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,