Behaviorism Video

I have never heard behaviorism explained in this way and I really liked the way he explained because it makes sense.  He compares behavioral psychologist to dog trainers.   Over the years I have trained several dogs and helped people trained dogs but I would never have looked at myself in that way.  I completely agree with him when he says children are different than animals.  However, just as a dog trainer tries to get certain behaviors out of dogs (no matter what type of dog), the behavioral psychologist tries to get certain behaviors out of children (no matter race, sex, etc).  Food for thought.

Chapter 15 The Will

In the fifteenth talk James describes will in a broader and in a narrower sense.  He says the broader sense is designated to our entire capacity for impulsive and active life, which includes our instinctive reactions and those forms of behaviors that have become secondarily automatic and semi-unconscious through frequent repetition.  He says “in the narrower sense, acts of will are such acts only as cannot be inattentively performed.” (p.87)  He also talks about how much of what we do is due to habit.

“It is clear that in general we ought, whenever we can, to employ the method of inhibition by substitution.” (p. 94)  He says that inhibition by substitution is “the inhibiting idea supersedes altogether the idea which it inhibits, and the latter quickly vanishes from the field.”  (p. 94) The reason I like this passage is I agree, as long as we don’t loss the ability to compensate for change.  Although, I sometime wonder about some of the things that have become such routine for me.  Like the other day I was driving to school and once I sat down in my class I couldn’t even remember driving to class.  Now I knew I drove to class but I was so zoned out thinking about other things in my life I just could remember the details about the drive.

How much free will do we really have?

Chapter 14 Apperception

In the fourteenth talk James discusses apperception, which he says is simply nothing more than the act of taking a thing into the mind.  He talks about how the process of apperception is the association of ideas.  He states, “the product is a sort of fusion of the new with the old, in which it is often impossible to distinguish the share of the two factors.” (p. 78)

“Few men ever do acquaint themselves with the principles of a new science after even twenty-five.” (p. 80)  This passage stood out to me because I don’t know if that is true of today.  I understand what he is saying and it makes sense but he was giving these talks in a completely different time.  Back then most people had a job that they did and never did anything else.  But, today people change jobs/careers more often, which is causing them to learn something completely different at an age well past what he says.  But if what he says is true, what do we do when we are older than twenty-five having to learn principles of a new science?

Chapter 13 The Acquisition of Ideas

In the thirteenth talk James discusses the different stages in life when ideas are acquired.   He also talks about how experiences are important in the development of ideas.

The passage that I liked the most out of this talk was “Feed the growing human being, feed him with the sort of experience of which from year to year he shows a natural craving, and he will develop in adult life a sounder sort of mental tissue, even though he may seem to be ‘wasting’ a great deal of his growing time, in the eyes of those for whom the only channels of learning are books and verbally communicated information.” (p. 73)  I love this because it is so true.  I had several experiences in school that have stuck with me forever and I sure do wish I had more.  The majority of they were related to what we were learning academically.  However, there were other experiences, not related to the course work, but were just as profound.  The one that stands out the most was when I was a freshman in high school.  No one knew what my teacher was doing but she did.  She taught us how to manage several projects at one time and to get them done by the deadline.  It was an English class and she taught all of us time management. 

He talks about how you need to do these activities in the proper place.  He states that, “it is not until adolescence is reached that the mind grows able to take in the more abstract aspects of experience, the hidden similarities and distinctions between things, and especially their causal sequence.”  Well, how do we know when a child is ready and able to take in more abstract experiences?  Every child is different from one another.  

Chapter 12 Memory

In the twelfth talk James discusses how memory is more than just a faculty.  He also talks about how it is the association of ideas.  He also says that teachers shouldn’t measure gains of their students by their proficiency in directly reproducing in a recitation or an examination.

“Cramming seeks to stamp things in by intense application immediately before the ordeal.  But a thing thus learned can form but few associations.  On the other hand, the same thing recurring on different days, in different contexts, read, recited on, referred to again and again, related to other things and reviewed, gets well wrought into the mental structure.  This is the reason why you should enforce on your pupils habits of continuous application.” (p. 64)  I really enjoyed the passage from James talk because I can relate.  I had a lot of wonderful teachers that I learned a lot from but I was not taught early on how to get information to stay in my memory.  I remember in elementary school everything was repeated more often in class but as I got older things were not repeated as much.  The teachers were required to get through more material but I was not taught how to keep the information in my memory.  Many times I would cram for a test but I was unable to retain a lot of the information.  I am not sure but what age would be a good age to show the students how to study?  Do the teachers even know how to study themselves?  I know my brother would never have to study because he had the ability to remember pretty much anything that he was shown.  What do you do when you have students with that ability?  Or teachers that had that ability so the don’t know how to study?

Chapter 11 Attention

In the eleventh talk James discusses how interest and attention are connected to one another.  He also talks about passive attention or spontaneous attention and voluntary attention or deliberate attention.

In this talk the passage that stood out to me was, “But, when all is said and done, the fact remains that some teachers have a naturally inspiring presence and can make their exercises interesting, while others simply cannot.  And psychology and general pedagogy here confess their failure, and hand things over to the deeper springs of human personality to conduct the task.”  (p. 52) You can see this in the classroom for sure but you can see it everywhere.  It happens in church, when someone is giving a speech, when someone is telling a story, etc.  I still believe like I said before that people can be taught (not all) how to get the audiences attention. 

Like I had mentioned earlier my brother had ADHD which was part of the reason he had so much trouble in school.  What took the normal student a week to learn it took him only a day so a lot of the time he was bored.  How can teachers keep the attention of the students that understand it but are bored because they don’t need to go over the material as much as the others? 

Chapter 10 Interest

In the tenth talk James talks about there are native tendencies of interest.  He talks about how greater learning occurs when the audience is interested.  He also talks about how it is possible to make something uninteresting interesting. 


The passage “Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already exists.  The two associated objects grow, as it were, together: the interesting portion sheds its quality over the whole; thus things not interesting in their own right borrow an interest which becomes as real and as strong as that of any natively interesting thing.” (p. 47) is great because it is so true.  When working with Dr. Henry on her Skill Up Kentucky project I saw this first hand.  It was a GED program, a little different, that had older students.  There was a gentle in this program that did not see the point in math but he loved construction.  The teacher after learning this took the math they were learning and related it to construction.  The student said to me “ I have never in my life been excited about math but I now can’t wait to go to math class.  It makes so much sense and it is so easy now.”  Now this was an extremely small class of 10 students so the teacher was able to do this for every student.  But, how can teachers with larger classrooms do the same type of thing for their students?  Or I think we should find some way to lower the number of students in a teachers classroom.  

Chapter 9 The Association of Ideas

In the ninth talk James discusses the two fundamental laws of association, which are Law of Contiguity and the Law of Similarity.  He also talks about how teachers can build up useful systems of association.

The passage that stood out to me was “ In the same person, the same word heard at different times will provoke, in consequence of the varying marginal preoccupations, either one of a number of diverse possible associative sequences.” (p.42) The reason is, not to long ago I was talking to my boyfriend and my mother, both heard to completely different things.  Neither of which was actually what I was trying to convey.  It amazes me how we all can interpret things differently.  He talks about how to help with this by giving more than one cue.  How else can teachers best prepare to make sure the students interpret the information the way she wants them to? 

Chapter 8 The Laws of Habits

In the eight talk James talks about the development habits and how they are second nature.  He discusses how teachers should use/create habits to help them in the classroom.

In this talk the passage that I liked the most was, “to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.  It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund.  For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as carefully guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous.”  I am very much a creature of habit.  I didn’t realize how bad until I hurt my right arm and had to learn how to do pretty much everything differently for a little while.  When he talks about turning as much as we can over to automatism,  I agree because it does make life easier.  But is it a good thing to be such creates of habit and automatisms that we are not able compensate when a change needs to be made?  Not saying I wasn’t able to, just would hate to think what it would be like if I was so automatic I wasn't able to modify or make changes.

Chapter 7 What the Native Reaction Are

In the seventh talk James discusses the different native reactions in detail.  They are: Fear, Love, Imitation, Emulation, Ambition, Pride, Pugnacity, Ownership and Constructiveness.

The passage that stood out to me was, “As in so many other fields of teaching, success depends mainly on the native genius of the teacher, the sympathy, tact, and perception which enable him to seize the right moment and to set the right example” (p. 26)  This is exactly why teaching is an art.  I do believe certain teachers just have the “native genius” that he talks about because I had several of those teachers throughout my life and I sure wish I had more.  But, I also believe some (not all teachers) can be taught how to seize the right moment and to set the right example.  Where can you learn how to seize the right moment and to set the right example if you aren’t one of those teachers? 

Chapter 6 Native Reactions and Acquired Reactions

In the sixth talk James talks about how humans have a native reaction.  However the through impressions the native reaction can be changed to an acquired reaction.


“Every acquired reaction is, as a rule, either a complication grafted on a native reaction, or a substitute for a native reaction, which the same object originally tended to provoke.  The teacher’s art consists in bringing about the substitution or complication, and success in the art presupposes a sympathetic acquaintance with the reactive tendencies natively there.” (p.20)  The reason I like this passage i Just as the native reaction can be changed to a better acquired reaction it can also be changed to a not so good acquired reaction.  How can teachers always get the better acquired reaction like he talks about?

Chapter 5 Necessity of Reaction

In the fifth talk James discusses how teachers need to never forget, “No reception without reaction, no impression with correlative expression.”  He makes it clear that learning things by rote and reciting are not the best ways to learn.


The passages that stood out the most to me in this talk were “An impression which simply flows in at the pupil’s eyes or ears, an in no way modifies his active life, is an impression gone to waste.” (p. 17) Also “The most durable impression are those on account of which we speak or act, or else are inwardly convulsed.” (p. 17)  The reason I like this passage is because it is so true.  I am sure, like me many students over the years have just memorized something for the test and couldn’t tell you anything once it was over.  But, there was the class(es) that stuck with you and you could repeat almost everything you learned.  How can teachers, even the really bad ones, have more of those durable impressions on our students, the ones that last a lifetime?  

Chapter 4 Education and Behavior

In the four talk James defines education as the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior.  He gives three examples.  The first is the lecture that he is giving and the behavior everyone is exhibiting.  The other two are the educations in Germany and England.

The passage, “An ‘uneducated’ person is one who is nonplussed by all but the most habitual situations.  On the contrary, one who is educated is able practically to extricate himself, by means of the examples with which his memory is stored and of the abstract conceptions which he has acquired, from circumstances in which he never was place before.  Education, in short, cannot be better described than by calling it the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior.” (p.15)  I had never thought about education in that way.  But, you can tell very quickly when child has not been taught how to behave.  They seem to freak out and act out in the most normal of situations.  I have a friend whose child has never truly been taught how to behave period.  I have pretty much quick doing things with this friend and her child because it is just too much for me to handle.  It is not only my friend’s child but also a lot of children in this society.  How can we get our society back on track?  What can teachers do to educate not only the children but the parents as well?  

Chapter 3 The Child As A Behaving Organism

In the third talk James talks about the two functions of consciousness that are: it leads to knowledge, and it leads to action.  He discusses how the teacher should train the student how to behave.

In this talk the passage that stood out was, “You should regard your professional task as if it consisted chiefly and essentially in training the pupil to behavior; taking behavior, not in the narrow sense of his manners, but in the very widest possible sense, as including ever possible sort of fit reaction on the circumstances into which he may find himself brought by the vicissitudes of life.”  (p. 13) I believe that anyone that is around children or have children are teachers.  We are teaching children how to behave in school, at home, in public, with friends, with family, etc.  My parents, family, friends, teachers, etc. were not only apart of helping gain knowledge but teaching me how to behave in our society. 

I agree that we should shape their behavior but I don’t necessarily agree that it should be done in a negative way.  I believe we can also shape their behavior in a positive way by praising them.  Some children respond better to positive and others to negative.  So, how do we get the right mix of negative and positive reinforcement to get the behavior we desire?  

Chapter 2 Stream of Consciousness

In the second talk of James he discusses how there is always some kind of consciousness going on.  He also talks about how there are two areas of consciousness the focal and the marginal, which we move from one to another sometimes without even realizing.  

It was hard to find a passage in this chapter that I didn’t want to use but the one that stood out was the passage “ On the other hand, some object of thought, some distant image, may have become the focus of your mental attention even while I am speaking, -- your mind, in short, may have wandered from the lecture; and in that case the sensation of my face and voice, although mot absolutely vanishing from your conscious field, may have taken up there a very faint and marginal place.” (p. 8)  The main reason why I chose this passage is because at the time I started to read this passage my mind was starting to wonder.  But, this passage captivated me and caused me to reread the whole chapter with a lot more focus. 

I know that it is hard for me at times to stay on task but I know for my brother it is extremely difficult.  My mom accidently gave me one of my brothers ADHD medications one time.  I don’t know exactly how he felt without the meds but if it was anything like what I felt that day with the meds, oh my goodness.  It was one the worst days on record for me.  I did everything I could possibly think of to stay on task and I couldn’t.  Knowing this, how can teachers get their students to stay on task, especially the students who have ADHD?  

Chapter 1 Psychology and the Teaching Art

In the first talk of William James he discusses how teaching is an art and psychology is a science.  He talks about how they run parallel to one another and that neither one are subordinate to other.

There were several passages that stood out to me but the one that I liked the most was, “ The science of logic never made a man reason rightly, and the science of ethics (if there be such a thing) never made a man behave rightly.  The most such sciences can do is to help us to catch ourselves up and check ourselves, if we start to reason or to behave wrongly; and to criticize ourselves more articulately after we have made mistakes.  A science only lays down lines within which the rules of the art must fall, laws which the follower of the art must not transgress; but what particular thing he shall positively do within those lines is left exclusively to his own genius.” (p. 3)  Without a doubt, this is something that we see and experience every day.  I know everyone of us has had a fantastic teacher and a horrible teacher.  I truly believe that the majority of the time those fantastic teachers think way outside the box (their own genius), while the horrible teacher is just doing what is required.  The science can only take a teacher so far then the art has to take over to make it something great.

I agree with him when he say we can’t expect our teachers to also be psychologist, whoever shouldn’t they be required to learn and know about psychology in order to be better teachers?  Shouldn’t we try to gain as much know as we can, no matter what our area of expertise?

Introduction to Me

All most everything is under my profile.  However I am in the Instructional System Design Masters Program.  I will graduate in May 2012, but hope to go on to get my Doctorate.  I hope to one day teach  and possibly work with distance learning.  I am not only taking this class because it is required but I hope to learn more about the theories of learning in education.  I love to learn and can't wait to gain more knowledge.