1. Behaviorist Adult Education Concept Demo By Kari Schlemmer & Gus Zadra

2. Psychological Behaviorism has roots in philosophical traditions like: Materialism -Thomas Hobbes contended that there is no internal reality: what is real is external, factual, and observable. Scientific realism and empiricism- factual information that is gained thru empirical process (Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Bertrand Russell). Positivism- reality is what can be experienced, analyzed, and explained with development of language. All this philosophical theory initiated the study of human behavior in the seventeenth century by French Philosopher Rene Descartes.

3. French Philosopher Rene Descartes. Descartes viewed behavior as voluntary or involuntary Descartes developed the reflex concept to stimuli…

4. …which then culminated in the work of Sir Charles Sherrington and Ivan Pavlov. Sherrington utilized the scientific method to reveal properties of behavior…specifically reflex action in animals. Pavlov then used this information to experiment with salivating dogs, stimuli and reflexes.

5. Pavlov’s ideas sparked interested in a man named John B. Watson. Watson became a leader in behaviorism after writing some important texts about his research on the science of behavior.. Watson endorsed the idea that psychology was a science of behavior and not the study of mental activity He observed peoples behavior Understand that emotion is a hereditary pattern of response Watson took Pavlov’s research techniques and used them to successfully conditioned an 11 month old boy to fear a white rat. He gave lectures, wrote books & articles, and brought the science of behaviorism to the general public.

6. Between 1920s and 1950s there were many behaviorists that expanded upon the work of Watson and Pavlov (like Hull, Gutherie, Tolman, and Spence). -E. L. Thorndike was a psychologist who studied human learning processes and related them to the learning process of animals. -He also collaborated on a book entitled Adult Learning (published in 1928) which concluded that learning happens at nearly the same rate regardless of the age at which the learning is occurring.

7. A few years later Burrhus Frederick Skinner (BF Skinner) wrote, The Behavior of Organisms. Skinner explained the difference between classical and operant conditioning by defining reflex behavior as either voluntary or involuntary. Then if the behavior is reinforced, it will happen again and if it is not reinforced, it will not happen as often, possibly disappearing.

8. Operant conditioning is a method of modifying behavior by rewarding or punishing an individual. There are four main contexts of operant conditioning. The first is positive reinforcement, which is when a rewarding stimulus is granted after behavior. Negative reinforcement is when an aversive stimulus is removed after the correct behavior takes place. The third is positive punishment - when a behavior is followed by a unfavorable stimulus thus resulting in a decrease of that particular behavior. The fourth is negative punishment which occurs when a bad behavior is followed by a removal of a positive stimulus in order to correct behavior. (Note: In these four contexts the words positive and negative mean the addition or subtraction of a stimulus.)

9. Behaviorism in Education: There are some good quotes and info on pg 93 paragraph 2…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m O1RjNxGjc