Behaviorism – 1913 John Watson
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In 1913 John Watson coined the term “Behaviorism”, it assumes that every behavior is observable and can be correlated with other event. I can apply this to Linda could also have been raised by a family of poor people, her dad might have been autodidact; she could have seen her mother reading books and this woke on her the desire of learning. I can think of her mom helping her do her homework, her father asking her if she needed any help to study, parents who were fully involved in her education. Linda, seeing this developed a desire to learn or simply while her father was reading stories to her about successful people wondered if she could be one of them and decided to keep studying hard in order to become a doctor.
I agree with most psychologists who claim that both genes and environment play and important role in our development. But we are forgetting of two other who are equally important: Neural Activity and Behavior
All of these levels are interdependent and work bidirectionally. As shown on the following graphic, all levels are mutually influenced by each other. (Gobliet, 1997)
One of the theories I like the most, is Gesells. She affirms that both family and society must provide children with an environment that lets them to grow the potential of each child to be fully realized (Gessel, 1946)
There is an unlimited of possible reasons that Lydia is not as successful as Linda, the first one could be, that Lydias parents did not have the economic resources to help her, perhaps she became the solely provider in home and had to take care of her family or simply, she did not have a good role model who made her realize of what she was capable of.
Both Linda and Lydia had the same the same genetic advantage, neither of them were born with any deficiency, is the environment in which they develop who made them go different ways.
Watson, J. B. (1913).Psychology as the behaviorist views it . Lancaster, Pa.: Psychological Review Company.
Gottlieb, G. (1997).Synthesizing nature-nurture: prenatal roots of instinctive behavior. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gesell, A. (1948). Studies in child development ([1st ed.). New York: Harper.