Behaviorism
Second Generation Attack on Wundt & Structuralism
•	First generation was functionalism
–	Accepted primacy of consciousness
–	But more prone to see it as a process
•	Behaviorism threw out all considerations of consciousness
Three Major Influences on Behaviorism
•	Functionalism
•	Objectivism
•	Importance of animal study
The Influence of Functionalism
•	Tried to be objective and experimental
•	Had shown flaws in structuralism
–	Unreliability of introspection
–	Meaningless without attachment to behavior
•	Emphasized behavior
–	Important in itself
–	But also gives meaning to thought
–	Criteria for evaluating behavior
•	Darwinian perspective admitted animals
Objectivism
•	Long history
•	Object-subject distinction
–	Descartes
–	Kant
•	Reality became identified with nature of the object -- objective
•	And removal of any influence of subject – subjective
Study of Animals
•	Darwinian continuity
•	Animal behavior could be explained using same terms as human
•	But do not read too much mental states into this – Lloyd Morgan
•	By extension then an objective account of animals could be applied to people
Behaviorists
•	Robert Thorndike
•	Ivan Pavlov
•	J.B. Watson
•	Clark Hull
•	B.F. Skinner
•	Edwin Tolman
Robert Thorndike
•	Students of James (Harvard) and Cattell (Columbia)
•	Model of learning based on associationist model
–	Contiguity
–	Reward for reinforcement
Ivan Pavlov
•	Discovery of classical conditioning
–	Made Cartesian reflex model central
–	Important form of learning
–	Applied to all learning
•	Showed that crucial experimental work could be done with animals and applied to humans
Classical Conditioning
•	Importance of classical conditioning
–	Explains emotional responses
–	Anything that is built on existing S-R
•	Problems
–	Cannot explain purposive behavior well
–	Can only explain behavior that is automatically elicited by some stimulus
–	Multiplying such responses leads to a large role for innate tendencies
John Watson
•	Conventionally the founder
•	Degree with Angell at Chicago 
•	Professor at Johns Hopkins until 1920
•	Sex scandal
•	Advertising 
Watson’s background
•	Enjoyed working with animals
•	Some early physiological exposure
•	Always concerned with applied problems
Watson’s aims
•	Every science seeks prediction and control
–	Introspection could not do this
–	Did not have cumulative knowledge
•	Increasing disavowal of instincts
–	Earlier British tendency to describe motivation in terms of discrete passions
–	Darwinian blessing
–	But out of control, by 1910 or so
Watson’s Theory
•	Primitive at all stages
•	Early theories emphasized reflexes
•	Later theories emphasized classical conditioning
Watson’s Influence
•	Almost no theory
•	Applications
–	Fear conditioning
–	Child development
–	Advertising
•	The promise of scientific psychology
Hullian Learning Thoery
•	Clark Hull (1884-1952)
•	Trained as engineer
•	Most of his career at Yale
•	The Institute of Psychology / Human Relations 
–	Angell as President of Yale started
–	Multi-disciplinary
Aims of the Theory
•	Explain purposive behavior in mechanical terms
•	Expand beyond simple reflexes
•	Darwinian survival of responses
•	Develop a tight hypothetico-deductive system – the model of physics
–	Highly mathematical
–	Clear derivations and predictions
How Learning Occurs
•	Learning is a series of S-R connections
•	Which are reinforced via reward
–	Primary rewards
–	Secondary – created through classical conditioning

The Concept of Drive
•	Primary drives – based on biological needs
•	Secondary based on learned needs
•	Reinforcement results from drive reduction
•	All drives summate in a given situation 
–	Generalized arousal
–	Important subsequent predictions
Sharp Distinction Between Learning and Performance

•	E = H x D x K x V
Hull’s Influence
•	Immense during 1940s and 1950s. 
–	During early 1950s had twice as many citations as next author in JEP
–	And 4 next highest were all his students
•	Stimulated vast amount of research on learning and motivation
•	Last of the great general theories
•	Created a major obstacle to new theories
•	And a convenient negative beacon
Edward Chase Tolman (1886-1959)
•	Science degree from MIT
•	Psychology at Harvard
•	Worked with Kurt Koffka
•	Career at Berkeley
•	Purposive behaviorism
–	Can’t understand even animal behavior without goal directed behavior
–	Opened door to mental concepts
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
•	Educated at Hamilton
•	PhD Harvard
•	Indiana, Minnesota and then Harvard
Skinner’s Aims
•	Get rid of as much excess baggage as possible
–	Biology
–	Thoughts
–	Motivation
•	No real theory but functional relationships
•	An applied psychology
Skinner’s Theory
•	Behavior that was reinforced would be repeated
–	Discriminative stimulus
–	Shaping
•	Reinforcement entirely empirical
–	No theory about why some things are reinforcing
–	No theory of motivation
–	Hated used of “reward”
Skinner’s Impact
•	Came to be seen as major spokesperson for behaviorism
•	Many of his principles are quite serviceable
•	Applications useful
The Legacy of Behaviorism
•	Functional analysis sometimes useful
•	Emphasis on learning
–	Now downplayed
–	But social learning theory
•	Precision of prediction and control 
•	Often quite practical