Behavioral Psychology and Educational Counseling : An Overview of Selected Origins, Current Research and the Application Implications for the Academic

Of the various schools of psychology that have evolved in the twentieth century, the behavioral school has made contributions to an evolving framework of how behavior could be more empirically and critically studied (Watson, 1924) and how the resultant learning could be used to foster improvements in teaching and learning (and as a by-product, counseling) in the public school system (Thorndike, 1932). Although Thorndike started his work earlier than Watson, they both performed critical research into behavior simultaneously at different locations and under different assumptions and circumstances. Edward L. Thorndike's theory of connectionism laid the foundations for what later became John B. Watson's theory of behaviorism. Although Watson (much later) attempted to refute Thorndike's connectionism, the primary sources indicated that both theories did overlap and that both Thorndike and Watson provided a conceptual basis for behavioral theory. The two theories shared a commonality and mutually reinforced one another's theoretical groundwork upon which the other theorists in the behavioral school later researched and published.