The Behaviorist Revolution and Neo-Behaviorism

1. The Physiological Antecedents: The Russian Objective Tradition

Before 1913, Russian physiologists demonstrated that involuntary reflexes are subject to environmental conditioning:

• Ivan Sechenov (1829–1905): In Reflexes of the Brain (1866), argued all conscious and unconscious actions are reflex mechanisms mediated by cerebral inhibition.
• Vladimir Bekhterev (1857–1927): Founded Reflexology / Objective Psychology, investigating conditioned striated motor reflexes in humans.
• Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1936): Awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research on digestive secretions in dogs; discovered "psychic secretions" (Classical Conditioning).

Pavlovian Conditioning Paradigms

$\text{Unconditioned Stimulus (US: Food)} \longrightarrow \text{Unconditioned Response (UR: Salivation)}$ $\text{Conditioned Stimulus (CS: Bell) paired with US} \longrightarrow \text{Conditioned Response (CR: Salivation)}$

• Acquisition: Gradual pairing of CS and US until the CR is established.
• Extinction: Repeated presentation of the CS alone without the US causes progressive decline of the CR.
• Spontaneous Recovery: Reappearance of an extinguished CR following a rest period without new training; demonstrates that extinction is an active cortical inhibition, not the erasure of neural memory.
• Generalization & Discrimination: Generalization elicits CR to stimuli similar to the CS; Discrimination restricts CR to the reinforced CS.
• Experimental Neurosis: Acute emotional agitation and behavioral collapse observed when discrimination tasks become perceptually impossible (e.g., morphing a circle and an ellipse).

2. John B. Watson & Classical Behaviorism

In 1913, John Broadus Watson published the Behaviorist Manifesto ("Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It"):

"Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods..."

Core Tenets of Watsonian Behaviorism

1. Total Rejection of Consciousness: Banished mind, mental states, imagery, and introspection; restricted psychology to observable stimulus-response ($S\text{-}R$) relations.
2. Thinking as Subvocal Speech: Cognitive thoughts are merely minute motor movements and muscular tensions of the larynx (subvocal talking).
3. Three Innate Emotional Reflexes:
   • Fear: Triggered innately by sudden loud noises or loss of physical support.
   • Rage: Triggered innately by physical restriction/restraint of bodily movement.
   • Love: Triggered innately by gentle stroking and rocking.
4. The Little Albert Experiment (Watson & Rayner, 1920): Conditioned an 11-month-old infant to fear a white laboratory rat by pairing it with the loud sound of a steel bar struck by a hammer. Demonstrated stimulus generalization: Albert developed conditioned fear toward white rabbits, fur coats, dogs, and a Santa Claus mask.
5. Mary Cover Jones (1924): Cured a 3-year-old boy named Peter of an intense rabbit phobia by pairing the rabbit at gradual distances with eating preferred food (Counterconditioning / Systematic Desensitization), earning her the title "Mother of Behavior Therapy".

3. Neo-Behaviorism: Operationism & Purposive Frameworks