Behaviorism & Russian Objective Psychology – Key Vocabulary

These flashcards summarize the key vocabulary and figures from the lecture on Russian objective psychology, classical conditioning, and the rise of behaviorism under John B. Watson, alongside contrasting views such as McDougall's instinct-based hormic psychology.

Behaviorism

School of psychology, founded by John B. Watson, that defines psychology as the objective study of behavior with the goal of predicting and controlling actions.

Objective Psychology

Approach that insists on studying only directly measurable phenomena, rejecting introspection; well-developed in Russia before U.S. behaviorism.

Ivan M. Sechenov

Founder of Russian objective psychology who sought to explain all behavior in terms of reflexes and introduced the concept of neural inhibition.

Inhibition (Sechenov)

Neural mechanism by which stimulation of certain brain areas suppresses reflexive responses, allowing voluntary control.

Reflex

Automatic response triggered by a preceding event; for Sechenov every muscle movement is reflexive.

Ivan P. Pavlov

Russian physiologist who demonstrated classical conditioning and emphasized objective study of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Biologically significant stimulus that automatically elicits an unlearned response (e.g., food powder).

Unconditioned Response (UR)

Innate reaction elicited by an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation to food).

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Previously neutral stimulus that, after association with a US, elicits a learned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

Learned reaction elicited by a conditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation to a tone).

Conditioned Reflex

Learned reflexive response formed through temporal association of stimuli; central concept in Pavlovian conditioning.

Cortical Mosaic

Pavlov’s term for the moment-to-moment pattern of excitation and inhibition across the cortex that determines behavior.

Extinction (Classical Conditioning)

Gradual weakening and disappearance of a CR when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US.

Spontaneous Recovery

Reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period.

Disinhibition

Return of a conditioned response after extinction when a novel stimulus disrupts the inhibitory process.

Experimental Neurosis

Disordered behavior produced in animals when incompatible excitatory and inhibitory tendencies are placed in conflict (e.g., indistinguishable circle and ellipse).

First-signal System

Pavlov’s label for conditioned stimuli that signal biologically important events.

Second-signal System

Human language—words that act as "signals of signals," symbolizing events and guiding behavior.

Vladimir M. Bechterev

Russian psychologist who founded reflexology, studying overt motor reflexes and emphasizing stimulus-response links.

Reflexology (Bechterev)

Strictly objective study of the relationship between environmental stimulation and overt behavior.

Alexander R. Luria

Russian neuropsychologist known for work on brain injury, memory, and the Luria-Nebraska assessment.

Lev S. Vygotsky

Russian theorist who studied cognitive development, thought–language relations, and sociocultural influences.

John B. Watson

American psychologist who formally founded behaviorism, emphasized stimulus-response psychology, and popularized it through research and advertising.

Radical Behaviorism

View that psychology should study only observable stimuli and responses, completely rejecting internal mental events as causes.

Methodological Behaviorism

Position that accepts internal events as explanatory constructs but requires them to be validated through observable behavior.

Law of Recency

Watson’s principle that the response made most recently in a specific situation will be the one likely repeated next time.

Little Albert Experiment

Watson and Rayner’s 1920 study showing how fear could be conditioned in an infant by pairing a white rat with a loud noise.

Counterconditioning

Technique of eliminating a learned fear by pairing the feared object with a positive stimulus, demonstrated by Mary Cover Jones with "Peter and the Rabbit."

Behavior Therapy

Application of conditioning principles to treat behavioral and emotional problems; rooted in Watsonian work with fears.

Radical Environmentalism

Watson’s claim that experience rather than heredity shapes human behavior; famously asserted he could train any healthy infant for any role.

William McDougall

Psychologist who promoted instinct theory and purposive (hormic) psychology, opposing Watson’s radical behaviorism.

Hormic Psychology

McDougall’s approach emphasizing goal-directed (purposive) behavior driven by inherited instincts.

Purposive Behavior

Behavior that is spontaneous, persistent toward a goal, variable, terminates at goal attainment, and improves with practice.

Instinct (McDougall)

Inherited psycho-physical disposition that biases perception, evokes emotion, and generates impulse toward specific actions.

Sentiment

McDougall’s term for a configuration of two or more instincts organized around the same object, event, or idea.

Zing-Yang Kuo

Chinese psychologist whose kitten–rat studies challenged instinct theories, showing predatory behavior to be learned.