Behaviourism Psychology 4006 Ivan Pavlov 1849 1936 In

Behaviourism Psychology 4006

Ivan Pavlov (1849 -1936) • In training for ministry, but decided on science after reading Darwin and Sechenov • 1883 degree in medicine • 1891 director of Institute of Experimental Medicine (St. Petersburg) • Research on digestion • Research on salivary reflex leads to conditioning work • Nobel Prize for physiology 1904

Ivan Petrovich knew his stuff • Replication strategy • Acquisition of a CR • Extinction of a CR • Generalization and discrimination • Experimental neurosis • Breakdown in discrimination

Commies Loved him… • Pavlov and Soviets • Conditioning work consistent with Soviet mission • Condition people to share Communist ideals • Hence, Pavlov’s work favored and well funded • Pavlov initially critical • But accommodated in face of Nazi threat in 1930 s

The Founding of Behaviourism • John Watson (1878 -1958) • Trained at functionalist University of Chicago • Ph. D. 1903 correlated brain development and improved learning ability in rats • 1903 -1908 on the faculty at Chicago • Maze studies with Carr

A Radical New Idea • Watson at Johns Hopkins 1908 -1920 • Continued animal studies • Both lab and field • • • 1913 Behaviorist Manifesto paper Introspection and consciousness out Thinking is just sub-vocal speech Study of overt behavior in Goal given S, predict R; given R, predict S Promise of applications • 1915 APA presidential address • Demonstrated effects of conditioning procedures

Watson was ‘asked to resign’ • Watson after Johns Hopkins (after 1920) • Applying science to a new life in advertising • Marketing research • Advertising campaigns based on emotions • • • Popularizing behaviorism Behaviorism (1924) Importance of the environment Psychological Care of Infant and Child (1928) Rational rather than emotional parenting strategy

Watson left, but behaviourism continued • Events in the 1920 s leading to neobehaviorism (1930 -1960) Operationism Operational definitions Enables replication Converging operations Increased confidence when the same outcomes result from multiple operational definitions of the same construct • Consensus on • • • Evolutionary continuum (human to animal links) • Learning/conditioning (nurture focus)

Skinner, the father of Radical Behaviourism • • • B. F. Skinner (1904 -1990) Ph. D. from Harvard (1931), then University Fellow (until 1938) The Behavior of Organisms (1938) Type S conditioning Pavlovian • Two stimuli paired, producing same response • Type R conditioning operant • Behavior produces predictable consequences • Minnesota for 9 years, then 4 years as department head at Indiana • 1948 returns to Harvard to stay

Radical Behaviourism • Operant conditioning • Controlled environment (operant chamber) • Experimental analysis of behavior • Stimulus control • Opposed formal theory • Preferred an inductive strategy • The problem of explanatory fictions • Dangers of labels becoming explanations

Radical Behaviourism • The technological ideal • Goal not just to predict and understand behavior, but also to control it • Project Pigeon • WWII guided missile system using pigeons • Applications to child rearing and teaching • Walden Two (1948) • Utopian community built on operant principles • Became widely read in the 1960 s

Conclusions • Huge in North America, not as huge in Europe • Probably saved psychology • Probably went too far • What’s on your behaviour? • Methods are still used today.