Historical Perspectives - Behaviorism

Behaviorism

• School of thought that studied aspects of behavior

• observable, quantifiable, and has emotional/mental events

• Father was John Watson

• believe that we learn by responding to things in our environment

3 Acts of Behaviorism

1. Russian physiologists discovered respondent behavior (they identified responses to behavior)

2. European and American were working in 20’s and 50’s worked on LEARNED ASSOCIATION

3. Gestalt psychologists Tolman’s work on behaviorism

stimuli → response → consequences

Behaviorism in 19th century

Hippocrates → French sensationalism → John Locke

Ivan Sechenov Biography

• born in rural Russia

• son of nobleman

• had a great education and studied medicine at Moscow University

Russia in the 19th Century

• tea is common drink

• cold climate

• many uprisings against upper class (gentry)

• emperor Nicholas 1 then → Alexander 2nd

  • emancipated the serfs and had industrialism

• good economy under Alexander 2, turned from socialist to Marxist

• inner struggles and WW1 made economy bad

Sechenov’s Contributions

1. thought that all activities (physical, thinking, language) were reflexes

2. behavior was a result of the brain responding to stimuli

3. defined reflexology = flight or fight response, physiological processes

Vladimir Bekkhterev

• born in Russian village

• went to school in gymnasium → then military medical academy

• studied with Wilhelm Wundt in Germany

Bekkheterev’s Contributions

1. identified role of reflexes

2. identified brain as being connected to reflexes (lesions)

3. wrote about reflexology

4. conflict of discovery of conditional reflexes with Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov Biography

• born in small town

• family couldn’t support education

• had to work as tutor @ University of St. Petersburg to pay

• received 1904 Nobel prize

Pavlov’s Discoveries

1. behavior is response to environmental, but is MEDIATED at cortical level (brainstem)

2. conditioning reflexology = experiments with dog salvation linked to food exposure (viewed dogs digestion process)

Pavlov’s Contributions

1. connected physiology (body) to behavior

2. identified process of reflexes to the process of conditioning a response

3. classical conditioning

4. the 4 acquisition and extinction processes (US, CS, UR, CR)

U.S. Government and Events in 19th/20th Century

• post civil war

• economy had grown

• psychologists helped select special troops for Woodrow Wilson

• WW1 (1918), WW2 (1940s), Korean War (1950’s)

• Brain Drain = loss of knowledge due to war

USA Education

• 1950’s school gad lots of discrimination

• few subjects available

• women in university was 1.5%

• wealth was dividing point

• 1954 = Brown v Board of Education

John Watson Biography

• born in Greenville SC

• bad father

• went to Furman College then to University of Chicago

• drafted in WW1

Watson Discoveries

1. taught rats to run maze

2. observed failings of structuralism/functionalism

3. conditioned fear responses with Little Albert

4. established a detached parenting style

Watson Contributions

1. proposed behaviorism

2. expanded stimulus thought theory

3. applied psychology

4. shifted psych to biology

5. popularized psych/behaviorism through books and papers

Neobehaviorism (1950s and 60’s)

1. mediational = unobservable variable accepted

2. radical = reinforcers of behaviors and punishers

Skinner Biography

• known as Fred

• dad was lawyer

• read Pavlov and Watson

• got PhD from Harvard

Skinner Discoveries

1. animal learning boxes (understood animal behaviorism)

2. response rate

3. further uncovered

Skinner Contributions

1. operant conditioning box

2. proved that behavior is rewarded and stops if punished

3. introduced the word reinforcement into Thorndike’s laws

4. Cumulative recorder

5. Learning association

Summary of Contributions

1. Sechenov identified brain behaviorism connection

2. Sechenov defined reflexology

3. Bekkhterev identified the role/purposes of reflexes

4. Bekkhterev

5. Bekkhterev had similar ideas to Pavlov about conditional response

6. Pavlov made connection between behavior, physiology, and response

7. 7. Pavlov = acquisition and extinction

8. Watson = father of behaviorism

9. Watson’s pop psych books were essential to behaviorism spread

Summary of Contribution Part 2

10. Skinner developed Radical form of neobehaviorism

11. Skinner built technology for studying animals learning behavior

12. Reinforcement was important for learning (Skinner)

13. Behavior analysis was an outcropping of Skinners neobehaviorism

14. Skinners learning association with language inspired Chomsky