The Jung Dr. Sonny is in.

Written using a new (to me), program called: StyleEase for APA formatting. I didn't know if it would allow me to copy and paste like regular Word doc., but it did. So now I don't have to go out of practice. Why do Doctor's call what they do; Practice?

THE OPERANT CONDITIONING

The Operant Conditioning of Behaviorism; How Behaviorism Conditioned Itself.

Maurice Keating, Jr.

University of Phoenix

Abstract
An essay on the historical development of behaviorist perspective in psychology regarding its development by the three major theorists; John B. Watson, Edward C. Tolman and B. F. Skinner.

Introduction

Three men; John B. Watson (1878 – 1958), Edward C. Tolman (1886 – 1959), and B. F. Skinner (1904 – 1990), all inspired by the original work of Ivan P. Pavlov’s (1849 – 1936), animal conditioning experiment, caught on to the idea of conditioning behavior and developed successive theories of what is known today as Behaviorism. Not entirely a linear development of a single concept of conditioning, these three men developed divergent theories along successive similar trains of thought, that of changing the behavior of mice and men. Behaviorism is primarily learning theories developed by comparative research of strictly observable behaviors and drawing analogies between animal learning and human learning, disregarding mental constructs of subjective cognitive and emotive states. The apples and oranges, or rather, mice and men comparison aside, the works of the Behaviorists showing total disregard for cognitive and emotive mental states reveal works truly worthy of any modern day sociopathic or borderline personality. Despite apparent similarities, the specific details of methodology and subsequent developmental theory’s of learning as relates to behavior modification vary widely enough for examination of the basic differences in Watson’s Reductionist, Tolman’s Purposive, and Skinner’s Radical Behaviorist theories, theories that are well suited to explaining and training animal behavior, but met primarily with resistance or causing cognitive and emotive disorders in human subjects.

Watson’s Sociopathic Research

While John B. Watson’s famous claim that “if he were given 12 healthy infants at birth, he could turn them into whatever he wanted, doctors or thieves, regardless of any innate dispositions or talents, simply by controlling their environments” (Kowalski and Westen, 2005, pg. 14), was never put to test, his preference for the nurturing aspect of psychology’s nature versus nurture question undoubtedly explains his own sociopathic Behaviorist research methodology. Raised with farm animals and torn between a philandering alcoholic father and a mother of fire and brimstone beliefs, one need not wonder that Goodwin (2005) only points out that John Watson “was a known troublemaker and had been arrested at least twice [in his youth]” (pg. 290). Watson’s sociopathic tendencies are revealed by his penchant of surgically vivisecting laboratory rats of their sensory input organs to determine which skill they possessed to perform experimental maze learning, and his later conditioning fear in a young infant known as Albert B., Little Albert. Theorizing that infantile emotions only range three types; love, anger and rage, and that such emotions are only conditioned reactions and not fanciful cognitive mental states, Watson continued his sociopathic proclivities, diverting his attention from helpless lab rats to helpless baby infants as his subjects of terror inducing conditioning, training little Albert first to fear Watson’s former victims of furry rats, then other furry neutral objects, and finally fearing Watson himself (Goodwin, 2005, pp. 299-300). Quite a far cry from his boast of being able to make an infant either become a Doctor or thief!

Tolman; Behaviorist for Purposiveness

The purposive or goal-directed Behaviorist theory of Edward Tolman suggests that behavior is done for a reason, and a larger purpose then merely satisfying physical needs. More open to alternate psychologies other than his professed specialty of Behaviorism, Tolman received criticism from his contemporaries for his use of cognitive inferences of none the less observable behaviors. Such idea’s as that dehydrating a lab rat to cause thirst, an unseen and in his terms, an intervening variable that subsequently causes the animal to learn that water is at the end of a maze and thus learn the maze faster, were the influences of Tolman’s gestalt friends and colleagues. Creation of more standardized construction of mazes for his lab animals and testing for variables in the condition of the animals, tests and reinforcements given, led to Tolman inferring latent learning and cognitive maps within the animals. Logical positivism appealed to Tolman and guided the development of his theory’s cognitive states as inferred from observable behaviors, and was reflected in his attitude of learning for the fun of learning. (Goodwin, 2005, pp. 314-321).

Skinner: Learning operant conditioning operantly.

B. F. Skinner carried Behaviorism closer to completion as an independent arena of psychology then any before him. Finely delineating previous concepts of his field of research, Skinner formed more detailed descriptions of conditioning principles into his own version known as Operant Conditioning. Reinforcement could be positive or negative in that the reinforcing stimuli could be added (positive), as a reward or punishment, or negative (removal of reward or punishment). Classical conditioning simply paired an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned one, to achieve a conditioned response from one previously unconditioned. Skinner brought about Operant Conditioning theory as a way of continuing the pairing of environmental behaviors with associated stimuli in stages that lead from a simple and natural organism’s behavior to more complex behaviors unknown in nature of such organisms, a process he labeled: shaping. Systematic studying of times between reinforcement and number of responses of behavior till being reinforced led to further complete theory development by Skinner. (Goodman, 2005, pp. 330-333). B. F. Skinner believed so passionately about his theory of shaping behavior that he believed it could be implemented on a sociological scale and he even wrote a fictional account of a utopian society called: Walden Two, based upon his theories (Goodman, 2005, pp. 337-8). Certainly his development of Behaviorist theory of shaping was operantly learned, as he continued a train of thought started by Pavlov before he, Skinner, was even born.

Conclusion

The very idea of Watson’s that an infant can show a response called: Love; Tolman’s feelings of having fun in learning; Skinner’s passionate belief in humanity’s possible creation of utopia, these ‘cognitive explanatory fictions’ belie the very foundations of Behaviorist perspective that only observable behavior is necessary for researching causes of psychological realities. Perhaps this is the cause of the decline of Behaviorism as a psychological perspective in regards human beings and their irrational behaviors. More likely and in this author’s opinion, animal based research is perfectly suited to explain animal behavior, human behavior needs human research to adequately explain and train the human mind.




References

Goodwin, C. J. (2005). A History of Modern Psychology, Second Edition. NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Kowalski, R., and Westen, D. (2005). Psychology, Fourth Edition. NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.