KARATINA UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
PSY 410: HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND LEARNING
WEEK ONE
Dear learner, welcome to PSY 410: human behaviour and learning. This
is the last course that you will be undertaking to complete the entire B.Ed
curriculum. welcome to week one of our second semester. This module is
programmed into thirteen weeks. Content in this module is allocated for
every week. Each week begins with a statement of learning outcomes and
then the content follows. Read carefully and deeply with a view to apply the
knowledge in real life situations in the classroom and in normal life.
Purpose of Course
This course will focus on empirical and theoretical considerations of the
factors which influence variations in behaviour and changes within the
individual.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course the learner should be able to:-
1. Demonstrate understanding of factors influencing human behaviour and
learning.
2. Guide and counsel learners effectively in schools.
3. Conduct behaviour modification on learners.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
By the end of the section, the learner should be able to;
i. Demonstrate understanding of the terms and concepts used in human behavior
and learning.
i. Apply the concepts in understanding human behavior.
BEHAVIOUR
The American Psychological Association Dictionary (2018) defines Behaviour
as;
A). An organism’s activities in response to external or internal stimuli,
including objectively observable activities, introspectively observable
activities (see covert behavior), and nonconsciousness processes.
COVERT BEHAVIOR
This refers to behavior that is not directly observable and can only be
inferred by the observer or reported by the subject. For example, imagining
something is covert behavior. Covert behavior is also referred to as private
event.
PRIVATE EVENT
An activity or stimulus that is apparent only to the person engaged in or
experiencing it. It usually denotes private behavior (e.g., imagining) or
private stimuli (e.g., a headache).
B). Behaviour is also defined as a more restrictively, any action or function
that can be objectively observed or measured in response to controlled
stimuli. Historically, behaviorists contrasted objective behavior with mental
activities, which were considered subjective and thus unsuitable for scientific
study
Early ethologists like Niko Tinbergen defined behavior as “the total movements made by the
intact animal,” In a review paper on definitions of behavior, Daniel Levitis and his colleagues
surveyed 174 members of three different professional societies—The Animal Behavior Society,
The International Society for Applied Ethology, and The Society for Plant Neurobiology—
to determine what researchers meant when they employed the term behavior. What they found
was lots and lots of variation. Based on their survey results, Levitis and his colleagues argued
that many of the definitions that ethologists use can be captured by a few published, but quite
dated definitions already in the literature.
These include (but are not limited to) Tinbergen’s above definition and the following:
“Externally visible activity of an animal, in which a coordinated pattern of sensory, motor
and associated neural activity responds to changing external or internal conditions"
(Beck et al. 1981)
“A response to external and internal stimuli, following integration of sensory, neural,
endocrine, and effector components. Behavior has a genetic basis, hence is subject to
natural selection, and it commonly can be modified through experience" (Starr and
Taggart 1992)
“Observable activity of an organism; anything an organism does that involves action
and/or response to stimulation" (Wallace et al. 1991)
“What an animal does" (Raven and Johnson 1989)
Each of these has its strengths and weaknesses. If “behavior has a genetic basis,” which it
certainly does in many instances, does that mean that we should exclude all actions that do not
have a clear underlying genetic basis when we speak of behavior? Surely not. From these
definitions, we can define behavior as; the coordinated responses of whole living organisms to
internal and/or external stimuli.
The term behavior was popularized by the American Psychologist J.B Watson.
He defined behavior as; ‘an action which can be seen, observed in an
objective way’. It involves both internal and external responses to
stimulation, observed and measured in an objective way. Human actions
include; writing, walking, smiling, eating, thinking, reasoning, problem
solving etc. Internal mental processes such as thinking, problem solving
cannot be seen but is inferred from behavior which is manifested.
LEARNING
Meaning and Nature
Learning is a key process in human behaviour. All living is learning. If we
compare the simple, crude ways in which a child feels and behaves, with the
complex modes of adult behaviour, his skills, habits, thought, sentiments and
the like- we will know what difference learning has made to the individual.
The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the
environment. This experience makes him to change or modify his behaviour
in order to deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning is a change in
behaviour, influenced by previous behaviour. As stated above the skills,
knowledge, habits, attitudes, interests and other personality characteristics
are all the result of learning.
Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour that
occurs as a result of practice and experience”. This definition has three
important elements.
a. Learning is a change in behaviour—better or worse (positive or negative).
b. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience, but
changes due to growth or maturation are not learning.
c. This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it must last a
fairly long time.
All learning involves activities. These activities involve either physical or
mental activities. They may be simple mental activities or complex, involving
various muscles, bones, etc. So also the mental activities may be very simple
involving one or two activities of mind or complex which involve higher
mental activities.
What activities are learned by the individual refer to types of learning. For
example, habits, skills, facts, etc. There are different types of learning. Some
of the important and common learning activities are explained here.
Types of Learning
1. Motor learning:
Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor activities. The
individual has to learn them in order to maintain his regular life, for example
walking, running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All these activities involve
the muscular coordination.
2. Verbal learning:
This type of learning involves the language we speak; the communication
devices we use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc, are the
tools used in such activities. We use words for communication.
3. Concept learning
It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like
thinking, reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from
childhood. For example, when we see a dog and attach the term ‘dog’, we
learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning
involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalization. This learning is
very useful in recognising, identifying things.
4. Discrimination learning
Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate
response to these stimuli is called discrimination learning. Example, sound
horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance, etc
5. Learning of principles
Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics,
grammar, etc. to manage their work effectively. These principles always
show the relationship between two or more concepts. Examples: formulae,
laws, associations, correlations, etc.
6. Problem solving
This is a higher-order learning process. This learning requires the use of
cognitive abilities such as thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination,
generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome difficult problems
encountered by the people.
7. Attitude learning
Attitude is a predisposition that determines and directs our behaviour. We
develop different attitudes from our childhood about the people, objects, and
everything we know. Our behaviour may be positive or negative depending
upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of a nurse towards her profession,
patients, etc.
