Preview

Psychological Approaches to Learning

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4022 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Psychological Approaches to Learning
Psychological Approaches to Learning
Kenneth D. Lewis
PSY 101
Jimletta Vareene-Thomas
December 19 2010

Learning is a psychological behavior that is considered by most to be fundemental to human development. Learning is a relitively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience
(Feldman, 2009 p. 177). This paper will discus behavior, cognitive, and developmental psycological theories to learning. It will also interpret the different psychological theories to learning and will anayze and illustrate the essential understanding of normal and abnormal psychology in regards to the learning process. As learnig has been recognized as fundemental to human development it is important to study the different approaches that are employed in any learning environment. The Study of learning has been at the core of psychological study since its beginning (Feldman, 2009 p.177). Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based on the idea that all ideas are based on conditioning. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment.
According to behavioral psychology, behavior can be observed in a systematic and observable manner with no connsideration of internal mental states (Cherry, 2010). From a psychological stand point it is clear that humans are ready to learn from an early age. When we are young we show signs of a primitive type of learning called habituation, which is a decrease in response to a stimulus that occurs after repeated presentation of the same stimulus (Feldman, 2009 p.177). For example, a young child may show signs of stimulus in regards to a toy however, over a time they may loose interest in the stimulus after seeing the same toy over and over. Habituation also permits us to ignor things that have stopped providing new information (Feldman, 2009 p.177). “Behaviorists are most concerned with actions that are observable. Traditionally, they have

believed that



References: Cherry, K (2010, Febuary). Psychological Theories. Retrieved from December 18 2010 http://psychology.about.com/od/psychology101/u/psychology-theories.htm Witt, G.A. & Mossler, R.A. (2010). Adult Development and Life Assesment. Retrieved from December 18 2010 https://content.ashford.edu/books/4 Feldmen, R.S., (2009). Understanding Psychology. (9th ed ) New York: Mcgraw-hill ISBN: 978-0-07- 337019-4

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Conditioning - the acquisition of specific patterns of behavior in the presence of well-defined stimuli…

    • 1665 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ap Psych Chapter 6

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages

    - Habituation: form of adaptive learning in which an organism stops paying attention to an unchanging, often repeated stimuli…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dfa7130 Assignment 2

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The work of Ivan Pavlov, considered conditioned learning theory. His findings were with experiments on dogs. He discovered if you repeatedly learned a process over time you would condition…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ap Psychology Unit 1 Summary

    • 2722 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Habituation: tendency to get used to and therefore ignore a stimulus when it is experienced repeatedly.…

    • 2722 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psy 550 Week 1 Assignment

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages

    From the day an individual born until the day he/she dies, there are many things that we learn such as the languages we speak, the culture of the country where we born at, the way to act, think and behave as a member of the society. The knowledge we gain and the experiences we have are acquired through the process of learning. What is learning? How can the concept be described? What are the differences between learning and performance? And what are some conceptual approaches to the study of learning are questions that will be answered throughout this paper.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Behaviorism - A theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through…

    • 2055 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The process of learning focuses on what occurs when learning takes place some explanations of what occurs are considered to be learning theories, these try to describe how people and animals learn, which in return allow us to understand the process of learning. There are three categories in which learning theories fall under: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Behaviorism concentrates on the observable conditions of learning. Cognitivism looks past behavior and concentrates more on brain-based learning. Lastly constructivism focuses its views on learning as a process where the learner is active and builds new concepts. As we learn we change the way we see our environment, the way we understand the incoming information, which leads to the way in which we behave. Classical and Operant conditioning are two major types of learning. Ivan Pavlov accidently discovered classical conditioning while researching digestive patterns with dogs. He used to put meat powder in the mouths of dogs that had experimental tubes in them which measured bodily response. He discovered that the dogs would start to salivate before as soon as the person feeding them walked into the room. His discovery states that we develop responses to stimuli that do not occur naturally. For example, when we…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    |literature written about the way people learn and numerous theories on the methods to teach effectively or guide people in their | | | |…

    • 4485 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Describe the expected learning pattern of children and young peoples development from Birth – 19 include…

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Learning is one of important processes in human being life. It is self-evident that human development cannot stand without a proper learning. Since Learning provides unlimited Benefits, people should learn and experience it.…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are various ways which people can learn. There is a need to identify approaches that can assess learning effectively. David Kolb proposed a four stage learning process with a cycle of learning. (Gravells, A. 2008). The process is represented in the diagram below:…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Perspectives Paper Psy 310

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a perspective that became dominant during the early half of the 20th century thanks to prominent thinkers such as B.F. Skinner, and John B. Watson. The basis of behavioral psychology suggests that all behaviors are learned. Conditioning is the process of learning to react to the environment. Many theorists contributed to the theories of classical and operant conditioning, some theorists being Skinner, Watson, and Tolman. Each theorist contributed their own theories proven to impact a part of psychology. Many behaviors have been previously conditioned in the human species by the environment. Skinner, Watson, and Tolman all made their contributions to psychology with theories and proven statistics.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psychology 101: Learning

    • 2154 Words
    • 9 Pages

    * A type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus…

    • 2154 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Living through the trauma

    • 2478 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Fredrickson, B., Loftus, G., & Wagenaar, W. (2009). Atkinson & Hilgard’s introduction to psychology. Andover, Hamspire: Cengage Learning EMEA.…

    • 2478 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Learning Theory Chart

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Learning theories have been around for a long period. Three common learning theories will be discussed following this introduction. The three learning theories that will be discussed are the behavioral learning theory, the constructivist learning theory, and the cognitive learning theory. Behavioral learning theory has three components that Gredler (2009) describes as, “(a) the occasion on which the behavior occurs, (b) the behavior itself, and (c) the consequence of the behavior” (para 25). Cognitive strategies, “places mental activity at the focus of interest” (Martinez, 2010, para 5). Finally, the constructivist learning theory describes learning as a constructive process.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays