CHAPTER 1

Behaviorism: The Study of Observable Behavior

  • Behaviorists: Focus on observable actions, not inner feelings.

  • B. F. Skinner: Honored and maligned, widely recognized yet misrepresented.

Chapter 1: Introduction

  • Learning Objectives

    • Define learning.

    • Diagram classical conditioning.

    • Outline philosophical and scientific influences on behaviorism.

  • Behaviorism: Study of observable behavior.

    • Five Schools of Behaviorism:

      • Watson's Methodological Behaviorism

      • Hull's Neobehaviorism

      • Tolman's Cognitive Behaviorism

      • Bandura's Social Learning Theory

      • Skinner's Radical Behaviorism

  • Empiricism and the Laws of Association (Aristotle)

  • Mind-Body Dualism and the Reflex (Descartes)

  • The British Empiricists

  • Structuralism: Experimental Study of Human Consciousness

  • Functionalism: Study of the Adaptive Mind

  • Theory of Evolution: Humans as Animals

Relevance of Learning Principles

  • Improving Self-Control and Productivity

    • Environmental effects on behavior.

    • Chapter 10: Theoretical account of self-control.

    • Appendix: Behavior Self-Management Guide.

    • Study Tips for effective studying.

  • Understanding Psychological Disorders

    • Learning principles explain disorders.

    • Anorexia nervosa, anxiety, depression, PTSD, DID.

    • Behavioral therapies for treatment.

  • Overcoming Fears

    • Classical conditioning and negative reinforcement.

    • Effective treatments based on learning principles.

  • Improving Relationships with Others

    • Relationship issues to illustrate learning principles.

    • "Advice for the Lovelorn" column.

  • Raising Children

    • Understanding successful parenting strategies.

    • Interpreting children's behavior.

  • Managing Workers

    • Effective management based on learning principles.

    • Chapter 9: Why managers use threats/punishment.
      Principles of learning and behavior for personal and social improvement

Study Tip: Effective Textbook Study

  • Ineffective Method: Rereading material.

  • Better Approach: "Testing effect" enhances memory.

    • (e.g., Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013).

  • 3R Method: Read, Recite, Review

    • (McDaniel, Howard, & Einstein, 2009).

    • Read short section.

    • Recite main points without looking.

    • Review material, noting missed points.

  • Selective Underlining

    • Read paragraph first, searching for important points.

    • Underline only important points.

    • Combine with 3R approach.

  • Caution: Evaluate study advice from the Internet.

  • Behavior Self-Management: Consult the appendix for procrastination.

Fundamental Concepts of Behavior

  • Behavior Defined: Any observable or measurable activity of an organism.

  • Learning Defined: Enduring change in behavior from experience.

  • Change: May not be immediate; can involve persistence.

Two Fundamental Forms of Learning

  • Classical Conditioning

    • Inborn behaviors elicited in new circumstances.

    • Reflexive/involuntary behaviors.

    • Example: Dog salivating to a bell paired with food.

    • Diagram:

      • Bell: Food → Salivation

      • Bell → Salivation
        Classical conditioning underlies emotional responses, fears, and attractions.

  • Operant Conditioning

    • Strengthening/weakening behavior via consequences.

    • Goal-directed/voluntary behaviors.

    • Example: Rat pressing lever for food.

    • Diagram:

      • Lever press → Food pellet

      • Result: Future likelihood of lever pressing increases
        Consequences motivate behaviors

  • Observational Learning

    • Observing others facilitates similar behavior in oneself.This type of learning emphasizes the role of modeling, where individuals can learn new responses by watching and imitating others. Modeling is influenced by several factors, including the observer's attention to the model, retention of the behavior, reproduction of the observed behavior, and motivation to imitate the behavior.

Historical Background

  • The origin of modern-day ideas of learning and behavior are described in the following sections.

Aristotle: Empiricism and Laws of Association

  • Aristotle: Knowledge acquired through experience, not inborn.

  • Nativism vs. Empiricism: Nature vs. Nurture

  • Nativist: Abilities/tendencies are inborn (Plato).

  • Empiricist: Abilities/tendencies are learned (Aristotle).

Laws of Association

  • Law of Similarity: Similar events are associated.

    • Example: Cars and trucks.

  • Law of Contrast: Opposite events are associated.

    • Example: Black and white.

  • Law of Contiguity: Events in close proximity are associated.

    • Example: Thunder and lightning.

  • Law of Frequency: More frequent pairings strengthen associations.

    • Supplement to law of contiguity

The laws of contiguity and frequency are important aspects of learning.

Descartes: Mind-Body Dualism and the Reflex

  • RenĂ© Descartes: Mind-body dualism.

  • Reflexive behaviors: Involuntary responses to external stimuli (body as machine).

  • Voluntary behaviors: Freely chosen, controlled by the mind.

  • Only humans possess free will; animal behavior is reflexive.

  • Dualistic view allowed for scientific study of reflexive behaviors.

The British Empiricists

  • British Empiricists: Knowledge is a function of experience.

  • John Locke: Mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa).

  • Conscious mind consists of basic elements combined through association.

Structuralism: Experimental Study of Human Consciousness

  • Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener: Structuralism.

  • Study of basic elements of conscious mind via introspection.

  • Systematic observation to establish psychology as a scientific discipline.

Functionalism: Study of the Adaptive Mind

  • William James: Functionalism.

  • Mind evolved to adapt; psychology should study adaptive processes.

  • Derived from Darwin's theory of evolution.

  • Learning is an adaptive process.

  • Functionalists studied animal behavior; humans evolved similarly.

Theory of Evolution: Humans as Animals

  • Charles Darwin: Evolution by natural selection (1859).

  • Species change across generations via environmental pressures.

  • Natural Selection: Adaptive organisms reproduce and pass on traits.

  • Three Components:

    • Traits vary within and between species.

    • Traits are heritable (genetic basis).

    • Competition for limited resources.
      Successful individuals have offspring that inherit their traits

Behaviorism: Study of Observable Behavior

  • John B. Watson: Psychology as an objective science.

  • Focus on observable behavior and environmental events.

  • Rejection of introspection (unreliable).

  • Goal: Prediction and control of behavior.

  • Animal research is valuable.

Five Schools of Behaviorism

Watson’s Methodological Behaviorism

  • Psychologists should study environmental influences on observable behavior.

  • Subjective activities (thinking, feeling) are too difficult to assess.

  • Mechanistic theory (stimulus-response (S-R) theory).
    Learning is the establishment of a connection involving environmental event
    Watson’s S-R theory of learning is therefore regarded
    as a type of stimulus–response
    (S–R) theory, in which learning consists of a connection
    being formed between a specific stimulus and
    a specific response.

  • Humans inherit only a few reflexes and emotions (love, rage, fear); everything else is learned.

Hull’s Neobehaviorism

  • Rejection of Watson's rejection of unobservable events as scientifically flawed

  • Gravity cannot be directly observed, but its effect on falling objects can be precisely measured.*

  • Incorporation of mediating internal events (intervening variables).

  • Hypothesized physiological processes.

  • Also an S-R theory

Tolman’s Cognitive Behaviorism

  • Analysis of behavior on a broader level, not based on S-R connections

  • Intervening variables may be useful, but not of physiological type, more mentalistic in nature

  • cognitive map for explaining behavior
    Classic demonstration of latent learning.

Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

  • Use of cognitive concepts to explain behavior

  • Bobo doll experiment, effect of observational learning on aggressive behavior

  • Emphasis on the distinction between learning and performance

  • Views internal events as strongly influencing behavior

  • Reciprocal determinism, interrelationship and dependence between environmental events, observable behavior, and internal events (a person’s thoughts and feelings)

  • Cognitive behavior therapy

  • Bandura does not dismiss the value of introspectively observed thought and feelings for explaining behavior.*

Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism

  • Radical behaviorism emphasizes the influence of the environment
    on observable (overt) behavior; rejects the
    use of internal events (including subjectively perceived
    thoughts and feelings) to explain behavior; and instead
    views these thoughts and feelings as “private” behaviors
    that need to be explained, just like any other behavior.

  • Radical behaviorism does not completely reject the inclusion of thoughts and feelings in a science of
    behavior, it merely rejects the use of thoughts and feelings as explanations
    for behavior.

Skinner’s View of Genetic Factors

  • Skinner believed that behavior was fundamentally the result of the interaction of genes and the environment
    There were distinct resemblances of evolutionary principle of natural selection, with both representing changes in the environment.
    *