Behaviorist psychology

One of the most influential schools in western psychology

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synonym Behaviorism (Modern psychology, one of the main schools of political research) Generally refers to behaviorism psychology

Behavioral psychology is U.S.A One of the main schools of modern psychology and one of the schools that have the greatest impact on western psychology, whose founder is American psychologist wahson 。 Behaviorist psychology advocates studying human behavior in an objective way, so as to predict and control the behavior of organisms. It can be divided into Classical behaviorism School and New behaviorism School. The representative figures of classical behaviorism are led by Watson, followed by Holt Hunt Lashri and weiss 。 The main representatives of new behaviorism are Tolman 、 Hull 、 Skinner 、 Bandura Etc.^[1]

Chinese name: Behaviorist psychology
Foreign name: Behavioral psychology
School: Classical behaviorism

founder: wahson
Creation time: 1913
representative figure: Holt, Tolman, Skinner, Bandura

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Discipline background

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social context

Behavioral psychology was founded by American psychologist Watson. The reason why behaviorism psychology came into being in the United States was mainly related to the needs of social life, production practice and social improvement in the United States at that time. First, behaviorism was a reflection of the needs of American social life and production practice at that time. The United States completed the industrial revolution The process of urbanization has begun. A large number of rural people have entered the city, and the national government needs to train them. This demand urges psychologists to shift from the study of consciousness to the study of Adaptive behavior Research. At the same time, in order to improve the efficiency of industrial production, it is also necessary to study the effect of workers' activities. Secondly, behaviorism is an important part of American political life Progressive Movement The product of. In the 1890s, the political reform movement in the United States called for the replacement of old members of political institutions and the use of people who could manage society scientifically to control society.^[2]

Philosophical background

Watson's behaviorism has a profound philosophical origin, Mechanical materialism 、 positivism And pragmatism have had a wide impact on behaviorism. Since the Industrial Revolution, the philosophy thought that summarized the achievements of natural science at that time is mechanical materialism. When Watson founded his behaviorism system, he obviously accepted this kind of mechanical materialism thought. He believed that "people are also machines, restricted by the stimulus response law". The basic principle of positivism is to base all scientific knowledge on the empirical facts of observation and experiment. According to this principle, early behaviorism abandoned the study of consciousness and turned to the study of observable behavior. Compared with mechanical materialism and positivism, pragmatism, as the authoritative philosophy of the United States, had a more direct and profound impact on early behaviorism. Watson excluded the consciousness that cannot be directly observed and experienced from psychological research, simplified human behavior into a stimulus response behavior model, and took effective control of human behavior as the ultimate goal of psychology. All these are concrete manifestations of pragmatism philosophy in psychology.

Natural Science Background

Physiology is closely related to behaviorism, which is the natural scientific basis of behaviorism. Father of Russian Physiology Shechenov In the 1870s, according to the new reflection schema, the program of transforming psychology into objective science was put forward. Pavlov Opposed introspection and established Conditioned reflex theory 。 Watson directly used the conditioned reflex method as his experimental technique and the theoretical basis of all learned behaviors. In addition, mathematical logic And one of the representatives of new behaviorism Hull His behaviorism thought had an impact. Hull advocates using mathematical language to explain and express the law of behavior.

Psychological background

The contradictory movement within psychology is also the main factor to promote its emergence. After the birth of scientific psychology, consciousness has always been regarded as the research object, but there are different opinions on the understanding and research methods of consciousness, which has caused conflicts and antagonisms between psychological factions, and ultimately led to Psychology of Consciousness Crisis. The psychological circle began to reflect on the research object and definition of psychology. In addition, in Darwin theory of evolution Under the influence of thought, Animal Psychology Watson himself has also established his own behaviorism ideology on the basis of studying the concepts and methods formed by animal psychology. Finally, functionalism gradually develops towards objective functionalism, which also makes necessary theoretical preparations for behaviorism.^[3]

development history

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Early behaviorism

In 1913, Watson published a paper entitled "Psychology in the View of a Behaviorist" on the American Psychological Review magazine, clarifying his behaviorist views. This paper is generally regarded as the declaration of the formal establishment of behaviorist psychology. In 1914, he also published the book Behavior - Introduction to Comparative Psychology. His book is based on his Columbia University It is compiled from eight speeches. In this book, his theoretical system of behaviorism psychology has begun to take shape. Watson's behaviorism was quickly accepted by young psychologists. In 1915, Watson was elected American Psychological Society chairman. In 1918, Watson began to study young children Subjects The first attempt of. In 1919, his representative work Psychology of Behavioral Views was published. He used Pavlov Of Conditioned reflex His behaviorism psychology theory system is systematically expressed. In 1925, he published Behaviorism. This work clearly expresses his extreme environmental view.^[1]

New behaviorism

After the 1930s, some psychologists were dissatisfied with the extreme view that early behaviorism ignored the internal factors of the organism and simplified complex problems. They began to try to reform the early behaviorism, which is called New behaviorism 。 Tolman put forward the theory of purposive behaviorism. Hull put forward the theory of logical behaviorism. Skinner put forward the theory of operant behaviorism, namely operant conditioning theory.^[4]

New new behaviorism

Behaviorism has been in the leading and dominant position in American and even world psychology for more than 50 years, but it also exposes serious defects and shortcomings. Many psychologists began to give up behaviorism and study the internal psychological process of people. At this time, cognitive psychology is rising rapidly. Psychological concepts rejected by early behaviorism, such as consciousness, thinking, representation and memory, once again become legitimate research objects of psychology. Under this historical condition, some new behaviorists tried to open a compromise between behaviorism and cognitive psychology, which led to the birth of new neo behaviorism. Guthrie proposed that conditioning is the basis of all human behaviors, and the proximity of stimulus and response is the general principle of the occurrence of conditioning. Spence revised and developed Hull's theory and system, put forward the theory of incentive motivation, giving consideration to both incentive motivation and proximity principle. The followers of Tolman tried to express the theory of the New Tolman School, which integrated Connectionism and cognitive theory , put connectionism into the track of cognition.^[4]

School decline

Behaviorism has gone through the development of several generations of scholars, from the extreme exclusion of research consciousness at the beginning, to the transformation of new behaviorism, to the re transformation and development in the face of the trend of cognitivism. By the middle of the 20th century, behaviorism research fell into a quagmire, with less and less influence, and the development of psychology began to develop in the direction of multiple theories.^[5]

Theoretical system

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Discipline nature

Behavioral psychology believes that psychology is a pure natural science. Behavioral psychology criticizes the traditional psychology of consciousness. It believes that if psychology wants to achieve the same status as biology, physics and other natural sciences, it must abandon all subjective concepts and terms in psychological research and adopt more objective research objects and methods.

Research object

Behaviorist psychology stipulates that its research object is observable objective behavior. Behaviorism theory believes that behavior can be observed externally Organism Its essence is the adaptation of humans and animals to the external environment, and stimulus response is the common element of all behaviors of organisms.

Discipline tasks

The purpose of behaviorist psychology is to predict and control the behavior of organisms. According to this theory, the research object of psychology is the behavior of people and animals, and the behavior of people and animals is composed of the stimulus response connection. In this way, psychology can determine the rule of connection between stimulus and response through behavioral research, so that people can predict what kind of response will occur after the stimulus is known, or point out the nature of effective stimulus when the response is known.

research method

Behaviorism research methods are rich, mainly including Observation method , conditioned reflex method, speech reporting method Testing method And social experiment method. Observation methods include Natural observation And observation with the aid of instruments. The conditioned reflex method is a method that introduces the conditioned reflex method of physiology into psychology to conduct experimental research on behavior. It is the most important research method in behaviorism psychology. Verbal reporting means that the subjects report the changes in their bodies, which is also called oral reporting. The testing method of behaviorism is testing Subjects The response to the stimulus situation; This method can be applied to people with language defects. The social experiment method of behaviorism can be said to be the application of behaviorism principles in the study of social problems to some extent, and can examine the relationship between social situations and social changes.^[1]

School theory

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Classical behaviorism

Classical behaviorism, that is, early behaviorism, advocated abandoning consciousness and taking behavior as the research object of psychology, abandoning introspection and taking objective method as the research method of psychology, and explaining behavior in terms of stimulation and response. It emphasizes that the researchers of scientific psychology are only explicit behaviors that can be objectively observed and measured by others; It claims that the person who forms the basis of behavior is the individual response, and the whole behavior can be known by collecting multiple responses; Insist that individual behavior is not innate, not determined by heredity, but passive learning under the influence of environmental factors; It is believed that the principles of behavior obtained through experimental research on animals and children can infer and explain the similar behavior of ordinary people. Such behaviorism orientation, which is purely based on "objective objectivity", is also called radical behaviorism.^[2]

New behaviorism

Purposive behaviorism

Tolman insisted that psychology must study externally observable behaviors in an objective way. However, Tolman's so-called behavior is different from that of early behaviorists. He opposes studying behavior at the molecular level and believes that psychology should study overall behavior, which is purposeful and cognitive. In his opinion, all behaviors are guided by the purpose, such as the rats walking in the maze, the cats trying to escape from the maze box and so on. Every time the rats walk in the maze, they reach the goal faster and faster. That is to say, the rats are learning, and it is learning that provides highly objective evidence for achieving the goal.

Logical behaviorism

Hull believes that it is possible to establish a continuous logical chain from simple electron proton movement to complex purposeful behavior, and take it as the goal of scientific research. Hull advocates the mathematical deduction system as a model to develop into a universal and formal behavior system. This hypothesis deduction system starts from hypothesis, and each hypothesis is fully and completely consistent with a logical system, from which conclusions can be deduced. If the conclusion is consistent with the empirical facts, the hypothesis is retained; Otherwise, the assumption needs to be modified or excluded. Hull tried to make the psychological system quantitative, and his learning theory once became the most influential theory in the West.

Operational behaviorism

Skinner emphasized that the scientific research of behavior must be carried out within the scope of natural science, and its task is to establish the functional relationship between the stimulus situation controlled by the experimenter and the subsequent organic response. Skinner's position is strict behaviorism, he only studies observable behavior; He is concerned with describing behavior, not explaining behavior. Skinner's principle of operating conditions is the core part of his analysis of organic behavior. He divided conditioning into S-type and R-type. S-type response is a response aroused by a special and observable situational stimulus, which he calls responsive response; R-type response is a response that is sent out in the absence of any observable external stimulus. It is called operational response. He believes that in the causal relationship between behavior and environment, reaction, stimulation and reinforcement are the basic contigency of sequential occurrence. In this process, reinforcement plays an important role. Skinner's teaching machine, which can help teaching according to the principle of operation intensification, has a great impact on the United States. Among all the new behaviorists, Skinner is the most radical one who insists on the basic position of behaviorism, and also the most important new behaviorist who has the greatest impact on contemporary psychology. Among all the new behaviorism viewpoints, Skinner's viewpoint is the purest and most extreme, and is also the closest to Watson's behaviorism viewpoint.^[1]^[6]

New new behaviorism

Close to associative behaviorism

Compared with other new behaviorists, Edwin Guthrie's position and views are closer to those of early behaviorism. He believes that conditioning is the basis of all human behaviors, and the proximity of stimulus and response is the general principle of conditioning. Therefore, the conditioning principle of stimulus and response proximity can explain human learning behavior. Other concepts such as practice, motivation, habit, reinforcement, forgetting, etc. are unnecessary, because they can be explained by the proximity principle. Guthrie's achievements are mainly reflected in his learning theory, which only emphasizes the objective connection between stimulus and response. Guthrie argued that connection only occurs between observable stimuli and responses; The connection of stimulus and response only requires one condition, that is, the proximity of stimulus and response, or simultaneous conditioning. Guthrie's approach to associative behaviorism is concise, integrated and developed by his disciples, and widely developed into behavioral technology, which is used in a variety of behavioral therapies. But his theory has also been criticized for being too simple.

Incentive motivation theory

Spence is Hull's collaborator and successor. His main revision and development of Hull's theory and system is the theory of incentive motivation. Hull believes that incentive motivation is the mediator of stimulus response connection, and its strength is affected by reinforcement conditions. In other words, the greater the incentive effect of reinforcement on a particular stimulus to make a particular response, the greater the incentive and motivation effect of reinforcement on that stimulus response. Spence, on the other hand, advocates that rewards should be supposed to stimulate habits, rather than directly affect the intensity of habits. It is assumed that the intensity of habit is a function of the number of S-R approaches, and rewards affect the response through the role of incentive motivation. This theory takes into account both incentive motivation and proximity principle.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory is a behaviorism theory that explains people's learning in the social environment. It is developed on the basis of the learning theory of Watson, Hull, Skinner, etc., and focuses on how people learn in the social environment to form and develop their personality characteristics. Dollard and Miller, representatives of early social learning, co wrote Social Learning and Imitation and other books to conduct experimental research on imitation, emphasizing that behavior is constrained by social conditions. Because they infer human social behavior from the model of animal behavior research, they can't get rid of the limitations of traditional behaviorism learning theory after all. In the 1960s, Bandura He founded the modern social learning theory and believed that people's social behavior was obtained by observing and learning, that is, observing others' behavior and imitating others' examples. In this process of social learning, the environment plays a decisive role. As long as people control the environment, they can promote children's social behavior to develop in the expected direction. meanwhile, Michell It also puts forward a cognitive social learning theory, which mainly uses five variables to explain how people respond to various stimuli, namely, cognitive and behavioral constitutive ability, translation strategies for behavior and individual cognitive components, expectations of their own behavior results, subjective incentive value tendencies, and self-regulation systems and plans. These five variables are not only important factors that determine people's behavior, but also the main components of personality structure. Bandura and Mitchell not only belong to the category of behaviorism, but also differ from traditional behaviorism, which reflects the gradual consistency between behaviorism and humanistic psychology.^[1]^[6]

representative figure

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stage	representative figure
Period of classical behaviorism	Watson, Holt, Weiss, Hunter, Lashley
New behaviorism period	Tolman, Hull, Skinner
New period of new behaviorism	Spence, Boris, Bindra, Bandura, Mitchell

Main contributions

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Promote objective research

Behaviorism abandonment Mentalism And introspection, which recognizes the objective existence of external stimuli, opposes the closure of psychology within the subject, advocates taking objective behavior as the object of psychology, and replacing subjective introspection with strict objective law. This has freed the subjective psychology from the research orientation of separating from reality, and has made historical contributions on the path of psychology towards objective research, making psychology from Subjective idealism towards Objective materialism A big step has been taken on the road of development.

Enrich research fields

Behaviorism deepens some basic research in psychology Animal Psychology 、 Child Psychology especially Experimental Psychology and Learning Psychology Significant achievements have been made. On the other hand, because behaviorism advocates studying behavior, it directly makes the research on animal behavior in a legal position. Behavioral psychologists actively carry out experimental research on animal learning and try to use animal learning rules to explain human psychological laws. Behaviorism has also developed actively Connective Learning Theory It pushes the passive classical conditional learning to a new stage of active operational conditional learning, and contains important factors and embryonic forms of cognitive learning theory. Watson also introduced the experimental method into the field of children's learning, which prompted people to do a lot of research on the development of children's emotions and specific reaction patterns of specific emotions, enriching the research field of children's psychology. The study of behaviorism has made great contributions to learning psychology.^[1-2]

Promote practical application

Behaviorism highlights the objectivity, openness and operability of psychological research objects and methods, and regards forecasting and controlling people's behavior as the fundamental task of psychology. Therefore, behavioral psychology pays more attention to practical life, psychological effects and the development of applied psychology. Watson believes that the behaviorist position and Environmental determinism Some branches of psychology, such as pharmacopsychology Advertising Psychology 、 Legal Psychology Measurement psychology and psychopathology. Behavioral epistemology, behavioral experimental analysis and applied behavioral analysis are still active research fields.^[7] In the United States, behaviorism is not only widely applied to various social institutions, but also permeates the humanities, such as sociology, political science behavioral science , even in the field of art.^[1]

Main problems

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Biologism

Behaviorism ignores the essential difference between human beings and animals, classifies human beings as animals, obliterates the essential difference between human beings and animals, and thus falls into the biological doctrine. First, early behaviorists regarded human beings and animals as the same or similar natural entities, ignoring that human beings were the existence of social history. Secondly, behaviorists take animals as research objects, and turn human psychology into zoology or biology.

objectivism

Behaviorism advocates studying behavior with strict objective methods, opposes subjectivist psychology, and promotes the objectification of psychology, which is of positive significance, but it also goes to another extreme. Behaviorism belittles the status and role of people as subjects in psychological and behavioral activities, denies the subjectivity and introspection of psychology, and regards objective behavior and objective methods as the only research object and method of psychology. Admittedly, psychology dominates behavior and behavior shows psychology, which are closely related. However, there are also obvious differences between the two. Behaviorism equates or replaces consciousness with behavior, which in essence affirms objectivity and negates subjectivity, and is bound to fall into the objectivism situation of "psychology without psychological content".

Mechanism

There are different levels and levels of research on human psychology and behavior, if any, from mechanical movement The research is carried out at the level of mechanics, some from the level of physiology, some from the level of biology adapting to the environment, and some from the level of social initiative to transform the world. The complexity of human psychology lies in that it is not a single, low-level form of movement, but a process in which social and life forms of movement transform, correlate, and penetrate each other. Behaviorism obliterates the differences of different levels of behavior, portrays people as a passive mechanical structure, and falls into the error of mechanism.

Reductionism

Behaviorists try to restore psychology between natural science and social science to natural science, and psychology to physiology and physics. They believe that all psychology and behavior are nothing more than physical and chemical changes caused by some other physical and chemical changes, which obliterates the special nature of psychological phenomena different from natural phenomena, and sums up psychological phenomena as pure natural phenomena Reductionism 。^[1]

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