Behaviorism the beginnings

Behaviorism is one of the most influential schools of psychology, especially American psychology. The development of behaviorism was spurned as a reaction to structuralism and functionalism. Behaviorism was posited as a revolution in the methodology of the science of psychology (Hothersall, 1995), while structuralism and functionalism have argued that the rightful object of study of psychology is the mind and consciousness and have developed methods that congruently were subjective and enabled the psychologists of that time to study the mind and consciousness.Although behaviorism has become established as a major force in psychology, in its earlier days it was not popular and embraced by many psychologists. However as behaviorism evolved and developed into a theoretically based and objective science many have found its assumptions practical and scientific. Western psychology’s history is short and colorful compared to other sciences, it started with structuralism from Germany with Wundt at the helm (Murphy, 1930). When psychology arrived in America it obviously followed structuralism, and since it was too philosophical for the American scholars.James developed his own paradigm and called it functionalism, which in essence focused on the function of consciousness in explaining behavior than in studying the structure of the mind. Functionalism held greater influence in American psychology but together with structuralism it still espoused that psychology is the study of the mind and consciousness. The zeitgeist of that period was that the focus of psychology is the understanding of the human mind and internal experiences (Hothersall, 1995).This inspired psychologists to devise methods of studying perception and consciousness in the attempt to discover the workings of the human mind. Research at that time was centered on identifying and describing physiological experiences and how it affected human behavior. Psychologists were comfortable with the notion tha t psychology is the study of the mind and most of them wrote about the self, attention, consciousness, perception and even mental processes that were believed to be the cause of human behavior.At this point, methods used to study the human mind were subjective and did not lend itself to replication and reliability which in turn questioned the veracity of psychological researches. Although functionalism stressed that the mind and consciousness were responsible for human actions, they viewed behavior as a product of mental processes and ignored its importance in the study of psychology. Functionalism however stressed the application of psychological knowledge to practical issues such as learning, education and organizational development.The pragmaticism of functionalism led it to the discovery that human behavior is as much important to study since it is directly related to the human mind. Functionalism also identified the shortcomings of structuralism and its methods and since it was heavily influenced by Darwin, functionalism also welcomed the idea of studying animals in laboratories to test psychological assumptions. While this new developments were gaining support, a new school of psychology emerged from the work and writings of Ivan Pavlov (Hothersall, 1995).Pavlov was able to demonstrate that a dog can be trained to salivate with just the sound of a bell intrigued some psychologists and became one of the most popular teachings in psychology; Pavlov called this process classical conditioning. In America, John B. Watson was impressed with the experiments of Pavlov that he embraced the idea that behavior is the mot important aspect of man that should be studied by psychology (Watson, 1913). John B. Watson was an influential person and he is conventionally credited to be the father of behaviorism as he strongly and eloquently articulated the new psychology of that time.Central to Watson’s argument was that he accepted that animal behavior is quite simil ar to human behavior and that they are legitimate subjects in the experimental study of behavior. Earlier, it was mentioned that behaviorism was revolutionary in the sense that it developed a methodology of study of psychology and that it held few theoretical explanations to human behavior. Watson (1913) posited that any behavior is a response to a stimuli and the relationship between the stimulus and the response should be the subject matter of psychology.Watson also erased the mental processes that the structuralism and functionalism was focused on, arguing that studying mental processes are futile and subjective and did not uphold the scientific and experimental tradition of the discipline. Watson became the editor of the Psychological Review, one of the earliest scientific journals in psychology and used his position in the paper to put forth his ideas and conceptualizations of psychology as the behaviorist would see it (Watson & Evans, 1990).Watson was a radical behaviorist, he always referred to himself as â€Å"the behaviorist† and it implied that he renounced all mental processes as devoid of any psychological insight. He reasoned that structuralism and functionalism are limited perspectives and it did not offer objective and rational explanations of behavior. He was famous for his experiments with Little Albert, wherein he conditioned fear of white and flurry objects in a small child. He demonstrated that fear can be conditioned and that it is manifested in different objects that fit the original object used as a stimulus (Watson, 1928).Watson believed that every action is a product of conditioning and that genetics or cultural orientations does not have anything to do with it. When asked to explain thinking, he said that thinking was not a mental process per se; instead it is an act of speaking in symbolic form (Watson, 1913). Watson’s intense dedication to behaviorism led him to believe that he can train any child to become what he wan ts them to be by subjecting them to the environment and experiences that would support this personality (Watson, 1928).Watson was a true-blooded behaviorist and this actually was the main criticism leveled against him. Psychologists who were trained in the functionalist and structuralist traditions had difficulty accepting Watson’s theories since it took out the mind and consciousness in psychology. There were a number of supporters but they also believed that mental processes are as much important as behavior. another criticism of Watson was that behaviorism was too deterministic, it seemed that the person had no free will since he/she is controlled by his/her environment.It can be remembered that psychology was the child of philosophy and for those who were trained in philosophical logic stressed free will, choice and freedom. Support for Watson waned in the later part of his career since he became too caught up in his assumptions on behaviorism that his contentions became too radical and lacked scientific credence. Watson’s major contribution to psychology is his emphasis on objective methods of research and the use of rats and animals in the study of psychology.Behaviorism became one of the great schools of thought in psychology because it evolved and developed into what we now know as modern behaviorism (Hothersall, 1995), a theoretical perspective that still focuses on human behavior as the object of study but have come to acknowledge the importance of mental processes, genetics and environmental experiences, as well as using methods that not only seek to elicit behavior but also gives due attention to thinking, attention, emotions and consciousness.References Hothersall, D. (1995). History of Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Murphy, G. (1930). A Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, Inc. Watson, J. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158-177. Watson, J. (1 928). The Ways of Behaviorism. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishing. Watson, R. & Evans, R. (1990). The great psychologists: An intellectual history 5th ed. New York: HarperCollins.

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Developing an Implementation Plan - Assignment Example Additionally, peer support will contribute to enthusiasm and buy-in for the implementation process. Administrative support is equally important because it will influence the degree to which institutions will implement the program. Below is the process of obtaining informal approval: Formal approval will require the submission of the program implementation plan to Site Based Research Review. SBR will review the proposal to assess the validity and legality of the contents of the plan. Afterward, the SBR will assign a director who will then forward the proposal to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for review. The implementation will then commence after the approval of the IRB. Research studies reveal that health associated infections (HAIs) are some of the most common complications that healthcare organizations and practitioners face. For instance, a new research study reveals that more than two million people develop HAIs every year. The infections result in approximately 1,000 deaths every year. HAIs are also responsible for health care costs in excess of 30 billion dollars. Thus, addressing the issue of HAIs is critical in reducing healthcare costs and enhance patient safety. One of the approaches to addressing the problem of HAIs is reducing the prevalence of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) among patients. CAUTIs are the most typical examples of HAIs, and they account for more than 35 percent of infections. The U.S. Department of Health estimates the total annual cost of CAUTI to be 565 million dollars, and the annual rate of deaths from CAUTI is 8,205 (). Additionally, approximately six hundred thousand patients develop urinary tr act infections from hospitals and cases of CAUTI are approximately 75 percent. However, the good news is that researchers have revealed that healthcare systems can prevent CAUTIs and that approximately 70 percent of CAUTI episodes can be prevented. Additional research studies reveal that patients

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Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner - Essay Example Ludwig van Beethoven was also a masterly composer. His compositions are grouped according to numbers, and a significant composition by him is the by opus number. The numbers were assigned by publishers, which follow the order by which his famous compositions were published, and not what they meant. By this way, he created a second theme that sounds like an outgrowth or variation of the first theme. Though it is an inadequate statement it can actually be pinned down when some of their work is compared like; the opening movement of Beethoven’s Symphony 5. Mozart, on the other hand, was conservative and followed the rules. His music is in the confines of boundaries which he imposed on himself, yet they were still so marvelous, and he left us many incomparable masterpieces. Mozart was zealous in opera and stood unsurpassed and Wagner agreed that Mozart was a formidable competitor to him in the opera world. Mozart was also prominent in the world of composition for churches and his skills stand unsurpassed by Wagner and Beethoven. Beethoven, on the other hand, took a little touch of music from the two and them and infused his own unique personality into his music. Mozart composed less technical music it was precise and thematic and was designed to be played by any level while Beethoven and Wagner’s music was more aggressive. The two latter wrote their music with tension this does not come as a surprise since the Mozart played for royalties while Beethoven and Wagner played for the people.... Another renowned composer is Wilhelm Richard Wagner who was German by decent. One of his compositions was the Siegfried which is the 3rd that make up ‘Der Ring des Nibelung’. Siegfried is the third of Wagner’s operas, which he wrote, in 1851. Siegfried premiered as part of the complete ring cycle at Bayreuth on August 16, 1876 (Kivy, 2001). The three composers concentrated mostly on the classical style. It was the most popular style which both the three used alongside other styles like the romantic style. The use of sonata was the most defining characteristic of the style which was classical. Sonata was so pervasive at the time, that it invaded each and every genre of music eve church music as well as opera. The three composers above under discussion each created compositions that are a hybrid of other forms and the sonata form. An example is the fact that they used rondo form, variation form and blended it all with the sonata form. ‘Sonata form begins with simplicity and tonal stability, builds in tension towards a middle section, and reduces complexity and tension in the last section. The climax is always in the middle. That is where the most complex textures are usually found, as well as the most far-ranging key changes, and the most agitated rhythmic patterns’ (Wolff, 26). Beethoven liked to use a combination of Mozart’s use of multiple themes and Wagner’s monothematic technique. By this way, he created a second theme that sounds like an outgrowth or variation of the first theme. Though it is an inadequate statement it can actually be pinned down when some of their work are compared like; the opening movement of Beethoven’s symphony 5 (Wolff, 1990).