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Behaviorism
A non mentalistic view of Psychology
Composed by Lucie Johnson 10/10/99, reviewed 10/18/00
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The main players:
• Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov (1849-1936)
• John Broadus Watson (1878-1956)
• B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
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Who influenced Pavlov?
• The physiological work of William
Beaumont (1785-1853)
• An expanded concept of reflex to explain
higher functions of thinking, willing,
judging -pioneered by Sechenov (18291905)
• The ideas of Descartes (1596-1650) about
reflexes
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Pavlov’s work:
• Work on the digestive system. Nobel price
in 1904
• Notices “mental secretions” -anticipated
responses of the animals becoming familiar
to the setting.
• Studied these “mental secretions” -they
become what we know as “conditioned
reflex”.
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Important concepts
Pavlov brought us
• The whole notion of conditioned reflex
• Concepts of generalization, differentiation,
excitation, inhibition, higher level
conditioning
• Concept of experimental neurosis
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Pavlov today?
• Visit the Pavlov Institute of Physiology in
Russia
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Who influenced Watson?
• Reacts against Wundt and James -and their
followers such as John Dewey
• Infuenced by Loeb (tropisms) and Henry
Donaldson (white rat neurology) -studied
the myelinization of white rat nervous
system & consequent changes in the
complexity of their behavior.
• Pavlov
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Watson’s main contributions
• Official founder of behaviorism as an
independent and valid approach to
psychology
• Is a radical behaviorist
• Introduces the notion of conditioned
emotional response (little Albert)
• Three emotions: fear, rage, love -all
emotional life built on those
• Applies this to advertising
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B. F. Skinner
Who influenced him?
• Bertrand Russel’s (a British philosopher)
discussion of J. B. Watson’s book on
behaviorism. (Then, Watson himself)
• H.G. Wells article on G. Bernard Shaw and
Pavlov (Then Pavlov himself)
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What were Skinner’s main
contributions?
• Developed the Skinner box as a way to
study operant behavior.
• Important concepts: operant conditioning,
reinforcement, contingencies of
reinforcement, reinforcement schedules,
discrimination learning, programmed
instruction.
• Developed the social implications of his
theory.
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A Skinner page
by undergraduate students
• http://www.wabash.edu/depart/psych/Cours
es/Psych97A/STUDENT%20PROJECTS/S
kinner/hammondk/
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Today’s Walden Two
• Los Horcones, a Skinnerian utopian
community existing today.
• Twin Oaks, an intentional community with
Skinnerian roots -more eclectic today,
though it has maintained the Walden Two
governance system and labor credit system.
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The End
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