Behaviorism
This field argues that psychology should
study overt behavior and that its aim to predict and control behavior.
1825-----1850-----1875-----1900-----1925-----1950-----1975-----2000
------------Sechenov-----------
-----------------Pavlov---------------
-----------Bechterev------------
-------------Watson-----------
Ivan
Sechenov 1829-1905
Founder of Russian Objective psychology, studied with Müller, as well as Helmholtz as a part of his physiological training.
Denied that thoughts caused behavior, Sechenov believed that external stimulation causes all behavior, thought is inconceivable without it.
When Sechenov discovered that the brain had inhibitory mechanisms, he decided that it was possible to study psychology through physiology. (A frog’s pulling its leg out of acid can be inhibited by placing salt on areas of the brain.)
Sechenov felt that what made humans special was their ability to take past experiences and use them to inhibit reflexes. All behavior can be explained through the inhibition or excitation of reflexes
Psychology should be studied using objective physiology, which would take more time than introspection but would also be more reliable than introspection
Began studying for the priesthood but ended up enrolling in the Military Medical Academy to study Natural Science, and then medicine. Pavlov was eventually appointed professor of physiology in St Petersburg.
As opposed to simply suggesting that psychology should be studied objectively, Pavlov was able to demonstrate how that should be done. Also unlike Sechenov, Pavlov was able to obtain government funding and support.
While at the Military Medical Academy, Pavlov studied digestion, particularly the digestion of dogs. Pavlov was able to perform an operation which allowed digestive juices to flow out of a dog’s body and be collected.
As a result of this operation, Pavlov discovered conditioned reflexes. While looking at the gastric response to meat powder, Pavlov discovered that even the actions associated with the meat powder were sufficient to produce a gastric response.
Like Sechenov, Pavlov believed that behavior is reflexive and also that all central nervous system activity can be characterized as either excitation or inhibition
Extinction of a behavior is one example of a learned inhibition
Spontaneous recovery of a previously extinguished response is evidence for inhibition of a response as opposed to the elimination of that response
Pavlov discovered that he could induce experimental neurosis by presenting them with conflicting stimuli. He classified the nervous systems of the dogs by observing their reaction to this induced neurosis.
Pavlov believed that his research on conditioning put the issue of associations to rest forever, because a conditioned response was the same thing as an association.
Vladimir
Bechterev
1857-1927
Studied at the Military Medical Academy at the same time as Pavlov
Created the first Russian experimental psychology lab in 1885
Published a three volume book entitled ‘Objective Psychology’ 1907-1912.
Bechterev’s concentration was entirely on the relationship between environmental stimulation and behavior
Criticized Pavlov for his work on the digestive system for a number of reasons, including the fact that it couldn’t be replicated in humans, the animal could become satiated, and the reflex to salivate is unimportant and unreliable.
Bechterev instead studied motor reflexes for the ability to measure them precisely, the ability to replicate in humans, their importance in every day life.
Although his work was closer to that of Watson, it was Pavlov’s work that Watson discovered and so Bechterev faded into the background.
American
Behaviorism
Attended graduate school at the
While there, Watson began to investigate the learning of white rats and became an expert on them, at this time Watson began to think that if you could understand rats without introspection, couldn’t the same be true for humans?
Watson’s behaviorist views never came to light while he was a graduate student because of the influence of his professors.
Watson became an assistant professor at the University of Chicago and while there investigated the maze learning process of the white rat. After eliminating all of the senses, Watson discovered that it was the kinesthetic sense which allowed the rats to remember their way around the maze.
In 1908 Watson was offered a position at Johns Hopkins University, and a year later when the chair of the department was forced to resign after being caught in a brothel, Watson became the editor of Psychological Review which he used to publicize his views on behaviorism
Scandal ended Watson’s professional career when he was caught having an affair in 1920 and was subsequently fired and never able to find another academic position.
After this point, Watson became more focused on the American public, publishing articles in popular magazines and doing radio talks
Watson received a temporary advertising job in 1921 researching the rubber boot market, after this he was hired by the firm and became a prominent figure in advertising in the mid 1920s. Watson remained in advertising until his retirement in 1945
Watson felt that the goal of psychology should be to be able to predict and control human actions and behaviors.
Watson believed that there are four types of behavior
Explicit learned behavior (talking, writing, playing baseball)
Implicit learned behavior (increased heart rate w/ a dentist’s drill)
Explicit unlearned behavior (grasping, blinking, sneezing)
Implicit unlearned behavior (changes in circulations, gland secretions)
Watson proposed four methods to study behavior: Observation, the conditioned reflex method (Pavlov & Bechterev), Testing, and Verbal Reports
Speech is merely an overt behavior; thinking is sub vocal speech which is imposed on people by society.
Watson didn’t believe in instincts, he believed that it is experience which makes people as they are. (quote p. 356)
People could inherit a build but not talent. People also inherited emotions, and through learning associate those emotions with stimuli.
Little Albert was an 11 month year old infant who Watson presented with a white rat and then struck a gong. Albert learned to associate fear with the rat and subsequently was upset by the rat. Albert also generalized his fear of the rat to a fear of many furry things (dog, rabbit, and coat) which showed contiguity of experience. Although Watson intended to extinguish Albert’s fear, he was removed from the hospital before this could happen.
Peter was a boy who was afraid of rabbits. Watson showed Peter other children playing with rabbits fearlessly, which lessened the fear. Unfortunately Peter and his nurse were attacked by a dog which nullified all of the progress. Watson and Jones then tried Behavior Therapy to rid peter of his fear. Peter ate lunch in a long room, with a rabbit in a cage, each day the cage was brought closer until Peter could actually touch the rabbit without fear.
Watson and his new wife Rosalie wrote a book on child rearing, encouraging parents to treat their children kindly but with little affection, like little adults.
Watson also had strong opinions about sex ed., he felt that children should be given frank and honest advice about sex, and this frankness was the only thing he credited psychoanalysis for.
Watson explained learning through contiguity and frequency, learning results from patterns of stimuli and responses.
Watson’s answer to the mind-body question was to reject the reality of the mind as it has never been seen or felt. The mind is merely an assumption, it does not exist.
Watson’s two major contributions to psychology: a focus on the study of overt behavior and a goal of predicting and controlling behavior, not the description and explanation of consciousness.
McDougall was an important part of psychology in England. He helped establish the British Psychology Society and also the British Journal of Psychology.
After WWI, McDougall moved to America where he had been offered the chair of psychology at Harvard. McDougall was never very popular in the US, partially because he promoted instincts.
Defined psychology in part as the study of behavior of living creatures. Began to question introspection and advocate the objective study of behavior at the same time as Watson.
Unlike Watson, however McDougall did not deny that mental events are important, he claimed that mental events could be studied objectively by looking at their influence on behavior
McDougall did not study reflexive behaviors, as did the Russians and Watson instead he studied purposive behavior, which is directed towards a goal instead of being a reaction to something.
Behavior is instinctively goal-directed
All organisms are born with instincts which motivate them to act in certain ways. Each instinct has Perception, Behavior, and Emotion.
Instincts do not act alone but rather together, one event will elicit several instincts, which after a time will become a sentiment.
This is where McDougall and Watson take opposite stands, McDougall says that instincts motivate all behavior while Watson claims that Instincts do not exist.
Another difference is in the conception of learning. Watson felt that learning can be explained purely through association and that reinforcement wasn’t involved, McDougall felt that reinforcement was very much involved.
In 1924 the men met to debate over behaviorism, with Watson claiming that a behaviorist cannot see consciousness objectively, while McDougall asked how it is possible to account for feelings or the enjoyment of music under Watson’s claims.