The History of Psychology module has covered a number of perspectives or paradigms in Psychology; these are: physiology, psychoanalysis, structuralism,

behaviourism, humanistic and cognitive. Which perspective or school do you think was the most important for the development of psychology and why. The behaviourist approach has been very influential in the development of psychology. J.B.Watson (1913) was the founder of the school of behaviourist psychology. In his paper psychology as the behaviourist views it (1913) Watson proposed a new psychology. One of the first fundamental beliefs of behaviourism, proposed by Watson, stems from the theory of philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). Lockes ideas were those of empiricism and associationism; he believed that when a human is born their mind is free of ideas (a blank state) and that all thought and mental function were formed by associations of different experiences. Watson agreed with this; however he believed that behaviour is determined solely by external environmental experiences and mental events were not important to psychology. The behaviourist view was that of positivism, they were only interested in observable behaviour and the link between application and science, which therefore made behaviourism an objective discipline. The behaviourist approach believed that only objective evidence was worth studying, though it was unethical to perform some of the experiments on humans. The growing interest at the time in animal psychology and evolutionary theory made this possible however. Behaviourists used many lab based studies and used non-human but animal experiments to obtain ethical and objective research. It was believed that since we evolved from animals, humans and animals are only quantitatively different and findings from animal studies could therefore be applied to humans. These theories opened up to a broader school of psychology and influenced many other disciplines. It was the first approach which believed in only studying observable behaviour and one where data was only to be objective. Although it was a new discipline, the ideas that Watson accumulated into the behaviourist approach were already being accumulated, many physiologists influenced Watson. Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who won a Nobel Prize in 1904 for his work on the digestive system (salivations brought on by different food types), for which dogs were his subjects. Whilst working on the dogs for this research Pavlov noticed that when presented with the food (in a food bowl) the dog would salivate (before the food reached the dogs mouth). This realisation then influenced Pavlov to start a new stem of research into the theory of conditioning. Pavlov conducted a famous study, involving the dogs, in which he presented them with an unconditioned stimulus, in this case food; the response they gave was noted (salivation). The dog was then presented with a neutral stimulus, a tuning fork, and the response of the dog was noted (no salivation). Pavlov then paired up the tuning fork and the food which caused the dog to salivate. After this the tuning fork was presented to the dog and the dog salivated. The dogs salivary secretion had been conditioned. This theory was called Classical Conditioning. Pavlov found that when you present an unconditioned stimulus (US) (something which brings out a reflex- e.g. food) it provokes an unconditioned response (UR) (an automatic reflex- e.g. salivation). If you pair the US with a neutral stimulus (an environmental event which elicits a neutral response e.g. a tuning fork) a multiple amount of times causing the UR to occur, the neutral stimulus will then become the conditioned stimulus (CS). When the CS is exposed a conditioned response (CR) occurs (a reflex acquired from conditioning e.g.

salivation). Pavlov also found that reinforcement was an important factor, the CR would become extinct if the unconditioned and neutral stimuli are not often paired together. This work by Pavlov influenced Watson to research classical conditioning himself. In 1920 Watson and Rosalie Rayner conducted an experiment (Watson and Rayner, 1920) on a young child called Albert. When a claw hammer struck a steel bar Albert became distressed and scared (US) but he showed no fear when he was shown a white rat (NS). When the US and NS were paired together Albert became frightened and distressed, this was done several times in two sessions. Eventually when Albert was shown the white rat on his own (CS) he showed the same fear and distress (CR) that he did when he heard the steel bar being struck. Watson had therefore found that human beings- like animals can be conditioned. Another fundamental aspect of behaviourism was Skinners theory of operant conditioning. Skinners research, in contrast with Pavlovs classical conditioning, focussed on the link between behaviour and the consequences of it. Thorndike (1898) influenced Skinners work with his law of effect. This is; a behaviour will most likely be repeated in a similar environment if its consequence is pleasant and vice versa, if a behaviour has an unpleasant consequence the response becomes weaker and the subject is unlikely to perform the behaviour again. Skinner followed on this work by working with rats and pigeons. One of his most famous studies includes the skinner box. This involved the idea of positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. Skinner (1953) conducted an experiment in the skinner box on rats. The first was to demonstrate positive reinforcement. If the rat pressed a lever that was in the box it received food, the behaviour was reinforced by the food and the rat therefore pressed the lever more often. The second demonstrated negative reinforcement, this is when something unpleasant is taken away. Skinner ran a weak electric current through the floor of the box, pressing the lever took this current away, the behaviour was reinforced by the elimination of the unpleasant current and the rat therefore pressed the lever more often. This box is still used in present day laboratories. The behaviourist approach offered a brand new psychological discipline and a new way of thinking. The humanistic approach contrasts completely with behaviourism. Humanistic psychologists believe that each person is unique, subjective views of a person are more important than objective evidence and that each person is selfdetermined. This approach has been heavily criticised for rejecting scientific approaches to studying human behaviour. This is because they therefore have little empirical evidence to back up their fundamental ideas. The theory of introspection which they use to collect data was also criticised, particularly by Watson. This is because only subjective data was obtained and the subjects are reporting on their own sense experience, which gives untestable data that cannot be generalised to make an overall theory. Behaviourism focused on data which comes from objective sources, the things we can see and measure. This method was more influential for the development of psychology. With the increase in evolutionary theory it made it possible to complete ethical lab experiments that could be generalised to humans. The lab experimental method offers an environment where the researcher can manipulate the variable being studied giving rich and reliable data. The experimental method of behaviourism influenced many other disciplines. The cognitive approach used lab methods to attain important research regarding memory. However, the behaviourists would argue that this approach, focussing solely on mental proceces, is lacking in social and environmental factors and that it is overly mechanistic. The psychodynamic approach was also heavily criticised. This was the

work by Freud and Jung which focussed on the unconscious. It was a very gloomy approach which put forward radical ideas. It was not a very popular approach as it looked as the Behaviourism

Positives of behaviourism How it has influenced the development psychology Negatives of other theories Although behaviourism