History ch10

Chapter 10

Behaviorism: The Beginnings

The Psychologist, the Baby, and the Hammer: Description of

Little Albert study

• Steel rod hung behind Albert

• John Watson struck the rod with a hammer in the presence of the rat, startling the baby who reacted fearfully and cried

• Rosalie Raynor also was there as an assistant

• Albert had been chosen because he was “emotionally stable”

• Prior to the conditioning, Albert showed little fear response to a variety of objects

• After the conditioning, Albert shows fear in reaction to a variety of stimuli that were similar to the rat is some way (furry, white)

• Watson and Raynor show that fears can be conditioned, argued that adults’ fears are result of conditioning

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

Overview

– Watson credited the work of others as originators of behaviorism

– saw himself as bringing together the emergent ideas

– Goal: to found a new school

Watson’s life

– delinquent behavior in youth

– determined to be a minister to fulfill mother’s wish

• enrolled at Furman University (S.Carolina): studied philosophy, math, Latin, Greek. Earned master’s degree at Furman

Watson

– 1900: enrolled at the University of Chicago

• planned to pursue graduate degree in philosophy with Dewey

• attracted to psychology through work with Angell

• studied biology and physiology with Loeb

• 1903: at age 25 earned Psychology PhD from University of Chicago

Watson

– dissertation published

• neurological and psychological maturation of the white rat

• not successful at introspection & felt much more of a preference working with animals.

– 1908: offered professorship at Johns Hopkins University

• reluctant to leave University of Chicago

• new job offered promotion, salary raise, and opportunity to direct the psychology laboratory

James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934)

• James Baldwin offered the John Hopkins’s job to Watson

• a founder with Cattell of Psychological Review

• 1909: forced by the university president to resign after caught in a police raid on a brothel

• 11 years later Watson forced to resign by the same president after he had affair with graduate student that led to a scandal

John Watson

– 1909: chair of Hopkins psychology department

– 1909: editor of Psychological Review

– 1912: presented ideas for a more objective psychology in lectures at Columbia

– 1913: “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It” (launched behaviorism)

– 1914 Book : Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology

• argued for acceptance of animal psychology

• described advantages of animal subjects

• discussed importance of ridding psychology of the remnants of philosophy

– desired practical applications

Watson

– 1920: forced resignation from Johns Hopkins University

• marriage deteriorated and led to divorce due to his infidelities

• fell in love with Rosalie Rayner, graduate assistant

– half his age

– from family of wealthy donors to the university

• wife found his passionate but rather scientific love letters to Rosalie

• excerpts published in Baltimore Sun

• astonished when forced to resign

• married Rosalie but still banished from academia

• Titchener one of the few academics who reached out to comfort him

Watson

– second career: applied psychology in advertising

• mechanistic view of humans

• proposed experimental (lab) study of consumer behavior

– Produced positive publicity for psychology in the popular media. Wrote articles in popular magazines, gave public lectures, spoke on radio.

– 1925: Behaviorism; introduced plan to perfect the social order

– 1928: Psychological Care of the Infant and Child

• strong environmentalist position

• recommended perfect objectivity in child-rearing practices

• had the greatest impact of all his work

– 1935: when his wife Rosalie died; he became a recluse

– 1957: at age 79 awarded APA citation for his vital and fruitful work

• refused to go inside to receive award

• Watson afraid that he would show his emotions and cry

• son accepted it in his place

– burned all of his papers prior to his death

• Original Source Material: from “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It” (1913)

– the definition and goal of behaviorism

– criticisms of structuralism and functionalism

– the role of heredity and habit in adaptation

– applied psychology is truly scientific

– importance of standardized or uniform experimental procedures

The Reaction to Watson’s Program

His major points

– the science of behavior

– a purely objective experimental branch of natural science

– both animal and human behavior are studied

– discard all mentalistic concepts

– use only behavior concepts

– goal: prediction and control of behavior

Initial reactions

– behaviorism was not embraced

– his 1919 book Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist hastened the movement’s impact

– Calkins: disputed Watson; adhered to introspection as the sole method for studying some processes

– Washburn: called Watson an enemy of psychology

1920’s

– university courses in behaviorism

– the word “behaviorist” appeared in journals

– McDougall: issued a public warning against behaviorism

– Titchener: complained of its force and extent

– other forms of behaviorism emerging

The Methods of Behaviorism

• Only accepted objective methods

– observation, with and without instruments

– testing methods

– verbal report method

– conditioned reflex method

• Test results are samples of behavior, not indices of mental qualities

• Verbal reports

– legitimate in psychophysics

– speech reactions are objectively observable

– thinking is speaking covertly

– admitted the lack of precision and limitations

– limited it to situations where it could be verified

– came under attack (sounded like introspection)

• Conditioned reflex method (Pavlov & Bekhterev)

– adopted in 1915

– Watson responsible for its widespread use in U.S. research

– conditioning is stimulus substitution

– selected because it is an objective method of behavior analysis

– reflected reductionism and mechanism

– human subject: the observed rather than the observer

• designation changed from “observer” to “subject”

• experimenter became the observer

The Subject Matter of Behaviorism

Items or elements of behavior

– goal: understand overall behavior of the total organism

• Act= more complex behaviors (eating, writing…)

• response or act accomplishes some result

• But capable of being reduced to simple, lower-level motor or glandular responses

Watson

– explicit versus implicit responses

• explicit is overtly observable

• implicit happen inside organism (ex., glandular secretions)

– must be potentially observable

– must be observable through the use of instruments

– simple versus complex stimuli

• complex stimulus situation can be reduced to simple, component stimuli

• example of simple stimuli: light waves striking retina

Watson

– specific laws of behavior

• identified through analysis of S-R complexes

• must find elementary S-R units

– major topics: instinct, emotion, thought

– all areas of behavior: must use objective S-R terms

Instincts

– 1914: Watson described 11 instincts

– 1925: eliminated the concept of instinct

• an extreme environmentalist

• denied inherited capacities, temperaments, talents

• children can become anything one desires

• a factor in his popularity with the American lay public

Watson

• "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, 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–regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors"

– Watson admitted that 100% environmental impact was an exaggeration, but claimed that those believing in hereditary control exaggerated their side.

– seemingly instinctive behavior is actually a socially conditioned response

– psychology can only be applied if behavior can be modified, which is not consistent with hereditary control.

Emotions

– Watson defined as bodily responses to specific stimuli, no different than salivating to food.

– denied conscious perception of emotion or sensations from internal stimuli

– each emotion = specific configuration of physiological changes, a form of implicit behavior: internal responses are evident in overt physical signs such as blushing

Emotions

– critical of James’ more complex position involving initial conscious perception, bodily response and later a feeling state

– Watson: emotions completely described by three things

• objective stimulus situation

• overt bodily response

• internal physiological changes

Emotions

– fear, love, and rage are not learned emotional response patterns to stimuli. Inborn emotions shown by infants:

• loud noises or sudden lack of support lead to fear

• restriction of bodily movements leads to rage

• caressing, rocking, patting lead to love

Albert, Peter, and the rabbits

– Little Albert (8 months old) study demonstrated conditioned (learned) emotional responses

– Watson: adult fears are learned, do not arise from Freud’s unconscious conflicts.

Little Albert Study: Watson & Rayner

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): Loud bang of hammer against metal bar.

• Unconditioned response (UCR): Natural fear response.

• Neutral/Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Rat

• After 7 pairings, previously neutral rat stimulates fear response.

Little Albert ExperimentGeneralization: Fear response to stimuli similar to

rat= rabbit, cotton balls.

Harris, B. What ever happened to Little Albert?, Amer Psych, 1979, 34(2), 151-160.

Many texts have incorrect info or omit info:

Not all hairy objects induced fear, some nonwhite objects did induce fear.

Watson knew he would not get to treat Albert’s induced fears.

Some difficulties in replication.

Peter’s Rabbit

• Mary Cover Jones worked with 3-year Peter who came to her with a rabbit phobia

Mary Cover Jones (1896-1987)

• worked with 3-year Peter who came to her with a rabbit phobia (1924) (little Albert study published 1920)

• treatment method

– involve Peter in eating

– bring in rabbit at a distance that does not produce crying

– each day, decrease the distance

– after a few months, Peter could touch the rabbit without exhibiting fear

– this approach is a forerunner of behavior therapy. (a type of exposure therapy, foreshadowing systematic desensitization)

• generalized fear responses also eliminated

• 1968: Jones given G. Stanley Hall award for her outstanding work in developmental psychology

Watson: Thought processes

– traditional view:

• thinking occurs in the absence of muscle movements

• not accessible to observation and experimentation

Watson’s Behaviorism

• thinking is implicit sensorimotor behavior

• involves implicit speech reactions or movements

• reduced it to potentially measurable subvocal talking

• same muscular habits as used for overt speech

• others warn us not to talk aloud to ourselves, so we become unaware of the muscular habits used while thinking

• thinking = silent talking to oneself

• Farthing 1992: college students- 73% of thinking was talking to themselves.

Behaviorism’s Popular Appeal

• Watson called for a society based on scientifically shaped and controlled behavior

– free of myths, customs, and convention

– The Religion Called Behaviorism (Berman, 1927): read by & influenced Skinner

Watson & Behaviorists

• Emphasis on childhood environment and minimization of heredity

• Conditioned reflex experiments

– implied emotional disturbances in adulthood due to conditioned responses during earlier years

– implies proper childhood conditioning precludes adult disorders

Behaviorism:

– Can be part of a plan to improve society

– Can be a framework for research

– Was further elaborated by Skinner

An Outbreak of Psychology

• Product of a public already attentive to and receptive of psychology and Watson’s considerable charm and vision of hope for behavioral change and the betterment of society

• Exemplified by

– psychological advice columns

– Joseph Jastrow’s popularization of psychology through magazine articles, newspaper column “Keeping Mentally Fit,” radio program, and pop psychology book, Piloting Your life: the Psychologist as Helmsman

– Albert Wiggam’s column “Exploring Your Mind”

Criticisms of Watson’s Behaviorism

Edwin B. Holt (1873-1946)

– Received Ph.D. under William James at Harvard

– After Harvard works at Princeton

– Consciousness should not be rejected

– Learning can occur in response to internal needs and drives (precursor to motivation theories)

– Focused on larger behaviors that had some purpose for the organism (precursor to Tolman)

Karl Lashley (1890-1958)

– student of Watson at Johns Hopkins

– a physiological psychologist

Lashley

– 1929: Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence. Performed extirpation of brain areas in rats.

• law of mass action: “The efficiency of learning is a function of the total mass of cortical tissue.” Larger areas of brain used in learning than localizationists would suggest.

• principle of equipotentiality: “The idea that one part of the cerebral cortex is essentially equal to another in its contribution to learning.” (“searching for the engram”)

Lashley

– Expected his work to support Watson, but instead challenged Watson’s notion of a point-to-point connection in reflexes

• brain more active in learning than Watson accepted, not a simple/passive switching station between sensory input & behavioral output.

• disputed the notion that behavior is a mechanical compounding of conditioned reflexes

– But confirmed the value of objective methods in psychology research

William McDougall (1871-1938)

McDougall: An Opponent of Watson & Behaviorism

– English psychologist, affiliated with Harvard and Duke

– noted for his instinct theory of behavior

• human behavior results from innate tendencies to thought and action

– noteworthy book on social psychology spurred that field

– supported free will, Nordic superiority, psychic research

– 1924: debate with Watson (McDougall judged as winner by most)

• agreed data of behavior are a proper focus for psychology

• argued data of consciousness also necessary

• questioned Watson’s tenet that human behavior is fully determined, no free will

• critical of Watson’s use of the verbal report method= speech behavior, without questioning meaning or accuracy of such speech.

• Watson approach missing daydreams, fantasies, aesthetic experiences.

Contributions of Watson’s Behaviorism

• Made psychology more objective in methods and terminology

• Stimulated a great deal of research

• Surmounted earlier positions and schools

• Objective methods and language became part of the mainstream