| When the position is
that all complex human behavior is learned, the basic principles
of learning become very central. In the PB view human behavior
is acquired through the basic principles that have evolved in
mammalian species. These are the principles of classical conditioning,
by which emotion is learned, and operant conditioning, by which
behavior is learned. PB states that behaviorism, while isolating
and establishing central knowledge of these principles, left
out some crucial aspects and made some crucial errors. For one
thing, Clark Hull erred in not distinguishing the two principles,
and B.F. Skinner erred in considering the two principles as
independent, with the conditioning of behavior all important
and with emotional conditioning unimportant. In his influential
theory, thus, emotion was considered to have no effect on behavior.
Psychological behaviorism, with its human perspective, recognized
that emotion and behavior involve different types of conditioning,
but that the two are closely related and that emotion effects
human behavior very importantly and very ubiquitously. PB
has shown in basic research the principles that make it so
that stimulus situations that elicit a positive emotional
response in humans will attract their approach behaviors,
while situations that elicit a negative emotional response
will elicit escape and avoidance behavior (see Staats, 1975,
1996; as shown in experiments such as Harms & Staats,
1978; Staats & Hammond, 1972; Staats, Gross, Guay, &
Carlson, 1973; Staats, Minke, Martin, & Higa, 1972; Staats
& Warren, 1974. For this reason, creating or changing
the individual’s emotional response to any person, object,
or event will affect how the individual behaves toward that
person, object, or event. This is supremely important in human
behavior where there are many ways for changing people’s
emotional responses.
Continue to Levels of Study: Human Learning
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