Behaviorism & Social Learning Theory changed the history of psychology. By relying exclusively on empirical data, early behaviorists helped establish psychology as an empirical and scientific discipline, divorcing it from philosophy and physiology.
In 1913, John B. Watson, an American psychologist, published his paper, “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”, launching behaviorism as a movement in American psychology.
John B. Watson (1878 – 1958)
Watson was a professor of psychology at the Johns Hopkins University in the US when he published his paper. Watson argued that psychology was a study of human behavior and not mental or psychological states. He believed that the goal of psychology is to predict and control human behavior.
However, he had no real experimental data to support his behaviorist theory. Watson recruited Little Albert, a quiet and well-adjusted nine-month old, as subject for his study. He trained Little Albert to fear a white rat by making a loud noise every time the toddler touched the cute white rat that they showed him. Albert grew to fear other furry white objects like rabbits, Santa Claus mask and Watson’s white hair, and this lasted for over a month after the experiment. At which point, Little Albert’s mother pulled him out of the experiment.
Even though this study provided support for Watson’s behaviorist arguments, today’s ethics review boards are not likely to approve a study like this to be conducted at any university. Watson had a very short stint in academia and a long and successful career in advertising in New York.
B. F. Skinner (1904 – 1990)
B. F Skinner was another important figure in the development of the behaviorist perspective. According to Skinner, behavior is a function of its consequences. Skinner focused his attention on studying how consequences of actions and behaviors determine how a person will act or behave in the future. He called it “Operant Conditioning”. Consequences are either positive or negative. Behaviorists believed that people are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Thus, the most powerful influence on behavior is “positive reinforcement” – when the action is followed by pleasant outcomes. Punishment occurs when an action is followed by unpleasant consequences. The “carrot & sticks” way for shaping employee behaviors continues to influence managerial thinking.
Skinner’s major contribution to behaviorism is the concept of “Shaping” – modifying someone’s behavior in the desired direction by controlling the consequences of that persons’ behavior along the way. Skinner is also known for his book, Walden Two, published in 1948, describing a utopian society based on his ideas about behavioral engineering.
In 1945, Skinner published a very interesting article describing how he and his wife were using a climate controlled closed compartment with a window on one side so the baby could see outside, about the size of a crib, for raising their infant. This “Air Crib” was meant for the infant to play and sleep in. Skinner had a whole framework around how raising the child in this way was both efficient and good for the development of the child. He tried to get Air Cribs commercially manufactured but with limited success. Many rumors circulated over the years of how this experimental child rearing led to Skinner’s daughter “going crazy”; none of which are true. Deborah Skinner Buzan grew up to be a successful artist, living and working in London.
In 1963, the same year that Skinner published “Behaviorism at 50”, Albert Bandura published Social Learning and Personality Development, a book that forever changed our understanding of how behavior develops. Bandura proposed that children can learn new behaviors simply by watching others, without any reinforcement.
Albert Bandura (1925-2021)
Between 1961-63, Bandura conducted his famous, and what would now be considered somewhat controversial, Bobo Doll experiments at Stanford University. Little children watched adults demonstrating aggressive behavior towards an inflatable Bobo doll and when unsupervised, demonstrated similar behaviors. Series of experiments were conducted, with varying conditions, to validate social learning concepts.
I remember having a plastic inflatable Bobo Doll as a kid, with a painted joker face and bright red nose for punching. I wonder, were the toy manufacturers or the naïve parents ever aware of social learning theory? And what were they expecting the kids to learn from this play anyways?!
Bandura proposed that people can reflect on and change their behavior. He described three steps in the process of self-regulation – observation (of others), evaluation (of our behavior vis-à-vis that of others) and experience (of competence or incompetence). Feeling of competence is what Bandura calls self-efficacy. Self-efficacy can be described as the behaviorist version of self-confidence. Bandura says that people higher in self-efficacy will take charge of problems and try to resolve them.
Bandura passed away recently in July 2021. He has been one of the most influential American psychologists and his Cognitive Social Learning is the most popular theoretical perspective in social, clinical and personality theory.
Should behaviorism even be considered within the realm of personality psychology is a question. Personality psychology is concerned with the nature of human nature. Behaviorists reject the notion that the reason for our action is within us. For them, any study of human nature is futile.
Nevertheless, behaviorism has had a significant impact on the course of modern-day psychology and in the practice of psychotherapy. Behaviorism is practical, it works, and it relies on methods that almost anyone can learn. Behaviorism can be applied to numerous problems –helping physically and mentally challenged individuals to look after themselves, education of children, shaping workplace behaviors, all the way to developing behaviors that facilitate smooth operation of societies. Behaviorists also give us the empowering thought that learning goes on throughout one’s life.
Excerpted from Personality: Theories and Applications, by Hogan & Smither
