Birth of Behaviorism
• Behaviorism, as we know it, was first
outlined in paper published 1904 by a
Russian researcher …
• “[translated] for psychology to be a
science, the research must focus on the
observable – the environment [stimulus]
and the behavior of an organism
[response].”
• … the approach achieved more and more
important findings, and behaviorism
quickly took over experimental psychology.
Sechenov (before 1904)
• It was Ivan Sechenov (1829-1905), a
Russian physiologist of the mid-1800s,
who proposed the main ingredient of
behaviorism.
• In 1863, he wrote “Reflexes of the Brain”
in which he argued that stimulation
causes all behavior, making him the
first true behaviorist.
• He also proposed that the central nervous
system could inhibit the nerves (as well as
excite the nerves).
Bekhterev (1857-1927)
• In a 1904 paper entitled, “Objective
Psychology,” Vladimir Bekhterev outlined
the nature of behaviorism.
• He called the objective study of stimulusresponse associations “reflexology” .
• He independently discovered the
“association reflex,” but Pavlov would
make it more widely known as the
“conditioned reflex.”
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Became the most famous Russian Behaviorist
when he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in
1904.
• The award was officially for research in the
study of digestion in animals. His finding was
the ability to train dogs to salivate at the
ringing of a bell – a “conditioned reflex.”
• The finding, of course, was more relevant to
the young field of psychology than to
physiology.
Pavlov’s Behaviorism
• Behaviorism was not about mental activity, but
of reflexes – responses to stimuli.
• Pavlov never opposed the idea that experimental
psychology could study mental activity, but he
never addressed mental activity in his research.
• Pavlov defined the major terms of behaviorism,
and they would be the first set of “universal
principles” in the field of psychology …
Birth of Classical Conditioning
• At the time, it was not known as
“classical” conditioning, but “classical”
distinguishes it from the later “operant”
conditioning (Skinner).
• The unconditioned stimulus and the
unconditioned response were natural
reflexes.
– Unconditioned stimulus (environment) – part
of the naturally occurring environment.
– Unconditioned response (organism) – an
unlearned response to the natural
environment.
Classical Conditioning
• The conditioned stimulus and conditioned
responses depend on the natural
“reflexes.”
– Conditioned stimulus – paired with the
unconditioned stimulus. E.g. Pavlov paired a
bell with the presentation of meat powder.
– Conditioned response – the learned response.
The dogs responded to the bell in the same
manner as responding to meat powder.
Classical Conditioning (cont.)
• The conditioned response is strengthened
with repeated pairing of the conditioned
stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus.
• Extinction – the conditioned response can
be weakened, and even lost, with
repeatedly presenting the conditioned
stimulus without the unconditioned
stimulus.
Conditioning and Psychology
• Conditioning can be more complex. For
example, dogs can learn one bell means meat,
but another bell means NO meat.
• By expanding on the idea of complex
conditioning patterns, we can begin to
appreciate how behaviorism can explain our
human nature.
• Many behaviorists indeed proposed that
human nature can be reduced to a complex
pattern of learned responses to stimuli.
John Watson (1878-1958)
• In 1913, nine years after Pavlov and
Bekhterev established behaviorism,
Watson’s publication “Psychology as a
Behaviorist views it” appeared in
Psychological Review.
• Watson presented psychology as a
combination of Russian behaviorism and
British empiricism. In other words, he
believed that the study of the mind was a
study of building higher mental capacity
through stimulus-response behavior.
Watson’s Psychology
• Established and defined behaviorism in U.S.A.
• He saw the 1904 rise of Russian behaviorism,
but he already had a similar position due to his
views of empiricism and functionalism.
• He wanted to go beyond learned behavior. His
intentions were to take stimulus-response
research and turn it into a study of the mind.
• In 1919, after the end of the first World War,
Watson and behaviorism began a take-over of
empirical psychology.
Watson’s Famous Quote:
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, wellinformed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take
any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might
select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchantchief and, yes, even beggar-man and
thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race
of his ancestors.”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=play
er_embedded&v=Xt0ucxOrPQE
Watson via Locke
• Using Locke’s model of
mental processes, we
can view Watson’s
behaviorism as
abstracted stimulusresponse sets. With
control over the
stimuli, we can decide
the abstract response
sets.
Little Albert
• “Little Albert” is the public name of Watson’s
most famous experiment – on a real baby!
• He conditioned Albert to be afraid of white
rats after seven pairings of the rats with loud
noises.
• Little Albert quickly generalized his fears to
other white fuzzy things such as cotton.
• Watson repeated the conditioning on a threeyear old, then de-conditioned the child.
Watson’s Psychology:
More Advanced Ideas
• Language and thinking – language was
learned through social stimulus-response
bonds based on trial and error. Thoughts are
internalized language.
• Watson endorsed “Radical Environmentalism”
and he completely rejected the existence of
both instincts and inherited abilities.
• Behavior therapy – his de-conditioning of a
conditioned response became a model for
behavioral therapy.
Watson Mishaps
• In 1920, when he was 42, Watson had an
affair with a student.
• He was released from his university, and
took on a new career in advertising. Using
his behavioral background, he was very
successful.
• He never went back to research, but still
wrote many more successful books in
psychology.
Albert Einstein
• Einstein is not considered important to
psychology, but he is important to science.
• His major ideas were (1905) matter is
condensed energy [E=mc2, i.e., the energy
content of a body is equal to the mass of the
body times the speed of light squared).
and (1915) everything in the universe is
relative to the speed of light.
• His theories helped other scientists conclude
that the universe began as a point of unity
(better known as the “big bang theory”).
Einstein’s Science
• Einstein’s work led us to see a universe
that started with a “big bang.” This added
to Newton’s notion that the universe
governed by laws of motion and Darwin’s
natural theory of the origin of species.
• Scientists were now able to describe
atoms and the universe, seemed ready to
explain everything.
• Like Newton, Einstein widened the gap
between religion and science.
• Also, just as Newton did, Einstein privately
said he saw God in his theories.
Science Changes
(1905-1925)
• Behaviorism was the result of efforts to make
psychology as objective as the natural sciences.
• But just as behaviorism was beginning to take
hold, the natural sciences were becoming more
theoretical and less empirical.
– Atoms and atomic activity could be predicted
with theoretical, non-observable “forces.”
– The light from distant galaxies could reveal
the history of the universe – by applying a
theoretical interaction with gravity.
The Paradigm Changes
• The natural sciences took on more and more
theoretical (assumed) activity in their
research.
• Many researchers and philosophers started to
ask what was actually observed and what
was merely theory within the natural
sciences.
• In 1924, “logical positivism” was proposed
by a group of philosophers to explain the
increased reliance on theoretical speculation
in the natural sciences.
Logical Positivism
• First, logical positivism separates
observations from theories in scientific
inquiry.
– Observational terms – empirically observed.
– Theoretical terms – unobserved explanations.
• After that, a theoretical term must be
logically connected to the empirical
observation in a manner that can be
supported or rejected by other
observations. (this is a precursor to
empirical “falsifiability” of theories).
Neo-behaviorism: A Prelude
• Some logical positivists urge psychologists to
use logical positivism in empirical psychology.
• At the same time, physicists start using
“operational definitions” – the act of defining
a concept with the method of measurement.
• Neo-behaviorists expanded on stimulusresponse research to include operational
definitions of the unobservable psychological
activity – by using the standard of logical
positivism (later defined as “falsifiability”).