Concept Map of Behavioral Psychology
- American functional psychologist
- wrote the book Psychology: An Introductory Study of Structue and Functions of Human Consciousness
- stated that psychoogy should be studied through a functionalist approach because psychology should be the study of how organisms interact and adjust to the environment
Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It
Article written by Watson stating that the behavioral approach to psychology was to study behavior objectively
Behaviorism
Book written by Watson summarizing Pavlov's work, indicating influence
Skinner Boxes
C. Lloyd Morgan
Research included setting up "Skinner boxes" to study animal behavior and measuring rates of response which is similar to Pavlov's methodology of measuring rates of saliva in his experiments
Skinner agreed with Morgan's canon that animal behavior and action can be accounted for without referring to higher mental processes
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Operant Conditioning
C. Lloyd Morgan
No need for mentalisms
- The idea that behavior is emitted and then reinforced, causing an increase in frequency of behavior or punished, causing a decrease in frequency of behavior
- both depend on the condequence of behavior
- influenced by Thorndike's Law of Effect
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
- Although Skinner believed that thoughts existed (as private events), he did not believe in the need for mentalisms such as "Will" and "the Self" because they didn't explain behavior and actions
- similar to Pavlov's positivist approach
- british psychologist who visited Harvard while Thorndike was a student there
- Morgan’s canon: can’t attribute behavior and actions to higher levels of thinking if it can be attributed to lower levels on the psychological scale
College Readings
Animal Mind
- Skinner was familiar with Jacques Loeb's work which influenced him to study under William J. Crozier in his physiology lab
- Read Philosophy by Bertrand Russell which stated that learning occurred by reacting to the environment and this behaviorist viewpoint influenced Skinner to read Watson's Behaviorism
- Encouraged by a professor to read Pavlov's Conditioned Reflexes
J. Rowland Angell
Law of Effect
- Came to the field of behavioral psychology by studying the animal mind, believed that the animal mind was not like the human mind
- In his dissertation, he stated that animal learning should be attributed to the consequences of behavior instead of mental explanations
University of Chicago
Watson studied at the University of Chicago where the psychology department included John Dewey and J. Rowland Angell and the biology department included Jacques Loeb
John Dewey
- Stated that behavior and actions were due to the effect they caused, if they caused a positive effect, they were more likely to recur but if they caused a negative effect, those actions would be weakened
- American psychologist and founder of functional psychology
- wrote The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology (1896) stating that human behavior should be studied by considering how humans interact in their environment actively
The Little Albert Experiment
Classically conditioned infant to elicit fear responses to neutral objects
Jacques Loeb
- American biologist
- Watson attended Neurology classes under his instruction which influenced Watson's dissertation Animal Education: The Psychical Development of the White Rat and his study of animal neurology and physiology
- Similarly to Pavlov, believed in the idea that animal learning wasn't directly correlated with specific areas in the brain
E. L. Thorndike (1874-1949)
Experimental Methodology
- repeated experiments to ensure that experiments and results could be replicated
- liked to replicate experiments from other labs in his own lab before believing results
- collected a lot of data to theorize from
- influenced by Helmholtz's experimental methodology
Medical Materialism
- the idea that there was no such thing as a "life force" within the body
- instead bodily regulation occured through nervous processes
Muller, Helmholtz
Nervism
- the idea that all parts of the body are controlled by the nervous system
- linked to materialism
Animal Puzzle Box
- Created puzzle boxes for animals which required the animal to think in order to escape the box
- Data from these experiments was indicative of trial and error learning
Animal Research
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
- Credited E. L. Thorndike’s dissertation “Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals” for the start of animal research
Human Behavior
Positivism
- Although believed in methodological behaviorism for animals, this was not the case for humans. For humans, he attributed behavior and actions to things such as cognition and selective attention
- mentored by William James
- theory influenced by Sechenov
- stated that since all human actions are due to physical and observable causes, there is no need for concepts such as "Will" and "Intention" to explain human behavior
William James
Classical Conditioning
- Functionalist
- Humans possess stream of consciousness
- conscious is selective agent
- the process of eliciting conditional behavior by taking an unconditional stimulus that presents an unconditioned response and pairing it up with a conditional stimulus repeatedly so that when the conditional stimulus is presented alone, it still elicits the taught conditional behavior
"Natural Selection of the Fittest Behavior"
- Was a functionalist as well, believed that the consequences of behavior that allowed it to be favorable or unfavorable was adaptive
Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov (1849-1936)
- "Reflexes of the Brain"
- article written by Sechenov that may have influenced Pavlov's discovery of classical conditioning
- stated that human action and behavior was completely the result of brain reflexes, which he referred to as psychical reflexes
- studied with Muller, Helmholtz and other Materialists
Bisma Masroor