Behaviorism: Definition and Subject of Study
Behaviorism is a direction in psychology, the subject of study of which is the behavior of people and animals through a systematic approach. The main idea of this direction is that a person behaves unconsciously, his actions are determined by reflexes and reactions to triggers of the surrounding world and are based on the experience of his ancestors. Scientists denied such a phenomenon as consciousness and argued that human actions directly depend on what is happening outside.
Psychologist John Watson is considered the founder of behaviorism. He developed a simple diagram on which he clearly explained how animals and humans act - a stimulus provokes a reflex. According to Watson, any behavior can be predicted and controlled in advance if you choose the right approach to studying behavior. Many people liked this accessible explanation. In philosophy, much attention was also paid to this area. Philosopher John Locke believed that a person is born without any experience, like a blank slate. And Thomas Hobbes argued that thinking substance does not exist, man is a corporeal being.
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J.B. Watson
(1878–1958)
The name of John Watson in our country, as they say, is widely known in narrow circles. An outstanding scientist of the twentieth century, who played an exceptional role in the development of human sciences, is succinctly mentioned in several historical and scientific works, known only to a few professional psychologists. His books, translated into Russian many years ago, gather dust unclaimed on the shelves of scientific libraries. Probably, today we should fill this gap in our erudition and consider in detail the scientific biography of this scientist. Moreover, this is not without interest in practical terms.
John Brodes Watson was born on January 9, 1878 in Greenville, South Carolina. His mother was a strict and religious woman, his father, on the contrary, was a frivolous and unbelieving person. The elder Watson drank a lot and was attracted to other women. It ended up that when John was 13 years old, his father left the family. Many years later, when John Watson became a famous and wealthy man, his father showed up to remind himself. The son kicked him out.
According to rumors, which Watson himself did not refute, in his childhood and early youth he was not distinguished by an easy-going disposition and a penchant for science. In his studies, he did exactly what was required to move on to the next grade. Teachers characterized him as a careless student. As a teenager, he often got into fights and even earned two reports to the police.
Nevertheless, at the age of 16, he entered Furman Baptist University in Greenville, intending to become a minister (!), as he had once promised his mother. In 1900 he received his master's degree. But that same year, his mother died, effectively freeing her son from a long-standing vow that had already burdened him. Instead of Princeton Theological Seminary, where he had previously intended to attend, Watson went to the University of Chicago. At that time, according to the recollections of his contemporaries, he was “an extremely ambitious young man, concerned about his social status, striving to leave his mark in science, but having absolutely no idea about choosing a profession and desperately suffering from uncertainty due to a lack of funds and the ability to behave in society” (Watson arrived in Chicago with 50 dollars to his name, and during his years of study he took on any job to earn money, having been both a waiter and a janitor).
At the University of Chicago at that time, an original scientific school was formed, led by John Dewey and James Angel. Dewey, the greatest American philosopher, is better known among us as a school theorist, since it was his interest in the problems of public education that brought him to Soviet Russia in the 1920s. (Positive reviews of young Soviet pedagogy did not save the American guest from subsequent harsh criticism from the ideologically “savvy” theoreticians of the Soviet school). few people know that Dewey was also a major psychologist; In particular, he wrote the first psychology textbook in the USA. But it was not this book that determined his role in world psychological science, but a small article “The Concept of a Reflex Act in Psychology” (1896). Until then, the main research method of psychology was introspection - sophisticated introspection of a few experts who sought to identify the content of states of consciousness. With purely American pragmatism, Dewey called for a change in the goals and methods of psychology: the focus should be not on the content, but on the act, not on the state, but on the function.
Having become familiar with the works of Dewey and Angel, Watson became interested in psychology and began studying it. In 1903, he graduated from the university with a doctorate, thus becoming the youngest doctor at the University of Chicago. That same year, a little later, he married his student, nineteen-year-old Mary Ickes. One day, as an exam paper, Mary presented Watson with a long love letter in verse. It is not known what grade she received in that exam, but she achieved her goal. True, not only she liked the charming teacher, moreover, many young ladies reciprocated, starting countless affairs. The wife's patience lasted for 16 years.
Watson worked in Chicago until 1908 as a teacher and assistant to Angel. Here he published his first notable scientific work, devoted to the behavior of white rats (he was interested in training rats in his youth). “I never wanted to experiment on people,” Watson wrote. – I myself always hated being a test subject. I have never liked the stupid, artificial instructions given to test subjects. In such cases, I always felt awkward and acted unnaturally. But working with animals, I felt at ease. While studying animals, I had both feet on the ground. Gradually, I developed the idea that by observing the behavior of animals, I could find out everything that other scientists were discovering using human subjects.”
Brought up in the depths of the Chicago School, Watson firmly imbibed a distrust of introspective psychology and, following the ideas of pragmatism, outlined his own path in science, on which it would be possible to transform psychology into a fairly accurate and practically useful branch of knowledge.
In 1908–1920 Watson headed the laboratory and then the department of experimental comparative psychology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where research into animal behavior became widespread. By the way, it was precisely the fact that the phenomena of animal behavior served as the basis for Watson’s general psychological generalizations that became the cornerstone of criticism of his ideas in Soviet science (as if Pavlov’s teachings did not grow out of dog reflexes!).
At Johns Hopkins University, Watson was extremely popular among students. They dedicated their graduation album to him and declared him the most handsome professor, which is undoubtedly a unique distinction in the history of psychology.
In 1913, Watson's first programmatic work, “Psychology from the Behaviorist's Point of View,” appeared, which marked the beginning of an entire scientific direction that became dominant in psychology for many years. In it, the author called for abandoning discussions about the inner world of man. since it is practically inaccessible for observation and study. Did this mean the end of psychology as a human science? Not at all. If it is impossible to observe “consciousness”, “experience”, etc., etc., then it is quite possible and necessary to observe and study the entire widest range of human behavior. Moreover, it is behavior that is of main practical interest in all applied aspects.
Thus was born behaviorism - the science of behavior. Subsequently, his influence spread to a wide range of human sciences - pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, etc., which in English literature have since been called behavioral sciences.
Behavior became the central concept of the new psychology. Which was understood as a set of reactions of the body to environmental stimuli. According to Watson's idea, by observing a certain reaction, we can judge the stimulus that caused it, and vice versa, knowing the nature of the stimulus, we can predict the subsequent reaction. And this opens up wide possibilities not only for explaining human actions, but also for controlling them. By manipulating so-called reinforcement (by rewarding desirable reactions and punishing undesirable ones), it is possible to direct a person’s behavior in the right direction.
The practical significance of Watson's ideas was highly appreciated. In 1915 he was elected president of the American Psychological Association. Interest in his activities also showed in Russia. In 1927, an article about the scientific direction he created for the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was commissioned personally from him - an exceptional example in the practice of TSB.
It is quite obvious that the most important applied aspect of behaviorism was pedagogical practice. Watson attached exceptional importance to the pedagogical influence on the developing personality. He wrote:
Give me a dozen healthy babies and, having created an appropriate educational environment for them, I guarantee that I will raise any of them to be anything I choose - a doctor, a lawyer, an artist, a merchant, or, if you like, a thief or a beggar, regardless of his abilities, the inclinations, vocation or race of his ancestors.
Even to contemporaries such a declaration seemed a strong exaggeration. And today, perhaps, we should agree with this assessment. Although it must be admitted that for decades, domestic pedagogical thought proceeded from a similar premise. For many years it was believed that any child could be raised to be a Spinoza. And if this fails in most cases, the reason for this is the lack of efforts made by the teacher. Some teachers, who consider themselves great humanists, insist on this point of view to this day. At the same time, the name of one of the main theorists of this approach, alas, is not mentioned.
As for the notorious dozen babies, evil tongues claimed that Watson had never had so many subjects and based all his theoretical conclusions on the basis of experiments on a single baby - the illegitimate son of his graduate student Rosalia Rayner. And the most evil tongues said that the father of this universal test subject was Professor Watson himself. And so it turned out! Fifteen of Watson's love letters to Rayner were intercepted by his wife, moreover, with her consent, published in the Baltimore Sun newspaper. It's funny that even in these passionate messages one can easily discern the position of a behaviorist. “Every cell of my body belongs to you, individually and collectively...” Watson wrote. – My general reaction to you is only positive. Accordingly, the reaction of my heart is positive.”
The noisy divorce proceedings that followed had a bad effect on Watson's reputation, and he had to leave his scientific and teaching career. (Today this is hard to believe, but the pressure of public morality of those years was indeed so serious.) Despite the fact that Watson married Rosalia Rayner, he was never able to obtain an academic position again - no university dared to invite him because for his reputation.
Watson's next step will be easily understood by any modern humanist: forced to leave science, the scientist went into advertising business. In 1921, he joined the advertising agency of J. Walter Thompson at an annual salary of $25,000, four times his previous academic earnings. Working with his characteristic energy and talent, three years later he became vice president of the company. In 1936 he moved to another agency, where he worked until his retirement in 1945.
Applied to such a specific field as advertising, his ideas about behavior management were surprisingly effective. Watson insisted that advertising messages should focus not so much on content as on form and style, and should strive to impress through original images. “In order to control the consumer, you just need to put an emotional stimulus in front of him...” Agree, it works!
After 1920, Watson's contacts with the world of science became only indirect. He devoted a lot of time and effort to popularizing his ideas, gave public lectures, spoke on the radio, and published in popular magazines, such as Cosmopolitan. This undoubtedly contributed to the expansion of his fame, although it did not increase his authority in the scientific world.
Watson's only official contact with academic science was a series of lectures he gave at the New School for Social Research in New York. These lectures served as the basis for his future book Behaviorism (1930), in which he outlined his program for improving society.
In 1928, Watson, together with Rayner, published the book Psychological Care of the Child. The book was enthusiastically received by parents who were eager for scientific advice on parenting. Although the nature of these recommendations must be recognized as quite controversial. In particular, according to Watson, parents should not show their children their affection and tender feelings, so as not to form a painful dependence in them. It must be said that Watson’s two children from his second marriage were raised precisely according to this model. One of them subsequently committed suicide, the other was a patient of psychoanalysts for many years.
Watson's life changed dramatically in 1935 when his wife died. Being 20 years older than her, he was psychologically unprepared for such an event and was completely broken. He isolated himself from all social contacts and became a recluse, secluded in a wooden farmhouse that reminded him of his childhood home. He continued to write, but no longer published anything. The contents of these manuscripts are unknown to anyone: shortly before his death in 1958, Watson burned all his notes.
Main theses and features of behaviorism
To better understand the ideas and methods of behaviorism, let's look at the main provisions of this direction:
- Behaviorism studies the behavioral responses of all living things;
- human actions are studied only by observing them;
- all mental, intellectual and physiological actions are dictated by behavior;
- all actions of living beings are a response to external triggers;
- if you determine the external stimulus in advance, you can guess the person’s further behavior;
- accurate prediction of behavior is the main goal of behaviorism;
- you can influence or control the behavior of any person;
- all behavioral reactions are acquired from experience or inherited from ancestors;
- skills are developed through reflexes, the ability to think or speak are acquired skills;
- the psyche of a living being is influenced by the environment and living conditions;
- emotions arise in response to positive or negative triggers in the environment.
The ideas of behaviorism, based on empirical experience, had a great influence on the scientific community. But any theory will always have both pros and cons. Let's look at them in more detail:
- Followers of behaviorism studied only external human reactions that were possible to observe. At the same time, they completely ignored the internal manifestations of a person: psychological and physiological processes.
- Scientists argued that it was possible to influence and control the behavior of any living creature. But they studied only the external simple reactions of a person; for them the complex actions of the individual as a whole did not matter.
- Behaviorists did not take into account the difference between animals and people; they studied their actions and behavior using the same methodology.
- When developing mechanisms of behavior, scientists did not additionally study important factors - society, motivation and mental image, which also influence human actions.
Behaviorists tried to characterize all human actions through one theory, but this approach was not successful. Man is a complex creature that needs to be studied from different angles. As a result, behaviorism was able to develop external conditions that can influence a person and encourage him to take certain actions.
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Neo-behaviourist theory
E. Tolman
criticized Watson for his molecular approach.
[1]
“Behavior is the goal-oriented activity of an animal organism, which serves to establish
contact with the outside world.
Behavior is based on the needs of the animal organism, over which executive actions are built to satisfy them. The genesis of forms of behavior is due to the complication of environmental conditions, in particular the transition from a homogeneous to an objective, and then social environment.”
According to Tolman, behavior is a holistic act, aimed at a goal, selective, plastic, etc. Tolman distinguished three types of determinants of behavior:
1) independent variables (initial causes of behavior), stimuli and the initial physical state of the body;
2) abilities, i.e. species properties of the organism;
3) interfering internal variables - intentions (goals) and cognitive processes. He introduced the concept of "cognitive map". A cognitive map is a structure that develops in the animal’s brain as a result of processing external influences. It includes a complex significative structure of the relationship between stimuli and goals (sign-gestalt) and determines the behavior of the animal in the situation of the actual task. The combination of such maps allows one to adequately navigate the situation of life tasks in general, including for a person. Despite all the reservations associated with attempts to avoid mentalism, in fact, as a result of the introduction of intermediate variables, behavior actually receives a psychological characteristic. Tolman extended the conclusions obtained on animals to humans, thereby sharing Watson’s biologizing positions.
Cognitive behaviorism by E. Tolman
When describing a behavioral act, you need to include the following features: the target object that directs it and from which it comes; a specific picture of the relationship to objects that are used as a means to achieve a goal; relative selectivity to objects that act as means and the choice of those that contribute to faster achievement of the goal. The main feature of behavior is goal-oriented and cognitive in nature. Behavior is always carried out by the organism as a whole, and is not the work of individual systems.
6 pages, 2726 words
The connection between psyche and behavior in animals
The connection between psyche and behavior in animals. Plan 1. Concepts of the psyche and behavior of animals. 2. Mental activity. The connection between psyche and behavior. 3. Mental regulation of activity. Adaptive reactions. a The lowest form of regulation. The simplest regulators of behavior. b The highest form of regulation. Rational behavior. 4. Behavioral enrichment. Memory and learning. 5. Mentality and behavior in comparative psychology. WITH …
Tolman proclaimed the theory that the “cognitive factor” plays a leading role in the pursuit of goals.
The path to the goal, according to Tolman, is
memorizing a sequence of stimuli.
The unit of behavior according to Tolman is a goal-directed act using muscular movements organized around a goal and guided by cognitive processes. Tolman believed that an individual learns to establish semantic connections between stimuli, that is, it learns, in Tolman’s words, “what leads to what.” What is learned is only partially revealed in activity.
Tolman concluded his contribution to neobehaviorism with the concept of “expectation and comparison.”
He believed that on the basis of a cognitive map, an expected image is created in the brain. As a result of comparing the expected image with reality, the behavior that leads to the expected is selected. Tolman believed that the expected gestalt is recognized by its sign. Therefore, Tolman's theory is also called the theory of sign learning. Tolman also introduced the concept of latent (that is, hidden) learning.
Professional activity
He decided to start his career in the advertising industry at the famous New York agency J. Walter Thompson" (JWT), which was headed at that time by Stanley Reesor. Reasor believed that Watson would lead and shape research that would reveal the laws of human behavior and make it possible to influence their minds. For his part, Watson wanted to “use his own psychological knowledge and work skills to solve problems related to the market.”
Like absolutely all new JWT employees, Watson mastered a special course - introduction to a new profession. First of all, he needed to study the rubber footwear market in an impressive area. Afterwards, for 10 weeks he visited small shopping centers, trying to sell the type of coffee that was advertised by the agency, and then for 2 months he worked as a manager in one of the department stores. Watson wrote that his training demonstrated his limited knowledge of psychology, his limited understanding of the advertising industry, and his ignorance of many consumer habits and habitats. But still, Watson’s activity at the agency was not to study the psychology of the buyer or the mechanisms of influence of advertising, but to promote new ideas of psychology in advertising research.
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Note 1
In the early 1930s, Watson noted that psychology had already left the academic laboratory and entered where products were sold and bought. Market research is becoming an integral part of advertising campaigns, and laboratories are beginning to appear to test consumer reactions to newspaper articles.
Watson often spoke on the radio: his speeches were structured in such a way as to present products not directly, but gradually. For example, he explained that coffee increases mental productivity. He did not offer to buy Pebeco toothpaste, but he explained the functions of the salivary glands and related their work to the process of brushing teeth. Listeners were given lecture summaries and free paste samples.
Watson's widespread fame increased the credibility of his performances and helped the company reach new clients. In 1924 he was appointed vice-president of JWT.
