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J. Watson
Behaviorism- Watson articulated what the field of
behaviorism (and psychology of the time) would be.
This included the goals and methods of psychology.
 Behaviorism should apply the techniques of animal
research(i.e. conditioning) to the study of human
beings
 Behavior can be reduced to relationships between
stimuli and responses, the S—R model.
 A stimulus can be shown to cause a response or a
response can be tracked by a stimulus.
 life’s most complicated acts are but combinations
of these simple stimulus– response patterns of
behavior.”
 Radical BehavioristsOnly look at observable
behavior and say nothing about internal events
 Instinct does not exists in humanslearning occurs
because of association principles (recency,
frequency, contiguity) & rejected reinforcements
 Purely objective, experimental branch of natural
science
 No need for introspection or states of consciousness
 If introspection is useful than it should be able to
be used in all branches of science, not just
psychology
Famous for experiments with Little Albert---
---Watson paired a loud sound with the presentation of
a furry white bunny
--Eventually, after many pairings, just seeing the furry
white bunny was enough to trigger the reaction
Albert usually had with the loud sound…..
---Expanding classical conditioning of Pavlov to humans
---Also demonstrated transfer of learning, because
Little Albert would have the same reaction to any furry,
white creature like the rabbit.
----Said the goal of psychology was the manipulation
and control of human behavior……..
----Said there were four types of behavior
1) Explicit (overt) learned behavior (talking, writing,
etc).
2) Implicit (covert) learned behavior (fight or flight
response to feared object)
3) Explicit unlearned behavior (blinking, sneezing)
4) Implicit unlearned behavior (glands, circulation
system).
…..Said the methods for studying behavior were
1) Observation (natural or experimental)
2)Conditioned-reflex method (like Pavlov)
3) Testing (behavioral samples)
4)Verbal reports (like overt behavior).