching her tricks on my own that I noticed the correlation with the theory of behaviorism. While Guinness is very smart, she sometimes does not feel like participating and doing what I ask. This is when the reinforcement of the treats comes in handy. Whether she wants to or not, if Guinness knows I have a treat in my hand she will pay attention to me.

With a treat in one hand, I teach Guinness new tricks by saying the command and waiting for her to do what I want. Once she has done what I asked, I immediately give her a treat. For a trick like ‘shake,’ I had to begin by saying the word ‘shake’ and lifting her paw for her and shaking it, then giving her the treat. After repeating that multiple times, Guinness began to lift her paw on her own when I would say the command. For many weeks I rewarded Guinness for putting her paw in my hand when I said the word ‘shake,’ and now she has become conditioned to do it regardless of whether or not I have a treat for her. Using this method, I have also taught her how to do tricks like ‘roll’ and to ‘whisper’ when she needs to be quiet.

Since Guinness is a dog, it is obviously not the same as conditioning a human to perform certain behaviors, but it is still very similar. Many teachers and people who work with children use behaviorism to teach their children things like appropriate classroom behaviors. Anyone who has ever accepted a bribe has done something because of the reinforcement presented. Behaviorism is all around us, and across all kinds of species.

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”

–John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930

The term behaviorism refers to the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. Also known as behavior psychology, behaviorism is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning therefore occurs through interaction with the environment, which then makes behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shape our behaviors.

As Watson’s above quote suggests, strict behaviorists believe that any person could potentially be trained to perform any task, regardless of things like genetic background, personality traits, and internal thoughts (within the limits of their physical capabilities); all it takes is the right conditioning.

For instance, I grew up in a very small farm town with a graduating class of 100. The class a year older than me however had a class of almost 200, and out of them probably only half would graduate. Going into my 6^th grade year was when I met this kid in the 7^th grade Rick. We were both on the track team and I got to know him better, but still didn’t know everything about him. I did learn however that his parents were both drunks, one in jail and the other non-existent and that he was currently sleeping under the high school bleachers on the high jump mats. Through out the years, my mother who came to both of our track meets got to meet Rick too, and although he would never ask for help, food, money or a place to stay my mom would kind of help him out. We didn’t officially adopt him or take him under our roof, but we called him family. We did what we could to help support him, feed him meals and even reconnect with some local grandparents. We helped him with homework, got him tutors, helped him with his college admissions, and watched him graduate high school and earn a full ride scholarship to go to college. From there we watched him take off, he did a couple of magazine shoots and modeled for Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch, he was asked to do multiple NYC fashion shows and offered a salary many people wouldn’t turn down. He instead enlisted in the army, got selected and graduated from Ranger school, one of the toughest programs out there.

This example here goes to show a couple of fitting objectives when it comes to studying behaviorism. First, due to his upbringing, Rick was never dependent on anyone, never asked for help because he was never used to receiving help, and also didn’t believe he was worthy of anything good. So at first, he was very reluctant towards help, and saw it that he could find ways to survive on his own without other peoples pity party. However, with a little acceptance of help he started to see rewards. He started doing well in school, and for the first time saw graduation as a possible thing. On top of that he had colleges asking for him.

Therefore in this situation, it was difficult to control Rick’s complete environment without overstepping too many lines, but by the way my mother and I helped mold his surroundings, I believe that we helped shape his future for the better.

-Kendall Pierce