Chapter 14 - Other
Behavioral Psychologies
A History of Psychology:
Ideas and Context (4th edition)
D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, and
William Douglas Woody
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Behaviorism
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Learning research formed the foundation of
behavioral research and theory.
Behaviorists emphasized precision and clarity
of terms and concepts.
They employed an operationalist approach.
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Behaviorists accepted logical positivism.
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They preferred operational definitions.
The belief that concepts are void of scientific
meaning if they cannot be explicitly verified or
confirmed.
Behaviorism centered on experimental results.
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They sought to understand the foundations of
learning.
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Early Behavioral Psychologies
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Some early behavioral psychologies coexisted with
Watson.
Max Frederick Meyer focused his research on the
mechanisms of the ear and the psychology of music.
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His larger vision for psychology was behavioral.
He emphasized the importance of measurement in
psychological research.
He suggested that psychology should study both basic and
applied topics.
William McDougall preceded Watson in defining
psychology as a positive science
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He advocated the study of behavior, speech, and hormic
behavior (goal-seeking behavior).
McDougall argued for a wide range of methods.
He emphasized the importance of instinct in human behavior,
putting himself at odds with mainstream behaviorism.
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Early Behavioral Psychologies
• Edwin Bissell Holt advocated the study of behavior.
– He provided a more philosophical definition of behavior than
Watson used.
– He studied purposeful behavior.
• Albert Paul Weiss was perhaps the most radical and
uncompromising behaviorist.
– He argued that all human behavior “reduces to nothing but:
• different kinds of electron-proton groupings characterized according
to geometric structure [and]
• the motions that occur when one structural or dynamic form
changes into another.”
• Walter Samuel Hunter represented a more liberal view of
behaviorism.
– He preferred the term anthroponomy to psychology because of
the mentalistic connotations of psychology.
– Hunter was open to a wide variety of methods and a diverse
range of problems.
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Early Behavioral Psychologies
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Karl Spencer Lashley studied the cortical
basis of learning and discrimination.
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He demonstrated that there is no brain center for
learning and intelligence.
Mass action referred to the idea that rate,
efficiency, and accuracy of learning depend on the
amount of cortex available.
Equipotentiality refers to the idea that one part of
the cortex can take over the function of another
part.
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Neobehaviorism - Hull
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Neobehaviorism was heavily influenced by Watson’s
tradition.
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These systems were alternatives to Watson’s system.
Clark Leonard Hull pioneered new quantitative
approaches to the study of behavior.
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Hull’s work started with simple observations.
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He proposed mathematical intervening variables tied precisely
to observable stimuli and behavior.
Reinforcement, for Hull, included stimuli that reduced drive.
Hull’s notion of extinction included reactive inhibition, which
functioned like fatigue, and conditioned inhibition, which refers
to the rewarding nature of rest after a response.
Hull’s theory was criticized for being narrow and difficult to apply.
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Neobehaviorism - Guthrie
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Edwin Ray Guthrie avoided technical
language and formal theory
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He was concerned about the transitions from the
laboratory to the world.
Guthrie argued that reinforcement had no effect on
learning.
He maintained that the law of contiguity is the only
law of learning.
Guthrie believed that learning takes place in one
trial.
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His definitions of stimulus and response reflect his views.
Extinction was the new learning resulting from the
process of establishing new responses to old
stimuli.
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Neobehaviorism - Tolman
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Edward Chase Tolman promoted a cognitive
behaviorism.
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He studied molar behavior, large units of behavior found in the
world.
He viewed molar behavior as goal-directed.
He advocated a purposive behaviorism in which behavior was
also cognitive and docile (i.e., teachable)..
For Tolman, intervening variables are psychological processes
that direct behavior and mediate between stimuli and
responses.
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Tolman argued that reinforcement guides performance but not
learning as such.
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Expectancy is an example of an intervening variable.
He demonstrated that latent learning was possible in the absence
of reinforcement.
Tolman interpreted extinction as a change in the expectancies
of the organism.
Tolman argued for the recognition of more advanced cognitive
processes in animals, including cognitive maps and insight in
learning, described as inventive ideation.
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Neobehaviorism - Skinner
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Burrhus Frederic Skinner shaped American
behaviorism through the present.
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The most important precursors to Skinner’s behaviorism
include Charles Darwin, C. Lloyd Morgan, Edward Lee
Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov, and John B. Watson.
Skinner’s philosophy of behaviorism viewed psychology as
an objective and natural science.
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He complimented methodological behaviorism with radical
behaviorism.
Skinner emphasized operant conditioning (Type I or Type R
conditioning) over classical conditioning (Pavlovian, Type II,
or Type S conditioning).
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He studied the modification of behavior as a consequence of
reinforcement.
He developed the cumulative recorder as a means of recording
operant behavior.
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Neobehaviorism - Skinner
• Skinner’s applied research explored areas such as
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verbal behavior,
developmental psychology and the aircrib,
the application of behavioral principles in education, and
the process of aging.
Skinner worked with the military to train pigeons to fly armed
gliders.
– He published Walden Two, a description of life in a hypothetical
experimental colony emphasizing behavioral engineering.
– Skinner encouraged clinical applications of behavioral principles,
particularly in the treatment of phobias.
• Skinner’s students Keller and Marian Breland left their
graduate program to train animals for entertainment and
commercial purposes.
– They later challenged behaviorists to consider instinctive
behavior.
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Contributions
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Further contributions to applied
psychology from neobehaviorism were
numerous and varied.
Many theorists actively pursued practical
problems.
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