Morgan Hamill. Educ 2120. Dalton State College. March 23,

Morgan Hamill EDUC 2120 Dalton State College March 23, 2017 Introduction The theory of Behaviorism is a topic which has been instilled in classrooms all across the world possibly without teachers even noticing. B.F. Skinner is the man who came up with this theory as well as the ways in which to apply it in the classroom. The main idea of this theory is that all human behaviors are learned, and thus they can be unlearned and replaced by new behaviors. This theory is vitally important in the education world because it helps teachers to better instruct their students with the help of positive and negative punishment and positive and negative reinforcement. Biographical Background of B.F. Skinner B.F. Skinner or Burrhus Fredrick†¦show more content†¦Through the use of this model, Skinner was able to develop a more comprehensive view of conditioning which is now known as operate conditioning. Operate conditioning is rewarding a desired behavior. Skinner performed much research on this new form of conditioning and arrived at the conclusion that both animals and humans would repeat actions which led to favorable outcomes as well as suppress those that produced an unfavorable outcome. Though this theory mainly focuses on Skinner, another theorist named John B. Watson is mentioned. Watson believed that human behavior is the result of specific stimuli that elicited certain responses. His basic idea was that the conclusions about human development should be based on the observation of overt behavior rather than speculation. Watson was also a professor of psychology at Hopkins University and â€Å"By the time he left the field for good in the early 1930s, behaviorism had succeeded in taking center stage within American psychology† (Wozniak, 1997). This theory also heavily discusses the importance of positive and negative punishment and positive and negative reinforcement. Positive is when something is added and negative is when something is taken away. Positive punishment is when something is added in order to decrease an undesired behavior and negative punishment is when something is removed in order to decrease and undesired behavior. Positive reinforcement is