Perspectives of Psychology

John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner's theoretical approach and perceptions of behaviorism manifested behavioral psychology as a formal disciplinary model. In contrast, Edward C. Tolman's concepts of behavioral learning also contributed to behavioral psychology. Watson, Skinner, and Tolman's professional career and visionary approaches differed in theoretical application, but all three perceptions impacted the advancement of modern day psychology in understanding human learning and behavior.

John B. Watson

John B. Watson's experience in understanding learning and behavior in association with nature versus nurture began during childhood. Watson was born in a rural farming community near Greenville, South Carolina in 1878. His family was dysfunctional; his farmer father was an alcoholic and often committed adultery, while his mother was a devout religious woman that named Watson after a fundamentalist preacher, John Broadus. She encouraged him to follow the Baptist ministry despite his resistance and rebellion. Watson developed behavioral problems during adolescence and had bouts of trouble with law enforcement. He was an intelligent young man and persevered the doomed cycle of following his father's footsteps and attended Greenville's Furman University at the ripe age of 16. He earned his master's degree in 1900, and continued to further his education by attending the University of Chicago. Watson initially studied philosophy and psychology, but discovered functionalist and comparative psychologies were a more appealing field of study (Goodwin, 2005).

Watson's professional career advanced as he pioneered the behaviorist model and eliminated a traditional introspective method in approaching the discipline of psychology. Watson studied animal behavior and learning with Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning methods in animal studies. He derived his perspective from Pavlov's studies and proceeded to explain the relationships between the stimuli, behavior response, and positive or negative consequences with reward or punishment. Watson shifted his studies from animal subjects to human subjects. He postulated humans behave and learn very similar to animals through stimuli and response with three fundamental emotions; love, fear, and rage. He believed emotions resulted from specific conditions and non-fundamental emotions were a direct result of conditioning. Watson demonstrated conditioned emotional responses with a classic experiment known as the Little Albert study. He paired a loud noise while in the presence of a white rat and conditioned a response of fear within an individual when presented with the white rat (Goodwin, 2005).

Watson is famously recognized for his smug claim to be capable of training and molding a dozen infants' future regardless of abilities, ancestry, race, vocations, and talents. He firmly believed it was possible to select an infant at random and rear them to be any type of selected specialist, such as a doctor, artist, and even a thief. This statement demonstrates Watson's belief behavior is fully learned through direct stimuli and responses (Goodwin, 2005).

B.F. Skinner

Burrhus Frederisk Skinner's independence and unwillingness to follow the wisdom of elders without strong evidence began in his childhood. Skinner was born in 1904 in the small town of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He experienced a traditional strong upbringing by his father; a lawyer, and mother; an intelligent homemaker. Skinner was described as an out-going, cheerful, and active young boy that enjoyed productivity in school and the outdoors. He experienced few tragedies during adolescence, but one in particular impacted him significantly when his brother died of a cerebral aneurysm at 16. Skinner demonstrated his theoretical independence during his high school years, as he often argued with teachers and believed himself to be wiser than most. He was accepted into New York's Hamilton College following a recommendation by his school principal and pursued a major in English. He desperately desired to be an acclaimed writer but went back to school to receive his master's and doctorate degree in psychology from Harvard University. Skinner may not have been a successful fiction and poetry author, but he became one of the most celebrated psychology writers in modern day psychology (Boeree, 1998).

Skinner's academic and professional career flourished during the 1940's, as he was elected chairman of Indiana University's department of psychology. He was then invited to work at Harvard University and spent the raining years of his life researching and applying his theories. Skinner had two daughters with his wife Yvonne Blue, the second daughter becoming famous as she was the first infant to use Skinner's air crib. His design is considered extreme in today's society, as the infant spent most of her time in a glass playpen that resembled a fish aquarium. Skinner based his research and applications on operant conditioning and is famously known for his invention of the Skinner box. Skinner's theory of operant condition is very similar to that of John B Watson's theory; learning and behavior stems from a reinforcing external stimulus. Skinner demonstrated his theory with the Skinner box by using a rat. The rat was placed in the cage and learns pellets of foods will be released into the cage when a pedal is pressed. The operant behavior is positively reinforced with the pellets of food. The rat soon learns pressing the pedal will have a positive outcome, which is "a behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future" (Boeree, 1998, ¶ 11). The behavior can also be unlearned which is known as extinction, "a behavior no longer followed by the reinforcing stimulus results in a decreased probability of that behavior occurring in the future" (Boeree, 1998, ¶ 13). Skinner also postulated a behavior can also be prevented through aversive stimuli, "a behavior followed by an aversive stimulus results in a decreased probability of the behavior occurring in the future" (Boeree, 1998, ¶ 28).

Edward C. Tolman

Edward C. Tolman was admired by many followers and considered a sensible man that developed theories based on sound evidence. Tolman was born in 1886 and raised in Newton, Massachusetts. He experienced a traditional upbringing with his brother, Richard. Tolman's father was president of a company and his mother was an encouraging housewife. Tolman completed his lower education in public schools and pursued a major in electrochemisty at the Institute of Technology in Massachusetts. He decided to change his major to philosophy during his senior year following studying William James' theories. Tolman earned his bachelor's in 1911 and continued to further his education by enrolling at Harvard Graduate School. He majored in psychology and philosophy and went on to earn his doctorate degree from Harvard University in 1915. Tolman followed the research of Kurt Koffka during his studies and was formally introduced to Gestalt psychology. He went on to teach at Northern University and the University of California, Berkeley (Geary, 2002).

Edward Tolman made numerous contributions to the field of psychology. He is considered a pioneer in modern day cognitive psychology. He developed and implemented the cognitive theory of learning, which differs from Watson and Skinner's notion learning and behavior is based on a stimulus and response connection. Tolman postulated learning developed from environmental cognitions and pieces of knowledge that the organism can relate to. He used rats in his experiments to demonstrate his theories, "I believe that everything important in psychology can be investigated in essence through the continued experimental and theoretical analysis of the determiners of rat behavior" (Geary, 2002, ¶ 1). He stated rats develop cognition maps of their environment, and reinforcing behavior only increases performance instead of creating the learning pattern. He relied on experiments and research with rats to develop his theories, but revised his conclusion based on new findings. Tolman believed motivation and behavior was not solely based on a positive or negative reward, but "a motive drives an organism's behavior until some internal state is rectified and until that happens, the organism continues to behave" (Edward C. Tolman, 2010, ¶ 14).

Conclusion

John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Edward C. Tolman are three theorist that revolutionized modern day psychology as a formal discipline. Watson and Skinner shared similar interests and theories in regard to behaviorism and learning through conditioning responses, but Tolman parted from the stimulus and response connection to cognition through social learning. The theoretical perspectives of these three men influenced the application of psychology as a science through introspective discovery.

References

Boeree, G. C. (1998). B.F. Skinner. Personality Theories. Retrieved March 17, 2010 from

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html

Edward C. Tolman. (2010). A to z psychology. Retrieved March 20, 2010 from

http://www.a2zpsychology.com/great_psychologists/edward_c_tolman.htm

Geary, E. (2002). PSYography: Edward C. Tolman. A Dreamfire Production. Retrieved March

20, 2010 from http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/edwardtolman.html

Goodwin, C. J. (2005). A history of modern psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley