Chapter 10 - Behaviorism: Beginnings Flashcards
1
Q
What was the method of Little Albert?
A
- A baby named “Albert” was first exposed to a white rat, Albert initially showed no fear and freely interactied with the rat
- Later when he was 11 months old he was exposed to the rat
- In the second session, each time Albert touvhed the rat Watson struck a steel bar with a hammer behind Albert’s back
- The noise made by Watson scared Albert, who would begin crying and displaying fear
Then became distressed and crying and would attempt to crawl away any time he saw the rat - Started association the sight of the white rat with the noise of the hammer on the steel bar
- Fear generalized to other fuzzy objects
2
Q
What conditions did Watson derive from his Little Albert study?
A
- Adult fears, anxieties and phobias are conditioned emotional responses that were established at an early age and stay with us throughout our lives
- Conditioning little Albert led Watson to reject the notion of the unconcious because it could not be directly observed
3
Q
What’s the life story of John B. Watson?
A
- Born in South Carolina
- Family was a devout baptist, wanted him to become a preacher
- Lived in poverty, father rarely home
- Had poot social skills, was a delinquent, and was lazy and insubordinate
- Promised mother he would become a religious miniser
- After mom died he changed his mind and when to University of Chicago to pursue a PhD
- Initially studied under Dewey but hated his lectures
- Attracted to work of functional psychologist, James Angell with mechanist Jacques Loeb
- Received PhD in 1903, aged 25
- Stayed at Chicago to conduct research on sensory input and learning
- Went to John Ho[kins University in 1908
- Became chair pf psycholgical department and editor of psychological review at 31
- Combining functionalist, mechanist, and objectivist views, he founded behaviourism with the publication of psychology as the behaviourist views it
- President of APA in 1915
- Conducted Little Albert experiment in 1920
- Handsome and a womanizer
- Married then divorced, then married again one of his graduate students
- Forced to resign from Hopkins because of this
- The worke din advertising
- Heartbroken when Rosalie died
4
Q
What’s the significance of Watson?
A
- Brought about behaviourism
- Approach that challenged the dominant psychological perspectives at the time
- Focus on actions that can be seen, heard, or touched
Actions (or responses) are driven by stimuli rather than conscious thought
5
Q
What major tenets were touched upon in Watson’s famous publication “As the Behaviourist Views It”?
A
- Psychology should not in any way study consciousness
- Comparative psychology should also drop any notions of consciousness
- Research with people should be conducted in a similar manner to animal research
- Introspection should no longer be used
- Functionalism’s ‘mind’ should be abandoned
- These basic tenets were an amalgamation of ideas which had already been established
6
Q
What topics were covered in Watson’s 1914 book “Behaviour: An introduction to comparative psychology”?
A
- Described the advantages of animal research
- Excited graduate students
- Rejected by established
7
Q
What major points were covered in Watson’s 1919 book “Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist”?
A
- A more thorough argument for the transition to strict behaviourism
- More detailed description of applying comparaitve psychology to humans
- Published a year before his bunishment
- Wrote three more books afterwards
8
Q
Why was Watson good at promoting behaviourism to the general public?
A
- Often wrote about behaviourism in popular magazines
- A clear writer who knew his audience
- Autobiography described in his supportive view of “selling his wares” to the general public
- Gave other univerisity lectures, but dismissed for sexual misconduct
- His books made him well-known
9
Q
What were Watson’s child-rearing practices?
A
- Published a book in 1928: Psychological Care of the infant and child
- Criticized for his methods
- Advocated for a strict regulatory behaviourism for childrearing, rather than permissive parenting
- Use behaviourism to raise your children
- Treat children like mini-adults
- He treated his own kids using this methods
- His children suffered emotionally because of this
- His grandchildren also suffered
10
Q
What were Watson’s views on women?
A
- Very misogynistic
- Argued against women’s caises such as the right to vote
- Thought they lose their sexual appeal at age 30 and over-the-hill at 40
- Men retain their vigor and attractiveness
11
Q
What was the reaction to Watson’s ideas?
A
- Watson’s program was not embraced immediately or universally
- Critics questioned his rejection of introspection and his use of animals
- By the 1920s: Universities were offering courses in behaviourism
- Term was becoming acceptable in the professional journals
12
Q
What were Watson’s methods of investigation?
A
- Observation with and without the use of instruments
- Conversion of test results to objective data (treat as samples of behaviour rather than mental qualities)
- Verbal report (he thought speech responses are an objective type of behaviour). Almost like introspection ‘lite’. Can only be used in verifiable situations
- Conditioned reflex method. Reduction of all behaviour to its simplest elements (S-R)
13
Q
T/F: For Watson, he thought the role of the experimenter is now ore important than the role of the subject.
A
- TRUE
- Subjects no longer provide observations of their conscious experience, they merely respond to the stimuli introduced by the experimenter
- Reinforced the view of people as machines, similar tot he mechanistic tradition
14
Q
What is the difference between explicit and implicit responses?
A
- Explicit - directly observable behaviour
- Directly - behaviour that could potentially be observed through the use of instruments
15
Q
What were Watson’s instincts?
A
- Described 11 instincts, one extra for ‘random’ behaviour
- Instinctive behaviours are just socially conditioned responses - no such thing as inherited capacities, temperaments, or talents
- Talents stem from early childhood training
- Environmental influences are more important than genetic factors
- Since genetic factors did not impose any limitations, children could become whatever they wanted
- Applied psychology taken to the extreme
16
Q
What were Watson’s ideas regarding emotions?
A
- They were nothing more than a pattern of conditioned physiological responses to specific stimuli
- Carried out research on emotions in infants
- Thought there were three primary unconditioned emotional responses: Fear (loudnoises and loss of support), rage (restriction of bodily movements), and love (rocking, patting, caressing)
- Can be elicited in infants via certain stimuli
- All other emotions are derived from these three responses and learned via conditioning
17
Q
What work did Mary Cover Jones do?
A
- “The mother of behaviour therapy”
- Attended an advertising talk given by Watson in 1919
- Associate in psyhcological research at Columbia
- Investigated a 3-year-old boy named Peter who had a natural fear of rabbits
- paired a rabbit with him while eating
- Got progressively closer to rabbit on subsequent trials
18
Q
What’s systematic desensitization?
A
- Discovered by Mary Clover
- She demonstrated that exposure could lead to an extinction of the fear response
- Offered support that Watson was corect
- Behaviourist principles could be applied to treat a mentla health issue
- Didn’t become a mainstream technique until 50 years later
19
Q
What were Watson’s thoughts regarding thoughts?
A
- Since they occur solely in the brain they were initially believed inaccessible to observation and experimentation
- Watson argued that thoughts could be reduced to speech reactions and movements
- The act of talking itself represented thoughts
- He tried measuring tongue and larynx movements during thought
- Sometimes slight movements were recorded
- Concluded that thinking or rather the act of talking to ourselves, relies on the same muscular habits we learn for overt speech
20
Q
What were some of the major criticisms of behaviourism?
A
- Rejection of introspection - thought that certain psychological processes are only able to be understood through introspection
- Thought there was an omission of important psychological components
- Disregards decades of psychological advancements
- Rewrites what was previously thought to be truth
21
Q
What was the attitude regarding behaviourism like in the 1930s?
A
- Behaviourism was so crucial that no university could avoid teaching it
22
Q
What did Watson outline in his book Behaviourism (1925)?
A
- Outlined what a society free of religion-based ethics
- Watson became a celebrity
1. Provided hope for a new form of society based on controlled behaviour
2. Offered a shift in status quo, free of dogma, myths, and unconventional ways
3. Watson’s promotion of behaviourism led the public to become enthralled by psychology
23
Q
What were Watson’s contributions to psychology?
A
- Laid the foundation of behaviourism
- Provided a strong conceptual base for other forms of psychological objectivism
- Inspired Skinner to pursue behaviourism
- Possibly did the most to popularize psychology more broadly
24
Q
What’s the life story of Karl Lashley?
A
- Born in Davis, West virginia in 1890
- An only child, his parents moved the family to take part in the Klondike gold rush
- Entered the University of West Virginia in 1905
- Enrolled at Johns Hopkins, studied with Watson
- Professor of psychology at Harvard
- Became director of Yerkes lab of primate biology retired in 1955
25
What were Lashley's major contributions?
- Law of mass action - the efficiency of learning is a function of the total mass of cortical tissue
- Principle of equipotentiality - one part of the cerebral cortex is equal to another in its contribution to learning
- Contests Watson's assumption that beahviour is comprised solely of conditioned reflexes
- Lashley demonstrated that the brain is very active in learning
- Watson believed that the brain just switched incoming nerve impulses into behaviour
26
Who was William McDougall?
- English psychologist at Harvard, then Duke
- Supporter of free will
- Criticized Watson's assumptions tha human behaviour is fully determined and is a result of past experience
- Argued that without free will, there would be no human initiative, no creative effort, and no desire to improve
27
What was the Watson McDougall debate?
- February 5, 1924
- 1000 audience members, mainly because Watson was so popular
- It was judged, and Mcdougall was chosen as the winner
- He argued that introspection and self-report were still needed
- Also argued for free will and that Watson's method doesn't capture the human experience
28
What were the general conclusions drawn from Watson's behaviourism?
- An effective agent of the Zeitgeist
- More objective in methods and terminology
- Overcame earlier positions in psychology
- Strong conceptual base for modern psychology
- Watsonian behaviourism was replaced by other forms of psychological objectivism that built on it
