Task 6 - Behaviorism

Question 1

Who was J.B. Watson? (roughly)

Answer 1

• 1878 - 1958
• Professor at John-Hopkins University
• Head of “the psychological review”

Question 2

What is Watson known for?

Answer 2

• promoted animal research (influenced by Thorndike)
• 1913 - Significant article:
• > condemning the lack of scientific method in many laboratories
• > Behaviorist manifesto, beginning of Behaviorism
• > Defined psychology as purely objective science based on observations and predicting behavior.
• Little Albert experiments

Question 3

What was George Romanes known for?

Answer 3

Promoting comparative psychology

Question 4

What is Anthropomorphism?

Answer 4

Interpreting animal behavior by attributing human like intelligence and motives to them.

Question 5

What is “Thorndike’s Puzzle Box”?

Answer 5

• Cage with opening mechanism
• In order to reach food, animals had to escape the box
• Thorndike recorded time it took to open the box after multiple trials

Question 6

What discovery did Thorndike’s studies using the puzzle box lead to?

Answer 6

• > Law of Effect: Behavior followed by positive consequences is more likely to be repeated
• > Birthday of Comparative Psychology

Question 7

When did Thorndike live?

Answer 7

1874 - 1949

Question 8

Name the birth years of three major psychological journals / associations.

Answer 8

1887 - American Journal of Psychology
1892 - American Psychological Association
1894 - The Psychological Review

Question 9

What were the dominating views in Europe and America in the early 20th century?

Answer 9

America: Functionalist
Europe: Structuralism

Question 10

Behaviorism made use of three concepts from the philosophy of science. Namely:

Answer 10

1) Need for operational definitions (quantitively describable)
2) Independent and dependent variables
3) Need for verification

Question 11

Behaviorsim was also known as ____ - Psychology

Answer 11

S-R-Psychology, based on relationship between stimulus and response.

Question 12

What is Pavlov famous for?

Answer 12

• Father of classical conditioning
• > big influence on Behaviorism
• > Was part of a movement that believed that psychology can be reduced to physiological reflexes

Question 13

What did Hull’s work largely consist of?

Answer 13

• Trying to explain motivation and learning using mathematical equations

Question 14

What sets Skinner and Hull apart?

Answer 14

Hull took internal mental process into consideration, unlike Skinner.

Question 15

Who was Skinner and what did he do?

Answer 15

• 1904 - 1990
• Radical Behaviorism: Everything is based on S-R-Associations
• > Said, people are not directly responsible for their actions as they’re only acting in response to stimuli.
• > Denied importance of information processing
• Famous researcher of Operant Conditioning

Question 16

Who was Tolmann and what is his position to Skinner?

Answer 16

• Doubted Skinners interpretation of operant conditioning
• > Latent learning: animals learn even without being reinforced to do so.
• Came up with Purposive Behaviorism: Behavior is goal directed and information acquired through latent learning can later be used for a certain goal.