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Behaviourism

Matt Jarvis gives a run-down of the best online resources for behaviourism and conditioning

‘Little Albert’ is an example of classical conditioning

Behaviourism is a movement in psychology. Behaviourists placed their emphasis on the mechanisms by which humans and other animals learn behaviour. Depending on what specification you are studying and which section you are looking at, your emphasis might be on behaviourism itself or on these learning mechanisms.

The behaviourist movement dominated psychology in the UK and USA (though less so in mainland Europe) from J. B. Watson’s 1913 publication of his classic article ‘Psychology as the behaviourist views it’ until the rise of cognitive psychology in the 1950s and 1960s. You can read a straightforward account of the history of the behaviourist movement at: www.tinyurl.com/y5mhp7j6 and a more advanced version here: www.tinyurl.com/yxa6pg84. Most online videos tend to focus on mechanisms of learning, but the following are more oriented towards the assumptions of the approach: www.tinyurl.com/yy7t5jau (fairly brief) and here: www.tinyurl.com/y2myb2q5 (more detailed and A-level-oriented). If you are up for something more challenging, you might like this video of leading behaviourist B. F. Skinner outlining the philosophy of behaviourism: www.tinyurl.com/y5jz5sga, or you can read this classic article by Watson: www.tinyurl.com/y3wulxzt.

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