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This 6 page paper begins with comments about the importance of understanding different theoretical perspectives related to human behavior. The paper then focuses on one specific theory - Skinner's model of behaviorism, including reinforcement schedules. Bibliography lists 4 sources. PGbhvsk.rtf
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6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: MM12_PGbhvsk.rtf
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provide the social worker and others with insight into why people behave in certain ways. Theories also help the professional understand why each person tends to behave somewhat differently.
There are any number of reasons for individual differences in terms of behavior. This is why the professional needs to understand more than one theory of human behavior. Insight about
theoretical perspectives provide the professional with the means to help people work through different types of problems. Theories help the professional in a number of ways. Theories help organize information;
they provide a framework for understanding our observations and they help the professional ask the right questions (University of Kentucky, n.d.). Although it has come into a certain degree of
disrepute, behaviorism is still a valid theoretical perspective when examining individual behaviors. Behaviorism began with Ivan Pavlov in the early 1900s with his famous stimulus-response experiments with dogs (Graham, 2005).
Pavlov showed that by reinforcing certain behaviors, a dog would begin to salivate, (expecting food) when a bell was rung. John Watson was the next theorist to support behaviorism as
a theory of human behavior in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Graham, 2005). Watsons motivation was to counter the argument that psychology was not a true science (Graham,
2005; PageWise, Inc., 2005). He studied and reported on observable behaviors, thus, providing empirical data proving that psychology, or at least, behaviorism, was, in fact, a science (Graham, 2005). Watson
would be followed by Skinner, Thorndike, Tolman, Hull, Guthrie and others (Graham, 2005). B.F. Skinner studied and published in the early and mid-1900s (PageWise, Inc., 2005). Skinner introduced operant conditioning
- "conditioning is the scientific term for learning" (PageWise, Inc., 2005). The term operant "refers to Skinners idea that any organism "operates" on his environment - that is, performs actions
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