Question

“You can call me Pavlov’s dog…” (Barenaked Ladies, 1992). Is behavior really so black and white, according to behaviorists like Skinner, Pavlov, etc.?

Answer 1

Ivan Pavlov with his classical conditioning and B.F. Skinner with his Behavioural school transformed the way people learnt by introducing conditioning in learning behaviours. Pavlov proved it with his dog experiment that by conditioning behaviours can be associated with stimulus while Skinner introduced reward, punishment and reinforcements in teaching and eliciting the expected behaviours. Both Pavlov and Skinner are still influential in not only in the field of psychology but also in education and any other fields that works on changing behaviours. From a parent giving a chocolate for completing a homework to another cancelling pocket money for not performing in exams, from a parent associating darkness with evil spirits to another associating prayer with confidence, classical and operant conditioning are in operation.

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