In explaining the development of be examined Psychology since the 19c, the subjects which will be examined are, Behaviourist, Cognitive and the Humanistic approaches. Behaviourism was developed by scientists in early to mid 19c and continued to be the dominant force in Psychology until the 1950’s. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was one of the first to explore this method, which is known as Classical Conditioning. This was a form of learning in which Pavlov observed a particular response with a particular stimulus. In 1927 Pavlov was observing the salivation reflex in dogs.
He trained the dogs to expect food when a bell sounded the dogs eventually associated the bell with food and would salivate when the bell was rung. This was therefore a conditioned reflex. Later on in the early part of the 20th century John B Watson (1878-1958) who was considered to be “The Father of Behaviourism) looked at the way behaviour shaped a person, he believed the mind was a black box, a “Tabula Rasa” A blank slate which experience would ‘write on’ to produce a person. Watson also believed that thinking was just talking to yourself. He thought that the environment was the only thing that was important in an individuals development.
B. F. Skinner (1905-1990) Was the ‘Quintessential’ behaviourist, like Pavlov Skinner investigated learning mainly with animals, he developed a different type of learning called ‘Operant Conditioning’ and the ‘Law of Effect’ more complex than classical conditioning, it deals with more complicated behaviour and with voluntary reactions rather than just reflexes. Skinner believed that one kind of behaviour comes to be linked with a stimulus of some kind. Skinners Box experiment involved rewarding rats with food pellets to stop the rats displaying escape-seeking behaviour, he rewarded the rats with food pellets to strengthen good behaviour.
Skinner trained the rats to press on a lever to receive the food and found that he could easily control their behaviour using reinforcement. The goal was ultimately to predict behaviour. These ideas of operant conditioning have been positively applied to human behaviour. The Cognitive approach has over shadowed the Behaviourist approach as the dominant perspective. Cognitive psychology looks at the study of the human mind with the emphasis on external observable events and how the brain takes in, transforms and uses information.
The Latin definition for cognitive is ‘cognito’, meaning to apprehend, understand and know. There are three main areas in the cognitive approach. The first is how the mind works can explain behaviour. The second with the rise of Computers in the 1950’s it was thought that the mind was similar to a computer ‘symbol processing’ (but this is not entirely reliable because you can only get out what you put in). The third was that psychology was pure science that could only be based on laboratory experiments.