PSYC 403 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Noxious Stimulus, Connectionism, Systematic Desensitization
23 Jan 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Behaviourism II (Nov 16)
JOHN WATSON
• Born in Greenville, S. Carolina: mother: a rigorous Baptist, father - an alcoholic - left the family.
Adolescent John: a troublemaker
• 1899 teaching in a one-room school in Greenville
• 1900 Chicago: working as a janitor in the animal lab and studying under John Dewey
(pragmatist) and Jacques Loeb (famous for his theory of tropism in the plants)
• 1902 nervous breakdown or depression?
• 1903 Doctorate on Animal education: development of the white rat.
• Research on the impact of eliminating senses in a rat: what is the necessary minimum to
traverse a maze?
• “ith fro psyhology to ehaiouristi rats-ology
• Marrying one of his students
• 1907 Hired by J.M. Baldwin at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
• 1909 J.M. Baldwin - involved in a scandal - resigned from the position of editor of the
Psychological Review and was replaced by J. Watson
• 1913 J. Watso: iited to gie a letue at Coluia Uiesit N.Y. Psychology as the
behaviorist views it- his radical manifesto.
• 1914 Elected the 24th president of the APA. His 1st ook Behaiois: ad Itodutio to
opaatie psholog.
• Experimental phobia in an 11-month-old boy Albert (induced in collaboration with Rosalie
Rayner).
His Manifesto
Q: What did he completely reject? What did he focus on?
• Total rejection of mental processes and introspection reductionist
• The ai as a ste o should e left for physiological studies
o We do’t eed to iestigate the black box hat’s goig o / “ ad R iside the
brain)
• Psychology = behaviorism
• Behaviorism has to focus on the S-R link only and avoid any hypothesis about the `mental
mechanisms`.
Q: What are the four types of responses?
• Four types of responses:
o overt learned; e.g. talking.
o covert learned; e.g. increase of heart rate as a CR.
o overt non learned; e.g. breathing
o covert non learned; e.g. glandular UCR.
Q: Does speaking and thinking have a physiological basis too?
• Speaking and thinking are just movements of the speech apparatus
o Went so far that he even thought that thinking had some physiological and biological
components
o Thinking is just miniature movements of our speech apparatus!
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Behaviourism II (Nov 16)
Watson vs. McDougall Debate
Q: What did Watson say about the etiology of instincts?
• the instincts are innate/ inborn reaction patterns,
o instincts (breathing, sucking, elimination) are by-products of the structure (CNS)
o same as the tropisms observed in plants
Q: Are they important for animals or humans or both? When/ what are they replaced by?
• Instincts are important in animals + small babies
o Later on, they are replaced by learned habits
o So Watson argued that while instincts are innate, they are transient, and habits are
more important in the long-term
Q: What are the instinctual reflexes we inherit? What are the instinctual emotions?
• Along with the structure of the CNS and instinctual reflexes such as breathing, sucking,
eliminating, humans (and animals) inherit some instinctual emotions such as:
o fear (elicited by loud noises/ loss of support),
o rage (elicited by restricting movements) and
o love (elicited by stroking or patting the infant)
Q: What are their derivatives of these instinctual emotions of fear, rage, and love?
• Pride, jealousy and shame emerge later
Watso’s faous stateets:
• Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – a
doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even into beggar man and thief, regardless of his talents,
tedeies, ailities, oatios…
• How to treat children as small adults:
o Never hug and kiss them, never let them sit on your lap. If you must, kiss them once on the
forehead when they say good night. Shake hands with them in the morning. Give them a pat on
the head if the hae ade a etra ordiar good jo of a diffiult task. Tr it out. I a eek’s
time you will find how easy it is to be perfectly objective with your child and at the same time
kindly. You will be utterly ashamed at the mawkish, sentimental way you have been handling it.
(John Watson, 1928).
• Teats hilde as it thigs, ot people – he can train them to be whatever he wants!
Watson and his assistant, Rayner
• Produced a rat phobia in a small boy (Albert)
• Child would play with the animal, and they would strike a metal rod behind him (associating the
scared sensation with the rat)
• So eventually, the presence of the rat would cause the child to cry
• By virtue of generalization, child would cry at similar furry objects
Watso’s sadal
• Cheated on his wife with his assistant, Rayner
• He was fired from the university for this
• Eventually started working for business companies, but publishing
• APA awarded him the prize in 1957 (he was so sick his son went to accept it for him)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
