Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Psychology Book

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 49 See also: Donald Hebb 163 ■ Bluma Zeigarnik 162 ■ George Armitage Miller 168–73 ■ Endel Tulving 186–91 ■ Gordon H. Bower 194–95 ■ Daniel Schacter 208–09 ■ Frederic Bartlett 335–36 I n 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus recite a series correctly at speed. Learning material and committing became the first psychologist He tested different list lengths and it to memory within an hour of hearing to systematically study different learning intervals, noting it, Ebbinghaus showed, will mean that learning and memory by carrying the speed of learning and forgetting. we remember it for longer and can out a long, exhausting experiment recall it more easily. on himself. Philosophers such as Ebbinghaus found that he could John Locke and David Hume had remember meaningful material, two-thirds of anything memorized argued that remembering involves such as a poem, ten times more is forgotten. Plotted on a graph, this association—linking things or easily than his nonsense lists. He shows a distinct “forgetting curve” ideas by shared characteristics, also noted that the more times the that starts with a sharp drop, such as time, place, cause, or stimuli (the nonsense syllables) followed by a shallow slope. effect. Ebbinghaus tested the effect were repeated, the less time was of association on memory, recording needed to reproduce the memorized Ebbinghaus’s research launched the results mathematically to see if information. Also, the first few a new field of enquiry, and helped memory follows verifiable patterns. repetitions proved the most establish psychology as a scientific effective in memorizing a list. discipline. His meticulous methods Memory experiments remain the basis of all psychological Ebbinghaus started by memorizing When looking at his results for experimentation to this day. ■ lists of words and testing how evidence of forgetting, Ebbinghaus many he could recall. To avoid the found, unsurprisingly, that he use of association, he then created tended to forget less quickly the 2,300 “nonsense syllables,” all three lists that he had spent the most letters long and using the standard time memorizing, and that recall is word format of consonant–vowel– best performed immediately after consonant: for example, “ZUC” and learning. Ebbinghaus also uncovered “QAX.” Grouping these into lists, an unexpected pattern in memory he looked at each syllable for a retention. He found that there is fraction of a second, pausing for 15 typically a very rapid loss of recall seconds before going through a list in the first hour, followed by a again. He did this until he could slightly slower loss, so that after nine hours, about 60 percent is forgotten. After 24 hours, about Hermann Ebbinghaus Hermann Ebbinghaus was born in two psychology laboratories Barmen, Germany, to a family of and founded an academic Lutheran merchants. At 17, he journal. Ebbinghaus later moved began to study philosophy at to Breslau University, where he Bonn University, but his academic also established a laboratory, career was disrupted in 1870 by and finally to Halle, where he the Franco-Prussian War. In 1873, taught until his death from he completed his studies and pneumonia at the age of 59. moved to Berlin, later traveling to France and England, where he Key works carried out research on the power of his own memory, starting in 1885 Memory: A Contribution 1879. He published Memory in to Experimental Psychology 1885, detailing the “nonsense 1897–1908 Fundamentals syllable” research, and in the of Psychology (2 volumes) same year became a professor at 1908 Psychology: An Berlin University, where he set up Elementary Textbook

50 IN CONTEXT THE INTELLIGENCE APPROACH OF AN INDIVIDUAL Intelligence theory IS NOT A FIXED QUANTITY BEFORE 1859 English naturalist ALFRED BINET (1857–1911) Charles Darwin proposes that intelligence is inherited in On the Origin of Species. From 1879 Wilhelm Wundt applies scientific methods to psychology, seeking objective ways of measuring mental abilities such as intelligence. 1890 US psychologist James Cattell devises tests to measure differences in individual mental abilities. AFTER 1920s English educational psychologist Cyril Burt claims intelligence is mainly genetic. 1940s Raymond Cattell defines two types of intelligence: fluid (inborn) and crystallized (shaped by experience). I n 1859, Charles Darwin set out his theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, providing a framework for the debate over whether intelligence was fixed by genetic inheritance, or could be modified by circumstances. His cousin, Francis Galton, carried out tests on the cognitive abilities of around 9,000 people in London in the early 1880s, and concluded that basic intelligence was fixed at birth. Around the same time, Wilhelm Wundt proposed the idea of an intelligence quotient (IQ), and made attempts to measure it. Wundt’s work inspired studies into the measurement of mental abilities by the American psychologist

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 51 See also: Francis Galton 28–29 ■ Jean-Martin Charcot 30 ■ Wilhelm Wundt 32–37 ■ Raymond Cattell 314–15 Intelligence testing can only measure… …an individual’s mental abilities at a particular time and in a particular context. Abilities change within short periods of time; Alfred Binet they also change over the long-term as part of the developmental process. Alfred Binet was born in Nice, France, but moved to Paris at Intelligence will alter during a person’s lifetime. a young age after his parents separated. He gained a law The intelligence of an individual degree in 1878, then studied is not a fixed quantity. sciences at the Sorbonne, in preparation for taking up James Cattell, and were also to his children absorbed new medicine. But Binet decided form the basis of Alfred Binet’s information varied according that his real interest lay in research into human intelligence. to how much they were paying psychology, and although he attention. Context, and the child’s was largely self-taught, in Fascination with learning frame of mind, seemed to be 1883 he was offered a post at Binet studied law and natural critical to learning. Paris’s Salpêtrière Hospital by science before psychology captured Jean-Martin Charcot. After his his interest. He was largely self- On hearing of Francis Galton’s marriage the following year, taught, although working with testing in London, Binet decided and the birth of two daughters, Jean-Martin Charcot at Paris’s to carry out his own large-scale he began to take an interest in Salpêtrière Hospital for more than research on assessing differences intelligence and learning. In seven years gave him a firm grasp in individual abilities between 1891, Binet was appointed of experimental procedures, with various special-interest groups, associate director of the their need for precision and careful such as mathematicians, chess Sorbonne’s Laboratory of planning. His desire to study players, writers, and artists. At the Experimental Psychology, human intelligence grew out of his same time, he continued his study becoming director in 1894. fascination with the development of the functional intelligence of of his own two daughters. He noted children, noting that they became Many honors have been that the speed and ease with which capable of certain skills at specific heaped upon Binet since his ages. For example, very young ❯❯ untimely death in 1911. These include changing the name of La Société Libre pour l’Etude Psychologique de l’Enfant to La Société Alfred Binet in 1917. Key works 1903 Experimental Study of Intelligence 1905 The Mind and Brain 1911 A Method of Measuring the Development of Intelligence

52 ALFRED BINET children were not capable of and intellectually challenged There is in intelligence… abstract thought—this seemed children, and to find a way of a fundamental agency, to be a hallmark of an increased measuring these differences. the lack or alteration level of intelligence that was directly attributable to age. The Binet–Simon Scale of which has the greatest Binet was joined in his task by importance for practical In 1899, Binet was invited to Théodore Simon, a research scientist join a new organization dedicated at the Sorbonne’s Laboratory of life: that is judgment. to educational research, La Société Experimental Psychology, where Alfred Binet Libre pour L’Etude Psychologique Binet had been director since de l’Enfant (The Free Society for 1894. It was to be the beginning strange visitors. He has received the Psychological Study of the of a long and fruitful collaboration in turn a doctor, a lawyer, and then Child). Within a short time, he between the two scientists. a priest. What is taking place?” became the group’s leader, and began to publish articles and By 1905, Binet and Simon had Binet and Simon tested their information useful to teachers created their first test, labeled Scale on a sample of 50 children, and education officials. Around the “New Methods for Diagnosing divided equally between five age same time, it became mandatory Idiocy, Imbecility, and Moron groups. These children had been for all children in France to attend Status.” Soon after, they introduced selected by their school teachers school between the ages of six and a revised version, for children aged as being average for their age, 12, and Binet was asked to consider three to 13, which was simply providing a baseline measure of how to develop a test that would called the Binet–Simon Scale. It normality against which children identify children who might have was revised once more in 1908, of all abilities could be measured. learning disabilities, so that they and then again in 1911. could receive schooling that was Binet and Simon’s 30 tasks, appropriate to their needs. In 1904, Based on their many years arranged in order of difficulty, this work led to Binet being asked of observing children, Binet and were to be carried out under to join a government commission Simon put together 30 tests of carefully controlled conditions. to devise a method of assessing increasing difficulty, using a range Binet had learned from observing learning potential in infants, and of tasks that reflected the average his daughters that children are he made it his mission to establish abilities of children at different easily distracted, and that their the differences between normal ages. The easiest tasks included level of attention plays a critical role following a beam of light, or in their ability to perform. He saw Taking intelligence tests, which are engaging in basic conversation intelligence as a mixture of still largely based on the Binet–Simon with the person who was testing multifaceted mental faculties Scale, has become an almost standard them. Slightly more difficult tasks that operate within a real world of way of predicting a child’s potential included pointing to various ever-changing circumstances, and to be successful at school. named body parts, repeating a are controlled by practical judgment. series of two digits, repeating simple sentences, and defining Intelligence is not fixed basic words such as “house” or Binet was always frank about the “fork.” In the more difficult tests, limitations of the Binet–Simon children were asked to describe Scale. He was keen to point out the difference between pairs of that the scale simply ordered similar objects, to reproduce drawings from memory, and to construct sentences around three given words. The very hardest tasks included repeating seven random digits, finding three rhymes for the French word “obéisance;” and answering questions such as “My neighbor has been receiving

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 53 children from their performance Binet–Simon tests generate an IQ (intelligence of intellectual tasks in relation to quotient) number, representing an overall level of other children of a similar age. performance. This can be plotted on a graph to The tests of 1908 and 1911 placed reveal IQ variations across groups or populations. greater emphasis on tests for different age groups, and it was 34.13% 34.13% this that eventually led to the concept of “mental age.” Population 13.59% Binet also stressed that mental 13.59% development progressed at different rates and could be influenced by 2.14% 2.14% environmental factors. He preferred to think of his tests as a way of 0.13% 0.13% assessing mental level at a particular point in time, because IQ 52 68 84 100 116 132 148 this allowed for an individual’s level to change as their circumstances saw the Binet–Simon Scale as a his work. When he eventually changed. This was in opposition way of rooting out “feebleminded became aware of the “foreign ideas to the views of the influential people” for compulsory sterilization. being grafted on his instrument” he English psychologist Charles strongly condemned those who with Spearman, who later proposed In 1916, yet another American “brutal pessimism” and “deplorable that intelligence was based on psychologist, Lewis Terman, verdicts” promoted the concept of biological factors alone. modified the Binet–Simon Scale. intelligence as a single constant. Using test results from a large Binet maintained that a sample of American children, he Binet’s concept of the “IQ test” child’s “intelligence is not a fixed renamed it the Stanford–Binet remains the basis of intelligence quantity,” but grows just as the Scale. It was no longer used solely testing today. Despite its child does, and that even though he to identify children with special shortcomings, it has generated had devised a way of quantifying needs, but to pick out those who research that has advanced our it, no number could ever give an might be suitable for streaming knowledge of human intelligence. ■ accurate measure of a person’s off into more vocational, or job- intelligence. A complete picture, oriented, education, effectively I have not sought Binet thought, could only be formed condemning them to a lifetime of to sketch a method from an accompanying case study. menial work. Terman, like Goddard, of measuring… but only Ultimately, Binet did not believe believed that intelligence was a method of classification that it was possible to measure inherited and unchangeable, so no intellectual aptitude as if it were amount of schooling could alter it. of individuals. a length or a capacity; it was only Alfred Binet possible to classify it. Binet was probably unaware of these uses of his work for quite some Uses and abuses time. He was an isolated figure, In 1908, the American psychologist who rarely concerned himself with Henry H. Goddard traveled to professional developments outside Europe, where he discovered the his immediate sphere. He never Binet–Simon tests. He translated traveled outside France, where the them, distributing around 22,000 Binet–Simon Scale was not adopted copies across the US to be used for during his lifetime, so he was never testing in schools. Unfortunately, confronted by any modifications of while Binet had been careful not to attribute intelligence to hereditary factors, Goddard thought that it was genetically determined. He

54 THE UNCONSCIOUS SEES THE MEN BEHIND THE CURTAINS PIERRE JANET (1859–1947) IN CONTEXT If someone shows B etween around 1880 and physiological signs 1910, there was a great deal APPROACH of terror or distress for of interest in the condition Neurological science no apparent reason… of “dissociation”—the separation of some mental processes from BEFORE …they may be caused a person's conscious mind, or 1878 Jean-Martin Charcot by a subconscious idea… normal everyday personality. Mild in Diseases of the Nervous dissociation, in which the world System describes the …that therapy reveals seems “dreamlike” and “unreal,” is symptoms of hysteria, then to be related to an earlier common, and affects most people considered to be a distinct, at some time or other. It is often biological illness. traumatic incident. caused by illnesses, such as flu, or drugs, including alcohol, and may AFTER This may in severe cases lead to a partial or complete loss of 1895 Sigmund Freud suggests lead to dissociation—the memory during and after the period that dissociation is one of the of dissociation. In rare cases of mind’s defense mechanisms. existence of two what was then described as separate consciousnesses. multiple personality disorder, a 1900s American neurologist person appears to have two or Morton Prince suggests more distinct personalities. Such that there is a spectrum of extreme examples are now classified dissociative disorders. as “dissociative identity disorder.” 1913 French naturalist J.P.F. The French philosopher and Deleuze describes dissociation physician Pierre Janet is credited as being like the formation of with being the first person to study two distinct people—one of and describe dissociation as a them fully awake, and the psychiatric condition. In the late other in a trancelike state. 1880s and early 1890s, he worked at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, 1977 Ernest R. Hilgard's where he treated patients who Divided Consciousness were suffering from “hysteria.” He discusses the splitting up of published case studies of several consciousness by hypnosis. women who showed extreme symptoms. A patient called

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 55 See also: Jean-Martin Charcot 30 ■ Alfred Binet 50–53 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Thigpen & Cleckley 330–31 ■ Ernest R. Hilgard 337 These people are Significantly, Lucie 3 could recall a behavior as “the subconscious.” But persecuted by something, traumatic experience, while on Sigmund Freud thought this term and you must investigate vacation at the age of seven, when was too vague, and instead labeled carefully to get to the root. she was terrified by two men who the source of his patients' mental were hiding behind a curtain. traumas as the “unconscious.” Freud Pierre Janet also developed Janet's ideas, Subconscious trauma stating that dissociation was a “Lucie,” for example, would usually Lucie's childhood trauma, Janet universal “defense mechanism.” be calm, but then suddenly became concluded, was the cause of her agitated, crying and looking dissociation. As he wrote in Janet’s work was neglected for terrified for no apparent reason. Psychological Automatism: “To decades, as the use of hypnotism to She seemed to have three distinct have one’s body in the posture of investigate and treat mental illness personalities, which Janet named terror is to feel the emotion of terror; was discredited. However, since “Lucie 1,” “Lucie 2,” and “Lucie 3,” and if this posture is determined by the late 20th century, it has again and would change between them a subconscious idea, the patient attracted interest from psychologists unexpectedly, especially when will have the emotion alone in his studying dissociative disorders. ■ hypnotized. Lucie 1 had only “her consciousness without knowing own” memories, as did Lucie 2, but why he feels this way.” As her terror Childhood traumas may appear to Lucie 3 could remember events took hold, Lucie would say, “I'm be forgotten, but according to Pierre relating to all three personalities. afraid and I don't know why.” “The Janet, they can often remain in the unconscious,” said Janet, “is having “subconscious” part of the mind, giving its dream; it sees the men behind rise to mental problems in later life. the curtains, and puts the body in a posture of terror.” Janet added that he believed traumatic events and stress could cause dissociation in anyone with that predisposition. Janet described the part of the mind that he believed was behind uncharacteristic and disturbed Pierre Janet Pierre Janet was born into a Influenced by Jean-Martin cultured, middle-class family in Charcot, Janet extended his Paris, France. As a child he loved studies to include “hysteria,” the natural sciences, and began becoming director of Charcot's collecting and cataloging plants. laboratory at Paris's Salpêtrière His philosopher uncle, Paul Janet, Hospital in 1898. He also taught encouraged him to study both at the Sorbonne, and was made medicine and philosophy, and Professor of Psychology at the after attending the elite École Collège de France in 1902. Normale Supérieure in Paris, he went on to receive a master’s Key works degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne. Aged just 22, Janet was 1893 The Mental State of appointed Professor of Philosophy Hystericals at the Lycée in Le Havre, where 1902 Neuroses he launched his research into 1907 The Major Symptoms hypnotically induced states. of Hysteria

BEHAVIO RESPONDING TO OUR ENVIRONMENT

RISM

58 INTRODUCTION Charles Darwin John B. Watson Ivan Pavlov Zing-Yang Kuo’s publishes The Expression publishes Psychology As demonstrates classical experiments with cats The Behaviorist Views It, and rats attempt to show of the Emotions in Men conditioning in his that there is no such and Animals arguing which becomes the experiments on dogs. unofficial behaviorist thing as instinct. that behaviors are evolutionary adaptations. manifesto. 1872 1913 1927 1930 1898 1920 1929 1930 Edward Thorndike’s John B. Watson Karl Lashley’s B.F. Skinner Law of Effect states experiments on “Little experiments in brain demonstrates the that responses which Albert,” teaching the dissection show that the effects of “operant baby a conditioned whole brain is involved conditioning” in produce satisfying emotional response. experiments on rats. effects are more likely in learning. to be repeated. B y the 1890s, psychology the mind—behavior—under strictly physical processes, and it was a was accepted as a scientific controlled laboratory conditions. Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, subject separate from its As John B. Watson put it, who unwittingly provided a basis philosophical origins. Laboratories psychology is “that division of for the emergent behaviorist and university departments had Natural Science which takes psychology. In his now famous been established in Europe and human behavior—the doings study of salivation in dogs, Pavlov the US, and a second generation of and sayings, both learned and described how an animal responds psychologists was emerging. unlearned—as its subject matter.” to a stimulus in the process of Early “behaviorists,” including conditioning, and gave psychologists In the US, psychologists anxious Edward Thorndike, Edward the foundation on which to build to put the new discipline on an Tolman, and Edwin Guthrie, the central idea of behaviorism. The objective, scientific footing reacted designed experiments to observe notion of conditioning, often against the introspective, the behavior of animals in carefully referred to as “stimulus–response” philosophical approach taken devised situations, and from these (S–R) psychology, shaped the form by William James and others. tests inferred theories about how behaviorism was to take. Introspection, they felt, was by humans interact with their definition subjective, and theories environment, as well as about The behaviorist approach based on it could be neither proved learning, memory, and conditioning. concentrated on observing nor disproved; if psychology was responses to external stimuli, to be treated as a science, it would Conditioning responses ignoring inner mental states and have to be based on observable Behaviorist experiments were processes, which were thought and measurable phenomena. influenced by similar experiments to be impossible to examine Their solution was to study the devised by physiologists studying scientifically and therefore could manifestation of the workings of not be included in any analysis of

Karl Lorenz discovers Clark L. Hull states B.F. Skinner publishes BEHAVIORISM 59 the phenomenon of that drive reduction Verbal Behavior, in which imprinting, where baby (satisfying our basic he claims that speech is Noam Chomsky animals assume a parent human needs) is the writes a critical because of sensory a product of past review of Verbal information received only true basis of behavioral and Behavior that helps at a critical time. reinforcement. genetic history. spark the cognitive revolution. 1935 1943 1957 1959 1938 1948 1958 1960S Edwin Guthrie suggests Cognitive Maps in Rats Joseph Wolpe conducts Neal Miller’s that “single-trial and Men by Edward desensitization experiments lead Tolman suggests that to the discovery learning” is adequate; we develop cognitive techniques on war of biofeedback conditioning need not maps while we go veterans suffering from about our daily lives. techniques. rely on repetition. “war neurosis.” behavior. The shift from “mind” to consequences, not by a preceding this time was Edward Tolman, “behavior” as a basis for the study of stimulus. Although the concept a behaviorist whose theories psychology was revolutionary, and was similar to ideas proposed by had not dismissed the importance was even accompanied by a William James, it radically altered of perception and cognition, due “behaviorist manifesto”—the paper the course of behaviorism, taking to his interest in German-based Psychology as the Behaviorist Views into account genetic factors and Gestalt psychology. Advances in It, delivered in 1913 by Watson. explaining mental states as a result neuroscience, explored by another (rather than as a cause) of behavior. behaviorist, Karl Lashley, also In the US, which was leading the played a part in shifting the field in psychology, behaviorism The cognitive revolution emphasis from behavior to became the dominant approach for By the mid-20th century, however, the brain and its workings. the next 40 years. Evolving from psychologists were questioning the the idea of Pavlovian or classical behaviorist approach. Ethology, the Behaviorism had now run its conditioning came Watson’s study of animal behavior, showed course, and was superseded by the assertion that environmental the importance of instinctive as well various branches of cognitive stimuli alone shape behavior; as learned behavior—a finding that psychology. However, its legacy, innate or inherited factors are not sat uncomfortably with strict ideas particularly in establishing a involved. The next generation of conditioning. A reaction to scientific methodology for the included the “radical behaviorist” Skinner’s ideas also sparked the subject, and in providing models B.F. Skinner, who proposed a “cognitive revolution,” which that could be used in psychological rethink of the stimulus–response turned attention once again from experimentation, was a lasting one. notion in his theory of “operant behavior back to the mind and Behavioral therapy is also still in conditioning”—which stated that mental processes. A key figure at use today, as an essential part of behavior was shaped by cognitive-behavioral therapy. ■

60 THE SIGHT OF TASTY FOOD MAKES A HUNGRY MAN’S MOUTH WATER IVAN PAVLOV (1849–1936) IN CONTEXT An unconditioned M any of the key discoveries stimulus (such as being made when modern APPROACH presented with food)… psychology was still in its Classical conditioning infancy were the result of research …can provoke an by scientists working in other fields. BEFORE unconditioned response Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, Early 12th century Arab (such as beginning to salivate). is one of the best known of these physician Avenzoar (Ibn Zuhr) early pioneers, whose investigations performs experiments on If an unconditioned into the secretion of saliva during animals in order to test stimulus is accompanied digestion in dogs led him to some surgical procedures. by a neutral stimulus unexpected conclusions. (such as a ringing bell)… 1890 In Principles of During the 1890s, Pavlov carried Psychology, William James …a conditioned response out a series of experiments on dogs, states that in animals “the begins to develop. using various surgically implanted feeling of having executed devices to measure the flow of one impulsive step is an After repeated episodes, saliva when these animals were indispensable part of the the conditioned stimulus being fed. He noted that the dogs stimulus of the next one.” salivated not only when they were alone (the ringing bell)… actually eating, but also whenever AFTER they could just smell or see some 1920 John B. Watson’s …will provoke a appetizing food. The dogs would “Little Albert” experiment conditioned response even salivate, in anticipation of demonstrates classical (beginning to salivate). food being produced, when they conditioning in humans. were simply being approached by one of their keepers. 1930s B.F. Skinner shows that rats can be “conditioned” Pavlov’s observations led him to behave in a specific way. to investigate the links between various stimuli and the responses 1950s Psychotherapists they elicited. In one experiment, employ “conditioning” as he set off a clicking metronome part of behavior therapy. just before offering food to the dogs, repeating this process until the animals always associated the sound with a good meal. This

BEHAVIORISM 61 See also: William James 38–45 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ B.F. Skinner 78–85 ■ Stanley Schachter 338 Pavlov’s dogs would salivate simply stimulus (bell, buzzer, or light) with pain or some form of threat at the sight of someone in a white lab and food had been established, and began to elicit a conditioned coat. They had become “conditioned” the dogs would respond to the response of fear or anxiety. to associate the coat with eating, as stimulus by salivating. whoever fed them always wore one. The principle of what is now Conditioned response known as classical or Pavlovian “conditioning” eventually resulted Pavlov concluded that the food conditioning, as well as Pavlov’s in the dogs salivating in response offered to the dogs was an experimental method, marked a to the click of the metronome alone. “unconditioned stimulus” (US), groundbreaking step in the because it led to an unlearned, or emergence of psychology as In further experiments, Pavlov “unconditioned” response (UR)—in a truly scientific, rather than replaced the metronome with a this case, salivation. The click of philosophical, discipline. Pavlov’s bell or buzzer, a flashing light, and the metronome, however, only work was to be hugely influential, whistles of different pitches. became a stimulus to salivation particularly on US behaviorist However, regardless of the nature after its association with food had psychologists, such as John B. of the stimulus used, the result been learned. Pavlov then called Watson and B.F. Skinner. ■ was the always same: once an this a “conditioned stimulus” (CS). association between the neutral The salivation in response to the Facts are the air of science. metronome was also learned, so Without them a man of was a “conditioned response” (CR). science can never rise. Ivan Pavlov In later experiments, Pavlov showed that conditioned responses could be repressed, or “unlearned,” if the conditioned stimulus was given repeatedly without being followed by food. He also demonstrated that a conditioned response could be mental as well as physical, by carrying out experiments in which various stimuli were associated Ivan Pavlov Ivan Pavlov, the eldest son of a here that he carried out his village priest in Ryazan, Russia, famous research into the was initially destined to follow in digestive secretions of dogs, his father’s footsteps. However, he which won him the Nobel Prize quickly abandoned his training at in 1904. Pavlov retired officially a local seminary, transferring in 1925, but continued his to the University of St. Petersburg experiments until his death from to study natural science. After pneumonia in February 1936. graduation in 1875, he enrolled at the Academy of Medical Surgery, Key works where he gained a doctorate and later a fellowship. In 1890, Pavlov 1897 Lectures on the Work of became a professor at the Military the Principal Digestive Glands Medical Academy, and was also 1928 Lectures on Conditioned made director of the physiology Reflexes department at the Institute of 1941 Conditioned Reflexes Experimental Medicine. It was and Psychiatry

62 IN CONTEXT PROFITLESS APPROACH ACTS ARE Connectionism STAMPED OUT BEFORE EDWARD THORNDIKE (1874–1949) 1885 In his book On Memory, Hermann Ebbinghaus describes the “forgetting curve”—the rate at which human memories fade. 1890s Ivan Pavlov establishes the principle of classical conditioning. AFTER 1918 John B. Watson’s “Little Albert” experiments apply conditioning to a human baby. 1923 English psychologist Charles Spearman proposes a single general factor—the “g factor”—in measurements of human intelligence. 1930s B.F. Skinner develops a theory of conditioning from consequences—“operant conditioning”. A t much the same time as Pavlov was conducting his experiments on dogs in Russia, Edward Thorndike began researching animal behavior for his doctoral thesis in the US. He was perhaps the first true “behaviorist” psychologist, although his research took place long before the term was adopted. Scientific psychology was emerging as a fresh field of study in universities when Thorndike graduated in the 1890s, and he was attracted by the prospect of applying this new science to his interest in education and learning. Thorndike’s original intention had been to study learning in humans,

BEHAVIORISM 63 See also: Hermann Ebbinghaus 48–49 ■ Ivan Pavlov 60–61 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ Edward Tolman 72–73 ■ B.F. Skinner 78–85 ■ Donald Hebb 163 ■ Hans Eysenck 316–21 When an animal responds to a stimulus… Psychology helps to measure the probability that an aim is attainable. Edward Thorndike …the outcome may …the outcome may be rewarding be profitless (such as escaping from (such as still being a cage). trapped in a cage). but when he was unable to obtain The connection between The connection between a suitable subject for his research, the action and the event the action and the event he turned his attention to animals, with the aim of examining the is strengthened. is weakened. processes of intelligence and learning through observation in a series of controlled experiments. Thorndike’s results went much further than this, however, laying down the foundations of behaviorist psychology. Learning environments Rewarded responses are Thorndike’s first studies were “stamped in,” while profitless of chicks learning to negotiate mazes that he designed and built acts are “stamped out.” specifically for his experiments. This later became a hallmark various devices, such as a loop of box each time; this indicated how of behaviorist experimental string, or a ring, or a button or quickly the animal was learning technique—the use of a specially panel to be pressed, only one of about its environment. created environment in which a which would be connected to the subject is given specific stimuli or latch that would open the door of The experiment was carried out tasks, now known as “instrumental the box. In time, the cat would using several different cats, placing conditioning” or “instrumental discover the device, which would each one in a series of puzzle boxes learning.” As his research allow it to escape and receive a that were opened by different progressed, Thorndike turned his reward of food. The process was devices. What Thorndike noticed attention to cats, inventing “puzzle repeated and it was noted how long was that although the cats had all boxes” to observe their ability to it took for the cat to open the puzzle discovered the escape mechanism learn mechanisms for escape. by trial and error in their first ❯❯ A hungry cat was locked inside a puzzle box, and by exploring its environment would come across

64 EDWARD THORNDIKE The Law of Effect, proposed by Thorndike, forms as a neural connection. When the foundation of all behaviorist psychology. He stimulus-response sequences demonstrated that animals learn by forging links are followed by an annoying or between actions and results, remembering more unpleasant state of affairs (such positive outcomes and forgetting negative ones. as continued imprisonment or punishment), the neural connections attempt, on successive occasions between a stimulus (S) and a between the situation and response the amount of trial and error response (R), a corresponding are weakened, until eventually gradually decreased as the cats neural connection is made in the “profitless acts are stamped out.” learned which actions were going brain. He referred to his brand of to be fruitless and which would S-R learning as “connectionism,” This focus on the outcome of a lead to a reward. asserting that the connections stimulus and its response, and the made during learning are “stamped idea that the outcome could work The Law of Effect in” the circuitry of the brain. back to strengthen the stimulus- As a result of these experiments response connection, is an example Thorndike proposed his Law of What Thorndike proposed was of what would later be called a Effect, which states that a response that it is the outcome of an action reinforcement theory of learning. to a situation that results in a that determines how strongly or Reinforcement, and the importance satisfying outcome is more likely weakly the stimulus-response of outcomes, was virtually ignored to occur again in the future; and connection is stamped in; in the by psychologists in the next conversely, that a response to case of the puzzle boxes, whether generation of behaviorists, such a situation that results in an pulling a string or pushing a panel as John B. Watson, but the Law of unsatisfying outcome is less likely resulted in escape or frustration. Effect brilliantly anticipated the to occur again. This was the first In other words, when particular work of B.F. Skinner and his theory formal statement of an idea that lies stimulus-response sequences are of “operant conditioning.” behind all behavorist psychology, followed by a satisfying or pleasant the connection between stimulus state of affairs (such as escape or a In later research, Thorndike and response and its relevance reward), those responses tend to refined the Law of Effect to take to the process of learning and become “more firmly connected into account other variables, such behavior. Thorndike proposed with the situation, so that, when it as the delay between response and that when a connection is made recurs, they will be more likely to reward, the effect of repetition of a recur.” They become “stamped in” task, and how quickly a task was forgotten when it was not repeated. From this, he derived his Law of Exercise, which states that The intellect, character, and skill possessed by any man are the product of certain original tendencies and the training which they have received. Edward Thorndike

intelligence, never about animal BEHAVIORISM 65 stupidity,” he wrote. The fact that his cats in puzzle boxes learned Edward Thorndike gradually, rather than suddenly gaining an insight into how to The son of a Methodist escape, confirmed his theories. minister, Edward Thorndike The animals were forced to learn was born in Williamsburg, by trial and error, because they Massachusetts, USA, in 1874. were unable to use reason to work He graduated in sciences from out the link between the door and Wesleyan University in 1895, the operating handle. proceeding to Harvard to study psychology under Adult learners were once thought to Human intelligence William James. In 1897, be less capable of retaining information After the publication of Animal Thorndike moved to Columbia than children. Thorndike showed that Intelligence, Thorndike turned his University in New York City, the only significant difference was in attention to human intelligence. where he completed his speed of learning, not memory. In his opinion, the most basic doctorate thesis in 1898. intelligence is characterized by stimulus-response connections simple stimulus and response Thorndike’s interest in that are repeated are strengthened, association, resulting in a neural educational psychology led while those that are not used again connection. The more intelligent to a teaching post at the are weakened. Moreover, the rate an animal, the more capable it will College for Women of Case at which connections strengthen be of making such connections. Western Reserve in Cleveland, or weaken can vary. According Therefore, intelligence can be Ohio, but he returned to to Thorndike, “the greater the defined in terms of the ability to Columbia just a year later, in satisfaction or discomfort, the form neural bonds, which is 1899, teaching there until his greater the strengthening or dependent not only on genetic retirement in 1939. In 1912, his weakening of the bond.” factors, but also on experience. peers elected him President of the American Psychological Interestingly, although To find a measurement of Association. Thorndike Thorndike was studying animal human intelligence, Thorndike continued to research and behavior using what were to devised his CAVD (Completion, write until his death, aged 74, become standard behaviorist Arithmetic, Vocabulary, and in Montrose, New York. methods—and authoring a book, Directions) test. It became the Animal Intelligence (1911), which model for all modern intelligence Key works was to become a classic of early tests, and assessed mechanical behaviorism—he considered intelligence (understanding of how 1905 The Elements of himself primarily an educational things work), as well as abstract Psychology psychologist. He had originally intelligence (creative ability) and 1910 The Contribution of intended to examine animal social intelligence (interpersonal Psychology to Education intelligence, not behavior. He skills). Thorndike was especially 1911 Animal Intelligence wanted to show, for example, that interested in how age might affect 1927 The Measurement of animals learned by simple trial learning, and also proposed a Intelligence and error rather than by using a theory of learning that remains at faculty of insight, an idea that was the heart of educational psychology prevalent in psychology at the time: to this day, a contribution that is “In the first place, most of the books perhaps what Thorndike would do not give us a psychology, but have wished more than anything rather a eulogy of animals. They else to be remembered for. However, have all been about animal it is for his enormous influence on the behaviorist movement that Thorndike is most often lauded. ■

ANYONE REGARDLESS OF THEIR NATURE CAN BE TRAINED TO BE ANYTHING JOHN B. WATSON (1878–1958)



68 JOHN B. WATSON The fundamental (unlearned) Pavlov demonstrated that human emotions are fear, animals can be taught IN CONTEXT rage, and love. behavioral responses through conditioning. APPROACH These feelings can be Classical behaviorism attached to objects through Humans, too, can be conditioned to produce BEFORE stimulus–response physical responses to 1890s German-born biologist conditioning. Jacques Loeb (one of Watson’s objects and events. professors) explains animal People can be conditioned behavior in purely physical- to produce emotional Anyone, regardless chemical terms. responses to objects. of their nature, can be trained 1890s The principle of to be anything. classical conditioning is established by Ivan Pavlov using experiments on dogs. 1905 Edward Thorndike shows that animals learn through achieving successful outcomes from their behavior. AFTER 1932 Edward Tolman adds cognition into behaviorism in his theory of latent learning. 1950s Cognitive psychologists focus on understanding the mental processes that both lie behind and produce 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 forward the revolutionary idea that by his experience working with the John Watson was not the first “a truly scientific psychology would military during World War I) was advocate of this thoroughgoing abandon talk of mental states… and keen to conduct experiments using behaviorist approach, but he was instead focus on prediction and human subjects. He wanted to certainly the most conspicuous. control of behavior.” This lecture study the stimulus–response model In a career cut short by his marital became known to later psychologists of classical conditioning and how it infidelity, he became one of the as the “behaviorist manifesto.” applied to the prediction and most influential and controversial

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 Psychology, as the a local children’s hospital. The tests On a separate occasion, while behaviorist views it, is a purely were designed to see whether it is Albert was sitting on the mattress, objective experimental branch 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 of natural science. the same time as a loud, frightening noise; unsurprisingly, Albert became John B. Watson noise. Watson also wanted to find frightened and distressed, bursting out whether such a fear would into tears. Watson now had an control of human behavior. He transfer to other animals or objects; unconditioned stimulus (the loud believed that people have three and how long this fear would noise) that he knew elicited a fundamental emotions—fear, rage, persist. Today, his methods would response of fear in the child. By and love—and he wanted to find be considered unethical and even pairing this with the sight of the out whether a person could be cruel, but at the time they were seen rat, he hypothesized that he would conditioned into feeling these in as a logical and natural progression be able to condition little Albert to response to a stimulus. from previous animal studies. become afraid of the animal. Little Albert In the now famous “Little Albert When Albert was just over 11 With his research assistant, Rosalie experiment,” Watson placed the months old, Watson carried out the Rayner, Watson began a series of healthy but “on the whole stolid experiment. The white rat was experiments involving “Albert B,” and unemotional” baby Albert on placed on the mattress with Albert, a nine-month-old baby chosen from a mattress and then observed his then Watson hit the hammer on the reactions when introduced to a dog, steel bar when the child touched a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, and the rat. The child burst into tears. some inanimate objects, including This procedure was repeated seven human masks and burning paper. times over two sessions, one week Albert showed no fear of any of apart, after which Albert became these animals orobjects and even distressed as soon as the rat was reached out to touch them. In this brought into the room, even when it way, Watson established a baseline was not accompanied by the noise. from which he could measure any change in the child’s behavior By repeatedly pairing the rat toward the objects. with the loud noise, Watson was 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 Rosalie Rayner, he turned to a mother was devoutly religious. career in advertising while still Watson became a rebellious and publishing books on psychology. violent teenager, but was a brilliant After Rayner’s death in 1935 scholar, attending nearby Furman aged 37, he became a recluse. University at the age of 16. After gaining a PhD from the Key works University of Chicago, he became associate professor at Johns 1913 Psychology as the Hopkins University, where his Behaviorist Views It 1913 lecture became known as 1920 Conditioned Emotional the “behaviorist manifesto.” He Reactions (with Rosalie Rayner) worked briefly for the military 1924 Behaviorism

70 JOHN B. WATSON conditioning as Pavlov had in his conditioning. This was a new mother’s distress, but according to experiments with dogs. The child’s finding, because previous stimulus– Watson and Rayner’s own account, natural response to the noise—fear response experiments had focused it occurred on a prearranged date. and distress—had now become on testing the learning of physical associated with the rat. The child behaviors. Watson had discovered Infinitely malleable had become conditioned to respond that not only can human behavior Watson’s career was abruptly to the rat with fear. In terms of be predicted—given certain stimuli brought to an end shortly after the classical conditioning, the rat was and conditions—it can also be Little Albert experiments when he initially a neutral stimulus eliciting controlled and modified. A further was forced to resign his professorship no particular response; the loud check of Albert’s reactions to the amid the scandal of his affair with noise was an “unconditioned rat, rabbit, and dog one month later his researcher, Rosalie Rayner. stimulus” (US) that elicited an suggested that the effects of this Despite the incompleteness of his “unconditioned response” (UR) of conditioning were long-lasting, but research, Watson felt vindicated in fear. After conditioning, the rat had this could not be proven as Albert his belief in behaviorism, and more become a “conditioned stimulus” was soon after removed from the particularly the application (CS), eliciting the “conditioned hospital by his mother. It has been of classical stimulus–response response” (CR) of fear. suggested that this was a sign of the conditioning to humans. Perhaps However, this conditioning Doctor Judge seemed to go deeper than simply a fear of the white rat, and appeared to be far from temporary. In order to test whether Albert’s fear had “generalized,” or spread to other, similar objects, he was reintroduced to white furry things—including a rabbit, a dog, and a sheepskin coat—five days after the original conditioning. Albert showed the same distressed and fearful response to these as to the rat. In these experiments, Watson demonstrated that human emotions are susceptible to classical I shall never be Writer Artist satisfied until I have a laboratory in which Watson saw the child as the ultimate “blank I can bring up slate.” He claimed that children… under behaviorist principles constant observation. could be used to mold John B. Watson children into any kind of specialist, from artist to doctor, regardless of nature.

BEHAVIORISM 71 because of his forced ejection from Watsonism has become The popularity of his books as the academic world (into advertising, gospel and catechism in the childcare “bibles” meant that a where he was hugely successful) he whole generation was affected by developed a tendency to overstate nurseries and drawing what can now be seen as a the scope of his findings, and with rooms of America. dysfunctional upbringing. Even a natural gift for self-publicity Mortimer Adler Watson’s own family suffered: continued to publish books on Rosalie eventually saw the flaws the subject of psychology. it is easy to see that his approach, in her husband’s child-rearing based on extreme emotional theories and wrote a critical article Not content, for example, to detachment, was at best misguided for Parents’ Magazine entitled “I claim that it is possible to condition and potentially damaging, but his Am the Mother of a Behaviorist’s emotional responses, he boasted methods were adopted by millions Sons,” and Watson’s granddaughter, that on the same principle it would of parents, including Watson and the actor Mariette Hartley, gave an be possible to control or modify Rosalie Rayner themselves. account of her disturbed family almost any aspect of human background in her autobiographical behavior, no matter how complex. The child, Watson believed, is book Breaking the Silence. Just as Little Albert had been shaped by its environment, and conditioned to fear certain white that environment is controlled by Alternative approaches to furry objects against his natural the parents. In essence, he saw childcare soon appeared, even inclination, Watson believed that child-raising as an objective exercise among committed behaviorists. “Anyone, regardless of their nature, in behavior modification, especially While accepting the basic principle can be trained to be anything.” of the emotions of fear, rage, and of conditioning established by He even boasted in his 1924 book love. Perhaps understandably, given Watson (despite the dubious ethics Behaviorism: “Give me a dozen his own unhappy childhood, he of the Little Albert experiment), healthy infants, well-formed, and my dismissed affection as sentimental, and using that as a starting point own specified world to bring them leading to over-dependence of the for his own “radical behaviorism,” up in and I’ll guarantee to take any child on the parent. But he also the psychologist B.F. Skinner was one at random and train him to advised against the opposite to apply behaviorism to the become any type of specialist I emotional extreme and was an business of childcare in a much might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, opponent of physical punishment. more benign (if eccentric) manner. ■ merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of Watson’s questionable application Watson applied his understanding his talents, penchants, tendencies, of stimulus–response conditioning of human behavior to advertising in the abilities, vocations, and race of his to childcare eventually drew 1920s, demonstrating that people can ancestors.” In the “nature versus criticism. Later generations viewed be influenced into buying products nurture” debate, Watson was firmly the approach as manipulative and through their image, not content. on the side of nurture. uncaring, with an emphasis on efficiency and results rather than Unemotional parenting on the wellbeing of the child. The Unable to continue his university long-term damage to children research, Watson popularized his brought up according to Watson’s ideas on behaviorism by turning behaviorist model became apparent his attention to the business of only gradually, but was significant. childcare. It was in this that his views proved to be most publicly influential, and eventually most controversial. Predictably, he advocated a strictly behaviorist approach to bringing up children, and throughout the 1920s and 30s his many books on childcare became immensely popular. In retrospect,

72 THAT GREAT GOD-GIVEN MAZE WHICH IS OUR HUMAN WORLD EDWARD TOLMAN (1886–1959) IN CONTEXT A lthough considered one of mental processes, including the leading figures of US perception, cognition, and APPROACH behaviorist psychology, motivation, which he had Cognitive (“purposive”) Edward Tolman took a very encountered while studying behaviorism different approach from that of Gestalt psychology in Germany. Thorndike and Watson. He agreed By bridging these two previously BEFORE with the basic methodology of separate approaches, he developed 1890s Ivan Pavlov’s behaviorism—that psychology a new theory about the role of experiments with dogs could only be studied by objective, conditioning, and created what he establish the theory of scientific experiments—but was called “purposive behaviorism,” classical conditioning. also interested in ideas about now called cognitive behaviorism. 1920 John B. Watson conducts As a rat explores a …it builds up a behaviorist experiments on maze… “cognitive map” of humans, notably “Little Albert.” the area… AFTER 1938 B.F. Skinner’s research Humans create a into operant conditioning uses cognitive map of pigeons in place of rats, and their environment, becomes more sophisticated. which is like a 1950s Cognitive psychology “God-given maze.” replaces behaviorism as the dominant movement in Humans think in a …which can be used psychology. similar way to rats. to reach a goal. 1980s Joseph Wolpe’s behavioral therapy and Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy merge into cognitive behavioral therapy.

BEHAVIORISM 73 See also: Ivan Pavlov 60–61 ■ Edward Thorndike 62–65 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ B.F. Skinner 78–85 ■ Joseph Wolpe 86–87 ■ Wolfgang Köhler 160–61 ■ Daniel Kahneman 193 There is more than one were only rewarded after six days, route. Further experiments showed kind of learning. and a third group rewarded after that the rats learned a sense of two days, Tolman’s ideas were location rather than merely the turns Edward Tolman confirmed. The second and third required to reach a particular place. groups made fewer errors when Tolman questioned the basic running the maze the day after In Purposive Behavior in Animals premise of conditioned learning they had been rewarded with food, and Men, Tolman outlined his theory (that behavior was learned simply demonstrating that they already of latent learning and cognitive by an automatic response to a “knew” their way around the maze, maps, bringing together the stimulus). He believed that animals having learned it prior to receiving methodology of behaviorism with could learn about the world around rewards. Once rewards were on Gestalt psychology, and introducing them without the reinforcement offer, they were able to use the the element of cognition. ■ of a reward, and later use that “cognitive map” they had built in knowledge in decision-making. order to negotiate the maze faster. A cognitive map of our surroundings develops in the course of our daily He designed a series of Latent learning lives. We may not be aware of this experiments using rats in mazes to Tolman referred to the rats’ initial until we need to find somewhere that examine the role of reinforcement learning period, where there was no we have passed without noticing. in learning. Comparing a group of obvious reward, as “latent learning.” rats that were rewarded with food He believed that as all animals, daily for successfully negotiating including humans, go about their the maze, with another group who daily lives, they build up a cognitive map of the world around them—the “God-given maze”—which they can apply to locate specific goals. He gave the example of how we learn the locations of various landmarks on our daily journeys, but only realize what we have learned when we need to find somewhere along the Edward Tolman Edward Chace Tolman was born here that he experimented into a well-to-do family in West with rats in mazes. During Newton, Massachusetts. the McCarthy period, he was He studied at the Massachusetts threatened with dismissal for Institute of Technology, graduating not signing a loyalty oath that in electrochemistry in 1911, but he felt restricted academic after reading works by William freedom. The case was James opted for a postgraduate overturned in 1955. He died in degree at Harvard in philosophy Berkeley, aged 73, in 1959. and psychology. While studying, he traveled to Germany and was Key works introduced to Gestalt psychology. After gaining his doctorate, he 1932 Purposive Behavior in taught at Northwestern University, Animals and Men but his pacifist views lost him his 1942 Drives Toward War job, and he moved to the University 1948 Cognitive Maps in Rats of California at Berkeley. It was and Men

74 ONCE A RAT HAS VISITED OUR GRAIN SACK WE CAN PLAN ON ITS RETURN EDWIN GUTHRIE (1886–1959) IN CONTEXT B y the 1920s, when American way, Guthrie said, once a rat has philosopher Edwin Guthrie discovered a source of food, it knows APPROACH turned his attention to where to come when it is hungry. Learning theory psychology, the stimulus–response model of learning formed the basis Guthrie expanded his idea into BEFORE of almost all behaviorist theories. a theory of “contiguity,” stating that 1890s Ivan Pavlov shows Derived from Ivan Pavlov’s idea of “a combination of stimuli, which “classical conditioning” in dogs. “classical conditioning,” it claimed has accompanied a movement, will that repeatedly exposing subjects on its reoccurrence tend to be 1890S Edward Thorndike to particular stimuli combinations followed by that movement.” designs the “puzzle box” for (such as being given food and A movement, not behavior, is his experiments on cats. ringing a bell) could eventually learned from stimulus–response provoke conditioned responses (such association. Related movements 1920S Edward Tolman queries as salivating when a bell is rung). combine to form an act; repetition the role of reinforcement in does not reinforce the association conditioning. Although Guthrie was a strict but leads to the formation of acts, behaviorist, he did not agree that which combine to form behavior. ■ AFTER conditioning needed reinforcement 1938 B.F. Skinner’s The to be successful. He believed that a We expect one quarrel Behavior of Organisms presents full association between a specific to change attitudes. the idea of operant conditioning, stimulus and response is made in Edwin Guthrie emphasizing the role of their very first pairing. Guthrie’s consequences in behavior. theory of one-trial learning was based on a study in which he 1940s Jean Piaget develops a observed cats trapped in “puzzle theory of learning that claims boxes.” The cats, once they had children are naturally driven to discovered the mechanism for explore and acquire knowledge. escape, made the association between escape and their action, 1977 Albert Bandura’s Social which they would then repeat on Learning Theory states that subsequent occasions. In the same behavior is learned from observing and copying the See also: Ivan Pavlov 60–61 ■ Edward Thorndike 62–65 ■ Edward Tolman 72–73 ■ behavior of others. B.F. Skinner 78–85 ■ Jean Piaget 262–69 ■ Albert Bandura 286–91

BEHAVIORISM 75 NOTHING IS MORE NATURALTHAN FOR THE CAT TO “LOVE” THE RAT ZING-YANG KUO (1898–1970) IN CONTEXT I n the 1920s, behaviorist John Harmonious relationships, Kuo B. Watson was claiming that proved, can exist between animals that APPROACH even innate behavior could be are traditionally regarded as enemies. Behavioral epigenetics altered by conditioning. But it was He concluded that there is no “innate the Chinese psychologist mechanism” driving them to fight. BEFORE Zing-Yang Kuo who took the 1874 Francis Galton addresses behaviorist idea to its extreme, Kuo’s work was cut short by political the nature–nurture controversy denying the existence of instinct events in China, which forced him in English Men of Science: as an explanation for behavior. to flee first to the US, then Hong Their Nature and Nurture. Kong. His ideas only became known Kuo felt that instinct was just in the West as behaviorism was 1924 John B. Watson makes a convenient way for psychologists beginning to wane and cognitive his famous “dozen infants” to explain behavior that did not psychology was in the ascendant. boast that anyone, regardless fit current theory: “Our behavior However, his theory of ongoing of their basic nature, can be researches in the past have been development without innate trained to be anything. in the wrong direction, because, mechanisms was influential as instead of finding how we could a counter to the instinct-based AFTER build nature into the animal, we psychology of Konrad Lorenz. ■ 1938 B.F. Skinner in The have tried to find nature in the Behavior of Organisms explains animal.” Kuo’s most well-known his radical behaviorist ideas, experiments involved rearing claiming that circumstances, kittens—some raised from birth in not instinct, govern behavior. cages with rats, others introduced to rats at later stages. He found that 1942 Edward Tolman “if a kitten was raised in the same publishes Drives Toward War, cage with a rat since it was very which examines whether young, it, when grown-up, became aggression is conditioned tolerant of rats: not only would it or instinctive. never attack a rat, but it adopted the rat as its ‘mate’, played with it, 1966 Konrad Lorenz publishes and even became attached to it.” On Aggression, explaining aggressive behavior as an See also: Francis Galton 28–29 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ Edward Tolman 72–73 ■ innate response. Konrad Lorenz 77 ■ B.F. Skinner 78–85

76 LEARNING IS JUST NOT POSSIBLE KARL LASHLEY (1890–1958) IN CONTEXT A merican physiologist- mazes as the basis of a learning turned-psychologist Karl experiment. First, the rats learned APPROACH Lashley was interested in to find their way through the maze Neuropsychology what happens physically in the to reach a food reward. Then, brain during the learning process. Lashley performed surgery on them BEFORE Pavlov and other behaviorists had to remove specific but different 1861 French anatomist Paul suggested that conditioning causes parts of the cerebral cortex from Broca locates the area of the chemical or electrical changes in each one. After this, the rats were brain responsible for speech. the brain, and Lashley wanted to replaced in the maze to test their pinpoint exactly what these were. memory and learning abilities. 1880s Spanish pathologist and neuroscientist Santiago In particular, Lashley wanted to No place for memory Ramón y Cajal develops the locate the memory trace, or What Lashley found was that no theory that the body’s nervous “engram,” the specific place in the matter which part of the brain he system is made up of cells, brain responsible for memory. Like removed, the rats’ memory of the which German anatomist many behaviorists, he used rats in task remained. Their learning and Heinrich Waldeyer-Hartz later retention of new tasks was impaired, calls “neurons.” There is no great excess of but the amount of impairment cells which can be reserved as depended on the extent, not the AFTER the seat of special memories. location, of the damage. He came 1949 Donald Hebb describes to the conclusion that the memory the formation of cell assemblies Karl Lashley trace is not localized in a particular and phase sequences in the place, but distributed evenly process of associative learning. throughout the cerebral cortex; each part of the brain is therefore equally From 1980 Modern brain- important, or equipotential. Decades imaging techniques such as later, he said that his experiment CT, fMRI (functional magnetic had led him to “sometimes feel… resonance imaging) and PET that the necessary conclusion is (positron emission tomography) that learning is just not possible.” ■ scanning allow neuroscientists to map specific brain functions. See also: John B. Watson 66–71 ■ Donald Hebb 163 ■ George Armitage Miller 168–73 ■ Daniel Schacter 208–09 ■ Roger Brown 237

BEHAVIORISM 77 IMPRINTING CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN! KONRAD LORENZ (1903–1989) IN CONTEXT T he Austrian zoologist and Lorenz went on to observe many doctor Konrad Lorenz was other stage-linked, instinctive APPROACH one of the founding fathers behaviors, such as courtship Ethology of ethology—the comparative study behavior, and described them of animal behavior in the natural as ”fixed-action patterns.” These BEFORE environment. He began his work remain dormant until triggered by 1859 English biologist Charles observing geese and ducks at his a specific stimulus at a particular Darwin publishes On the family’s summer house in Altenberg, critical period. Fixed-action Origin of Species, describing Austria. He noticed that the young patterns, he emphasized, are not the theory of natural selection. birds rapidly made a bond with learned but genetically programed, their mother after hatching, but and as such have evolved through 1898 Lorenz’s mentor, German could also form the same attachment the process of natural selection. ■ biologist Oskar Heinroth, to a foster parent if the mother was begins his study of duck absent. This phenomenon, which Lorenz discovered that geese and goose behavior, and Lorenz called “imprinting,” had and other birds follow and become describes the phenomenon been observed before, but he was attached to the first moving object they of imprinting. the first to study it systematically. encounter after emerging from their Famously, he even persuaded eggs—in this case, his boots. AFTER young geese and ducks to accept 1959 Experiments by the him (by imprinting his Wellington German psychologist Eckhard boots) as a foster parent. Hess show that in imprinting, what has been learned first is What distinguishes imprinting remembered best; whereas in from learning, Lorenz discovered, is association learning, recent that it happens only at a specific learning is remembered best. stage in an animal’s development, which he called the “critical period.” 1969 John Bowlby argues that Unlike learning, it is rapid, operates the attachment of newborn independently of behavior, and babies to their mothers is a appears to be irreversible; imprinting genetic predisposition. cannot be forgotten. See also: Francis Galton 28–29 ■ Ivan Pavlov 60–61 ■ Edward Thorndike 62–65 ■ Karl Lashley 76 ■ John Bowlby 274–77

BEHAVIOR IS SHAPED BY POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT B.F. SKINNER (1904–1990)



80 B.F. SKINNER B urrhus Frederic Skinner, The ideal of behaviorism is better known as B.F. to eliminate coercion, to IN CONTEXT Skinner, is possibly the most widely known and influential apply controls by changing APPROACH behaviorist psychologist. He the environment. Radical behaviorism was not, however, a pioneer in the B.F. Skinner field, but developed the ideas of his BEFORE predecessors, such as Ivan Pavlov theorizing of many of the early 1890 William James outlines and John B. Watson, by subjecting psychologists. Works by Pavlov the theories of behaviorism in theories of behaviorism to rigorous and Watson were his main The Principles of Psychology. experimental scrutiny in order to influence; he saw psychology as arrive at his controversial stance following in the scientific tradition, 1890s Ivan Pavlov develops of “radical behaviorism.” and anything that could not been the concept of conditioned seen, measured, and repeated in a stimulus and response. Skinner proved to be an ideal rigorously controlled experiment advocate of behaviorism. Not only was of no interest to him. 1924 John B. Watson lays the were his arguments based on the foundations for the modern results of scrupulous scientific Processes purely of the mind, behaviorist movement. methodology (so they could be therefore, were outside Skinner’s proved), but his experiments interest and scope. In fact, he 1930s Zing-Yang Kuo claims tended to involve the use of novel reached the conclusion that they that behavior is continually contraptions that the general public must be utterly subjective, and being modified throughout life, found fascinating. Skinner was an did not exist at all separately from and that even so-called innate inveterate “gadget man” and a the body. In Skinner’s opinion, behavior is influenced by provocative self-publicist. But “experiences” as an embryo. behind the showman image was a serious scientist, whose work AFTER helped to finally sever psychology 1950s Joseph Wolpe pioneers from its introspective philosophical systematic desensitization as roots and establish it as a scientific part of behavior therapy. discipline in its own right. 1960s Albert Bandura’s social Skinner had once contemplated learning theory is influenced a career as an author, but he had by radical behaviorism. little time for the philosophical B.F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner was the rest of his life. He was born in 1904 in Susquehanna, diagnosed with leukemia in Pennsylvania. He studied English the 1980s, but continued to at Hamilton College, New York, work, finishing an article from intending to be a writer, but soon his final lecture on the day he realized that the literary life was died, August 18, 1990. not for him. Influenced by the works of Ivan Pavlov and John B. Key works Watson, he studied psychology at Harvard, gaining his doctorate in 1938 The Behavior of Organisms: 1931 and becoming a junior fellow. An Experimental Analysis He moved to the University of 1948 Walden Two Minnesota in 1936, and from 1953 Science and Human 1946 to 1947 ran the psychology Behavior department at Indiana University. 1957 Verbal Behavior In 1948, Skinner returned to 1971 Beyond Freedom and Harvard, where he remained for Dignity

BEHAVIORISM 81 See also: William James 38–45 ■ Ivan Pavlov 60–61 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ Zing-Yang Kuo 75 ■ Joseph Wolpe 86–87 ■ Albert Bandura 286–91 ■ Noam Chomsky 294–97 An action, press the bar accidentally, or such as a rat simply out of curiosity, and as a pressing a consequence receive some food. Over time, the rat learned that food button… appeared whenever the bar was pressed, and began to press it …leading to an …has a purposefully in order to be fed. increased probability consequence, Comparing results from rats given the “positive reinforcement” of food of that behavior such as the for their bar-pressing behavior with and encouraging a delivery of food… those that were not, or were repeat of the action. presented with food at different rates, it became clear that when the way to carry out psychological from the results of actions. As with food appeared as a consequence research was through observable so many great insights, this may of the rat’s actions, this influenced behavior, rather than through appear to be self-evident, but it its future behavior. unobservable thoughts. marked a major turning point in behaviorist psychology. Skinner concluded that animals Although a strict behaviorist are conditioned by the responses from the outset of his career, Skinner boxes they receive from their actions Skinner differed from earlier While working as a research fellow and environment. As the rats behaviorists in his interpretation of at Harvard, Skinner carried out a explored the world around them, conditioning, in particular, the series of experiments on rats, using some of their actions had a positive principle of “classical conditioning” an invention that later became consequence (Skinner was careful as described by Pavlov. While not known as a “Skinner box.” A rat to avoid the word “reward” with its disagreeing that a conditioned was placed in one of these boxes, connotations of being given for response could be elicited by which had a special bar fitted on “good” behavior), which in turn repeated training, Skinner felt that the inside. Every time the rat encouraged them to repeat that this was something of a special pressed this bar, it was presented behavior. In Skinner’s terms, case, involving the deliberate, with a food pellet. The rate of an “organism\" operates on its artificial introduction of a bar-pressing was automatically environment, and encounters a ❯❯ conditioning stimulus. recorded. Initially, the rat might To Skinner, it seemed that Skinner boxes were one of many the consequences of an action ingenious devices that the psychologist were more important in shaping created, giving him total control over behavior than any stimulus that the environment of the animals whose had preceded or coincided with it. behavior he was observing. He concluded from his experiments that behavior is primarily learned

82 B.F. SKINNER Positive reinforcement can stimulate particular patterns of behavior, as Skinner demonstrated by placing a rat in one of his specially designed boxes, fitted with a lever or bar. Pellets of food appeared every time the animal pressed the bar, encouraging it to perform this action again and again. stimulus (a food pellet), which occurring, if the reinforcing shock as “punishment,” a distinction reinforces its operant behavior stimulus was then stopped, there that became increasingly important (pressing on the bar). In order to was a decrease in the likelihood of as he examined the implications of distinguish this from classical that behavior occurring. his research. conditioning, he coined the term “operant conditioning;” the major Skinner continued making his Negative reinforcement was not distinction being that operant experiments ever more varied and a new concept in psychology. As conditioning depends not on a sophisticated, including changes of early as 1890, William James had preceding stimulus, but on what schedule to establish whether the written in Principles of Psychology: follows as a consequence of a rats could distinguish and respond “Animals, for example, awaken in particular type of behavior. It is also to differences in the rate of delivery a child the opposite impulses of different in that it represents of food pellets. As he suspected, fearing and fondling. But if a child, a two-way process, in which an the rats adapted very quickly to in his first attempts to pat a dog, action, or behavior, is operating the new schedules. gets snapped at or bitten, so that on the environment just as much the impulse of fear is strongly as the environment is shaping Negative reinforcement aroused, it may be that for years to that behavior. In later experiments, the floors of come no dog will excite in him the the Skinner boxes were each fitted In the course of his experiments, with an electric grid, which would Skinner began to run short of food give the rats an unpleasant shock pellets, forcing him to reschedule whenever they were activated. This the rate at which they were being allowed for the investigation of the given to the rats. Some rats now effect of negative reinforcement on received a food pellet only after behavior. Again, just as Skinner they had pressed the bar a number avoided the word “reward,” he was of times repeatedly, either at fixed careful not to describe the electric intervals or randomly. The results of this variation reinforced Skinner’s Winning at gambling often boosts original findings, but they also led the compulsion to try again, while to a further discovery: that while losing lessens it, just as changes in the a reinforcing stimulus led to a rate at which Skinner’s rats were fed greater probability of a behavior made them modify their behavior.

BEHAVIORISM 83 impulse to fondle again.” Skinner was to provide the experimental evidence for this idea. Positive reinforcement likely to avoid doing so when adults Skinner’s pigeon experiments proved As expected, Skinner found that are around. The child may modify that the positive reinforcement of being whenever a behavior resulted in the his behavior, but only so far as it fed on the achievement of a task helped negative consequence of an electric enables him to avoid punishment. to speed up and reinforce the learning shock, there was a decrease in that Skinner himself believed that of new behavior patterns. behavior. He went on to redesign ultimately all forms of punishment the Skinner boxes used in the were unsuitable for controlling further in his article The Selection experiment, so that the rats inside children’s behavior. by Consequences, written for the were able to switch off the journal Science in 1981. electrified grid by pressing a bar, Genetic predisposition which provided a form of positive The “shaping” of behavior by In 1936, Skinner took up a post reinforcement arising from the operant conditioning has striking at the University of Minnesota, removal of a negative stimulus. The parallels with Charles Darwin’s where he continued to refine his results that followed confirmed theory of natural selection—in experimental research in operant Skinner’s theory—if a behavior essence, that only organisms conditioning and to explore leads to the removal of a negative suited by their genetic make-up practical applications for his ideas, stimulus, that behavior increases. to a particular environment will this time using pigeons instead of survive to reproduce, ensuring rats. With the pigeons, Skinner However, the results also the “success” of their species. found that he was able to devise revealed an interesting distinction The likelihood of a rat behaving more subtle experiments. Using between behavior learned by in a way that will result in a what he described as a “method of positive reinforcement and behavior reinforcing stimulus, triggering successive approximations,” he elicited by negative stimuli. The the process of operant conditioning, could elicit and investigate more rats responded better and more is dependent on the level of its complex patterns of behavior. quickly to the positive stimuli (as curiosity and intelligence, both of well as the removal of negative which are determined by genetic Skinner gave the pigeons stimuli), than when their behavior make-up. It was this combination positive reinforcement for any resulted in a negative response. of predisposition and conditioning behavior that was similar to that he While still careful to avoid the that led Skinner to conclude that was trying to elicit. For example, if notions of “reward” and “a person’s behavior is controlled by he was trying to train a pigeon to “punishment,” Skinner concluded his genetic and environmental fly in a circle clockwise, food would that behavior was shaped much histories”—an idea that he explored be given for any movement the more efficiently by a program pigeon made to the right, however of positive reinforcement. In fact, small. Once this behavior had ❯❯ he came to believe that negative reinforcement could even be counter-productive, with the subject continuing to seek positive responses for a specific behavior, despite this leading to a negative response in the majority of cases. This has implications in various areas of human behavior too; for example, in the use of disciplinary measures to teach children. If a boy is continually being punished for something he finds enjoyable, such as picking his nose, he is

84 B.F. SKINNER been established, the food was only the end. Although it only achieved The objection to inner given for longer flights to the right, limited approval at the time, the states is not that they do and the process was repeated until principles embodied in Skinner’s not exist, but that they are the pigeon had to fly a full circle in teaching machine resurfaced order to receive some food. decades later in self-education not relevant in a computer programs. functional analysis. Teaching program Skinner’s research led him to It has to be said that many of B.F. Skinner question teaching methods used Skinner’s inventions were in schools. In the 1950s, when his misunderstood at the time, and guidance systems were yet to be own children were involved in gained him a reputation as an invented, so Skinner devised a nose formal education, students were eccentric. His “baby tender,” cone that could be attached to a often given long tasks that involved for example, was designed as a bomb and steered by three pigeons several stages, and usually had to crib alternative to keep his infant placed inside it. The birds had been wait until the teacher had graded daughter in a controlled, warm, and trained, using operant conditioning, work carried out over the entire draft-free environment. However, to peck at an image of the bomb’s project before finding out how well the public confused it with a target, which was projected into they had done. This approach ran Skinner box, and it was dubbed the nose cone via a lens at the front. contrary to Skinner’s findings about the “heir conditioner” by the press, This pecking controlled the flight- the process of learning and, in his amid rumors that Skinner was path of the missile. The National opinion, was holding back progress. experimenting on his own children. Defense Research Committee In response, Skinner developed a Nevertheless, the baby tender helped fund the project, but it was teaching program that gave attracted publicity, and Skinner never used in combat, because it incremental feedback at every was never shy of the limelight. was considered too eccentric and stage of a project—a process that impractical. The suspicion was was later incorporated into a War effort that Skinner, with his passion for number of educational systems. He Yet another famous experiment gadgets, was more interested in the also invented a “teaching machine” called “Project Pigeon” was met invention than in its application. that gave a student encouraging with skepticism and some derision. When asked if he thought it right feedback for correct answers given This practical application of to involve animals in warfare, he at every stage of a long series of Skinner’s work with pigeons was replied that he thought it was test questions, rather than just at intended as a serious contribution wrong to involve humans. to the war effort in 1944. Missile In later life as an academic at Harvard, Skinner also expanded on the implications of his findings in numerous articles and books. Praise or encouragement given at frequent intervals during the progress of a piece of work, rather than one large reward at the end, has been shown to boost the rate at which children learn.

BEHAVIORISM 85 Walden Two (1948) describes a falls from heaven, he ends in hell. Skinner has an utopian society based on behavior And what does he say to reassure unbounded love for the learned with operant conditioning. himself? ‘Here, at least, we shall idea that there are no The book’s vision of social control be free.’ And that, I think, is the individuals, no agents— achieved by positive reinforcement fate of the old-fashioned liberal. there are only organisms. caused controversy, and despite He’s going to be free, but he’s its benign intent was criticized by going to find himself in hell.” Thomas Szasz many as totalitarian. This was not a surprising reaction, given the Views such as these gained was a two-way process, in which political climate in the aftermath him notoriety, and prompted some an organism operates on its of World War II. of his fiercest critics. In particular, environment and that environment the application of his behaviorist responds, with the consequence Radical behaviorism ideas to the learning of language often shaping future behavior. Skinner remained true to his in Verbal Behavior in 1957 received behaviorist approach, coining a scathing review from Noam In the 1960s, the focus in the term “radical behaviorism” Chomsky, which is often credited psychology swung away from for the branch of psychology he as launching the movement known the study of behavior to the espoused. Although he did not as cognitive psychology. study of mental processes, and deny the existence of thought for a time Skinner’s ideas were processes and mental states, he Some criticism of Skinner’s discredited, or at least ignored. believed that psychology should work, however, has been based on A reappraisal of behaviorism soon be concerned solely with the study misunderstanding the principles followed, however, and his work of physical responses to prevailing of operant conditioning. Radical found an appreciative audience in conditions or situations. behaviorism has often been many areas of applied psychology, linked erroneously to the European especially among educationalists In his book, Beyond Freedom philosophical movement of logical and clinical psychologists—the and Dignity, Skinner took the positivism, which holds the view approach of cognitive behavioral concept of shaping behavior that statements or ideas are only therapy owes much to his ideas. ■ even further, resurrecting the meaningful if they can be verified philosophical debate between by actual experience. But it has in free will and determinism. For the fact much more in common with radical behaviorist Skinner, free American pragmatism, which will is an illusion; selection by measures the importance or value consequences controls all of our of actions according to their behavior, and hence our lives. consequences. It has also been Attempts to escape this notion misinterpreted as presenting all are doomed to failure and chaos. living beings as the passive As he put it: “When Milton’s Satan subjects of conditioning, whereas to Skinner operant conditioning += Classical conditioning creates an += automatic behavioral response to a neutral stimulus, such as salivating in expectation of food when a bell is rung. Operant conditioning creates a higher probability of repeated behavior through positive reinforcement, such as releasing food by pulling a lever.

86 STOP IMAGINING THE SCENE AND RELAX JOSEPH WOLPE (1915–1997) IN CONTEXT According to Pavlov and People cannot feel Watson, it is possible to two opposing emotions APPROACH learn an emotional Reciprocal inhibition response to a particular at the same time. BEFORE stimulus. 1906 Ivan Pavlov publishes the first studies on stimulus- So it must also be possible If someone is relaxed, they response techniques, showing to unlearn a response to cannot also be anxious. that behavior can be learned through conditioning. a stimulus. 1913 John B. Watson If deep relaxation is taught as a conditioned publishes Psychology as response to a feared object, anxiety cannot be a Behaviorist Views It, establishing the basic tenets felt at the same time. of behavioral psychology. For most of the first half of the thoughts, including their formative 1920 John B. Watson’s 20th century, psychotherapy experiences. But South African- Little Albert experiments was dominated by Freudian born psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe had demonstrate that emotions psychoanalysis, which assumes treated soldiers for anxiety brought can be classically conditioned. that anxiety results from conflicting on by post-traumatic stress forces deep within the psyche. disorder (then known as “war 1953 B.F. Skinner publishes This conflict can only be alleviated neurosis”) during World War II, and The Behavior of Organisms, through a lengthy, introspective had found these psychotherapeutic presenting his theories on how analysis of both the individual’s practices ineffective in helping his human behavior relates to conscious and subconscious patients. Talking to these men biology and the environment. AFTER 1961 Wolpe introduces the concept of systematic desensitization.

BEHAVIORISM 87 See also: Ivan Pavlov 60–61 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ B.F. Skinner 78–85 ■ Aaron Beck 174–77 ■ W.H.R. Rivers 334 Behavior depends upon deep-muscle relaxation techniques, Phobias such as fear of mice have the paths that neural which he went on to pair with been treated successfully using methods excitation takes. simultaneous exposure to developed from Wolpe’s idea of reciprocal Joseph Wolpe some form of anxiety-inducing inhibition: the pairing of deep relaxation stimuli—a technique that became with exposure to the feared object. about their experiences did not known as reciprocal inhibition. stop their flashbacks to the original results, and led to many important trauma, nor did it end their anxiety. Wolpe’s patients were asked new techniques in the field of to imagine the thing or event that behavioral therapy. Wolpe himself Unlearning fear they found disturbing. If they used it to develop a systematic Wolpe believed that there must be started to become anxious, they desensitization program to cure a simpler and quicker way than would be encouraged to “stop phobias, such as fear of mice or psychoanalysis to address the imagining the scene and relax.” flying, which is still widely used. ■ problem of deep anxiety. He was This approach gradually blocked aware of the work of behaviorists out a patient’s feelings of fear. Just he taught at the University such as Ivan Pavlov and John as the patient hadpreviously been of Virginia, then became a Watson, who had successfully conditioned by his experiences to professor of psychiatry at taught animals and children new become anxious when recalling Temple University, Philadelphia, behavioral patterns through certain particularly harrowing where he set up a respected stimulus-response training, or memories, he now became behavioral therapy institute. classical conditioning. They had conditioned—within a very short Renowned as a brilliant teacher, been able to make a previously time—to block out his anxiety Wolpe continued to teach until unfelt emotional response to an response, by focusing on the he died of lung cancer, aged 82. object or event become automatic. directly contradictory feeling of Wolpe reasoned that if behavior being totally relaxed. Key works could be learned in this way, it could also be unlearned, and he Wolpe’s reciprocal inhibition 1958 Psychotherapy by proposed to find a method of using succeeded in reconditioning the Reciprocal Inhibition this to help disturbed war veterans. brain by focusing solely on symptoms 1969 Practice of Behavioral and current behavior, without any Therapy Wolpe had discovered that a analysis of a patient’s past. It was 1988 Life Without Fear human being is not capable of also effective and brought fast experiencing two contradictory states of emotion at the same time. Joseph Wolpe It is not possible, for example, to feel great anxiety of any kind, when Joseph Wolpe was born in you are feeling very relaxed. This Johannesburg, South Africa. inspired him to teach his patients He studied medicine at the University of Witwatersrand, then served in the South African Army, where he treated people for “war neurosis.” Returning to the university to develop his desensitization technique, he was ridiculed by the psychoanalytic establishment for attempting to treat neuroses without first identifying their cause. Wolpe relocated to the US in 1960, taking US citizenship. Initially,

PSYCHOT THE UNCONSCIOUS DETERMINES BEHAVIOR

HERAPY

90 INTRODUCTION Sigmund Freud In his book Anna Freud publishes Karen Horney’s and Josef Breuer Psychological Types, The Ego and the differences with Freud publish Studies on Carl Jung introduces lead her to establish the the terms “introvert” Mechanisms of Defense. American Institute for Hysteria. and “extrovert.” Psychoanalysis. 1895 1921 1936 1941 1941 1900 1927 1937 Sigmund Freud introduces Alfred Adler is Jacques Lacan delivers Erich Fromm writes the key concepts of recognized as the founder his paper The Mirror one of the seminal of individual psychology Stage to the 14th psychoanalysis in The following the publication of International works of sociopolitical Interpretation of Dreams. The Practice and Theory of Psychoanalytical psychology, The Fear Congress. Individual Psychology. of Freedom. A t the turn of the 20th that he felt was key to our behavior. Despite these differences of century, behaviorism was Freud believed that accessing the opinion, however, Freud’s basic becoming the dominant unconscious by talking to his ideas were modified rather than approach to psychology in the US; patients would bring painful, rejected by the next generation of psychologists in Europe, however, hidden memories into conscious psychoanalysts, and subsequent were taking a different direction. awareness where the patient could theories place the emphasis on This was largely due to the work make sense of them, and so gain different areas. Erik Erikson, for of Sigmund Freud, whose theories relief from their symptoms. example, took a more social and focused on psychopathology and developmental approach, while treatment rather than the study New psychotherapies Jung was to formulate the idea of mental processes and behavior. Freud’s ideas spread across Europe of a collective unconscious. Unlike behaviorism, his ideas were and the US. He attracted a circle at based on observation and case his Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, For the first half of the 20th histories rather than experimental which included Alfred Adler and century, psychoanalysis in its evidence. Carl Jung. However, both these various forms remained the main men came to disagree with alternative to behaviorism, and it Freud had worked with the elements of Freud’s theories, going faced no serious challenges until French neurologist Jean Martin on to develop their own distinct after World War II. In the 1950s, Charcot, and was much influenced psychodynamic approaches based Freudian psychotherapy was still by the latter’s use of hypnosis for on Freud’s groundwork. Well-known practiced by therapists, especially the treatment of hysteria. From his therapists Melanie Klein and Karen in France by Jacques Lacan and time with Charcot, Freud realized Horney, and even Freud’s daughter his followers, but new therapies the importance of the unconscious, Anna, also broke away from Freud. appeared that sought to bring an area of nonconscious thought about genuine change in patients’

PSYCHOTHERAPY 91 Carl Rogers develops Melanie Klein presents a Albert Ellis outlines American existential client-centered controversial paper on Envy Rational Emotive psychology emerges therapy, outlining and Gratitude, affirming the Behavior Therapy with the publication of his theories in Rollo May’s Existence. Counseling and innate presence of the in A Guide to Psychotherapy. “death instinct.” Rational Living. 1942 1955 1961 1967 1946 1959 1964 1970 After his release from R.D. Laing attempts to Virginia Satir, the Abraham Maslow Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl describe the structure of “mother of family defines the concept of writes Man’s Search for system therapy,” self-actualization Meaning, outlining the the schizophrenic publishes Conjoint experience in The in Motivation and necessity of finding Family Therapy. Personality. meaning in suffering. Divided Self. lives. The somewhat eclectic Perhaps the most significant threat such as Albert Ellis’s Rational Gestalt therapy was developed to psychoanalysis at this time Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) by Fritz and Laura Perls and Paul came from cognitive psychology, and Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy. Goodman, while existential which criticized psychoanalysis Freud’s emphasis on childhood philosophy inspired psychologists for its lack of objective evidence— development and personal history such as Viktor Frankl and Erich either for its theories or its efficacy inspired much developmental and Fromm, who gave therapy a as treatment. In contrast, cognitive social psychology, and in the late more sociopolitical agenda. psychology provided scientifically 20th century psychotherapists such proven theories and, later, clinically as Guy Corneau, Virginia Satir, and Most importantly, a group of effective therapeutic practices. Donald Winnicott turned their psychologists keen to explore a more attention to the family environment; humanistic approach held a series Cognitive psychotherapy while others, including Timothy of meetings in the US in the late Cognitive psychologists dismissed Leary and Dorothy Rowe, focused 1950s, setting out a framework for psychoanalysis as unscientific and on social pressures. an association known as “the third its theories as unprovable. One of force,” which was dedicated to the key concepts of Freudian Though Freud’s original ideas exploring themes such as self- analysis—repressed memory—was have often been questioned over the actualization, creativity, and questioned by Paul Watzlawick, years, the evolution from Freudian personal freedom. Its founders— and the validity of all forms of psychoanalysis to cognitive therapy including Abraham Maslow, Carl memory was shown to be unstable and humanistic psychotherapy has Rogers, and Rollo May—stressed by Elizabeth Loftus. Cognitive led to huge improvements in mental the importance of mental health psychology instead offered health treatments; and has provided as much as the treatment of evidence-based psychotherapies a model for the unconscious, our mental disorders. drives, and behavior. ■

THE UNCONSCIOUS IS THE TRUE PSYCHICAL REALITY SIGMUND FREUD (1856–1939)



94 SIGMUND FREUD IN CONTEXT activity that was too powerful, too Anna O, actually Bertha Pappenheim, frightening, or too incomprehensible was diagnosed with paralysis and APPROACH for our conscious mind to be able hysteria. She was treated successfully, Psychoanalysis to incorporate. Freud’s work on with what she described as a “talking the subject was pioneering. He cure,” by physician Josef Breuer. BEFORE described the structure of the mind 2500–600 BCE The Hindu as formed of the conscious, the the case of Anna O, and is the first Vedas describe consciousness unconscious, and the preconscious, instance of intensive psychotherapy as “an abstract, silent, and he popularized the idea of the as a treatment for mental illness. completely unified field unconscious, introducing the of consciousness.” notion that it is the part of the Breuer became Freud’s friend mind that defines and explains and colleague, and together the 1567 Swiss physician the workings behind our ability two developed and popularized a Paracelsus provides the to think and experience. method of psychological treatment first medical description based on the idea that many forms of the unconscious. Hypnosis and hysteria of mental illness (irrational fears, Freud’s introduction to the world anxiety, hysteria, imagined 1880s French neurologist of the unconscious came in 1885 paralyses and pains, and certain Jean-Martin Charcot uses when he came across the work types of paranoia) were the results hypnotism to treat hysteria of the French neurologist Jean- of traumatic experiences that had and other abnormal Martin Charcot, who seemed to be occurred in the patient’s past mental conditions. successfully treating patients for and were now hidden away from symptoms of mental illness using consciousness. Through Freud and AFTER hypnosis. Charcot’s view was Breuer’s technique, outlined in the 1913 John B. Watson that hysteria was a neurological jointly published Studies in criticizes Freud’s ideas of the disorder caused by abnormalities Hysteria (1895), they claimed to unconscious as unscientific of the nervous system, and this have found a way to release the and not provable. idea provided important new repressed memory from the possibilities for treatments. Freud unconscious, allowing the patient 1944 Carl Jung claims that returned to Vienna, eager to use to consciously recall the memory the presence of universal this new knowledge, but struggled and confront the experience, both archetypes proves the to find a workable technique. emotionally and intellectually. The existence of the unconscious. process set free the trapped He then encountered Joseph emotion, and the symptoms T he unconscious is one Breuer, a well-respected physician, disappeared. Breuer disagreed with of the most intriguing who had found that he could greatly what he felt was Freud’s eventual concepts in psychology. reduce the severity of one of his It seems to contain all of our patient’s symptoms of mental illness experience of reality, although simply by asking her to describe it appears to be beyond our her fantasies and hallucinations. awareness or control. It is the place Breuer began using hypnosis to where we retain all our memories, facilitate her access to memories of thoughts, and feelings. The notion a traumatic event, and after twice- fascinated Austrian neurologist and weekly hypnosis sessions all her psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, who symptoms had been alleviated. wanted to find out if it was possible Breuer concluded that her to explain things that seemed to lie symptoms had been the result beyond the confines of psychology of disturbing memories buried in at the time. Those who had begun her unconscious mind, and that to examine the unconscious feared voicing the thoughts brought them that it might be filled with psychic to consciousness, allowing the symptoms to disappear. This is

PSYCHOTHERAPY 95 See also: Johann Friedrich Herbart 24–25 ■ Jean-Martin Charcot 30 ■ Carl Jung 102–07 ■ Melanie Klein 108–09 ■ Anna Freud 111 ■ Jacques Lacan 122–23 ■ Paul Watzlawick 149 ■ Aaron Beck 174–75 ■ Elizabeth Loftus 202–07 overemphasis on the sexual origins powerful dimensions of the The poets and philosophers and content of neuroses (problems unconscious, the warehouse before me discovered the caused by psychological conflicts), from which our active cognitive unconscious; what and the two parted; Freud to state and behavior are dictated. I discovered was the continue developing the ideas and The conscious is effectively the scientific method by techniques of psychoanalysis. puppet in the hands of the which it could be studied. unconscious. The conscious Sigmund Freud Our everyday mind mind is merely the surface of It is easy to take for granted the a complex psychic realm. reside in a part of the conscious reality of the conscious, and mind that Freud called the naively believe that what we think, Since the unconscious is all- preconscious. We are able to bring feel, remember, and experience encompassing, Freud says, it these memories into conscious make up the entirety of the human contains within it the smaller awareness at any time. ❯❯ mind. But Freud says that the spheres of the conscious and an active state of consciousness— area called the “preconscious.” that is, the operational mind of Everything that is conscious—that which we are directly aware in we actively know—has at one our everyday experience—is just a time been unconscious fraction of the total psychological before rising to consciousness. forces at work in our psychical However, not everything becomes reality. The conscious exists at consciously known; much of what the superficial level, to which we is unconscious remains there. have easy and immediate access. Memories that are not in our Beneath the conscious lies the everyday working memory, but which have not been repressed, When ideas, memories, or …and stored in the unconscious impulses are too overwhelming or alongside our instinctual drives, inappropriate for the conscious mind where they are not accessible by to withstand, they are repressed… immediate consciousness. The difference between our The unconscious silently unconscious and conscious thoughts directs the thoughts and behavior of the individual. creates psychic tension… …that can only be released when repressed memories are allowed into consciousness through psychoanalysis.

96 SIGMUND FREUD EGO CONSCIOUS PRECONSCIOUS The mind is like an iceberg; it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water. Sigmund Freud SUPEREGO ID UNCONSCIOUS Our psyche, according to Freud, resembles an iceberg, with the area of primitive drives, the id, lying hidden in the unconscious. The ego deals with conscious thoughts and regulates both the id and the superego—our critical, judging voice. The unconscious acts as a energy in a system stays constant our behavior, directing us receptacle for ideas or memories over time; it cannot be destroyed, toward choices that promise to that are too powerful, too painful, only moved or transformed. Freud satisfy our basic needs. The drives or otherwise too much for the applied this thinking to mental ensure our survival: the need for conscious mind to process. Freud processes, resulting in the idea of food and water; the desire for believed that when certain ideas “psychic energy.” This energy, he sex to ensure the continuation or memories (and their associated said, can undergo modification, of our species; and the necessity emotions) threaten to overwhelm transmission, and conversion, but to find warmth, shelter, and the psyche, they are split apart from cannot be destroyed. So if we have a companionship. But Freud claims a memory that can be accessed by thought that the conscious mind the unconscious also holds a the conscious mind, and stored in finds unacceptable, the mind contrasting drive, the death drive, the unconscious instead. redirects it away from conscious which is present from birth. This thought into the unconscious, in a drive is self-destructive and impels Dynamic thought process Freud called “repression.” us forward, though as we do so we Freud was also influenced by the We may repress the memory of a are moving closer to our death. physiologist Ernst Brücke, who was childhood trauma (such as abuse one of the founders of the 19th- or witnessing an accident), a desire In his later works, Freud moved century’s “new physiology,” which we have judged as unacceptable away from the idea that the mind looked for mechanistic explanations (perhaps for your best friend’s was structured by the conscious, for all organic phenomena. Brücke partner), or ideas that otherwise unconscious, and preconscious to claimed that like every other living threaten our well-being or way of life. propose a new controlling structure: organism, the human being is the id, ego, and superego. The id essentially an energy system, and so Motivating drives (formed of primitive impulses) must abide by the Principle of the The unconscious is also the place obeys the Pleasure Principle, which Conservation of Energy. This law where our instinctual biological says that every wishful impulse states that the total amount of drives reside. The drives govern must be immediately gratified: it wants everything now. However,

PSYCHOTHERAPY 97 another part of the mental structure, wonder that humans exist in states A man should not the ego, recognizes the Reality of anxiety, depression, neurosis, strive to eliminate his Principle, which says we can’t have and other forms of discontent? complexes, but to get into everything we desire, but must accord with them; they are take account of the world we live Psychoanalytical treatment legitimately what directs his in. The ego negotiates with the id, Since the unconscious remains conduct in the world. trying to find reasonable ways to inaccessible, the only way the help it get what it wants, without conflicts can be recognized is Sigmund Freud resulting in damage or other through the symptoms that are terrible consequences. The ego present in the conscious. Emotional that encourages a patient to lie on itself is controlled by the suffering, Freud claims, is the result a couch and talk. From Freud’s first superego—the internalized voice of unconscious conflict. We cannot treatments, psychoanalysis has of parents and society’s moral continually fight against ourselves, been practiced in sessions that codes. The superego is a judging against the uprising of repressed can sometimes last for hours, take force, and the source of our material, and against the force of place several times per week, and conscience, guilt, and shame. death, without emotional turmoil. continue for many years. In fact, Freud proposes, the Freud’s unique approach to the While unconscious thoughts unconscious holds a vast amount treatment of psychological ailments cannot be retrieved through normal of conflicting forces. In addition involved working with the conflicts introspection, the unconscious can to the drives of the life and that existed in the unconscious. communicate with the conscious in death forces, it encompasses the He sought to free the patient some ways. It quietly communicates intensity of repressed memories from repressed memories and so via our preferences, the frames of and emotions, as well as the alleviate their mental pain. His reference in which we tend to contradictions inherent in our approach to treatment is called understand things, and the symbols views of conscious reality alongside psychoanalytic psychotherapy, or that we are drawn to or create. our repressed reality. According psychoanalysis. This process is to Freud, the conflict that arises not easy or quick. Psychoanalysis During analysis, the analyst from these contrasting forces is is only performed by a therapist acts as a mediator, trying to allow the psychological conflict that trained in Freud’s specific unspoken thoughts or unbearable underlies human suffering. Is it any approach, and it is his therapy feelings to come to light. Messages arising from a conflict between the conscious and the unconscious are likely to be disguised, or encoded, and it is the psychoanalyst’s job to interpret the messages using the tools of psychoanalysis. ❯❯ Freud’s patients would recline on this couch in his treatment room while they talked. Freud would sit out of sight while he listened for clues to the source of the patient’s internal conflicts.

98 SIGMUND FREUD There are several techniques that childhood, when nakedness was The interpretation of allow the unconscious to emerge. not frowned upon and there was dreams is the royal road to One of the first to be discussed no sense of shame. In dreams knowledge of the unconscious by Freud at length was dream where the dreamer feels analysis; he famously studied embarrassment, the other people activities of the mind. his own dreams in his book, The in the dream generally seem Sigmund Freud Interpretation of Dreams. He oblivious, lending support to a claimed that every dream enacts wish-fulfilment interpretation or emotion. It is an involuntary a wish fulfilment, and the more where the dreamer wants to leave substitution of one word for unpalatable the wish is to our behind shame and restriction. another that sounds similar but conscious mind, the more hidden Even buildings and structures inadvertently reveals something the or distorted the desire becomes in have coded meanings; stairwells, person really feels. For instance, a our dreams. So the unconscious, mine shafts, locked doors, or a man might thank a woman he finds he says, sends messages to our small building in a narrow recess desirable for making “the breast conscious mind in code. For all represent repressed sexual dinner ever,” the slip revealing his instance, Freud discusses dreams feelings, according to Freud. where the dreamer is naked—the primary source for these dreams in Accessing the unconscious most people is memories from early Other well-known ways in which the unconscious reveals itself are Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of through Freudian slips and the Memory (1931) is a surrealist vision process of free association. A of time passing, leading to decay and Freudian slip is a verbal error, or death. Its fantastical quality suggests “slip of the tongue,” and it is said to the Freudian process of dream analysis. reveal a repressed belief, thought,