HISTORY OF BEHAVIOURISM

Behaviourism is the teaching that says that psychology must focus its attention on what is observable. Perceptions, thoughts, images, feelings are subjective and can never lead to an objective science. Be­haviourists argue that the majority of behaviour is learned from the en­vironment after birth, and psychology should investigate the laws and products of learning.

Behaviourism is primarily associated with Pavlov in Russia and with Thorndike, Watson and particularly Skinner in the United States.

The first behaviourists were Russians. The very first was Ivan Setchenov who thought that .all behavior is caused by stimulation. Vladimir Bekhterev is another early Russian behaviourist. He estab­lished the first psychology lab in Russia at the University of Kazan in 1885, and he discovered what he called the association reflex — what Pavlov would call the conditioned reflex.

The Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1848-1936) trained dogs to respond in a certain manner, for example, by first ringing a bell before feeding them and then simply ringing the bell upon s which stimulus they would begin to salivate as if they were about to eat. Watson, Thorndike and Skinner used Pavlov's work and developed theories of learning that they attempted to use to explain all human  behaviour.

Edward Lee Thorndike developed American version of Russian be­haviorism. He will always be remembered for his cats and his "puzzle boxes." These boxes had escape mechanisms of various complexities that required that the cats do several behaviors in sequence. From this research, he concluded that there were two laws of learning: The law of  exercise (the more often it is used, the stronger the connection) and the f law of effect (when an association is followed by a "satisfying state of af­fairs," the connection is strengthened).

      John Watson wrote about the principles of behaviourism in the arti­cle called "Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It". He denied the existence of any human instincts, inherited capacities or talents, and tem­peraments. This radical environmentalism is reflected in his best known quote: "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own spec­ified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at ran­dom and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doc­tor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,... tendencies, abilities,... and race of his ancestors".

Questions to the text.       

1.  What is behaviourism?  

2.  What is the role of perceptions, images and feelings in behaviourism?

3. What is the argument of behaviourists about the role of environment in human development?

4.  Who is primarily associated with behaviourism?

5.  Who were the first behaviourists?

6.  What animals did Pavlov use for his experiments on conditioned,

reflexes?

7.  Who proceeded to develop theories of learning in America?

8.  What will Edward Lee Thorndike be always remembered for?     

9.  What are the two laws of learning according to Thorndike?

10. What did John Watson write in his article "Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It"?

11. What was the position of John Watson on human instincts, inherited capacities or talents?

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HUMANISTIC APPROACH AND PSYCHOLOGY OF

CARL ROGERS

      The humanistic approach was developed in America in the early 1960's. It was also called the third force in psychology since it aimed to replace the two main approaches in the field — behaviourism and psy­choanalysis.

       There are several factors which distinguish the humanistic approach from other approaches within psychology. They are the emphasis on subjective meaning, a rejection of determinism, and a concern for posi­tive growth rather than pathology. Most psychologists believe that be­haviour can only be understood objectively (by an impartial observer), but the humanists argue that this results in concluding that an individual is incapable of understanding their own behaviour. Instead, humanists like Rogers argue that the meaning of behaviour is personal and sub-, jective; they further argue that accepting this idea is not unscientific because ultimately all individuals are subjective: what makes science re-? liable is not that scientists are purely objective, but that the nature of observed events can be agreed upon by different observers. The human­istic approach aimed to investigate all the uniquely human aspects of ex­istence such as love, hope, creativity and emphasized the importance of the individual's interaction with the environment.

     Bugental, the first president of the American Associatioan for Hu­manistic Psychology described some of its fundamental assumptions. First of all, a proper understanding of the human nature can be gained from studying humans, not animals. Second, psychology should study an individual case rather then the average group performance. Third, Psychology should study internal as well as external behaviour and con­sider that individuals can show some degree of free will.

       Carl Rogers was not the only one of the founders of the humanistic approach, but also the most influential therapist in the 20th century: a number of surveys, including several done after his death, found that more therapists cited Rogers as a major influence on their thinking and clinical practice than any other person in psychology (including Freud).

      There are two fundamental ideas in the work of Rogers which are particularly important. First, Rogers  talked about healthy development in terms of how the individual perceived their own being. A healthy in­dividual will tend to see congruence between one's sense of who he or she is (self) and who the person feels he or she should be (ideal self)--While no one tends to experience perfect congruence at all times, the relative degree of congruence is an indicator of health.

      The second fundamental idea in the work of Rogers is his concept of the conditions for healthy growth, and the role of a therapist in foster­ing healthy growth. Through a process of what Rogers called a per­son-centered therapy, the therapist seeks to provide empathy, openness, and unconditional positive regard.

to replace                                 заменять

to distinguish                             отличать

emphasis                                  акцент, внимание

rejection of determinism               отрицание детерминизма

pathology                                   патология

impartial observer                       независимый наблюдатель

incapable                                  неспособный

assumption                                предположение

survey                                      социологический опрос

to cite                                      цитировать

congruence                                конгруэнтность

relative degree                           относительная степень

conditions for healthy growth        условия для здорового роста

empathy                                   эмпатия, сочуствие

Questions to the text.

1.   Why die the humanistic approach start to develop?

2.  When and where did the humanistic approach develop?

3.  Why was it called "the third force in psychology"?

4.  What are the factors that distinguish the humanistic approach from other approaches within psychology?      

5.  What do humanists think about objective understanding of psychological behaviour?

6.  Where is the meaning of behaviour from the humanistic point of view?

7.  What makes psychological science reliable?

8.  What aspects of existence does the humanistic approach aim to investigate?

9.  Why can Carl Rogers be named the most influential therapist in the 20th century?

10. Who is a healthy individual according to the Rogers's concept of healthy development?

11. What is an indicator of health according to Rogers?

12. According to Rogers, what should a therapist do during a therapy?

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SOCIAL PRESSURE AND PERCEPTION

Imagine yourself in the following situation: you sign up for a psy­chology experiment, and on a specified date you and seven others whom you think are also subjects arrive and are seated at a table in a small room. You don't know it at the time, but the others are actually associ­ates of the experimenter, and their behaviour has been carefully scripted. You're the only real subject.

The experimenter arrives and tells you that the study in which you are about to participate concerns people's visual judgments. She places two cards before you. The card on the left contains one vertical line. The card on the right displays three lines of different length.

The experimenter asks all of you, one at a time, to choose which of the three lines on the right card matches the length of the line on the left card. The task is repeated several times with different cards. The other "subjects" unanimously choose the wrong line. It is clear to you that they are wrong, but they have all given the same answer.

What would you do? Would you go along with the majority opinion, or would you trust your own eyes?

In 1951, the social psychologist Asch used this experiment to exam­ine how the pressure from other people could affect one's perceptions. In total, about one third of the subjects who were placed in this situa­tion agree with the majority.

Some of the subjects indicated after the experiment that they as­sumed the rest of the people were correct and that their own percep­tions were wrong. Others knew they were correct but didn't want to be different from the rest of the group. Some even insisted they saw the line lengths as the majority did.

Asch concluded that it is difficult to maintain that you see something when no one else does. Pressure from other people can make you see al­most anything.

Questions to the text.

1. Who developed the experiment described in the text?

2. When was the experiment developed?

3. What did the experiment examine?

4. How many people are there in the experiment group?

5. How many people in the experiment group are the associates of experiment?   

6. How many people are real subjects of the experiment?

7. What does the experimenter tell the real subject about the aim of the experiment?

8. How many cards does the experimenter places in front of you?

9. What do the cards contain?

10. What does the experimenter ask you to do?

11. How many times is the task repeated?

12. Do the associates of the experiment always choose the right line?

13. How many subjects of this experiment go along with clearly erroneous-majority?

14. What did some of the subjects of the experiment assume when the associates of the experiment gave the wrong answers?

15. Why did some of the subjects of the experiment gave the wrong answer even if they knew they were correct.

16. What did Asch conclude after the experiment?