Blog #2

John B. Watson came up with the theory of ‘Behaviorism’ in 1913. He stated that behavior is observable and can be correlated with other observable events. Watson believed that the events leading up to and after are correlated to the behavior of the individual. In The Ways of Behaviorism Watson better describes that behaviorism is the scientific study of human behavior, in other words it is simply the study of what people do. Behaviorism is a way to better explain the relationships between antecedent conditions or stimulus, behavior or responses, and consequences or reward/punishment/neutral effect. There are two forms of conditioning; classical and operant. Classical conditioning is a form of learning that one stimulus comes to signal the occurrence of second or third stimulus. Operant conditioning is a way of changing persons behavior by the consequences that come after, either a reward or punishment or neutral effect. When Acutes over hear something incriminating, bad, or just plain curious they go to the logbook. The logbook is a there so that patients can write down what they hear about other people in the ward. If what they write down is useful in any way the Big Nurse rewards them with a slight sleep-in the next day. Essentially they are spying on each other. This is an example of classical conditioning because you are pairing a stimulus, the secret or private information of one patient, with a response or reward, being able to sleep-in. This could also, however, be a form of operant conditioning because the punishment for the person that wrote in the book is the isolation of never being talked to again, due to trust issues, and the reward is the sleep-in. This is a great example of how things can be view so differently in the ward by different people. The nurses and doctors think that the logbook is a great idea because it gets the patients issues to the attention of the nurses. On the other hand, however, it is viewed as a betrayal by the other patients. - Josh Blake Block 002