Lecture 12:

The Rise and Fall of Behaviorism

I. INTRODUCTION
A. Introduction
 The Rise and Fall of Behaviorism
 It started off slowly in 1910s
 Watson’s 1913 manifesto, Psychology as the
Behaviorist Views It, claimed that introspective
psychology was unscientific because it did not deal
with objective states.
 There is a complete rejectionof mentalism byWatson in the
1910s and Skinner in the 1940s
 By the 1940s and 1950s, behaviorism reigned
supreme in American experimental psychology.
 There was an emphasis on learning and experience
over inheritance of traits in every sphere of applied
and theoretical psychology.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Introduction
 The Rise and Fall of Behaviorism
 By 1965, the tide began to turn.
 There was the “cognitive revolution" and “humanistic
psychology” which embraced the very mentalism
which Behaviorism sought to reject.
 Why behaviorism declined is complicated.
 Behaviorism was demonstrated to be overly simplistic
and inadequate philosophically and empirically.
 Behaviorism no longer theoretically dominant.
 But Behavior Modification, Applied Behavior
Analysis, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy remain
viable approaches in applied psychology.
I. INTRODUCTION
B. The Context of Behaviorism
 The zeitgeist of the time resulted in the
developing of behaviorism.
 Objective psychology was already established in
Russia and several functionalists were discussing
openly many ideas later emphasized by John
Watson.
 The success of animal research also contributed greatly
to the development of behaviorism.
 The strain resulting from proposals for a strict
objective science of psychology but the continued
use of introspection created the atmosphere that
ultimately led to the “behaviorist revolution.”
I. INTRODUCTION
B. The Context of Behaviorism
 Two sections to the presentation
 Origins of Behaviorism:
 Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 American Foundations: J.B. Watson
 British Foundation: MacDougall
 NeoBehaviorism
 Edward Chase Tolman
 Clark Leonard Hull
 Edwin R. Guthrie
 B. F. Skinner
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov
(1829–1905)
 Sechenov's major interest was
neurophysiology
 He showed that brain activity is
linked to electric currents and was the
first to introduce electrophysiology.
 Focused on the nature and
inhibition of spinal reflexes
 Studying the physiology of reflexes
was important port of the context of
the founding of behaviorism
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov
 Sechenov's work laid the
foundations for the study of
reflexes, animal and human
behavior, and neuroscience.
 Thoughts do not cause behavior.
 Both internal behavior (mental
processes) and external behavior are
reflexive in that they are triggered by
external stimulation.
 Principle of external stimulation also
seen in Vyogtsky’s work.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov
 Proposed
 Main purpose of the central nervous
system was to inhibit reflexive
behavior
 Development establishes inhibitory
control over reflexive behavior.
 Rejected the idea of spontaneous or
un-elicited behavior.
 The only valid Psychological
approach was the objective methods
of physiology.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov (1849–
1936)
 Won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for
his work in physiology.
 During work on the physiology of
the digestive system, he discovered
the conditioned reflex.
 Noted that objects or events associated
with presentation of food also produced
gastric secretions.
 Referred to secretions as “conditional”
(mistranslated as conditioned)
responses because they depended on
something else
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov
 For details of Classical
Conditioning, see the textbook.
 He applied objective physiological
measures to study the association
between stimulus and response
 Explained how reflexes can be
modified by environmental
associations.
 Even explained neurosis
 Experimental neurosis occurs when
excitatory and inhibitory conditioned
tendencies are brought into conflict.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov
 Pavlov’s Signal Systems
 First-signal system or “the first
signals of reality.”
 Stimuli (conditioned stimuli) that come
to signal biologically significant events
 Second-signal system or “signals of
signals”
 Humans learn to respond to symbols of
physical events (use of language, words
are symbols referring to events).
 Low opinion of psychology.
 But big influence on the discipline!
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov
 Pavlov’s Signal Systems
 First-signal system or “the first
signals of reality.”
 Stimuli (conditioned stimuli) that come
to signal biologically significant events
 Second-signal system or “signals of
signals”
 Humans learn to respond to symbols of
physical events (use of language, words
are symbols referring to events).
 Low opinion of psychology.
 But big influence on the discipline!
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
A. Russian Physiology of Reflexes
 Vladimir Mikhailovich
Bekhterev (1857–1927)
 Neurophysiologist who noted
the role of the hippocampus in
memory around 1900.
 He founded the field of psycho-
reflexology.
 An objective study of relations
between environmental influences
and overt behavior. In humans
 Critical of Pavlov's work
 He transformed and applied it from
dog secretions to human behavior.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson (1878–
1958)
 Founder and promoter of
behaviorism
 Objective methodology applicable
to humans and animals
 Physiological basis
 Critical paper was Psychology
as the Behaviorist Views It
(1913)
 Polemical tone
 Emphasis on application
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson
 Start at Chicago with Dewey.
 At Harvard he worked with
James Angell and Jacques Loeb
 Shows that the behavior of simple
organisms could be explained as being
automatically elicited by stimuli
 Influenced by his early research
with rats running in mazes
 Early research running rats in mazes helped
him formulate some of his later ideas
regarding a purely objective science of
psychology.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson
 1908 announces behaviorist
views and 1913 publishes the
so-called Behaviorist Manifesto
 Psychology is a purely objective
experimental branch of natural
science.
 Its theoretical goal is the prediction
and control of behavior.
 Introspection forms no essential part
of its method.
 The behaviorist, in his efforts to get
a unitary scheme of animal
response, recognizes no dividing
line between man and brute
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson
 Four types of behavior
 Explicit (overt) learned behavior
 talking, writing, etc.
 Implicit (covert) learned behavior
 increased heart rate caused by a feared
stimulus
 Explicit unlearned behavior
 grasping, blinking, sneezing, etc.
 Implicit learned behavior
 glandular secretions
 All behavior, including thinking,
falls into one of the categories.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson
 Four methods of research
 Observation, naturalistic or
controlled
 Conditioned-reflex method,
proposed by Pavlov and Bechterev
 Testing, meant taking samples of
behavior and not measurement of
“capacity” or “personality”
 Verbal reports, which were treated
as any other type of overt
behavior.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson
 Language & thinking as behavior.
 Speech overt behavior, while
thinking was sub-vocal speech.
 There were a few simple reflexes
 No complex innate behavior; only
experience impacts behavior
 Humans inherit basic reflexes and
emotions of fear, rage, and love.
 These Emotions elicited by stimuli
and others are derived from the 3.
 Little Albert and emotional
conditioning
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson
 Proposed that children should be
raised in an objective manner
 Little displays of affection; treated as
adults; receive sex education.
 Contiguity and Frequency
 Events associated in time, which
produces conditioning of behavior.
 Adopted physical monism.
 Switched to a physical monism mind-
body position, rejecting mental events
(consciousness) altogether.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: Watson
 John Broadus Watson
 Watson’s Behaviorism had two
long-lasting effects
 Psychology’s main goal changed
from description and explanation
of states of consciousness to the
prediction and control of
behavior.
 Overt behavior was the almost-
exclusive subject matter of
psychology.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: McDougall
 William McDougall (1871 –
1938)
 He wrote a number of highly
influential textbooks
 He as particularly important in the
development of the theory of
instinct and of social psychology.
 Critiqued Watson’s behaviorism
for its lack of instinct and
purpose.
 His work was very well known and
respected among lay people.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: McDougall
 William McDougall
 Defined psychology as the
science of behavior
 Mental events valued and could be
studied objectively by observing
their influence on behavior.
 Behavior is goal-directed and
stimulated by instinctual motive
 Minimized environmental events
and emphasized purposive nature of
behavior.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: McDougall
 William McDougall
 Believed that all behavior is
stimulated by instinctual energy
 Instincts provides motivation to act
in certain ways.
 Single event or thought tends to
elicit several instinctual tendencies
 Associating multiple instincts with
a single object or thought creates a
sentiment
 Most human social behavior is
governed by sentiments.
II. ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORISM
B. American Behaviorism: McDougall
 McDougall vs. Watson
 On Instincts
 Watson denied humans instincts
whereas for McDougall they
motivated of all behavior.
 On Reinforcement
 Watson rejected reinforcement in
learning whereas for McDougall
reinforcement was a process of
need reduction central to learning
 On Debates
 McDougall is seen as the narrow
victor.over Watrson in debates.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
A. Introduction
 Characteristics of Neobehaviorism
 Were radical empiricist
 All theoretical terms must be operationally defined as
demanded by Logical Positivists of the Vienna Circle
(philosophers committed to eliminating metaphysics)
 Nonhuman animals should be used as research
participants for two reasons:
 Relevant variables are easier to control in animals than
when using human subjects.
 Perceptual and learning processes in animals differ
only in degree from those processes in humans
 Information gained from research with nonhuman
animals can be generalized to humans.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
A. Introduction
 Characteristics of Neobehaviorism
 Learning processes are of prime importance
because learning is the primary mechanism by
which organisms adjust to a changing
environment.
 Despite agreeing on a few important issues, there
were major differences among the neo-
behaviorists:
 Tolman
 Hull
 Gutherie
 Skinner
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
B. E. C. Tolman
 Edward Chance Tolman (1886 -
1959)
 American psychologist best known
for his studies of learning in rats
using mazes.
 His major theoretical contributions
came in his 1932 book, Purposive
Behavior in Animals and Men
 Psychological Review papers included
 The determinants of behavior at a choice
point (1938)
 Cognitive maps in rats and men (1948)
 Principles of performance (1955)
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
B. E. C. Tolman
 Edward Chance Tolman
 Purposive and molar behavior
 Studied purposive (molar) behavior in
contrast to the molecular behavior that
he saw Watson studying.
 Rats used to avoid introspection
 Rats guarded against even indirect
introspection that could occur if
humans were experimental participants.
 Cognitive intervening variables
 To Tolman, cognitive processes (hypotheses,
expectations, beliefs, and sometimes cognitive
maps) intervene between stimuli and responses.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
B. E. C. Tolman
 Edward Chance Tolman
 Learning can occur without
reinforcement or motivation.
 Distinguished learning & performance
 Learning takes place constantly as the
organism interacts with its environment.
 Whether the organism uses what it has
learned is determined by its motivational
state.
 Performance is translation of learning
into behavior.
 Latent Learning: Tolman & Honzik, (1930)
 Latent Extinction: In extinction, an
animal’s expectation is modified by a lack
of contingency.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
C. Clark L. Hull
 Clark Leonard Hull (1984 - 1952)
 American who explained motivation and
learning by scientific laws
 His most significant works were the
Mathematico-Deductive Theory of Rote
Learning (1940), and Principles of Behavior
(1943), established his formal analysis of
learning and conditioning.
 Model is couched in biological terms:
 Organisms suffer deprivation. Deprivation
creates needs. Needs activate drives. Drives
activate behavior. Behavior is goal directed.
Achieving goals have survival value.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
C. Clark L. Hull
 Clark Leonard Hull (1984 - 1952)
 Hull’s hypothetico-deductive theory of
learning
 Used intervening variables as Tolman, but
used them more extensively.
 From summarizing the research on
learning, he formed postulates from which
he inferred theorems that yielded testable
propositions.
 Hull’s intervening variables were primarily
physiological, in contrast to the cognitive
variables of Tolman.
 His final theory had 17 postulates and 133
theorems.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
C. Clark L. Hull
 Clark Leonard Hull (1984 - 1952)
 Reinforcement: Drive-reduction
theory of reinforcement.
 A biological need creates a drive and the
decrease of drive constitutes
reinforcement
 Habit strength: An increase in habit
strength constitutes learning.
 The number of reinforced pairings
between an environmental situation and a
response.
 Reaction potential: Probability a
learned response will occur.
 Function of amount of drive and habit
strength and other intervening variables.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
C. Clark L. Hull
 Clark Leonard Hull (1984 - 1952)
 Hall’s legacy
 No trace of Hull’s theory in textbooks,
yet there is of Tolman
 The clarity of its predictions generated
lots of research on Hull’s theory
 Researchers devised projects to test the
theory’s predictions and validity.
 Hard to call this a failure.
 Today its legacy is mathematical
psychology.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
D. Edwin R. Guthrie
 Edwin R. Guthrie (1984 - 1952)
 American who played an important role
in the development of the contiguity
theory of learning.
 Contiguity (how close in time two events
must be for a bond to be created)
 Reinforcement (any means of increasing
the likelihood that an event will be
repeated) are central to explaining the
learning process.
 He developed a one-trial, contiguity,
non-reinforcement theory of learning
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
D. Edwin R. Guthrie
 Edwin R. Guthrie
 Details of contiguity learning in
textbook but some general issues:
 Stimuli which accompany a movement
will on its recurrence, tend to be
followed by that movement.
 Rejected the law of frequency and
postulated one-trial learning.
 Distinguished movements and acts.
 Movement: A specific response to a stimuli
configuration in which an association is
learned at full strength after one exposure.
 Act: Made up of movements and a skill is
made up of acts
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
E. B. F. Skinner
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904 –
1990)
 American who discovered the
operant conditioning which was the
basis of:
 An approach to psychology The
Experimental Analysis of Behavior and
a philosophy of psychology Radical
Behaviorism
 Skinner was listed as the most
influential psychologist of the 20th C.
 He published 21 books and 180 articles.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
E. B. F. Skinner
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner
 Radical Behaviorism
 Scientists were to collect empirical facts
and then infer knowledge from the facts
 Science is to be descriptive and inductive
rather than theoretical and deductive.
 Functional analysis of behavior
 An analysis of the relations between
environmental and behavioral events.
 Internal events have no place in such an
analysis because they are events also and thus
need to be explained also.
 Internal events cannot serve as explanations or
causes of behavior.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
E. B. F. Skinner
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner
 Operant behavior
 Two types of behavior
 Respondent behavior is reflexive behavior in
which Watson and Pavlov were interested
 Operant behavior is influenced by its
consequences. (Gets around calling it volitional)
 Operant conditioning occurs as behavior
affected by its consequences.
 Reinforcement is when a consequence
increases the rate/probability of behavior
 The reinforcer can be anything as long as its
effect is an increase in behavior probability.
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
E. B. F. Skinner
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner
 Operant conditioning
 Punishment is when a consequence
decreases the rate/probability of behavior
 Reinforcement exerts better control over
behavior than punishment.
 Selection of behavior by consequence
is a Darwinian idea.
 The organism produces a variety of
behaviors
 Some will result in consequences that will
increase the behavior (reinforcing).
 These behaviors will be selected as part of the
organism’s repertoire while others will not
III. NEOBEHAVIORISM
E. B. F. Skinner
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner
 Behavior Analysis
 Skinner and other behavior analysts have
always sought to apply operant
principles to solve practical problems.
 Applied behavior analysis has provided a
behavior technology to change behavior in
multitudes of settings.
 Prominent area is application of to help
people in educational settings
 Problems ranging from psychosis, drug
addiction, mental retardation/ learning
disabilities, speech disorders, shyness,
phobias, and juvenile delinquency.