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APA
Subject:
Psychology
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Coursework
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:

John B. Watson and the Development of Behaviorism

Coursework Instructions:

In 1913, John B. Watson was the first American psychologist to call himself a "behaviorist." From 1913 to 1974, a series of events and developments took place that helped to shape and contribute to the current approach to practice in applied behavior analysis. For this discussion, please review the assigned readings and the video in this unit.
Please respond to the following:
What approaches were used to understand and study behavior prior to the introduction of behaviorism?
What was John B. Watson's rationale for focusing on observable behavior and the environment rather than internal events?
What were some important events and developments in behaviorism from Watson's (1913) declaration of the importance of a behavioral approach through Skinner's (1974) development of radical behaviorism? Be sure to refer to the important historical figures that drove these developments in applied behavior analysis.

Coursework Sample Content Preview:

Unit 1 Discussion Board
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Before the introduction of behaviorism, Ivan Pavlov and Edward Thorndike guided the approaches to understanding and studying behavior. Pavlov used classical conditioning to understand behavior in that stimuli within the immediate environment can influence an organism's behavior via unconscious response. Thorndike delineated the law of effect in that behavior that produces pleasant implications is likely to be repeated. In contrast, if a behavior produces unpleasant implications, the organism will be unlikely to repeat the specific behavior (Vervliet & Boddez, 2020).
John B. Watson's rationale to emphasize observable behavior and the environment instead of internal events is because he believed that it was infeasible for an individual's mind to make an objective analysis, thus using observable behavior constituted an authentic approach to ensure behavior is within controllable limits (Vervliet & Boddez, 2020). For example, Watson noted that fear and emotions are not internal events but rather a result of the environment (Cooper et al., 2020). This rationalizes using observable behavior and external factors over private events in explaining behavior.
The development of behaviorism from Watson's declaration of the significa...
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