Several psychological theories have evolved due to the desire of understanding more the behavior of humans. Not all were accepted but are still considered to belong to the history of psychology.
Behaviorism as a psychological theory was primarily used from 1920’s to 1950. Several psychologists support the behaviorism theory like Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, Skinner, Hull and Bandura. In the behaviorism theory, it treats psychology as a science and is concern with the observable behavior of humans and animals. The behaviorist argues that these observable behaviors can be objectively measured while those of the cognitive couldn’t. The environment shapes entirely the behavior of people because from the start, the mind is a blank state (tabula rasa) which is influence by the environment surrounding them. Behavior is influence by a certain stimulus which can either be in the form of reinforcement or punishment. An example is when a child told that if he performs well in the periodic exam, he will be rewarded with a bicycle. (McLeod, 2007)
Cognitive Psychology on the other hand, is the theory that the mind is the pusher of everything. If one wants to predict the behavior of someone, one must understood first how his mind works. Psychologist is this field, uses laboratory experiments to better understand behaviors. Internal processes are key in the study and how these are treated by the person. Some aspects they are concerned with are perceptions, memory and thinking. Jean Piaget was among the first psychologist who proposed this theory. Cognitive psychology is useful for teachers to better understand the learning behaviors of their students in order to be able to give the appropriate learning environment and drills for them.
A combination of the evolution and the cognitive theory is called the Evolutionary theory. This theory confirms the stand of the cognitive theorist that behavior of people can be explained by the internal processes within an individual. What makes them different from the cognitive approach is the claim that some if these internal processes are results of adaptations or natural selections, where these characteristics helped the ancestors to survive around the world. (Hagen, 2002)
Behaviorism and cognitive theory differ in such a way that behaviorist look at specific actions while cognitive theorist sees them as mental representations. The classic example is the Skinner box. For the behaviorist, to press the bar means food while for the cognitive theorist that pressing the bar produces food. Cognitive theorist focuses on the idea that learning takes place in the mind not in behavior. Although, these theories support two different methods of predicting and understanding possible behaviors of individuals, they are much in use in today’s world.
References:
McLeod, Saul (2007). Behaviorism. Retrieved on March 19, 2012 at http://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html
Hagen, Edward (2002). What is Evolutionary Psychology. Retrieved on March 19, 2012 at http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/projects/human/epfaq/ep.html
