• classical conditioning
• operant behavior
• operant conditioning
• punisher
• reflex
• reinforcer
• stimulus control
Behaviorism was founded in 1912 by the American psychologist John Broadus
Watson (1878-1958). Watson’s position was formed as a reaction to the contemporary
focus of psychology on consciousness and the method of research
known as introspection, which he considered to be highly subjective.
Using the research of the Russian Nobel Prize-winning physiologist Ivan
Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936), Watson argued that psychology could become
a natural science only by truly adopting the methods of science. For
him, psychological study must have an empirical, objective subject matter
and that the events to be investigated as possible causes of behavior must
also be described objectively and verified empirically through experimental
research. This latter point meant that introspection would have to be abandoned,
for it was unscientific. Watson therefore presented the goals of psychology
as the prediction and control of behavior rather than as the understanding
of the mind and consciousness.
Watson’s behaviorism was an extension of Pavlov’s discovery of the conditioning
of stimulus-response reflexive relationships. The term “reflex” refers
to the connection between some environmental event, or stimulus, and
the response that it elicits. The response is involuntary—inborn or unlearned—
and relatively simple. In addition, no prior learning is necessary
for the response to occur when the stimulus is presented. What Pavlov had
already demonstrated experimentally was how previously neutral parts of
the environment could become effective in stimulating or eliciting an ani
mal’s salivation response. By repeatedly pairing a bell with food powder,
which elicited salivation, and then presenting the bell alone, Pavlov showed
that the bell by itself could then elicit salivation. This process, termed classical
conditioning (the process is also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning),
in turn offered Watson an explanation for behavior that relied
on observable elements, thus eliminating the need to use unobservable and
hypothetical mental explanations.
Watson’s significant contribution resulted from his attempt to show how
Pavlov’s discovery of the conditioning process with animals could also explain
the behavior of human beings. Watson assumed that human behavior
and the behavior of animals were both governed by the same laws of nature.
Given this assumption, the objective methods of study that were appropriate
for the scientific study of nonhuman animals were therefore appropriate for
the study of human beings as well. Watson demonstrated the application of
these methods in the famous but ethically controversial case study of “Little
Albert.” In this study, Watson and his graduate student, Rosalie Rayner,
showed how human emotional responses could come to be conditioned to
previously neutral environmental stimuli. “Little Albert” was eleven months
old at the time of the study, whichWatson and Rayner began by showing that
Albert initially approached and smiled when he was shown a live rat. At a
time when the rat was not present,Watson struck a metal bar with a hammer.
Albert then flinched and began to cry. Next, the rat and the loud, unexpected
sound were presented together on seven occasions. On these occasions,
Albert reacted to the sound of the hammer striking the metal bar,
withdrawing from the rat, moving away from the sound, whimpering, and
then crying. Finally, the rat alone was shown to Albert. Now, when only the
rat was placed before Albert, he would instantly move away from the rat,
whimper, and then cry. Watson and Rayner had demonstrated through the
process of classical conditioning that the once-neutral object, the rat, would
now produce, or elicit, a strong emotional response.
Watson attempted to present an objective, behavioristic account of the
full range of human behavior in Behaviorism (1924), written for a popular
audience. In that book, Watson proposed that the stimulus-response reflex
was the essential building block of all human behaviors. A collection of separate
elemental reflexive responses, unlearned and as-yet unconditioned,
could become integrated into a complex habit through the regular presentation
of the appropriate stimuli by the physical and social environment by
parents, siblings, teachers, and others. The result would be, in Watson’s
words, “habits, such as tennis, fencing, shoe-making, mother-reactions, religious
reactions, and the like.” The process by which these habits were
formed was presumably the conditioning process discovered by Pavlov. In
addition to such “habits,” Watson attempted to show that the conditioning
of neutral environmental stimuli to existing reflexive responses could also
account for thinking and the personality.
mal’s salivation response. By repeatedly pairing a bell with food powder,
which elicited salivation, and then presenting the bell alone, Pavlov showed
that the bell by itself could then elicit salivation. This process, termed classical
conditioning (the process is also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning),
in turn offered Watson an explanation for behavior that relied
on observable elements, thus eliminating the need to use unobservable and
hypothetical mental explanations.
Watson’s significant contribution resulted from his attempt to show how
Pavlov’s discovery of the conditioning process with animals could also explain
the behavior of human beings. Watson assumed that human behavior
and the behavior of animals were both governed by the same laws of nature.
Given this assumption, the objective methods of study that were appropriate
for the scientific study of nonhuman animals were therefore appropriate for
the study of human beings as well. Watson demonstrated the application of
these methods in the famous but ethically controversial case study of “Little
Albert.” In this study, Watson and his graduate student, Rosalie Rayner,
showed how human emotional responses could come to be conditioned to
previously neutral environmental stimuli. “Little Albert” was eleven months
old at the time of the study, whichWatson and Rayner began by showing that
Albert initially approached and smiled when he was shown a live rat. At a
time when the rat was not present,Watson struck a metal bar with a hammer.
Albert then flinched and began to cry. Next, the rat and the loud, unexpected
sound were presented together on seven occasions. On these occasions,
Albert reacted to the sound of the hammer striking the metal bar,
withdrawing from the rat, moving away from the sound, whimpering, and
then crying. Finally, the rat alone was shown to Albert. Now, when only the
rat was placed before Albert, he would instantly move away from the rat,
whimper, and then cry. Watson and Rayner had demonstrated through the
process of classical conditioning that the once-neutral object, the rat, would
now produce, or elicit, a strong emotional response.
Watson attempted to present an objective, behavioristic account of the
full range of human behavior in Behaviorism (1924), written for a popular
audience. In that book, Watson proposed that the stimulus-response reflex
was the essential building block of all human behaviors. A collection of separate
elemental reflexive responses, unlearned and as-yet unconditioned,
could become integrated into a complex habit through the regular presentation
of the appropriate stimuli by the physical and social environment by
parents, siblings, teachers, and others. The result would be, in Watson’s
words, “habits, such as tennis, fencing, shoe-making, mother-reactions, religious
reactions, and the like.” The process by which these habits were
formed was presumably the conditioning process discovered by Pavlov. In
addition to such “habits,” Watson attempted to show that the conditioning
of neutral environmental stimuli to existing reflexive responses could also
account for thinking and the personality.
audience. In that book, Watson proposed that the stimulus-response reflex
was the essential building block of all human behaviors. A collection of separate
elemental reflexive responses, unlearned and as-yet unconditioned,
could become integrated into a complex habit through the regular presentation
of the appropriate stimuli by the physical and social environment by
parents, siblings, teachers, and others. The result would be, in Watson’s
words, “habits, such as tennis, fencing, shoe-making, mother-reactions, religious
reactions, and the like.” The process by which these habits were
formed was presumably the conditioning process discovered by Pavlov. In
addition to such “habits,” Watson attempted to show that the conditioning
of neutral environmental stimuli to existing reflexive responses could also
account for thinking and the personality.
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