Behavioral Perspective

                                           Behavioral Perspective
Theorist: Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, B.F. Skinner, Edward Thorndike, Julian Rotter.
Focus: This is the most interesting perspective to me. The behavioral perspective focuses on one's actions, rewards, punishments and what is seen not thought or perceived. One of the famous behaviorists is Ivan Pavlov. His famous experiment was showing how through rewards one can be trained. He trained dogs to associate a bell sound with food so eventually when they heard the bell they salivated because they now associated it with food. Thorndike was a founder of operant conditioning. This reactions being caused from connected events or sounds, like Pavlov did with the dogs, but now the reaction is learned from how the actions are reinforced or disciplined. Julian Rotter was a bit different as his stated that behavior was based on the response someone assumed they would recieve from doing an action. This differs from Thorndike as Thordnike went based on what did happen and Rotter states reactions are based on assumption of what could happen. One of the many interesting tenets of behavioral theory is that reinforcement of negative behaviors cause psychological disorders.
Strengths of theory: A strength of this theory is that much of it can be proven as it shows that when action A happens then this is what the person does next. Many, if not all, theories of personality can be proven to an extent but this one I find to be the most scientific. A strength of this theory is that it can be applied by many professions in many different ways.
Weakness of theory: A weakness of the theory is that it does not take in to account one's personality as a reasoning for any behavior. One's cognitions are not considered and rather information is only gathered based off of actions. It makes an intersting point of, do actions speak louder than words?
Personal example: I use this theory in my job as a support for at risk teens. I use positive reinforcements daily. Many people see the children I work with as not worth trying to change but I know they are capable of good. Therefore, when I see them do something good I reward them so they hopefully will want to have more good behavior in hopes of a reward.