Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Behaviorism
By:-
Anusha Tomar
Daksha Katahra
Geetika Gundhi
Guntasha Sabharwal
Isha Mehta
Tejala Valluri
 Timeline Of Behaviourism Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

WATSON &
IVAN PAVLOV B. F. SKINNER
ROSALIE
Began studying the Work upon
Conducted the
salivary response behaviourist principles
famous Little Albert
and other responses (published Walden II)
Experiment

1900 1920 1948

1863 1913 1943 1971

IVAN SECHENOV
JOHN B. WATSON CLARK HULL
Reflex of the brain B. F. SKINNER
Psychology a Principles of
was published, Piblished ‘Beyond
behavioural view,
introducing the behaviourism was Freedom & Dignity’-
outlined many views
concept of inhibition published argued about free will
of behaviourism
responses in the CNS
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What is Behaviourism?
• This theory is that human and animal behaviour can be
explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts
or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by
altering behaviour patterns.
• It assumes that all behaviors are either reflexes produced by a
response to certain stimuli in the environment, or a consequence
of that individual's history, including especially reinforcement
and punishment, together with the individual's current
motivational state and controlling stimuli.
• Behaviorism combines elements of philosophy, methodology,
and psychological theory.
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❧During the first half of the twentieth century, John B. Watson

devised methodological behaviorism, which rejected introspective
methods and sought to understand behavior by only measuring
observable behaviors and events.
❧Watson's behaviorism states that only public events (behaviors of an
individual) can be objectively observed, and that therefore private
events (thoughts and feelings) should be ignored. It also became the
basis for the early approach behavior modification in the late 1970s
and early 1980s.
❧Radical behaviorism, or the conceptual analysis of behavior, was
pioneered by B. F. Skinner and is his "philosophy of the science of
behavior." It refers to the philosophy behind behavior analysis, and
is to be distinguished from methodological behaviorism—which has
an intense emphasis on observable behaviors—by its inclusion of
thinking, feeling, and other private events in the analysis and
theorizing of human and animal psychology.
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❧Teleological behaviorism: Post-Skinnerian, purposive,

close to microeconomics. Focuses on objective
observation as opposed to cognitive processes.

❧Theoretical behaviorism: Post-Skinnerian, accepts

observable internal states ("within the skin" once meant
"unobservable", but with modern technology we are not
so constrained).

❧It focuses on reinforcement, punishment and learning.

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Types of Behaviourism
• Originally, behaviourism started with
METHODOLOGICAL BEHAVIORISM
1.
• The above later inspired
NEOBEHAVIORISM (E.G.,
2. RADICAL BEHAVIORISM).
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Types of Behaviourism
• METHODOLOGICAL BEHAVIOURISM: considered
Psychology as purely objective experimental branch of natural
science. Its goal is to predict and control the behaviour.
• Introspection is of no value as it has no scientific basis.
• They say no difference between a man and an animal.
• Watson's (1913) methodological behaviourism asserts the mind is
tabula rasa (a blank slate) at birth.
• RADICAL BEHAVIOURISM: was founded by B.F. Skinner and
agreed with Watson’s belief of what the goal of psychology
should be.
• Skinner accepts the view that organisms are born with innate
behaviours, and thus recognizes the role of genes and biological
components in behaviour.
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Assumptions in Behaviorism
• The behaviorist perspective holds four assumptions as its bases. The four
assumptions are: Determinism, Empiricism, Reductionism and Environmentalism.
• Determinism: This views that all our behavior is determined by past events. This
means that behavior can be predicted with knowledge of the stimulus causing the
behavior.
• Empiricism: This assumption believes that psychology is scientific and hence
should be empirical. It means that behavior is over and can be observed, recorded
and measure and does not need support from mental events.
• Reductionism: This means that human behavior can be reduced to simple
components of stimulus and response (S-R) associations which are learnt. These are
learnt by an individual through conditioning.
• Environmentalism: This assumption believes that all behavior results from
experience and less from biology and genetics. This views behavior as a result of
environmental factors than internal factors and supports Nature in the Nature Vs
Nurture debate.
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Difference Between Behaviorism and

Functionalism
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Ivan Pavlov
Theory
Pavlov was a behaviorist. This means that his theories focused on observable behavior, because behavior can be
measured and thought can not. The human mind should be interpreted as a black box that can not be opened. Only
was goes in the box and what comes out can be known. Scientific evidence is the keyword in his theory.
Pavlov studied reflexes, automatic behavior that is caused by a stimulus from the environment. Some reflexes, such
as blinking your eyes when a puff of air comes in it, or the sucking of a baby when something is put in his/her
mouth. This automatic behavior can be manipulated. This is called conditioning. In this conditioning process, a
unconditional stimulus is given to a person. This stimulus causes a reflex on its own. When the unconditional
stimulus is now given to the person together with a stimulus that does not cause a reflex on its own. Thus, a
unconditional stimulus is given together with a conditional stimulus. Because the presence of the unconditional
stimulus, the reflex is caused. This process of stimulus-response is repeated for a number of times. After a while, the
unconditional stimulus is not offered any more. Only the conditional stimulus is offered. Because of the repeated
association of the unconditional and the conditional stimulus, the conditional stimulus will now cause the reflex on
its own. Classical conditioning is succeeded.
Pavlov's theories where very influential, in particular in the field of child psychology.

Research and experiments

The theory of Pavlov could be tested in experiments that where conducted in a laboratory. He often used animals in
his experiments. His most famous experiment is the one, in which he used dogs to demonstrate classical
conditioning. The dogs he used showed a salivation response when they where offered food (unconditional
stimulus). The food was offered a number of time with the sound of a buzzer (conditional stimulus). After this, the
sound of the buzzer alone could produce the salivation response.
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Ivan Sechnov
• Briefly stated, Sechenov’s psychological system rests on five
interrelated theses:
• A consistent physical monism: Sechenov held that psychology will
become a science only insofar as it studies the muscular and neural
action of the psyche. He asserted that no “conceivable demarcation
[from a scientific point of view] can be found between obvious
somatic, i.e., bodily, nervous acts and unmistakable psychical
phenomena”
• Physiological and psychical reactions are both considered to be
reflex actions: in Sechenov’s words, “All movements bearing the
name of voluntary in physiology are reflex in a strict sense”, and a
thought “is the first two-thirds of a psychical reflex”
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Ivan Sechnov
• (3) The reflex as the mechanism of association: “An association is,”
according to Sechenov, “an uninterrupted series of contacts of the end
of every preceding reflex with the beginning of the following one”.
The actual experience of an event and the memory of it are both
represented by identical psychical reflexes but are evoked by
different stimuli.
• (4) The psychic as associative in genesis and central neural in
mediation: perception and ideas merge from associations of reflexes
and their integration in the sensory sphere; both association and
integration are mediated by the central nervous system.
• (5) A radical environmentalism: the largest part of thoughts and ideas,
999 parts out of 1,000, as Sechenov would have it, derives from
training, and only a minimal part is due to heredity.
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About John B. Watson

• 1878 - John Broadus Watson was born in South Carolina.
• 1899 - John graduated from Furman University.
• 1901 - John majored in psychology and minored in philosophy and neurology at the University
of Chicago.
• 1903 - John B. Watson received his doctorate from the University of Chicago.
• 1905 - He enrolled at John Hopkins University
• 1907 - Watson was hired as an associate professor of psychology at John Hopkins University. It
was at JHU that he became known as the Founder of Behaviorism.
• 1913-15 - Published the article entitled "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It."
Published Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. And became the President of
the American Psychological Association.
• 1920 - Watson was dismissed from John Hopkins University. He published the "Little Albert"
Experiment. He turned his focus to advertising.
• 1924 - Watson became Vice President of J Walter Thompson Agency. He published
Behaviorism.
• 1928 - Watson published the Psychological Care of Infant and Child.
• 1945 - He retired as Vice President of William Esty Agency.
• 1958 - Dr. John Broadus Watson burnt all of his unpublished works and died a short time later.
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Contributions of J. B. Watson
• Watson’s behaviorist theory focused not on the internal emotional and
psychological conditions of people, but rather on their external and outward
behaviors. He believed that a person’s physical responses provided the only
insight into internal actions. He spent much of his career applying his theories
to the study of child development and early learning.
• Child psychology: In 1928, he published Psychological Care of Infant and
Child, cautioning people against providing children with too much affection
and endorsed the practice of treating children like miniature adults. He
believed that excessive early attachments could contribute to a dependent,
needy personality in adulthood. He specifically argued against thumb-
sucking, coddling, and excessive sentimentality, and he emphasized that
parents should be open and honest with children about sexuality.
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❧Comparative psychology: Watson’s initial research

focused on animal subjects such as rats , rabbits and
monkeys. Through these experiments he was able to draw
conclusions that he would eventually apply to humans. In
1913 he publish an article title “Psychology as the
Behaviorist views it’ This article has come to be referred
to as the Behaviorist Manifesto.
❧Conditioning: Watson paved the way for subsequent
behaviorists, such as B.F. Skinner. Some mental health
professionals use behaviorist principles to condition away
phobias and fears. In addition, advertisers frequently use
behaviorist conditioning to encourage consumers to
purchase products.
❧Little Albert Experiment.
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Postulates of Watson’s Behaviorism

• Behaviorism is basically composed of Glandular
secretions and muscular movements.
• There is an immediate response to every stimulus
and every response has some kind of stimulus.
• Behavior is successfully analyzed by objective
natural and scientific methods.
• Continuous process if they indeed exist, can’t be
studied scientifically should be ignored.
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Emotions
• According to Watson emotions are conditioned in an individual. Behaviorism
emphasizes on people’s external behavior and emotions are just the physical
responses to it.
• He believed that there are 3 emotions which are innate from birth:Fear, Rage and
Love.
• Fear: There are two stimuli which produce it naturally- sudden noise and loss of
support. When a child grows then various other stimuli begin to exist in the
environment producing fear.
• Rage: It is an innate response to body movement of child being constraint. When
a young child is held in a way in which they cannot move then the child stiffens
the body and screams. Later other situations can also lead to such reactions as
child associates this with physical restrain.
• Love: According to Watson love is an automatic response from infants toward
action by others like, tickled or patted. This is shown through smile and laughter.
Infants do not specify love towards any person but are conditioned to do so.
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Neobehaviorism
• Neobehaviorism is a system of psychology that followed
behaviorism with no clear separation between the two, and
is predominantly associated with B. F. Skinner. The
neobehaviorist movement lasted from approximately 1930
to 1960 and supported the idea that all learning and
behavior can be described in terms of conditioning.
• Operant conditioning (or instrumental conditioning) is a
term coined by B. F. Skinner in 1937 and is a type of
learning in which an individual’s behavior is modified by
its consequences; the behavior may change in form,
frequency, or strength.
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❧ Like Thorndike, Watson, and Pavlov, the

neobehaviorists believed that the study of learning
and a focus on rigorously objective observational
methods were the keys to a scientific psychology.

❧Unlike their predecessors, however, the

neobehaviorists were more self-consciously trying to
formalize the laws of behavior.