Classical Behaviorism (John B.

Watson)
Behaviour includes everything a person or animal does that can be observed in some way. It
can be recorded and studied.
Behaviourism rejected the mind as the subject of psychology and restricted it to the study of
behaviour.
It had three important characteristics:
An emphasis on conditioned responses;
An emphasis on learned rather than unlearned behaviour;
Its focus on animal behaviour
Watsons behaviourism: Psychology as the science of behaviour
Psychology Without Consciousness:
Watson was the man who crossed the bridge and closed the gap between the study of animal
and human behaviour.
He combined into one system the philosophical pragmatism of James, the psychological
functionalism of Dewey, the experimental method of Yerkes, and the animal conditioning of
Pavlov and Bekhterev.
Watsons system is based upon determinism, empiricism, reductionism, and
environmentalism.
He proposed a Psychology that would take as a starting point:First, the observable facts that both man and animal do adjust themselves to their
environment by means of heredity and habit equipment;
Secondly, given the stimuli, the response can be predicted;
His Psychology dealt with overt and observable behaviour of the organism, its muscles,
glands, and tissues.
He hoped that all human behaviour could be interpreted in physical-chemical terms.
To him, behaviour of man and animal must be considered on the same plane and thus be
investigated without appeal of consciousness.
Nature Vs Nurture:
Watson admitted the existence of innate instincts and emotions but limited them to very few
relatively simple responses---- fear, rage, and love. Later, he discarded completely the instinct
theory. He took a radical environmentalistic stand in the nature-nurture controversy. He did
not deny the fact that certain patterns of behaviour were innate but they were limited in
number and rather unimportant in comparison with the role of experience.

Theory of Learning:
Of all the laws of association, Watson preferred the laws of frequency and recency.
Conditioning or association by contiguity became incorporated in Watsons theory.
He applied conditioning to most complex forms. He maintained that the right response was
the most recent one and it occurred more frequently during the process of learning.
Perception, Thought, and Speech:
All human behaviour was divided by Watson into explicit and implicit.
Explicit behaviour included all observable activities, such as, walking, talking, etc.
Implicit behaviour included the secretion of glands, visceral, and nerve functions.
A concept of sensation was rejected because it is unobservable.
In the controversy with the introspectionists, Watson suggested the verbal report which is
sort of motor response to sensory stimuli.
Even the range of perception, from the red to the violet end of spectrum for instance could be
studied objectively.
The most economic way of reaction is Speech. Speech is thinking and thinking is speech.
Overt expression of words is speech. As a child grows he learns to avoid too much overt
expression and learns to speak subvocally, i.e., a voiceless speech. This voiceless as well as
vocal speech is identical with thinking. The only difference between the two types of speech
is that the former is an implicit kind of behaviour while the latter is an implicit.
Emotion:
An emotion is a hereditary pattern reaction involving profound changes of the bodily
mechanisms as a whole. Watson maintained that three innate emotions could be found in
human infants, rage, fear, and love. These are the basic pattern reactions which are inherited.
Any other emotion or combinations of them are acquired by conditioning, e.g., fear is
provoked in newborn infants by a violent noise or by sudden removal of support. Adult
emotions are a product of the basic pattern reactions but are largely modified by life
experiences.
Personality:
It is the end product of our habit system. Behaviourism regards personality as a totality of
behavioural patterns, which are quite consistent but not unchangeable. These patterns of
behaviour can be conditioned and unconditioned, reinforced and extinguished. Thus,
personality is the sum of the individuals total assets (actual & potential) and liabilities (actual
& potential) on the reaction side.
Physiology or Psychology:
Physiology deals with definite functions of the organism while the psychologist deals with
the relationship of the organism as a whole to its environment. Watson firmly points to the
molar approach, i.e., No matter what the human/animal is doing, he does it as a whole.

Critical Evaluation:
Watson limited himself to the study of observable phenomena but evasion of a problem does
not equal its solution.
He suggested eliminating states of consciousness from psychological investigation but it is a
legitimate though limited topic of psychological inquiry.
Watson was unable to keep his programmatic promise by introducing verbal report that
opened the door for introspectionism.
There is a difference between the methodological approach of behaviourism and
behaviourism as a theory of human behaviour. The first insists on avoiding the uncontrolled
and unobservable phenomena. While the second erected a mechanistic model of human
beings with little credit to heredity and practically everything explained by conditioning. One
may accept the first sort of behaviourism without approving of the second.
Watson tried to combine both and hence the apparent weakness of his system.
In his effort to reduce psychology to some sort of generalized physiology he reduced all
unobservable data such as thinking, feeling, perceiving to physiological facts of muscular
tensions and glandular secretions which could not be observed but potentially observable,
without making sure that whether the observable and unobservable groups of data form a
continuum.
In spite of these criticisms Watson is regarded as the Father of Behaviourism.
Neobehaviorism
Tolman (1886-1959): A Purposive Behaviorism
Tolman believed that behaviour was goal directed or purposive and that molar rather than
molecular behaviour should be the unit of study. He did not think that reinforcement was
necessary for learning to occur. He developed the concept of the intervening variable, a
hypothetical factor internal to the organism that intervenes between stimulus and response
and is defined operationally. Many of the intervening variables in Tolmans systems were
cognitive.
Clark Hull (1884-1952):Hypothetico- Deductive Behaviorism
Hull had mastery of mathematics and formal logic.
He was keenly devoted to the problems of scientific methodology.
He applied the language of mathematics to psychological theory in a manner that was not
used by any other psychologist.
He used the Hypothetico-Deductive Method to study the problems of behaviour.
Hypothetico-deductive Method: a methodological approach in science that may be logically
or empirically based and that involves a series of initial principles that are tentatively

accepted and subsequently tested for all implications before their final inclusion in a general
theorem.
Hull was influenced by logical positivism.
According to Hull, whatever exists, it exists in a certain quantity. Whatever relationships have
to be discovered by science, they have to be presented by mathematical equations.
Four methods leading to the discovery of scientific truth:
1. Simple, unplanned observation
2. Systematic, planned observation
3. Experimental testing of some specific and mutually exclusive hypotheses, which
come from intuition or observation and are tested by a carefully planned
experimentation
4. A three-step method of research is the most fruitful. It applies rigorous deduction from
a priori set principles:
First, a system of definition has to be introduced.
Then, a series of highly conceptualized postulates (tentatively stated laws) is proposed.
From the definitions and postulates, a series of detailed theorems is rigorously deduced.
The totality of definitions, postulates and theorems form a systematic and integrated theory.
This theory should be tested by a carefully controlled experimentation. Any part of the theory
which does not pass the experimental test has to be modified according to the experimental
evidence.
Any scientific theory should permit the observational determination of its truth or falsity.
As a behaviourist, Hull centred his psychological views on habit formation, the
accumulations of experiences for effective adaptation.
Essentially Hulls theory of learning is centred on the necessity of reinforcement, defined in
terms of the reduction of drives arising from the motivational states.
The behaving organism is viewed in the context of a homeostatic model seeking equilibrium
from drive forces.
The core of Hulls analysis concerns the notion of intervening variables, described as
unobservable entities employed by psychologists to account for observable behaviour.

From a purely behavioural perspective, Hull extended Watsons conceptualization of

behaviour in terms of the peripheral (S-R) events to consideration of central, organismic
factors, Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R), intervening variables.
S-O-R was suggested by Woodworth, however, Hull systematically articulated organismic
variables.
One of the famous postulates given by Hull is Habit Strength. The chief intervening variable
for learning was Habit Strength, which depends on two factors:
Contiguity: close temporal relationship between stimulus and reinforcement;
Reinforcement: defined as drive reduction.
Habit Strength and Drive interact to produce reaction potentialthe tendency to produce
some reaction under the effect of the stimulus.
Hull was a behaviourist, who endorsed methodological behaviourism, and rejected
metaphysical behaviourism.

As a methodological behaviourist, he did not deny the existence of mental phenomena.

He thought that mental phenomena needed explaining rather than themselves being used as
explanatory devices.

He therefore proposed to give as complete an explanation of action as possible and hoped that
his theory would someday help to account for consciousness.

His major contribution was the publication, named, Principles of Behaviour (1943). In this
work, he attempted to lay down the framework for a comprehensive theory of all mammalian
behaviour. He outlined a set of postulates and correlates.

principle---now called reinforcement---into the conditioning framework.

He extended Watsons conceptualization of behaviour in terms of the peripheral S-R events

Hulls contributions
Objective Terminology and Methodology: he demonstrated the value of setting ones sight
upon the ultimate goal of a thoroughly scientific and systematic behaviour theory.
New Problem Areas: conceived new ways of viewing problems and suggested new
relationships to be studied. He was a theoretical psychologist.

Criticisms:
Synthetic Approach: he attempted to work out a comprehensive theoretical account of
mammalian behaviour over a very short span of years, before much of the necessary research
had been done.
Particularistic Approach: too much reliance upon particular values of critical variables within
special experimental circumstances. In general, S-R theorists have been criticized for
oversimplifying complex behavioural problems.

Logical weakness: failed to build in logically necessary connections between his constructs.
The easy relationships between constructs envisioned by Hull was largely illusory.

B. F.

Skinner (1904-1990): Radical Inductive Behaviorism

Skinner gave the Inductive Behaviorism. He was a positivist, anti-reductionist who took an
inductive, descriptive and atheoretical approach.

His system confined itself to description rather than explanation. Concepts are defined in
terms of immediate observations and are not given local or physiological properties. He
avoided theory, because Psychology was still at a primitive developmental stage and
elaborate theorizing misplaces the real goal of the study i.e., personal satisfaction from
confirmation of theory becomes the issue rather than acquisition of facts. He was against
giving any postulate a priori and then checking the assumption against empirical evidence.
This approach brought him closer to operationism. Operationism rejects any speculative
approach to enquiry. It suggests keen observation of operations performed by the scientist.

He believed that more effective progress toward the prediction and control of behavior could
be obtained through a careful collection of data. Subsequently, relationships among variables
could be discovered via experimental techniques. In this respect Skinner is opposed to Hull,
whose main endeavor was to postulate a theory a priori and check the theorem against
empirical evidence.
Skinner preferred to start from empirical data and gradually if at all proceed toward tentative
generalization and limited theories. He proposed that such generalizations should be allowed
to develop gradually, not forced prematurely.
Secondly, Skinner emphasized upon a thorough analysis of the behavior of single organisms.
He did not want to use large groups of subjects. A disadvantage of large group is that the
experimenter usually attends primarily to statistical properties of the group rather than to the
behavior of the individuals within it. Skinner believed that large-group experiments do not
lead to predictive control of behavior of the individuals. Rather when large amounts of data
from a single animal are collected under stringently controlled conditions, the results will be
clearly replicable with other individuals.
Third, Skinner objected particularly to physiological speculation in theory. He said that
instead of futile physiologizing, only when physiological data have some concrete points
about behavioral observations, they should be permitted to influence psychology. An example
of his aphysiological attitude is his unorthodox use of Reflex.
To him Reflex was just any observed correlation of Stimulus and Response.
It is the simplest unit of behavior. According to him, just like reflexes in the internal body
environment are important for the well being of the person such as smooth muscles &
digestion. In the same way, reflex behavior that involves the external environment is
important. For example, if an organisms hand gets burnt by touching a hot iron, its
important that the hand should be flexed rapidly so that hand is withdrawn.
Conditioned reflexes have survival value in helping the organism to modify its behavior &
to adjust to changing conditions. Since reflex is the basic unit of observable behavior, the
scientific inquiry has to discover the natural laws governing the reflexes.

Fourth major methodological characteristic was emphasis on operant as contrasted with

respondent behavior. Whenever behavior is correlated to specific eliciting stimuli, it is
respondent behavior and whenever no such stimuli are present it is called operant
behavior.

There are two kinds of conditioning, S and R.

S-type applies to respondent behavior and the R-type is the conditioning of operant behavior.
In Pavlovs experiment the reinforcer was paired with the stimulus.
In Skinners experiments the reinforcer is contingent upon the response, e.g., for pigeons
food is the reinforcer. Food is presented when the pigeon raises its head. Operant
reinforcement improves the efficiency of behavior.
The term operant implies that the behavior operates upon the environment to generate
consequences.
The Nature of Reinforcement:
Skinner was unable to explain the nature of reinforcement; however, he offered a detailed and
precise description of reinforcement.
In a series of ingeniously planned experiments with pigeons, Skinner studied the interval and
the ratio reinforcements.
In case of interval reinforcements reinforcements were given at more or less fixed intervals,
a definite number of times per hour. This kind of conditioning has been shown to be highly
resistant to extinction.
Ratio Reinforcement the reinforcement was administered after a certain number of
responses. The less frequent the reinforcement, the quicker the response.
Emotions Skinner sees emotions as predispositions to act in certain ways. The angry
person may show an increased probability of striking, insulting etc. the emotional responses
are reinforced by their consequences or feedback mechanism, such as a result of anger
reinforces anger. Emotions should not be identified with physiological or psychic conditions.

Skinner consistently avoided the mentalistic terms: pleasure and displeasure. He preferred
to discuss behavior in the dimensions of positive and negative reinforcers.
Positive Reinforcer any stimulus, the presentation of which strengthens the behavior upon
which it is made contingent.
Negative Reinforcer any stimulus the withdrawal of which strengthens the behavior.
According to Skinner Punishment is application of a negative stimulus or withdrawal of a
positive one.
Persistence in the application of Inductive Empiricism
Skinner insisted that all areas of behavior could and should be seen as a function of
environment.
He rejected the idea of an inner self, will power. According to him all the repertoire of our
actions ranging from daily routine activities to thinking, problem solving are behaviors that
can be described in terms of environment, manipulation of dependent and independent
varieties and reinforcement and punishment.
Major Contributions
Shaping - Presenting rewards to the trainee (human or animal), contingent upon a graded
series of responses approximating the desired response.
Superstitious Behavior Animals sometimes develop orderly behaviors in the absence of
reward for that behavior. Such behavior is superstitious.
Schedules of reinforcement Four major types of schedules:
Fixed Interval first response made after some fixed period of time is reinforced.
Fixed Ratio first response made after some fixed number of responses is reinforced.
Variable Interval first response made after variable period of time is reinforced,
Variable Ratio first response made after some variable number of responses is reinforced.

Verbal Behavior Language as verbal behavior is basically similar to other behavior and can
be best understood when viewed in this general framework.
Verbal behavior is the behavior where reinforcement is mediated by another organism that
has been specifically conditioned to mediate such reinforcements.
Verbal operants are related to an antecedent condition, a controlling stimulus. For example, if
a person says chair, he/she is demanding a reinforcer.
Behavioral Technology Skinner played an important role in the development and
popularized the application

of

behavioral techniques such as behavior modification,

teaching machines and presented as an intellectual justification for using behavioral

technology.
Criticisms
Positivism attacked for his atheoritical approach; theory is inevitable. Every experiment and
observation is in some way planned. So its better to bring the presupposition, formalize them
and then recognize and challenge them.
Excessive Extrapolation Skinners application of programmed learning techniques too
literal. Human beings need not always make an overt behavior in order to learn.
Accounts of Verbal Behavior Chomsky (1959) argued that extension of the concept of
reinforcement to the explanation of verbal behavior is completely unjustified. Skinner had
used the term reinforcement several times for unidentifiable stimulus (automatic selfreinforcement).
Environmentalism - too much emphasis on often encountered learned behavior and had great
faith in the power of operant procedures. Operant conditioning is not successful in teaching
the desired behavior in case of certain species of animals (Breland & Breland, 1961).
Neglect of Statistics in his studies, he preferred small number of individuals rather than
larger groups.

Skinners role in Contemporary Psychology

Skinnerian tradition is still alive and strong with no dearth of research papers in this area. His
views are serious competitors to Freuds.
Revived and extended the strictly behavioral position of Watson.
He remains the most important of the true behaviorists.