Unit 4 - Chapter 12 - Behaviourism Flashcards
Briefly describe the life and work of Ivan M. Sechenov (1829–1905), including his views regarding a) the concept of inhibition and b) the relationship between physiology and psychology.
- said all behaviour is caused by external stimulation.
- founder of Russian objective psychology.
a) inhibition: reduction of activity caused by stimulation.
b) research led to belief that psychology involves the objective methods of physiology.
Describe Pavlov’s work in a) studying the digestive process & b) discovery of the conditioned reflex
a) - studied the secretion of gastric juices in response to substances such as meat powder.
- won a nobel prize
b) - during his work on digestion, Pavlov discovered the conditioned (psychic) reflex: learned relfex
- noticed that events associated with meat powder also caused stomach secretions.
Describe Pavlov’s personality
- was a positivist
- didnt write down much, enjoyed lab work.
- no tolerance for mentalism
- encouraged women & jewish students to study in his lab.
Describe Pavlov’s process of formation of a conditioned reflex (using the technical terms)
conditioned reflex derived from contiguity & frequency.
1) unconditioned stimulus (US): elicits an unconditioned response.
- ex: food powder.
2) unconditioned response (UR): innate response
- ex: salivation.
3) conditioned stimulus (CS): previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a certain response through experience.
- ex: foot steps.
4) conditioned response (CR): a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.
- ex: salivating to the sound of foot steps.
Describe Pavlov’s processes of excitation and inhibition
all central nervous system activity can be characterized as either: excitation or inhibition.
- excitation triggers a response, inhibition decreases response.
- cortical mosaic: pattern of excitation and inhibition in the brain, determines how an organism responds to environment.
Describe Pavlov’s processes of extinction, spontaneous recovery, and disinhibition
extinction:
- reduction of a CR that results when a CS is presented but is not followed by the US.
spontaneous recovery:
- reappearance of a conditioned response after a delay following extinction.
disinhibition:
- after extinction, a strong irrelevant stimulus (i.e loud noise) causes the conditioned response to reappear.
- evidence that extinction is an inhibitory process.
Describe Pavlov’s experimental neurosis
experimental neurosis: bringing excitatory and inhibitory tendencies into conflict in animals.
classified animals in terms of dif types of nervous systems:
1) excitatory tendency is very strong.
2) excitatory is moderately strong.
3) inhibitory tendency is very strong.
4) inhibitory tendency is moderately strong.
Describe Pavlov’s first- and second-signal systems
first-signal system is the stimuli that come to signal biologically significant events.
- ex: fire
second-signal system: humans also learn to respond to symbols of physical events.
- ex; the word fire
Describe Pavlov’s view of psychology
- had a low opinion of most psychologist
- believed thorndike was first to do systematic, objective research on animals.
Briefly describe the life and work of Vladimir M. Bechterev including a) his concept of reflexology and b) his conflict with Pavlov.
- created first Russian experimental psych lab.
a) reflexology: strictly objective study of human behaviour that seeks to understand relationship of environmental influences and overt behaviour.
b) called Pavlov’s conditioned reflex, an association reflex.
- criticized Pavlov’s “saliva method” –> not easy to use on humans, operation is necessary, unimportant part of behaviour, unreliable measure, etc.
Describe the work of other Russian contributors during this time, including Alexander Luria and Lev Vygotsky.
Luria
- theory of cortical function, divided brain into 3 blocks.
- studied brain damage.
- developed neurological assessments.
Vygotsky
- studies of child & educational psych.
- relationship between language & development evolves during development.
Describe John B. Watson’s (a) undergraduate experiences, (b) graduate school years at the University of Chicago, (c) professorship at Johns Hopkins University, (d) scandalous divorce, (e) work in advertising
a) accepted into uni at 15, masters at 21.
b) investigated developmental/learning processes in rats.
- influenced by Loeb & Angell.
c) ‘Psychology as the Behaviourst Views It’ –> formal founding of behaviourism.
- used Tichener’s manual to teach.
d) had an affair with research partner.
- had to resign from John Hopkins.
e) applied behavioural conditioning to advertising.
- pioneer in market research.
- encouraged use of celeb endorsements.
Describe John B. Watson’s a) objective psychology and b) view of the goals of psychology
a) commonalities with russian psychologists -> rejection of introspection & mentalism.
b) goal of psychology is to develop data & laws that allows for the prediction and control of behaviour.
Describe John B. Watson’s four types of behaviour
1) explicit learned behaviour; ex, talking, writing
2) implicit learned behaviour; ex, increased heart rate at sight of dentists drill.
3) explicit unlearned behaviour; ex, blinking, sneezing.
4) implicit unlearned behaviour; ex; gland secretions
Describe John B. Watson’s four methods for studying
1) observation: either naturalistic or experimentally controlled.
2) conditioned-reflex method: proposed by Pavlov + Bechtrev
3) testing: taking of behaviour samples
4) verbal reports
