Parents often wonder why their child acts a certain way at certain times. What they don’t realize is that the answer is simpler than they think. The brain is conditioned to respond in a certain way. It is a learned behavior that repeats itself over and over. A child learns that if she cries, she will get a response. And, she might figure out that a certain specific behavior will really get a response, such as throwing a temper tantrum, which no parent enjoys and wants over as quickly as possible. So, a special something is given to the child [...]

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A reader posted a comment in response to a previous Funderstanding article about Behaviorism. The reader suggested we differentiate between the theories of John Watson and B.F. Skinner. Below is a more detailed summary of radical behaviorism in response to our reader’s suggestion. Thank you to our readers for your thoughtful feedback! How it Works and what Skinner’s Behaviorism Theories Explain B.F. Skinner was a psychologist who founded behaviorism and also studied learning theory and behavior modification methods. His work was controversial because it defied the conventional framework of the subject of psychology. “Skinner’s radical behaviorism offered a unique conceptual framework for explaining [...]

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Definition Behaviorism is a learning theory that only focuses on objectively observable behaviors and discounts any independent activities of the mind. Behavior theorists define learning as nothing more than the acquisition of new behavior based on environmental conditions. Discussion Experiments by behaviorists identify conditioning as a universal learning process. There are two different types of conditioning, each yielding a different behavioral pattern: Classic conditioning occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. We are biologically “wired” so that a certain stimulus will produce a specific response. One of the more common examples of classical conditioning in the educational environment [...]

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