1. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Chapter 14 - Other Behavioral Psychologies A History of Psychology: Ideas and Context (4 th edition) D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, and William Douglas Woody This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program

2. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Behaviorism Learning research formed the foundation of behavioral research and theory. Behaviorists emphasized precision and clarity of terms and concepts. They employed an operationalist approach. –They preferred operational definitions. Behaviorists accepted logical positivism. –The belief that concepts are void of scientific meaning if they cannot be explicitly verified or confirmed. Behaviorism centered on experimental results. –They sought to understand the foundations of learning.

3. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Early Behavioral Psychologies Some early behavioral psychologies coexisted with Watson. Max Frederick Meyer focused his research on the mechanisms of the ear and the psychology of music. –His larger vision for psychology was behavioral. –He emphasized the importance of measurement in psychological research. –He suggested that psychology should study both basic and applied topics. William McDougall preceded Watson in defining psychology as a positive science –He advocated the study of behavior, speech, and hormic behavior (goal-seeking behavior). –McDougall argued for a wide range of methods. –He emphasized the importance of instinct in human behavior, putting himself at odds with mainstream behaviorism.

4. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Early Behavioral Psychologies Edwin Bissell Holt advocated the study of behavior. –He provided a more philosophical definition of behavior than Watson used. –He studied purposeful behavior. Albert Paul Weiss was perhaps the most radical and uncompromising behaviorist. –He argued that all human behavior “reduces to nothing but: different kinds of electron-proton groupings characterized according to geometric structure [and] the motions that occur when one structural or dynamic form changes into another.” Walter Samuel Hunter represented a more liberal view of behaviorism. –He preferred the term anthroponomy to psychology because of the mentalistic connotations of psychology. –Hunter was open to a wide variety of methods and a diverse range of problems.

5. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Early Behavioral Psychologies Karl Spencer Lashley studied the cortical basis of learning and discrimination. –He demonstrated that there is no brain center for learning and intelligence. –Mass action referred to the idea that rate, efficiency, and accuracy of learning depend on the amount of cortex available. –Equipotentiality refers to the idea that one part of the cortex can take over the function of another part.

6. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Neobehaviorism - Hull Neobehaviorism was heavily influenced by Watson’s tradition. –These systems were alternatives to Watson’s system. Clark Leonard Hull pioneered new quantitative approaches to the study of behavior. –Hull’s work started with simple observations. He proposed mathematical intervening variables tied precisely to observable stimuli and behavior. Reinforcement, for Hull, included stimuli that reduced drive. Hull’s notion of extinction included reactive inhibition, which functioned like fatigue, and conditioned inhibition, which refers to the rewarding nature of rest after a response. Hull’s theory was criticized for being narrow and difficult to apply.

7. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Neobehaviorism - Guthrie Edwin Ray Guthrie avoided technical language and formal theory –He was concerned about the transitions from the laboratory to the world. –Guthrie argued that reinforcement had no effect on learning. –He maintained that the law of contiguity is the only law of learning. –Guthrie believed that learning takes place in one trial. His definitions of stimulus and response reflect his views. –Extinction was the new learning resulting from the process of establishing new responses to old stimuli.

8. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Neobehaviorism - Tolman Edward Chase Tolman promoted a cognitive behaviorism. –He studied molar behavior, large units of behavior found in the world. –He viewed molar behavior as goal-directed. –He advocated a purposive behaviorism in which behavior was also cognitive and docile (i.e., teachable).. –For Tolman, intervening variables are psychological processes that direct behavior and mediate between stimuli and responses. Expectancy is an example of an intervening variable. –Tolman argued that reinforcement guides performance but not learning as such. He demonstrated that latent learning was possible in the absence of reinforcement. –Tolman interpreted extinction as a change in the expectancies of the organism. –Tolman argued for the recognition of more advanced cognitive processes in animals, including cognitive maps and insight in learning, described as inventive ideation.

9. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Neobehaviorism - Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner shaped American behaviorism through the present. –The most important precursors to Skinner’s behaviorism include Charles Darwin, C. Lloyd Morgan, Edward Lee Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov, and John B. Watson. –Skinner’s philosophy of behaviorism viewed psychology as an objective and natural science. He complimented methodological behaviorism with radical behaviorism. –Skinner emphasized operant conditioning (Type I or Type R conditioning) over classical conditioning (Pavlovian, Type II, or Type S conditioning). He studied the modification of behavior as a consequence of reinforcement. He developed the cumulative recorder as a means of recording operant behavior.

10. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Neobehaviorism - Skinner Skinner’s applied research explored areas such as –verbal behavior, –developmental psychology and the aircrib, –the application of behavioral principles in education, and –the process of aging. –Skinner worked with the military to train pigeons to fly armed gliders. –He published Walden Two, a description of life in a hypothetical experimental colony emphasizing behavioral engineering. –Skinner encouraged clinical applications of behavioral principles, particularly in the treatment of phobias. Skinner’s students Keller and Marian Breland left their graduate program to train animals for entertainment and commercial purposes. –They later challenged behaviorists to consider instinctive behavior.

11. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Contributions Further contributions to applied psychology from neobehaviorism were numerous and varied. Many theorists actively pursued practical problems.