Behaviorism

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Behaviorism
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Outline

• Definition
• Brief history
• Determinism
• Pragmatism
• Anti-Mentalism

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What is behaviorism?

• Central idea A science of behavior is possible
• How about Psychology?
• Many reject Psychology as a science at all
• Others consider its subject matter to be
  something other than behavior
• Behaviorists call the science of behavior
  Behavior Analysis

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What is behaviorism

• There is a debate to whether Behavior Analysis is
  part of Psychology, the same as Psychology or
  separate from Psychology (Behaviorology)
• Professional Organizations and journals define
  the discipline
• Behaviorism is the set of ideas about this
  science not the science itself

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What is behaviorism

• Behaviorism offers an alternative view that runs
  against traditional thinking about behavior
• Why?
• Because traditional thinking is unscientific

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Rise of Behaviorism

• Last half of 19th century, Psychology was defined
  as the science of the mind
• Introspection was the method adopted
• Some Psychologists found this method to be
  unreliable (1800-1900)
• Donders (reaction times), Fechner (noticeable
  difference), Ebbinghaus (learning and memory),
  Pavlov (reflex)

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Rise of Behaviorism

• Development of comparative psychology based on
  continuity of species
• Lots of studies done with mazes and lots of
  inferences about animals state of mind
• John Watson considered these inferences to be
  worst than introspection in terms of subjectivity.

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Rise of Behaviorism

• 1913 Psychology as a behaviorist views it by
  J.B. Watson
• absurd to construct the conscious content of
  the animal whose behavior we have been studying
  (p.159)
• Psychology was defined as the study of
  consciousness

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Methodological Behaviorism

• Watsons version
• No reference to mind or conciousness
• No introspection
• Only observable behavior
• Important legacy
• That we can have an objective science of behavior
• Behavior can be dealt with scientifically rule
  out mysterious factors
• Just like Darwin challenge the notion of God,
  Watson challenged the notion of Free Will (mind)

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Determinism

• Behavior is orderly, can be explained, predicted
  and controlled
• Traditionally, responsibility is given to the
  individual rather than genes and environment
• Notion that people have the freedom to choose
  their actions
• Free will implies a third element controlling
  behavior
• Free will is an experience and not a causal
  factor
• Libertarian free will (from Judeo-Christian
  theology) conflicts with behaviorism

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Determinism

• According to Baum (1989) free will is simply a
  name for ignorance of the determinants of
  behavior. The more we know of the reasons behind
  a persons actions, the less likely we are to
  attribute them to free will.
• Ex., stealing cars

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Pragmatism

• Realism Things I see are really there real
  world is external and experiences are internal.
• We can discover/explain how this world operates.
• We, however, only have contact with what our
  senses tell us we use sense data to infer about
  the world.

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Pragmatism

• Science should not emphasize discovering the
  truth, but making sense of our experiences
• Rain falls not because of a mysterious god
• What does knowledge allow us to do? What is the
  practical implication of certain notions? Ex, is
  there a real world out there?

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Pragmatism

• An idea is truer than another if it allow us to
  better understand, predict and control our
  experience
• No theory is an absolute transcript of reality
  (James)
• The theorys usefulness is the key

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Pragmatism

• Methodological behaviorists are realists the
  objective sense data gathered and agreed upon
  reflects the real world
• While radical (modern) behaviorists are
  pragmatists
• Describe behavior in a useful economical way we
  use invented terms that helps us make sense of
  our experiences. Describe functional
  relationships present in our universe.

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Mentalism

• A type of dualism that leads to circular
  explanations
• Influenced by Renee Descartes
• Public X Private events
• Thoughts, feelings, sensations??
• For a radical behaviorist, this distinction is
  insignificant
• New technologies are turning public what used to
  be private (MRI)

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Mentalism

• Behavior is a natural event - must be located in
  time and space
• Mind is not a natural event, some processes
  consisting of what is typically referred to as
  the mind may be natural events
• Dangerous because it invokes explanatory fictions

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Mentalism

• Mental causes obstruct inquiry
• the devil made me do it
• Mental causes are not parsimonious/economical
• inference about a cause based on the effect (eat
  vegetables lt-gt vegetarian)
• Behavior analysis excludes terms such as mind,
  intelligence, reason and belief as explanations
  for behavior

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Radical Behaviorism

• However, Skinner includes the study of private
  events as well as covert behavior in a science of
  behavior
• Thinking and feeling are behaviors just like
  walking
• Natural events that whose functional relations
  with the environment can be explain
• The fact that they cannot be observed by two
  separate observers is not a problem since the
  truth of a phenomenon is not achieved by
  agreement but by usefulness.

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Influences

• Bacon (1561-1626)
• Experimentation rather than comtemplation
• New Atlantis
• Darwin (1809-1882)
• Selectionism
• Sechenov (1829-1905)
• All aspects of the mind were reflexes

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Influences

• Mach (1836-1916)
• Economy in science
• Practical concern
• Explanation as description of functional
  relations
• Theories are dangerous
• Thorndike (1875-1949)
• Not clear

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Influences

• Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Rigor of experimental control
• Attempt to conceptualize behavior of whole
  organism
• Watson (1878-1958)
• Skinner read about Watson through Russells work

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Influences

• Russell (1872-1970)
• Materialism/behaviorism
• Loeb (1859-1924)
• Study the behavior of invertebrates
• Rejected inferences of mental functions for
  kineses and taxes
• Was Croziers teacher

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Influences

• Skinner (1904-1990)
• Behavior of Organisms in 1938
• Walden Two in 1948
• Fred Keller and Nat Schoenfeld
• Principles of Psychology (1950)

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Influences

• Skinner
• Science and Human Behavior in 1953
• Basic concepts, application to individual,
  groups, controlling agencies and design of a
  culture
• Schedules of Reinforcement in 1957
• Methods developed
• Verbal Behavior in 1957

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Influences

• JEAB 1958
• Books between 58-68
• JABA -1968
• ABA - 1974

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Summary

• Behavior analysts are
• Determinists
• Pragmatists
• Monists or anti-mentalists
• As a science, behavior analysis aims at
  understanding functional relations between
  environmental variables and behavior, so we can
  better predict and control human actions

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PSYC 281

• In this class you will learn about the process of
  scientific discovery
• Read about attempts to identify functional
  relations and ways of explaining them.
• This knowledge serves as the basis for creating
  behavior modification techniques, (currently
  referred to as ABA).