The Psychology Book (22 page)

to a teaching post at the

Interestingly, although

devised his CAVD (Completion,

College for Women of Case

Western Reserve in Cleveland,

Thorndike was studying animal

Arithmetic, Vocabulary, and

Ohio, but he returned to

behavior using what were to

Directions) test. It became the

Columbia just a year later, in

become standard behaviorist

model for all modern intelligence

1899, teaching there until his

methods —and authoring a book,

tests, and assessed mechanical

retirement in 1939. In 1912, his

Animal Intelligence
(1911), which

intelligence (understanding of how

peers elected him President

was to become a classic of early

things work), as well as abstract

of the American Psychological

behaviorism—he considered

intelligence (creative ability) and

Association. Thorndike

himself primarily an educational

social intelligence (interpersonal

continued to research and

psychologist. He had originally

skills). Thorndike was especially

write until his death, aged 74,

intended to examine animal

interested in how age might affect

in Montrose, New York.

intelligence, not behavior. He

learning, and also proposed a

wanted to show, for example, that

theory of learning that remains at

Key works

animals learned by simple trial

the heart of educational psychology

and error rather than by using a

to this day, a contribution that is

1905
The Elements of

Psychology

faculty of insight, an idea that was

perhaps what Thorndike would

1910
The Contribution of

prevalent in psychology at the time:

have wished more than anything

Psychology to Education

“In the first place, most of the books

else to be remembered for. However,

1911
Animal Intelligence

do not give us a psychology, but

it is for his enormous influence on

1927
The Measurement of

rather a eulogy of animals. They

the behaviorist movement that

Intelligence

have all been about animal

Thorndike is most often lauded. ■

ANY

REGARDLESS OO

F TH N

EIR NAE

TURE

CAN BE TRAINED TO BE

ANY

JOHN B. WATSO T

N (18 H

78–19I

58 N

)

G

68 JOHN B. WATSON

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Pavlov demonstrated that

Classical behaviorism

The fundamental (unlearned)

animals can be taught

human emotions are
fear
,

behavioral responses

BEFORE

rage
, and
love
.

through
conditioning
.

1890s
German-born biologist

Jacques Loeb (one of Watson’s

professors) explains animal

behavior in purely physical-

chemical terms.

1890s
The principle of

classical conditioning is

established by Ivan Pavlov

using experiments on dogs.

These
feelings
can be

Humans, too, can be

attached to objects through

conditioned to produce

1905
Edward Thorndike

stimulus–response

physical responses
to

shows that animals learn

conditioning
.

objects and events.

through achieving successful

outcomes from their behavior.

AFTER

1932
Edward Tolman adds

cognition into behaviorism in

his theory of latent learning.

1950s
Cognitive psychologists

Anyone, regardless

focus on understanding the

People can be conditioned

of their nature,

mental processes that both

to produce
emotional

can be trained

lie behind and produce

responses
to objects.

to be anything.

human behavior.

B
y the beginning of the 20th psychologists of the 20th century. Before Watson’s research at Johns century, many psychologists

Through his work on the stimulus–

Hopkins University, in Baltimore,

had concluded that the

response learning theory that had

Maryland, the majority of

human mind could not be adequately

been pioneered by Thorndike, he

experiments on behavior had

studied through introspective

became regarded as the “founding

concentrated on animal behavior,

methods, and were advocating a

father” of behaviorism, and he did

with the results extrapolated to

switch to the study of the mind

much to popularize the use of the

human behavior. Watson himself

through the evidence of behavior in

term. His 1913 lecture,
Psychology

studied rats and monkeys for his

controlled laboratory experiments.

as the Behaviorist Views It
, put

doctorate but (perhaps influenced

John Watson was not the first

forward the revolutionary idea that

by his experience working with the

advocate of this thoroughgoing

“a truly scientific psychology would

military during World War I) was

behaviorist approach, but he was

abandon talk of mental states… and keen to conduct experiments using

certainly the most conspicuous.

instead focus on prediction and

human subjects. He wanted to

In a career cut short by his marital

control of behavior.” This lecture

study the stimulus–response model

infidelity, he became one of the

became known to later psychologists

of classical conditioning and how it

most influential and controversial

as the “behaviorist manifesto.”

applied to the prediction and

BEHAVIORISM 69

See also:
Ivan Pavlov 60–61 ■ Edward Thorndike 62–65 ■ Edward Tolman 72–73 ■ B.F. Skinner 78–85 ■

Joseph Wolpe 86–87 ■ Kenneth Clark 282–83 ■ Albert Bandura 286–91

a local children’s hospital. The tests

On a separate occasion, while

were designed to see whether it is

Albert was sitting on the mattress,

possible to teach an infant to fear an

Watson struck a metal bar with a

animal by repeatedly presenting it at

hammer to make a sudden loud

the same time as a loud, frightening

noise; unsurprisingly, Albert became

noise. Watson also wanted to find

frightened and distressed, bursting

Psychology, as the

out whether such a fear would

into tears. Watson now had an

behaviorist views it, is a purely transfer to other animals or objects; unconditioned stimulus (the loud objective experimental branch and how long this fear would

noise) that he knew elicited a

of natural science.

persist. Today, his methods would

response of fear in the child. By

John B. Watson

be considered unethical and even

pairing this with the sight of the

cruel, but at the time they were seen

rat, he hypothesized that he would

as a logical and natural progression

be able to condition little Albert to

from previous animal studies.

become afraid of the animal.

In the now famous “Little Albert

When Albert was just over 11

experiment,” Watson placed the

months old, Watson carried out the

healthy but “on the whole stolid

experiment. The white rat was

control of human behavior. He

and unemotional” baby Albert on

placed on the mattress with Albert,

believed that people have three

a mattress and then observed his

then Watson hit the hammer on the

fundamental emotions—fear, rage,

reactions when introduced to a dog,

steel bar when the child touched

and love—and he wanted to find

a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, and

the rat. The child burst into tears.

out whether a person could be

some inanimate objects, including

This procedure was repeated seven

conditioned into feeling these in

human masks and burning paper.

times over two sessions, one week

response to a stimulus.

Albert showed no fear of any of

apart, after which Albert became

these animals or objects and even

distressed as soon as the rat was

Little Albert

reached out to touch them. In this

brought into the room, even when it

With his research assistant, Rosalie

way, Watson established a baseline

was not accompanied by the noise.

Rayner, Watson began a series of

from which he could measure any

By repeatedly pairing the rat

experiments involving “Albert B,”

change in the child’s behavior

with the loud noise, Watson was

a nine-month-old baby chosen from

toward the objects.

applying the same kind of classical ❯❯

John B. Watson

Born into a poor family in South

during World War I, then

Carolina, John Broadus Watson’s

returned to Johns Hopkins.

childhood was unhappy; his father

Forced to resign after an affair

was an alcoholic womanizer who

with his research assistant,

left when Watson was 13, and his