Task 6 From thinking animal to behaviourism

Question 1

Behaviourism

Answer 1

movement in psychology arguing that observable behaviours are the most important aspect of human functioning to be understood; denies to various extents the relevance of information processing going on in the mind; particularly strong in the USA in the first half of the twentieth century

Question 2

Comparative psychology

Answer 2

study of behaviour of animals, usually with the intention to shed light on human functioning within the framework of the evolutionary theory

Question 3

Operational definition

Answer 3

definition of a variable in terms of how the variable has been measured; allows description of the variable in quantitative form

Question 4

Independent and dependent variables

Answer 4

Taken over from the philosopher behaviourists stated that you have to distinct between independent and dependent variables

Question 5

Need of verification

Answer 5

principle that up tot the 1950s formed the core of the scientific method: a proposition was meaningful (scientific) if its truth could be empirically verified by observation

Question 6

Radical behaviourism

Answer 6

Strong version of behaviourism, defended by skinner, which denies the relevance of information processing in the mind and holds that all human behaviour can be understood on the basis pf S-R (stimulus-response) associations

Question 7

Purposive behaviourism

Answer 7

version of behaviourism, defended by Tolman, which saw behaviour as goal-related (means to an end); agreed with other behaviourists that psychology should be based on observable behaviour

Question 8

Watsons contribution to behaviourism

Answer 8

• Was the head of Psychological review, which he used to promote animal research, and the chair of psychology in Toronto
• Strongly against introspection as valid method
• Can’t determine difference between structuralism and functionalism
• came to deny the importance/existence of any process that was not observable
• thought that consciousness is the part in psychology that distinguishes psychology to science

Question 9

Critics on behaviourism

Answer 9

• Denies to various extents the relevance of information processing going on in the mind

Question 10

Latent learning

Answer 10

the acquisition of knowledge that is not demonstrated in observable behaviour

Question 11

Anthropomorphic interpretation

Answer 11

interpreting behaviour of non-human living creatures by attributing human motives and human-like intelligence to them

Question 12

Instrumental conditioning

Answer 12

name introduced by Thorndike to refer to learning on the basis of the law effect; called operant conditioning by skinner

Question 13

Thorndike

Answer 13

o Based his theories on careful observation of animals put in controlled environments
o Law of effect: behavioural law introduced by thorndike to refer to the fact that behaviours followed by positive consequences are strengthened and more likely to be repeated
o Instrumental conditioning: name introduced by Thorndike to refer to learning on the basis of the law effect; called operant conditioning by skinner

Question 14

Law of effect

Answer 14

behavioural law introduced by thorndike to refer to the fact that behaviours followed by positive consequences are strengthened and more likely to be repeated

Question 15

Positivism

Answer 15

movement which sees science as motor of progress (comte)
o Because science is based on observation and experimentation, its findings are always true
o Scientific theories are summaries of the empirical findings. Therefore, they are always true as well.
o Because scientific knowledge is infallible, it should be the motor of all progress

Question 16

Philosophy of science

Answer 16

branch of philosophy that studies the foundations of scientific research, to better understand the position of scientific research relative to other forms of information acquisition and generation

Question 17

Skinner

Answer 17

coined operant conditioning and was known for radical behaviourism
o Humans have much less control over actions than they think, they simply respond to events in environment, don’t take initiative -> no free will in humans

Question 18

Tolman

Answer 18

agreed with Watson and Skinner that psychology should be based on observable behaviour and not seek to understand the animal’s ‘mind’ or ‘consciousness’, but at the same time he did not see why he should be asked to assume that nothing more than the formation of S-R associations happened in the mind

Question 19

Mechnomorphism (thorndike)

Answer 19

is the exclusive attribution of mechanistic properties to psychological phenomena

Question 20

Theriomorphism (Thorndike)

Answer 20

is the attribution of the qualities of non-human animals to human beings

Question 21

Mechanicotheriomorphism (Thorndike)

Answer 21

the ascription of mechanical properties to phenomena that are psychological in nature in non human animals that are in turn used to explain human psychological phenomena

Question 22

Attempts to win over the public (USA)

Answer 22

 Society associated psychology with phrenology, mesmerism, spiritualism & other paranormal subjects
 Phrenology (Gall, Spurzheim) – view that mental functions are localised in the brain and that the capacity of a function corresponds to the size of the brain part devoted to it (gave rise to personality assessment by analysing bumps on the scull in beginning of 19th century)
 Mesmerism (Mesmer, Poyen) – hypnosis induced by animal magnetism
 Spiritualism – belief that spirits of the dead could be contacted by mediums
 Tried to win public over by publishing hundreds of articles about new scientific psychology (but messages lacked strength so weren’t convincing)

Question 23

Zeitgeist of American psychology

Answer 23

 1892 – foundation of American Psychological Association (APA) as forum to meet & discuss
 Strong influence of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and later Galton’s eugenics
 Believed in importance of environment (country of immigrants)
 Mistrust of intellectualism (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)
 So, psychology addressed concerns prevalent in American society  functionalism
 Experimental psychology still had a bad position in rather philosophical & theological universities

Question 24

US DOMINANCE IN 20TH CENTURY

Answer 24

 Efforts made by academic psychological labs to become reorganised as scientific labs
 US dominance as Europe was crippled by war
 Sheer amount of research done
 Quality of produced textbooks (e.g. James’s principles much easier to understand than Wundt)