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October 23, 2007
Behaviorism: Antecedent Influences
Clever Hans
Van Osten: the man who traveled with Clever Hans
Stated that animals have the ability to be as intelligent as humans
Devastated at Pfungsts results of Clever Hans and blamed the horse, stating
Clever Hans was deceitful.
Van Osten died and Hans was sold to a jeweler who charged people money to
see Hans’ talent
Pfungst
found that Clever Hans was using non verbal cues to answer the mathematical
questions
No one really cared about Pfungsts findings and found Clever Hans to still be
interesting
The Influence of Animal Psychology on Behaviorism
Jacques Loeb (1859-1924)
Tropism: involuntary, forced movement (reflexes)
Associative Memory: an association between a stimulus and a response
Watson
The promoter of the Behaviorist Ideas
Brought in ideas for objectivism, mechanicism, animal psychology, and functionalism
(which he wanted to destroy)
Interested in only observable behaviors
Interested in working with Loeb, but Angell talked him out of it
Robert Yerkes
Started a primate lab
Strengthened the whole idea of comparative psychology
Small
Invented the first rat maze
Had mentalistic ideas
Charles Henry Turner
African American Grad Student
Wrote a book on Ants and Ant Behaviors (Watson praised his book)
Had problems getting a job in comparative psychology because of his “color,” except
for in Missouri and Georgia; his job problems might have been due to the
lack of job opportunities and respect in comparative psychology
Turned to Applied Psychology
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1939)
Received his education in the United States (Harvard)
Wanted to study children; was told not to do research with children anymore
because he had to loosen their clothes to take their measurements
Started studying chicks
Maze
His landlord wouldn’t let him keep the chicks in his room so William James
took them home.
Went to Columbia University with his best chicks
Spent 50 years at Columbia University
Made $70,000 annually in the early 1900’s
As soon as he got his degree, he stopped working with animals and went back to
studying children
What Thorndike is known for:
Connectionism: the human mind is made up of connections between situations
and responses (deals with objective kinds of things)
Associationism vs. Connectionism
Puzzle Box: put a cat in a box and the cat would need to perform certain
tasks to get out of the box and receive the reward of food. The cat would
accidentally get out, and then repeat the same behavior to continue to get out of
the box.
Coined the term Learning Curve
Law of Effect: repeating a behavior that has positive results
Law of Exercise: the more responses used the more associations
Speculation Experimentation: given credit for changing psychology from
speculation to experimentation
Ivan Pavlov
Russian Physiologist
Injured his head which lead him to be tutored at home as a child
A clumsy man
Animal Physiology was his interest
Education on Animal Physiology was very far away, Pavlov walked there
Dedicated to research
Did not want any distractions by practical matters
He made an agreement with his wife that she should take care of the
practical matters and he will do his research, and not smoke, drink, or play cards.
Lived in poverty most of his life
Professor at 41
Students gave him money for his “lectures.” It was actually pity
money and he used it to improve his lab
Had over 150 Lab Assistants in his lifetime
Hot tempered, had a sense of humor, very human with his dogs
Studied nerves of the heart, digestive glands, conditioned reflexes (accidental
study coming from digestion)
Psychic Associations (the name of the reflexes)
UCS-food
UCR-salivation
CS-foot steps
CR-Salivation
Tower of Silence (got rid of all other things that would affect the responses of the
dogs in his research).
Looked at extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, higher
order conditioning (which sounds like research from Thorndike and
Twitmeyer)
Poor E.B. Twitmeyer
In 1904 he presented the Knee Jerk Reflex
Victim of bad timing-no one paid attention to his ideas
Vladimir Bekhterev (1857-1927)
Enemy of Pavlov (Pavlov gave Bekhterev’s book a bad review)
Focused on humans and motor conditioning
Applied Pavlovian principles to humans
Associated reflexes
Died mysteriously: sent to treat Stalin; diagnosed Stalin with severe paranoia;
Bekhterev died after he diagnosed Stalin and was buried immediately. He
son was also ordered to be killed.
Functionalism was a good bridge between structuralism and animal psychology.
October 30, 2007
Chapter 10: The Beginnings of Behaviorism
Little Albert
Loud noise associated with white, furry objects
Little Albert became frightened by all white, furry objects
Never had a debriefing
Watson was involved in a scandal and was kicked out of J. Hopkins, so he
never found Little Albert for his official debriefing
John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)
“Environment determines who we are, and what we become”
Mom was religious, dad was a womanizer (prone to violence, affairs, and drinking)
His family lived in poverty
Dad ran off with another woman when John was 13
John Watson was a trouble maker
Got in trouble for carrying a gun
John’s mom wanted him t be a clergyman
Went to school in Greenville, SC at Furhman University
Never received his degree because he “failed a class”
Planned to be a clergyman until his mother died
Went to University of Chicago
Took classes under Dewey
1903 received his PhD at age 25
Graduated with honors
The youngest to graduate with a PhD in psychology from University of
Chicago
Married to one of his students (she was 19, he was 25)
Preferred to work with animals and children as his subjects
Offered a position at J. Hopkins (1908)
Baldwin caught at a Brothel and asked to resign/fired
Same sort of scandal would happen to Watson
Watson
2 Kids
Voted most handsome professor
A womanizer
Rosalie Raymer
Watson spent time with her in his lab
Watson wrote her objective love letters
Watson’s wife found these letters, sent them to the Baltimore Sun
where they were published.
Watson was forced to resign and never went back to Academic Psychology
Watson married Raymer
Watson started working in the Ad Business
Made $25,000 annually
Was behind the slogan “I’d walk a mile for a camel”
Came up with the idea of celebrity endorsements
Watson wrote controversial articles for magazines
Watson wrote books on child rearing (believed in objective parenting)
Said parents were too impotent
Parents showed too much emotion towards their children
Watson’s son said that he remembers Watson shaking his hand before
tucking him in for bed at night
Watson was very into Nurture and not Nature
Nurture as in a strict upbringing without a lot of love/affection
Watson’s children
Had severe depression
2 kids committed suicide, the other tried numerous times and then had a
mental breakdown
Rayner died at 37
This was the first time that Watson showed any emotion towards his
children. He hugged them, sent them off to boarding school and then never spoke
of Rayner again.
Watson was successful
He had a mansion, enjoyed drinking, flirted with society, etc. He gave up all
of these things with Rayner died. He became “wacky”
Watson’s Idea of Behaviorism: objective study of behavior
Used the following methods
Observation with or without instruments
Testing Methods
Verbal Reports
Conditioned Reflexes (got this from Behkterev)
Watson was into stimulus-response, and not introspection
Calkins disagreed with his thoughts on introspection (other psychologists also
disagreed)
Verbal reports are similar to introspection
Acts: complex behaviors made up of little things
Subjects of Behaviorism (Watson)
Instincts: socially conditioned, not really existent; you don’t inherit anything
from your parents except for love, rage, and fear (which are all associated and
learned)
Emotions: disagreed with W. James; stated that there is association with
emotions
Thoughts: thinking is a motor process; 73% of people talk to themselves
when they are thinking
Little Albert Replication
Peter (Subject)
Was afraid of white rabbits
The researcher unconditioned this fear
November 1, 2007
Behaviorism Continued
Criticisms
It freed people of customs and culture- wiped the slate clean
Revolutionary compared to other psychologies
1920: Outbreak of Psychology
There were articles, magazines about psychology, and people were using it in their
lives
Joesph Jastrow
A hyperactive popularizer of psychology
Wrote keeping mentally fit articles and “Self Help” Articles
3 Main people that did not agree with everything Watson said
Edwin Holt (1873-1946)
PhD at Harvard
Disagreed with Watson’s view of consciousness and said that it doesn’t exist
Agreed with Watson that your environment does influence instinctual
behaviors
He was given some credit for identifying drives like hunger, thirst
Said people do things for a reason or a goal. Looked at the purpose
Karl Lashley (1890-1958)
Student of Watson
Studied brain mechanisms and intelligence
Law of mass action: the efficiency of learning is a function of the total mass
of cortical tissue
Equipotentiality: the idea that one part of the cerebral cortex is essentially
equal to another in its contribution to learning OR if parts of your brain don’t work,
other parts will make up for it
EX. if you are blind, you may have better hearing
The Brain is more complex than what Watson said
All Parts of the brain contribute to learning
William McDougall
Wrote the first social psychology like textbook
Clashed with Watson
He was not very well liked
Believed in Free will
1924: the Battle of Behaviorism: debate with Watson and McDougall; many
attended this debate; they debated on the nature of behaviorism.
McDougall said that introspection was important and attacked
Watson’s verbal reports; McDougall had more points, but Watson was better liked
Watson
20 years as an Academic Psychologist
By the time he was done, he set the light for behaviorism---which served as
a rebellion and then drifted out
3 Categories of Behaviorism
Watson’s School
Neobehaviorism (Tolman, Skinner, Hull)
Neo-Neobehaviorism (1960-1990)
IQ Zoo Breland and Breland
Trained animals to do things like play piano, drums, etc.
No matter what, the animals still used their basic instincts/natural tendencies
Shoed instincts are important in behaviorism
Operationalism (Percy Bridgman): ensure testability of all experiments; if you
cannot test it, it doesn’t exist
Criticisms of Operationalism
Restating an old concept
Completed a 7 vol. work after he found out he was terminally ill, then he killed
himself
November 6, 2007
Edward Chace Tolman (1886-1959)
Into the idea of purposive behavior (different from other behaviorists)
Brother is a famous mathematician
Electrochemistry (looked for a degree in this, until the works of W. James
influenced him to study philosophy, then psychology)
Not into introspection
Taught comparative psychology at Berkeley
Worked for pre CIA
Anti-Communism Oath: employees of Berkeley had to take this oath in order
to keep their jobs. Tolman refused along with others and then they sued the school.
They were given their jobs back.
Purposive Behaviorism
Rejects introspection, but all acts are done for a specific goal
Reinforcement isn’t necessary, just a purpose
Observable Variables: environmental stimuli, physiological drives, hereditary,
previous training, and age
Intervening Variables: affect what you do, but you cannot see it (an ulterior
motive)
Reinforcement has little influence on learning
Tolman’s ideas are that we have cognitive maps. It’s not repetition; you form a map
in your head with a purpose in mind.
Cross Shape Maze with Rats as his Subjects
Two Conditions:
1. Food always in same place, but rats start in different spots (rats
found the food quickly).
2. Food was in a different place, but rats only had to make 2 right
turns to find the food (it took longer for the rats to find the
food)
Clark Leonard Hull (1884-1952)
Stated, “Watson is too naïve. His behaviorism is too simple and crude.”
Known for his debates against Tolman
He was sick most of his life
From a poor family
Earned his PhD at 34
Studied mining engineering before psychology
Objective individual
Studied hypnosis for 10 years (which is odd because that is not objective)
Believed in mechanism
Believed in the hypothetic-deductive method (theory)
Believed in drives (aka motivation): a state of bodily need, when you deviate from
normal biological conditions
Two types of drives:
1. Primary drives: hunger, thirst, sex, comfort
2. Secondary drives: learned things
Law of primary reinforcement: reinforcers that reduce bodily need (habit strength)
BF Skinner (1904-1990)
Born in Pennsylvania
Led a normal life
Brother died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 16
Trained pigeons
Unhappy at college
He was in a fraternity, which he did not like
He openly criticized faculty
Received his degree in English
After receiving his degree, he tried to be a writer for 2 years; he quit
because he “had nothing to say”
He was constantly rejected by women
After reading Pavlov, etc. he decided to study psychology
Skinner Box
Differed from Hulls because he did not do theory testing. His approach was
descriptive. Often referred to as Empty Organism Approach. He didn’t like
explaining behaviors.
He said that humans were controlled by their environment and not by themselves
He did not deny drives, just stated that he didn’t want to use them
He didn’t use large samples in research
Operant Conditioning
Called Pavlov’s conditioning “respondent conditioning”
He said you are responding to a stimulus
Operant Conditioning is different because there isn’t necessarily a visual
antecedent stimulus and the organism can control/change the stimulus
Law of Acquisition: strength of a behavior is increased when followed by a
reinforcer
Schedules of Reinforcement
Took into account frequencies and time periods and their effects on
behavior
Found that shorter intervals between reinforcers would cause more frequent and
faster a behavior would occur
Successive Approximations: you reward a behavior gradually until the organism
does what you want it to
Aircrib: made his daughter this; it was a climate controlled box that had a roll of
fabric as sheets, sound/humidity controlled
When Skinner’s daughter was in 4th grade, Skinner went to “Dad’s Day” at her
school. He said that the teachers were not effectively teaching the children
and teaching them the wrong way
Teaching Machines: it tells you if you are the right answer before you move on to
the next question. This did not sell well…it was too ahead of the time
Training Pigeons: he did this during WW2; he taught the pigeons to peck at a
target; guide missles (which the military did not buy into, they picked up on
radar)
Brelands worked with Skinner
Thy taught pigeons to take pictures with small cameras
November 8, 2007
Skinner had a midlife crisis
He wrote a book, “Walden Two” (a story of society being controlled by
positive reinforcement)
Skinner had an impact on Behavior Modification
The use of positive reinforcement to control a variety of individuals or
groups
Found that you can reinforce more desirable behaviors, thus people will
behave in more desirable ways
Problems with Skinners Behaviorism
He didn’t believe in theory
He was overconfident about the things behaviorism could do
Breland and Breland with Skinner
Breland and Breland found the instinctive drift: reverting back to
behaviors that take precedence over learned ones.
Skinner believed that you could train animals to do anything with
positive reinforcement
Contributions of Behaviorism
Shaped American Psychology
Operant Conditioning was seen as humanitarian because you can use it to
change behaviors to more positive and you can use it in a variety of settings
Neo-Neo Behaviorism
Introduced a cognitive element of Behaviorism
Albert Bandura (1925-)
Canadian
PhD from the University of Iowa in 1952
Went to Stanford after U of I
Subscribed to social cognitive theory: believes positive reinforcement can change
behaviors, but also different because he believes in vicarious reinforcement
(learning can occur by observing the behavior of others rather than directly
experiencing reinforcement)
Ex. Setting a good example for your younger siblings
Said that we learn by modeling and children imitate behaviors
BoBo Doll Study
Children imitate aggressive behaviors to the Bobo Doll after watching an
adult perform aggressive behaviors on the BoBo Doll
Into the idea of self-efficacy: sense of self esteem and competence in a situation
People who have high self efficacy are usually more successful in life and
increases your ability to resist stress
Behavior Modification
Said that you can re-train people to do a behavior correctly
Julian Rotter
Social Cognitive Behaviorist
Like psychology, but he was disappointed about the lack of job opportunities in
psychology (he was also Jewish which made it really hard for him to get a
job)
He was not fond of Skinners subjects, which were individual subjects (usually
animals)
Rotter said that we should study humans
His focus was cognitive processes
Locus of Control: the perceived source of reinforcement
Internal: you are responsible for what happens to you
Best in learning and motivation
External: a lot of things that happen to you are out of your control
Behaviorism ended up being more cognitive bases because of Rotter
November 13, 2007
Gestalt Psychology: the whole is different than the sum of its parts; Gestalt means
form or configuration
Antecedents of Gestalt
Immanuel Kant: conscious experience differs from sensory
Ernst Mach: space form vs. time form
Ex. Looking at a pregnant woman form the front vs. the side
Christian von Ehrenfels: form emerges from sensation
Just say no to W. James (the Gestaltian view)
Act Psychology: its important what the mind does, not what is in it
All people of Gestalt Psychology were taught by Stumpf
Behaviorism was occurring in the United States as Gestalt Psychology was
occurring in Germany
Phenomenology: an approach to knowledge based on an unbiased description of
immediate experiences as it occurs, not analyzed or reduced to elements
Physics Influenced Gestalt
Fields of force: regions or spaces traversed by lines of force, such as magnet or
electric currents
Phi Phenomenon (Wertheimer): the illusion that 2 stationary flashing lights are
moving from one place to another
Ex. Picture books, flashing Arby’s sign, stroboscope
Wertheimer was on a train ride and noticed the phi phenomenon. He decided to stop
and go to a toy store where he bought a stroboscope: a circular toy with
holes in it. If you turned the circle you could see various pictures through
the little slots and it made the pictures seem like a story or like the pictures
were moving
In 1912 Wertheimer published an article describing the Phi Phenomenon. This
started Gestalt Psychology.
3 Founders of Gestalt Psychology
Wertheimer (1880-1943)
Koffka
Kohler (1887-1967)
All students of Stumpf
Wertheimer was into stimulation
He was a vivid lecturer
Married his 22 year old student and let her know that his actual marriage
was to gestalt psychology
Koffka
Wrote an article on perception---American’s weren’t interested
Said that information without consciousness is senseless to developmental
psychology
Published a book on developmental psychology which did take off
Kohler researched aspects of learning
Studied chimps at Tenerife (an Island) for 7 years
Wrote a book entitled Mentality of Apes
WWI broke out during his study at Tenerife, and he told others that he
could not leave. This was odd, because other people left Tenerife. Some people
believed that he could be a spy
After his study, he divorced his wife, cut off his kids, and remarried a rich
woman.
He brought his Apes back to Germany with him, but they died because of
the weather differences
Protested the dismissal of Jewish scholars, but he wasn’t Jewish
Perceptual Constancy: a quality of wholenss or completeness in perceptual
experience that does not vary even when the sensory elements change
Gestalt Principles
Law of proximity: objects near each other tend to be grouped together
Law of continuity: lines are seen as following the smoothest path
Law of Simplicity: items that are similar tend to be grouped together
Law of Closure: objects grouped together are seen as a whole
Law of Pragnanz or Simplicity: reality is organized or reduced to the simplest form
Figure/Ground: we look at both positive and negative space
Kohler
Chimps and Insight (immediate or accidental learning is nonexistent; spontaneous
learning)
Studied 4 chimps; Sultan was the most important
Kohler would put bananas high up in the air, give the chimps tools to get the bananas
down, and watch them
Thought chimps were as intelligent as humans
Once, Sultans stick was not big enough to reach the bananas in the air, so he put
one sick inside of another to make it long enough
Sultan also learned by modeling
The chimps solved problems which meant that there was evidence of insight
Pavlov thought this study was interesting and decided to replicate it. It took
Pavlov’s animals 2 months to figure out how to reach the reward. Thus, Pavlov
believed that Kohler made up his quick results
When children learn, they need to learn by the big picture not bits and pieces
Gestalt Psychology spread quickly in Germany, but did not go over well in the
US, Why?
Behaviorism already took root
Everything was in German; translation barrier
Founders of Gestalt went to small colleges
Been there, done that- rebellion to previous schools of psychology were
already established in the US
People thought that Gestalt only dealt with perception because of Koffkas
title to his article
Lewin
Field Theory: Lewins system using the concept of fields of force to explain
behavior in terms of one’s field of social influences
Life space: all influences acting on a person at any given time
Bluma Zeigarnik Effect: a certain tension in life force…satisfaction of the need
reduces tension
Ex. you remember things for an exam, but not after
Lewin looked at social psychology too
Criticisms of Gestalt
Vague
All theory with no empirical data
Insight? (Pavlov’s replication of Kohler’s experiment)
Poorly defined Principles (we already knew what Gestalt had to offer)
Contributions of Gestalt
Perception
Learning
Thinking
Motivation
Examples: how we look at psychology; how we teach; various therapies