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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 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 thisresearch, 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 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."