Birth of Behaviorism Behaviorism as we know it

Birth of Behaviorism • Behaviorism, as we know it, was first outlined in paper published 1904 by a Russian researcher … • “[translated] for psychology to be a science, the research must focus on the observable – the environment [stimulus] and the behavior of an organism [response]. ” • … the approach achieved more and more important findings, and behaviorism quickly took over experimental psychology.

Sechenov (before 1904) • It was Ivan Sechenov (1829 -1905), a Russian physiologist of the mid-1800 s, who proposed the main ingredient of behaviorism. • In 1863, he wrote “Reflexes of the Brain” in which he argued that stimulation causes all behavior, making him the first true behaviorist. • He also proposed that the central nervous system could inhibit the nerves (as well as excite the nerves).

Bekhterev (1857 -1927) • In a 1904 paper entitled, “Objective Psychology, ” Vladimir Bekhterev outlined the nature of behaviorism. • He called the objective study of stimulusresponse associations “reflexology”. • He independently discovered the “association reflex, ” but Pavlov would make it more widely known as the “conditioned reflex. ”

Ivan Pavlov (1849 -1936) • Became the most famous Russian Behaviorist when he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1904. • The award was officially for research in the study of digestion in animals. His finding was the ability to train dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell – a “conditioned reflex. ” • The finding, of course, was more relevant to the young field of psychology than to physiology.

Pavlov’s Behaviorism • Behaviorism was not about mental activity, but of reflexes – responses to stimuli. • Pavlov never opposed the idea that experimental psychology could study mental activity, but he never addressed mental activity in his research. • Pavlov defined the major terms of behaviorism, and they would be the first set of “universal principles” in the field of psychology …

Birth of Classical Conditioning • At the time, it was not known as “classical” conditioning, but “classical” distinguishes it from the later “operant” conditioning (Skinner). • The unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response were natural reflexes. – Unconditioned stimulus (environment) – part of the naturally occurring environment. – Unconditioned response (organism) – an unlearned response to the natural environment.

Classical Conditioning • The conditioned stimulus and conditioned responses depend on the natural “reflexes. ” – Conditioned stimulus – paired with the unconditioned stimulus. E. g. Pavlov paired a bell with the presentation of meat powder. – Conditioned response – the learned response. The dogs responded to the bell in the same manner as responding to meat powder.

Classical Conditioning (cont. ) • The conditioned response is strengthened with repeated pairing of the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus. • Extinction – the conditioned response can be weakened, and even lost, with repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioning and Psychology • Conditioning can be more complex. For example, dogs can learn one bell means meat, but another bell means NO meat. • By expanding on the idea of complex conditioning patterns, we can begin to appreciate how behaviorism can explain our human nature. • Many behaviorists indeed proposed that human nature can be reduced to a complex pattern of learned responses to stimuli.

John Watson (1878 -1958) • In 1913, nine years after Pavlov and Bekhterev established behaviorism, Watson’s publication “Psychology as a Behaviorist views it” appeared in Psychological Review. • Watson presented psychology as a combination of Russian behaviorism and British empiricism. In other words, he believed that the study of the mind was a study of building higher mental capacity through stimulus-response behavior.

Watson’s Psychology • Established and defined behaviorism in U. S. A. • He saw the 1904 rise of Russian behaviorism, but he already had a similar position due to his views of empiricism and functionalism. • He wanted to go beyond learned behavior. His intentions were to take stimulus-response research and turn it into a study of the mind. • In 1919, after the end of the first World War, Watson and behaviorism began a take-over of empirical psychology.

Watson’s Famous Quote: “Give me a dozen healthy infants, wellinformed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchantchief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. ”

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Watson via Locke • Using Locke’s model of mental processes, we can view Watson’s behaviorism as abstracted stimulusresponse sets. With control over the stimuli, we can decide the abstract response sets.

Little Albert • “Little Albert” is the public name of Watson’s most famous experiment – on a real baby! • He conditioned Albert to be afraid of white rats after seven pairings of the rats with loud noises. • Little Albert quickly generalized his fears to other white fuzzy things such as cotton. • Watson repeated the conditioning on a threeyear old, then de-conditioned the child.

Watson’s Psychology: More Advanced Ideas • Language and thinking – language was learned through social stimulus-response bonds based on trial and error. Thoughts are internalized language. • Watson endorsed “Radical Environmentalism” and he completely rejected the existence of both instincts and inherited abilities. • Behavior therapy – his de-conditioning of a conditioned response became a model for behavioral therapy.

Watson Mishaps • In 1920, when he was 42, Watson had an affair with a student. • He was released from his university, and took on a new career in advertising. Using his behavioral background, he was very successful. • He never went back to research, but still wrote many more successful books in psychology.

Albert Einstein • Einstein is not considered important to psychology, but he is important to science. • His major ideas were (1905) matter is condensed energy [E=mc 2, i. e. , the energy content of a body is equal to the mass of the body times the speed of light squared). and (1915) everything in the universe is relative to the speed of light. • His theories helped other scientists conclude that the universe began as a point of unity (better known as the “big bang theory”).

Einstein’s Science • Einstein’s work led us to see a universe that started with a “big bang. ” This added to Newton’s notion that the universe governed by laws of motion and Darwin’s natural theory of the origin of species. • Scientists were now able to describe atoms and the universe, seemed ready to explain everything. • Like Newton, Einstein widened the gap between religion and science. • Also, just as Newton did, Einstein privately said he saw God in his theories.

Science Changes (1905 -1925) • Behaviorism was the result of efforts to make psychology as objective as the natural sciences. • But just as behaviorism was beginning to take hold, the natural sciences were becoming more theoretical and less empirical. – Atoms and atomic activity could be predicted with theoretical, non-observable “forces. ” – The light from distant galaxies could reveal the history of the universe – by applying a theoretical interaction with gravity.

The Paradigm Changes • The natural sciences took on more and more theoretical (assumed) activity in their research. • Many researchers and philosophers started to ask what was actually observed and what was merely theory within the natural sciences. • In 1924, “logical positivism” was proposed by a group of philosophers to explain the increased reliance on theoretical speculation in the natural sciences.

Logical Positivism • First, logical positivism separates observations from theories in scientific inquiry. – Observational terms – empirically observed. – Theoretical terms – unobserved explanations. • After that, a theoretical term must be logically connected to the empirical observation in a manner that can be supported or rejected by other observations. (this is a precursor to empirical “falsifiability” of theories).

Neo-behaviorism: A Prelude • Some logical positivists urge psychologists to use logical positivism in empirical psychology. • At the same time, physicists start using “operational definitions” – the act of defining a concept with the method of measurement. • Neo-behaviorists expanded on stimulusresponse research to include operational definitions of the unobservable psychological activity – by using the standard of logical positivism (later defined as “falsifiability”).