Learning Theory and Behaviour Modification

The ability to learn is of crucial importance in human life, but understanding this ability has proved to be difficult. There have been many attempts to formulate scientific theories based on both animal experiments and human experience; and these have been applied to education and the treatment of psychological disturbance, with a certain amount of success. Originally published in 1984, this incisive guide to the research and its outcomes provides the background to one of the most debated topics in psychology today. Learning Theory and Behaviour Modification introduces the work of major figures, such as Pavlov and Skinner, which has strongly influenced theories in educational and clinical psychology, and formed the basis of the techniques known as ‘behaviour modification’. As well as giving examples of these techniques the author relates new ideas about the scope and limits of behaviour modification to recent changes in the views of learning theorists. How much can experiments on animals tell us about human psychology?

1. Introduction to Learning Theory 2. Common Factors in Learning Theories 3. Pavlovian Conditioning: Reflexes, Expectancies and Involuntary Emotional Associations 4. Goals, Rewards and Reinforcements 5. Punishment, Avoidance, Conflict and Anxiety 6. Pavlov’s Applications of his Conditioned Reflex Theory 7. Watson’s Applications of Behaviourism to Advertising and to Children 8. Applications of Stimulus-Response Theories from Thorndike to Wolpe 9. H.J. Eysenck and Behaviour Therapy at the Maudsley Hospital 10. B.F. Skinner on Language and Life 11. Plain Behaviour Modification: Rewards and Withdrawal of Rewards 12. Behaviour Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Modification. Suggestions for Further Reading. References and Name Index. Subject Index.