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    Behaviorism at 100: An American History
    Behaviorism at 100: An American History
    Behaviorism at 100: An American History
    Ebook36 pages35 minutes

    Behaviorism at 100: An American History

    By Richard Gilbert

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    This article marks the centenary of the founding of the approach to the study of human and other behavior known as behaviorism, often considered to have occurred in 1913. The story of behaviorism is largely, although by no means entirely, the story of Burrhus Frederick Skinner (1904-1990), who is presented as being among the intellectual giants of the twentieth century.

    The article touches on four of B.F. Skinner's major contributions, with some focus on his elaboration of the parallel between the natural selection of features of populations and the reinforcement of varieties of behavior.
    The article concludes by suggesting that Skinner's influence may be undergoing a revival. As was the case with Charles Darwin, several more decades may have to pass before his enormous contributions are fully appreciated. In Skinner's case the contributions were, and continue to be, to psychology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience.

    The article totals some 7,500 words, including 79 references and other notes. The main text has seven sections. Their titles are: Mostly about B.F. Skinner • Skinner’s four main contributions • More on reinforcement and natural selection • Neuroscience and behavior • Skinner and American tradition and culture • Skinner’s last words • Skinner today and tomorrow.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRichard Gilbert
    Release dateApr 13, 2013
    ISBN9780991956210
    Behaviorism at 100: An American History
    Author

    Richard Gilbert

    Richard Gilbert lives in Toronto, Canada. Absent from psychology for several decades, he has returned to write a novel set in May and June 1939 in which Skinner makes a (fictional) visit to Britain and meets Sigmund Freud and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

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      Book preview

      Behaviorism at 100 - Richard Gilbert

      Behaviorism at 100:

      An American history

      by Richard Gilbert

      Published by Richard Gilbert at Smashwords

      Copyright 2013 Richard Gilbert

      Mostly about B.F. Skinner

      Skinner’s four main contributions

      More on reinforcement and natural selection

      Neuroscience and behavior

      Skinner and American tradition and culture

      Skinner’s last words

      Skinner today and tomorrow

      About the author

      Reference and other notes

      Mostly about B.F. Skinner

      Behaviorism began with a 1913 article in Psychological Review by John Broadus Watson, chair of the psychology department at John Hopkins University.¹ For the next hundred years much of the story of behaviorism has been the rise and fall and rise again in the influence of Burrhus Frederic Skinner, long-time psychology professor at Harvard University.² Writing in Science in 1963, Skinner described Watson’s article as the first clear, if rather noisy, proposal that psychology be regarded simply as the science of behavior.³

      Watson was reacting against the prevailing view of psychology as the study of consciousness. He held that the goal of psychology should be the prediction and control of behavior. Psychologists should never use the terms consciousness, mental states, mind, content, introspectively verifiable, imagery and the like. Continued use of these terms had caused psychology to fail to make its place in the world as an undisputed natural science.⁴

      Two British authors with strong intellectual links to the United States played key roles in turning the 23-year-old Skinner to psychology and to behaviorism He was enamored by the discussion of Watson’s work in Bertrand Russell’s 1927 book Philosophy.⁵ Later in 1927, Skinner read an article by H.G. Wells in the New York Times Magazine about the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov.⁶ Skinner wrote in his autobiography that Wells’ article confirmed my decision to abandon literature and turn to psychology.⁷

      When they met at the University of Minnesota a decade later, Skinner told Russell about the role of his book in his conversion to behaviorism. Russell was astonished.⁸ He felt he had demolished behaviorism in the book’s final chapter, where he concluded that behaviorists were wrong to deny the reality of ‘thought’.⁹ Skinner had not read that chapter.¹⁰

      Skinner may well have been inclined to agree with Russell’s conclusion,¹¹ although he did

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