Reading Activity Week #11 (Due Tuesday)

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Please read chapter 10. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:

What were three (3) things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you? What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why?

What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

What topic would you like to learn more about? Why ?

What ideas did you have while reading the chapter?

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The first section that I found interesting in Chapter 10 was the section about experimental neurosis. This term was an outgrowth of Pavlov’s research on generalization and differentiation. Generalization is the tendency for a response learned to one stimulus to occur after the presentation of a second stimulus similar to the first. Differentiation refers to discrimination, the ability to distinguish between two stimuli. Pavlov learned discovered how a breakdown in differentiation could produce experimental neurosis or pathological disturbances. To demonstrate his findings he first projected a circle onto a screen in front of a dog’s face, and paired the presentation of the circle with food. Eventually, the circle became the normal controlled stimulus for the controlled response of salivation. After instilling this conditioned reflex, Pavlov then trained the dog to make an easy differentiation between the circle and an ellipse. Pavlov then continued to manipulate the ellipse so that it began to look more and more like a circle. At first, the dog could discriminate between the two shapes, but the dog’s ability to continually discriminate became more and more deteriorated. Eventually, the dog began to have a difficult time distinguishing between an easy ellipse and the circle. In Pavlov’s mind, neurotic behavior meant a breakdown in the ability to make normal differentiations. During the long course of his research, Pavlov noticed that although each dog was adversely affected, each dog reacted differently in how they individually displayed their pathology. These variations seemed to reflect the dog’s individualized temperaments. Some dogs were excitable, while others were more withdrawn. Pavlov interpreted these outcomes in terms of excitatory and inhibitory cortical processes. He concluded that some dogs had a relatively higher proportion of excitatory than inhibitory processes, others had the reverse of processes.

The second section that I found interesting was the section about Watson and how he studied emotional development. Watson claimed in his Manifesto that behaviorism could be used to improve the quality of life, based on conditioning, especially the motor reflexes. In 1915, Watson’s research was only limited to animals, therefore when the opportunity to study infants arose, Watson took hold of it. He saw this as his chance to prove that behaviorism could be applied in a way that would convince skeptics, but more importantly, secure his position as a major leader in the application of major psychological principles to improve society. Watson, like much of the comparative psychologists of this time, were feeling constrained in their efforts in finding institutional support for their research in animal behavior. This was because the University administrators were very reluctant to supply budgetary funds to an effort that they saw as ridiculous. Later on, Watson received a gracious invitation from Adolf Meyer, who was a very well-known psychiatrist, to set up a human lab in his clinic at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Luckily for Watson, the lab was adjacent to the medical school’s ward for infants. This supplied Watson with the subjects he needed for his research. The result of his studies was investigating reflexes, basic emotional responses, and conditioned emotional responses. Watson’s work was coauthored with J.J.B Morgan. The duo set out to identify fundamental human emotional responses with the stimuli that produced these responses. They identified three responses: fear, rage, and love. Watson and Morgan then identified these responses in detail as they related to the responses by the babies.

The third section that I found interesting was the section about Watson’s work in advertising. In his younger years, Watson developed a relationship and marriage with a woman named Mary Ickes. Later on, he developed another relationship with a woman named Rosalie Rayner, while still married to Mary. Watson’s love for Rayner led to his highly publicized divorce from Mary Ickes, which featured a publication of all his love letters to Rosalie and discovered by Mary, this then forced his resignation from Johns Hopkins and his marriage to Rosalie. The dismissal from Johns Hopkins proved to be a devastating blow to Watson, furthermore, the publicity would destroy the chance for him to secure another academic position. Instead, he entered the business world with his friend and joined the Walter J. Thompson advertising agency in New York City. After an apprenticeship, Watson secured the position of Vice President in four years. As an advertising executive, Watson had the chance to implement some of his ideas on behaviorism into the business world. He developed advertising campaigns that focused on the three basic emotional responses to push his products that he was advertising. Advertising did not occupy all of his time. Watson also lectured in New York at the School for Social Research, he joined the board of directors at Cattell’s Psychological Corporation, and renewed his work on infants by supervising research financed through a grant from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund. This effort secured Watson’s reputation as behaviorism’s popular voice.

The sections I didn’t really enjoy were the sections that I had already known about and had been introduced to throughout my career as an undergrad in psychology. These sections included Little Albert and Pavlov and his Classical Conditioning study on his dogs. The reason why I didn’t find these interesting was because I already had known so much about them that they did not fancy my interest while reading the chapter. The sections that I think that will be most useful in understanding the history of psychology from this chapter were the sections about Mental Neurosis and Emotional Development. These are important because they give us a more detailed background as to what Watson and Pavlov contributed and not just about the common things that we all know about through even our introductory course. This chapter introduced us to behaviorism. The behaviorists set out to alter the direction of psychology in America and to a large extent they succeeded. Watson was the founder of behaviorism and like Wundt, was distinguished as a founder among historians. I would like to learn more about the topic of systematic desensitization.

The first section I found interesting in chapter 10 was the Watson/Carr maze studies. I remember learning about this several years back and I found it interesting. Even though I have already learned this it reminded me of the different steps in their study. I forgot that they eliminated the rat’s senses at one point to determine if that was a factor of learning the maze. It turns out that it had little effect to them solving the maze equation. Also these rats would be used to a shorter maze then be placed in a longer maze and failed. This section just reminded me how amazing it was that they put these rats through these tests to conclude it was the kinesthetic sense. Another interesting section to me was the topic on emotional development. I found this interesting because it has so much to do with each of us. This is the time all this research about emotions and the human mind started to be studied. When Watson first started his research was only limited to animals. When he got the opportunity to study humans (infants) he wanted to show his claims were true. It refreshed my memory on the study with little Albert and the three instinctive emotions he wanted to show: fear, love and rage. I have always liked this study because it was one of the first ones involving humans and their emotions. The past research had little use in my mind because it was based off only animal research. This also got into behaviorism which we briefly learned about at the beginning of the semester. The section on Watson and advertising was also very interesting. He was able to put into practice some of the ideas he studied. He was able to use his past research and apply it to the public in hopes to make a profit .That seems like the best post science job you could go into. He still got to study in a way and see the results of his ads based on the product he helped sell. It seems like a very logical path for him to take. I never knew that he had a career in advertising after his science career. This section was very interesting and expressed that you can use your talents in some way, shape or form if you are willing to try it.
The one section I wasn’t very interested in was the Classical conditioning/Pavlov section. Although it is an interesting concept I feel I have been over exposed to it. Most psychology classes discuss this topic at one point so to me it was old. It was a lot of repetitive material and was hard to read the whole thing again. It would be a good section if it was cut down to the main points as an aid to refresh memory. Although Pavlov is an interesting man the conditioning topic only needs to be learned once.

The sections I think will have the most use in understanding the history of psychology are emotional development and behaviorism. Although they tie into each other they both have an importance in this chapter. The emotional development will be useful because it was the beginning of studying on humans and not animals. The behaviorism topic is important because it establishes that humans/animals do things for a reason as a behavior not just a response. The chapter relates to previous chapters by discussing in more depth the idea of behaviorism. This was mentioned earlier in the book but now it discusses and links it to the psychologists and the research they did while studying it. This adds more psychology research to the rapidly expanding field in the 1900’s.Thr topic I would like to learn more about is John Watson. The book mentioned him a lot in chapter 10 but I would still like to learn more about him and the research he did, if any, that wasn’t so popular. He was a smart man with some great ideas. I thought about his childhood and how it was compared to other psychologists we have studied this semester. I always find the small details about things to be the most interesting. I feel like it gives you more of an understanding when you know the small things. I wonder how they thought of these research experiments and put them together to get the results they were looking for. I also thought about how research is done today compared to then. Even though we have a huge technological advantage some things are still done just like they did. Another thought was the things they had to do to animals to get the research they wanted.

The first thing that I found interesting from this chapter was something that I have always found interesting related to behaviorism and that was the ability for humans to generalize and discriminate between stimuli. I believe that generalization in particular is fascinating given the circumstances that one does not know that they are generalizing something but they are able to put it into a similar cateogry and give it a name anyway.
The second thing I found interesting about this chapter was Pavlov's story about how he punished one of his assistants about being late during the Russian Revolution. I believe this proves really that his life was his research and visa versa. I think his dedication was what made him great but also may have hindered him in his social intereactions as seen from the story.
The final thing I found interesting about this chapter was the fact that Watson's Little Albert experiment was not as perfect as many of the history books make it out to be. There were a lot of problems listed with the experiment but the one that I never considered is that Little Albert may not have beeen conditioned to fear rats or white things at all but had instead become afraid of Watson due to the harsh treatment during the experiment. If true, this hypothesis could completely off-set Watson's most famous study.
One thing I didn't enjoy about this chapter was that it seems to imply that Watson and Rayner took credit for Mary Cover Jones' work on systematic desentitization and that is a huge thing in psychology even today that is usually credited towards Watson. That rubbed me the wrong way that Mary Cover Jones, although just a student, didn't recieve as much credit for this concept as Watson did.
I believe that really the analysis of the Little Albert experiment was helpful to my history of psychology understanding. It reminded me that although it's printed in a book you still must make sure that you question everything and don't just assume that because it was printable that they thought of every variable and considered them when doing the experiments that were written about in the book. It gives me a reminder to have a critical eye when looking at anything and everything.
This Chapter takes another branch of psychology that was just getting started during the reported time period. It talks a lot about the classical conditioning and how conditioning really took off as the main way to modify behavior. It also mentions a little bit about how Watson felt about the other introspective branches of psychology that have been discussed in the book in earlier chapters. He does not think highly of his fellow psychologists who tend to focus on those things that cannot be observed. Instead he believes the focus of the field should be on observable behaviors instead of guessing at things we don't know for sure.
I would really like to learn more about how Little Albert came to be as big of a learning experiment as it did, considering the many confounding variables that were present during this experiment. I am interested in finding more about peoples ideas about what may be an alternative cause for Little Alberts reactions in perspective of the different fields of psychology.
I thought about how Watson could have possibly stood to have an advertising job where he sits at a desk most days after he had the experiences he did with observing real live human subjects. I personally would have gone mad.
I also thought about how Pavlov worked under such stressful conditions and I wondered where he got his funding during a time of war and revolution in Russia.

I’ve been over behaviorism over and over, in some ways it’s getting a little old. But even with that knowledge, I’ve never heard of Watson’s so-called “Behaviorist Manifesto.” I mean, it was an argument that the best way to study psychology was purely behavioral, which isn’t a surprise and I have indeed heard of it, but I didn’t know it was an official speech or document.
Mary Cover Jones took Watson’s theory on conditioning fears and emotions, and change one major aspect that Watson left out of his study, unconditioning fear. Watson has received a lot of criticism for not unconditioning Little Albert’s fear, and I don’t think it’s fully known if he grew out of his fears. Cover Jones tried a many different methods of either reducing or completely irradiating the fears conditioned, but didn’t always have success. What she did pioneer was the technique of systematic desensitization. This idea paired a feared stimulus, and paired it with a pleasurable activity. In this case, Cover Jones let the young boy eat, and while he ate a rabbit (feared) was introduced. Over time, the rabbit could be moved closer and closer.
Think of Ivan Pavlov’s salivation and classical conditioning experiment. There’s a dog, with a small hole in it’s cheek to collect saliva, the dog is being held on by a leash around the collar as well as some other halters around the front chest and back to hold the dog in place. There’s also a bowl in front of it as well as a wall with a window. It’s the picture shown on page 336 of the textbook. This apparatus actually isn’t of Pavlov’s design, but of a German physiologist named G.G. Nicolai, while it did benefit Pavlov’s experiment, he really doesn't get credit for his contributions.
I think this chapter offered a great insight into the history of behaviorism, and how it influenced 20th century psychology. What I wish there was more of is more researchers besides Pavlov and Watson. Those two were what dominated the chapter, but there could have been more.

The first thing I found interesting in this chapter was the work Pavlov did with the dogs and the gastric juice he took from them. The dogs would eat normally, but a fistula connected tot he esophagus redirected the food to a collection tube. The dog would eat and swallow, but the food never made it to the stomach, which nonetheless secreted gastric fluids in anticipation of the food’s arrival. Another tube in the stomach collected the juices. Pavlov marketed the vile-tasting fluid as an elixir for those suffering from various digestive ailments, especially those resulting from “an insufficient flow of their own gastric juice. I have so many questions after reading this. Why would someone want this? Did they really drink it? Did it help them? I get very grossed out thinking about this.
The second thing I found interesting in this chapter was the Watson/Carr Maze study. Watson and Carr took rats and systematically one by one eliminated their senses to observe how this affected their ability to find their way through a maze. I understand why they took out the senses to figure out if they would be affected by missing one, but I feel like this is cruel even to rat (not a big fan of rats). Would they still allow this kind of testing today?
The third thing I found interesting wasn’t interesting instead, disturbing to me. When reading about Morgan’s work with infants, I would HOPE that they didn’t actually drop the infants. The book stated that to create fear they would do this and take the babies blanket away just as he or she was about to fall asleep. I believe both of these are awful. Babies should not be allowed to go through these experiments because they are not developed and can not truly express how they feel.
The one thing I found uninteresting to read about was Watson’s Behaviorist Manifesto. It compared and associated psychology with to many things for me to follow. It could be that I’m too tired but I couldn’t follow along with this section.
I would like to learn more about the work of Mary Cover Jones. I think it would be interesting to learn and read about why people fear certain things. To find out about some of my fears and possibly what I could do to eliminate them. Fear is something everyone has and is an interesting topic to think about.
This chapter grew on the previous chapters by explaining how the works of previous psychologists influenced later psychologists. They took ideas from them and in the case of B.F. Skinner, his career choice was directly impacted by Pavlov.
I didn’t have many ideas from this chapter, just many questions that I previously stated. Many questions having to deal with the experiments and why they did certain things. What would have happened if they didn’t experiment the affects of a rats senses? Anything?

The very beginning of the chapter was the first thing I found interesting. Those in the positivism school of thought were so soundly opposed to other aspects of the application of psychology. It seems odd that they considered their method to be practical, when in my mind I would define practical as something that is likely to be effective in most circumstances. Much of the mind is not simply cut and dried and a lot of studying, trial and error is based upon speculation and theorizing. Perhaps this is one of those instances where insight was being defined differently?
The laboratory of Pavlov or the “Tower of Silence” seems amazing. He had quite the system working. I also found his method of training new assistants while having them replicate other studies to be interesting. If nothing else he was efficient. It also seemed rather crappy that the Soviets took some of his Nobel Prize money from him. Although they did give him a nice lab and more than many other citizens he didn’t seem to appreciate the fact that they were intrigued by his work. He seemed to find their interest insulting.
There was a lot about John Watson. He was quite the salesman. Some if his experiments seem to border by today’s standards. I’m not sure that I would be able to remove eyes and anesthetize the feet of rats…. I’m also pretty sure I would not allow him to scare my baby for the cause of science either. His life and work were really colorful to say the least.
Although as I stated some of the earlier methods used to experiement are somewhat disturbing to me, this chapter really had no low points to me.
I would like to learn more about Watson’s childrearing book. Again by today’s standards it seems very harsh. Studies now tell us that touch is what helps a child grow. Parents are encouraged to use slings that hold the child to them tightly.
As I read about how he warned against over affection, it made me wonder about the baby boomers who complain that they feel their parents didn’t show them enough love. I also wondered while reading that if he had stuck with his mom’s wishes and become a minister if he would have become a cult leader? He was so persuasive and resilient.
This chapter again builds on Psychology especially now to the growth in the United States. The evolution of techniques and school of thoughts as they change.
As far as the understanding of the history of psychology I have a greater respect for those who dared go against the norms of the day. I also thought the warning about being careful on relying too much on secondary sources, was a great example of how studying the history we need to really be discerning and not simply take one source and run with it. I’m pretty sure I have seen the image of the dog and saliva setup that was mistakenly said to be what Pavlov used.

During my reading of chapter 10 what I thought was most interesting was the topic on Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Research, this automatically stood out to me because I have always been interested in classical conditioning. Pavlov worked 25 some years on conditioning and he was giving lectures at the Military Medical Academy and then rewrote these for publication. He started off his lectures by acknowledging Sechnow, Darwin, and Thorndike; then went into his physiological –rather than psychological- standpoint. Pavlov believed that restricting the investigation to specific stimuli and measurable psychological responses was the only scientifically defensible strategy to use. The psychological approach on the other hand implied dualism of mental and physical processes that Pavlov was not willing to accept; Pavlov said this approach was unnecessarily speculative. After a detailed lecture on basic reflex action, Pavlov concluded his opening lecture by referring to the accidental discovery of salivary conditioning. In another lecture Pavlov described some technical details of his procedures and the measures taken to control experimental conditions. Having set the base line, Pavlov described the basic procedure for the acquisition of a conditioned response. All in all Pavlov started a lot on the conditioned and unconditioned reflexes and stimulus; this shows that his life was his work and he put all his efforts into his studies. The next topic I found interesting was the topic on Watson and his studies on emotional development. Watson believed that behaviorism could be used to improve the quality of life, based on conditioning, mostly the motor reflexes. He could only study animals for a while then got the chance to start studying infants, with this he believed he would be able to prove that behaviorism could be applied in ways that would convince anyone who was skeptic but also secure his position as a major leader in the application of major psychological principles to improve society. University administrators were very reluctant in giving funds to an effort they didn’t believe in, fortunately later Watson received a contribution from Adolf Meyer, a very well-known psychiatrist, to set up a human lab at his clinic. The results of his studies included investigating reflexes, basic emotional responses, and conditional emotional responses, J.J.B Morgan helped with these investigations. Together they identified fundamental human emotional responses with the stimuli that resulted in identifying three responses. That included fear, rage, and love. I never knew infants could really have much emotion except when they wanted something; you eventually distinguish a hurt cry from a mad cry, etc. I find this interesting because I am around infants a lot. Another topic I found interesting was what Pavlov did with the dogs and the gastric juice he obtained from the. The dogs would eat normally, but a fistula connected to the esophagus that redirected the food to a collection tube. The dog would eat and swallow, but the food actually never went to its’ stomach, but secreted gastric fluids in anticipation of the foods arrival. Pavlov marked the vile-tasting fluid as an elixir for those suffering from various digestive ailments. I didn’t understand this study fully because why do something like this? Did the dogs ever actually get fed, and did the fluid buildup if they kept doing this experiment and never fed them? This chapter goes into mental neurosis and emotional development which I think are very important to understand now because I’m sure this is just a baseline for the continuing chapters. They talk about what Watson and Pavlov have contributed. This chapter also introduced us to behaviorism, which has already been slightly discussed but not in much detail. Something I really want to learn more about is Pavlov and what he all did with the dogs, I found this to stick out because I found it interesting but at the same time I was rather confused on what the exact purpose was.

Three things that I found interesting after reading this chapter were how Pavlov thought the dogs’ “psychic secretions” were just a nuisance, the Watson/Carr maze studies, and Mary Cover Jones using systematic desensitization. Ivan Pavlov was a physiologist studying digestion in dogs by isolating parts of the digestive system and then extracting the digestive fluids. He then measured the various amounts of the fluids secreted as a function of the types of food the dogs were given. Along with gastric stomach secretions, he also studied their salivary responses, and related them to different types of food as well. After a while, Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to salivate even before the food was presented, and called this “psychic salivation”. He viewed this response as a nuisance, because it reduced the accuracy of his measurements of the exact amounts of saliva produced in response to the certain type of food. This intrigued him to study other reflexes of the brain, because the animal’s behavior was predictable. I find this interesting, because this “nuisance” is what opened the door for his most famous contribution to the field of psychology. I think it is interesting how Watson and Carr studied rats in mazes, because of the results that they came up with. These results were not what one would think they would be. They set out to discover what senses rats needed to learn mazes. In order to do this, they eliminated various senses of the rats like sight, middle ears, and even olfactory bulbs. What they discovered is that all of the rats were still able to learn the maze with ease. They believed that the rats were learning them through muscle movements. I think Mary Cover Jones’ work is interesting, because she used behaviorism to promote “good”, and it’s refreshing to see psychology improving peoples’ lives. Jones use systematic desensitization to reduce a young boy’s fear of rabbits. Every time the boy ate, she would place a rabbit near him and then gradually decreasing the distance between them. She wanted to associate the pleasurable responses that go along with eating to replace the fear response from the rabbit. Even though I enjoyed reading about Watson and Carr’s maze studies, I found them to unethical towards animals. I understand that their study was good for the field of psychology, but it is “icky” to think of the rats getting their eyeballs removed. Watson also removed their olfactory bulbs, cut their whiskers off, and even removed their inner ears.
One thing that I think will be most important for the history of psychology is Pavlov’s procedure for producing a conditioned response. This set the stage for behavioral psychology. Pavlov wanted to pair a stimulus known to produce a specific response with a neutral stimulus.
Chapter 11 builds on previous chapters like 2 and 3, because behaviorists believe in the importance of the environment in shaping behavior, and so did the British empiricists. These empiricists believed that experience is the most important factor in shaping one’s mind and shaping them into the person they are. Like Thorndike in chapter 7, Watson designed a contraption to study on animals.
One topic that I would like to learn more about is other surgery techniques that Pavlov came up with besides the fistula. He won a Nobel Prize for his work so I think it would be cool to see all the work that helped him win such a prestigious award.
One idea I had while reading was what other senses could have helped Watson and Carr’s mice to learn the mazes. In the end they said the mice learned the maze through memorization of muscle movements, but I am curious to if they actually eliminated all other probable explanations.

The first thing that interested me was the material on experimental neurosis. Ivan Pavlov came up with this in his research. He tested this by projecting a circle on a screen in front of a dog’s face, pairing its presentation with food. The circle soon became a conditioned stimulus for the conditioned reflex of salivation. Once the conditioned reflex was created, Pavlov then trained the dog to make an easy differentiation between the circle and an ellipse that had a 4:3 ratio between the axes. He kept changing the shape of the ellipse until it reached a 9:8 ratio, which made it look more and more like a circle as it approached the 9:8 ratio. At first, the dog could tell the difference, but then it quickly deteriorated as it got to the point where the dog couldn’t distinguish an easy 2:1 ellipse from the circle. Pavlov stated this behavior as a breakdown in the ability to make normal differentiations. He did this experiment on many different dogs, and most of them had this result. However, a few of the other dogs had even worse results. I thought this research was very interesting. It’s weird how the dog could tell the difference at first, but when the shapes were changed, something happened in the dog’s mind to make it not be able to tell the difference in the shapes. It’d be cool to look more into this experiment and other ones that are related to it.
The next thing that interested me was the material on Pavlov and the American psychologists. Most American psychologists knew Pavlov because of the Nobel Prize, but his research wasn’t considered significant. Pavlov was first introduced to America by Robert Yerkes and Sergius Morgulis through an article in the Psychological Bulletin in 1909. The only work of Pavlov that American psychologists were interested in was his research on animal behavior, but American psychology was still focused on human conscious at this time. Before 1920, most introductory psychology textbooks didn’t even mention Pavlov. He didn’t begin to have a major impact on American psychology until the 1920s when a lot of his work was translated into English for the first time. He visited the United States twice to give addresses of his work on conditioning. In his second visit, which occurred in 1929, Pavlov gave a great address, which yielded a standing ovation from a large audience at the Ninth International Congress of Psychology at Yale University. At this point, American psychologists understood the importance of Pavlov’s work. I never would have thought that it took so long for Pavlov’s work to be appreciated in the United States. At that point, maybe American psychologists were reluctant to view work done out of the United States as significant. For whatever reason, I think everyone can agree that his work being accepted in the United States was a great thing in the history of psychology.
Another thing that interested me was the information provided on the Watson/Carr maze studies. John B. Watson and Harvey Carr studied rats in mazes. The goal in their study was to determine which senses were needed for a rat to learn a maze. In their first study, they systematically eliminated the ability of the animals to use their senses when trying to solve a version of the Hampton Court maze. Watson removed the eyes from some rats, the middle ears from others, and the olfactory bulbs from the third group. The results were somewhat surprising as the rats finished the maze with ease. They concluded that the only important factors in the formation of learned associations were “the kinesthetic impressions coupled with certain other intra-organic impressions”. The rats were learning to associate sequences of muscle movements with the turns in the maze. They learned to take ten steps, then turn right for another five steps, then turn left, etc. In their next study, they shortened or lengthened the maze. The effects of doing this were very dramatic as rats trained in the full-length maze literally ran into the walls of the shortened maze. Also, rats trained in the shortened maze and then tested in the full-length maze didn’t perform as well. They would try to turn where the turns used to be. I was very interested in studies with animals in the previous chapter, so this study obviously interested me as well. The method of the study was very different as they literally cut senses out of the rats. It’s interesting how fast the rats picked up the maze they first trained on, but then they became very confused in the different maze. It was obvious the rats memorized the first maze they were on. They then used their memory of the other maze to do the new one, but became lost when it wasn’t working out as usual.
The material I found to be the least interesting was the information provided about conditioning and extinction. It was just very confusing. I enjoyed learning about Pavlov, but this section wasn’t for me. I think all of the abbreviations just made it a lot harder to understand. The thing that will be most useful to me in understanding the history of psychology is the material on Ivan Pavlov. He was and remains such an integral part in the field of psychology. He did a lot of great things; most of which weren’t respected in the United States until about the 1920s. This builds on previous chapters by going more in-depth in behaviorism. The previous chapters gave a brief explanation, but this chapter goes into the details and the people behind it. Also, it continues to build on animal testing. The experiments introduced in this chapter included tests on a rat’s senses. Also, new individuals were introduced that used past ideas to create their own. I’d like to learn more about Watson/Carr maze studies. Their method was very questionable as they literally cut senses out of rats, but the results of it were very interesting. I’d like to learn more about it than just the basics of the study. One thing I thought about while reading the chapter was why the American psychologists took so long to accept Ivan Pavlov’s work. Also, I wondered what Watson and Carr were thinking when they came up with an experiment to randomly cut out a rat’s sense and have it go through a maze. I know it’s something I’d never think of, but the results of the study proved to be very interesting.

The first thing I found interesting in this chapter is the Watson/Carr Maze study. I thought it was very interesting how they manipulated which senses they “desensitized” on the rats to see how it affected their ability to solve a maze. I would have loved to be involved in this research, although I think it is rather unethical. However, it did contribute a great amount of research. The second thing I found interesting was the Little Albert study. I have heard about this several times before, but this chapter told about many problems with the study that I never knew about. One thing that was mentioned was that Little Albert may not actually have been scared of the rat, but rather Watson himself. He was rather unfriendly and this could mean that Watson’s work is not as empirical as it appears to be. A third thing I found interesting was the section on generalization and discrimination. I find it so amazing how we unconsciously generalize objects and ideas into groups and name them without even realizing we do it. The one thing I did not like about this chapter was the Pavlov experiments. I use to like learning about these studies, but I have heard about them so many times that it is just getting old!
To be honest, I think the thing from this chapter that will most help us learn about the history of psychology is the Little Albert study. More specifically, the faults from this study that were mentioned in the chapter. It is important to be aware that not everything we hear is true, empirical, or should be trusted. If you really are going to believe something, you should make sure you have researched it further than just what you heard or what you were told.
This chapter relates to previous chapters because it builds on behaviorism. It was mentioned previously, and now builds on the work that was done by these psychologists at this time. It also shows that the field of psychology is expanding and building on the topics we read about earlier.
I would like to learn more about the Watson/Carr Maze study. This really interests me because I like experiments like this. I would like to learn exactly how they manipulated the rats and what the overall outcomes were. Also, if this was considered ethical back then, and would it still be today?
While reading this chapter I noticed that there is a lot more animal research going on. Between rats, dogs, and chimps, the field of animal science is rapidly growing. This is important because now we can relate some of this research to humans, and then further expand the field of research into the human brain. I also thought about the rats doing the maze and what interested these men into manipulating these rats senses!

Chapter 10

One thing that I found interesting in chapter ten was Watson’s study on rats and how they learned their way through mazes by relying on their kinesthetic sense. The whole concept of conditioning or learning is interesting in itself because of the broad scope. I am skeptical to an extent because there are obvious differences between the brain of a mouse and a human, but I do believe we can assume some similarities through the testing of animals. When I think of the process of learning, I automatically think of the word repetition. Another way I think about it is ‘learning’ from our mistakes or experiences. It is cool to think that a rat can ‘learn’ its way through a maze and I think that tells us something about the way humans learn as well. Another thing that I found interesting about John Watson was his Behaviorist Manifesto and how psychology was too subjective and should be replaced with a more objective behavioral psychology that specified the relationship between a stimuli and response. This is interesting to me because it’s hard to imagine psychology being ‘subjective’ and I can agree with the manifesto. There are too many details and unknowns to psychology, it would be too difficult view it as subjective. The last thing that I found interesting in chapter ten was Watson’s study of children’s emotional development. I think it is interesting to think about fear, love, and rage being fundamental emotions coming from specific stimuli and the more elaborate emotions were learned. I can see how that is, but I have never looked at emotion like that before. There are many time in our environment when we cannot help but feel scared or angry, it is just a reaction. On the other hand, we can feel a certain way about something just because of how we have learned to feel about it. The thing in chapter ten that I found the least interesting was Pavlov simply because he is a person that I have been learning about since high school and I am more interesting in reading about new things that I did not know.

Although I found Pavlov the least interesting in the chapter, I do think it is the most important thing to know when it comes to learning the history of psychology. He is one of the most important historical psychologists because of his studies on conditioning and learning. Just as the people mentioned before Pavlov in the previous chapters, he continues to build on the time line that the book provides for the history of psychology.

I would like to learn more about Watson’s study of the emotional development of children because emotions are something I always find interesting. Especially in Kim MacLin’s class, I find feelings, motivations, and emotions fascinating to learn about. This is consistent with the idea I had throughout the chapter about the objectiveness of psychology. Whether the response is conditioned or not, stimuli react to their environments in numerous ways.

I found a lot of the section on Pavlov interesting. For once I liked the figures or drawings which showed in this case his floor plan and apparatus for the dogs. Like usual I enjoyed the character description. He seemed to be a very dedicated man. One thing I recall is the revolution anecdote where he was mad at someone for being late during it. While he was stern and serious the book made it seem that he did not intend to be mean. I found it interesting that he married given his dedication and lack of personal life. I liked that this chapter covered him as well as Watson in great detail.

I found Watson’s upbringing to be interesting because it was surprising and different than most other well off men covered in past chapters. I thought the whole scandal with his wife and mistress which led to his eventual dismissal from Johns Hopkins to be very interesting.

I also thought Watson was interesting for going into advertising. I thought so because I have been working in marketing on the side and hope to get into this field once I graduate. I definitely see the parallels between these two fields. This part also made me think of the TV show Mad Men.

Maybe least interesting was little Albert because it is sort of cliché, so over covered. Anyone who hears about that and many do and think they are psychology experts. Even the book criticized its accuracy which was new and funny to me.

I think knowing who these “eponyms” are is very important as well as understanding the implications of it. The chapter went into great detail about both Watson and Pavlov. These are two well-known men in popular culture not just to people interested in studying psychology in depth. This chapter covered the movement that changed psychology from the internal/introspective stuff to changing behaviors. This was also important to see the move away from only nature in the nature+nurture formula. Therapy appears in the form of systematic desensitization.

I noticed a lot of references in this chapter to previous chapters, more than I have noticed in the past. Here are some examples. Sir Francis bacon was mentioned from Chapter 2. Robert Yerkes from Chapters 8 and 1. Functionalism and its relation to Chicago from Chapter 7. A close up of Spalding from Chapter 5. I think this will continue and happen more and more as the book goes on. It makes sense that one needs to understand the origin of something to understand its present state and future.

I might like to learn more about Watson. He was even charismatic somehow in the text. The photos of him seemed like he was sort of handsome too. I am interested in his affair but maybe that’s not really helpful for this class so I better pass that one up. So maybe how he used his psychology background in advertising would be a fun topic to look into.

Something I found sort of odd was the way the book seemed to be giving Pavlov excuses for being happy he was Russian, like in most cases being Russian and loyal would be bad but in his case it was OK. I thought that maybe this book seemed to retain some Cold war influence and belief that Russia/The Soviet Union is bad. I thought it was a bit odd and wondered when was this book written? So I looked and 2008. Would people like him less if they saw him as really Russian and behind his country/government? I also thought of Watson’s affair and scandal. First I felt bad for his wife but then I got to thinking about how divorce was then and now. Would he have been let go in today’s society? Of course the ethics of experimenting with infants crossed my mind. Also the book Watson wrote about parenting seemed so cold and harsh, I wondered how many people followed that only years later to find he regretted it and had no backing for many of his beliefs.


1. Founding behaviorism- I have always been interested in b-mod since I took the class with Dr. Maclin a few years ago. The beginning of chapter 10 starts talking about how behavior thinking started with psychologists, with using the animal experiments and required inductive observations. Psychologists wanted to learn more about behavioral thinking because they were interested in objective measures and introspection. Learning that because of the previous psychologists like Thorndike and his animal experiments, lead to another great part of psychology; behaviorism.



2. Watson and animal behavior- I really liked reading about Watson’s desire to pursue experiments on animal psychophysics. Watson studied that animals could be trained or conditioned to perceive a difference between two stimuli. As a behaviorist Watson used his research in discovering naturalistic studies on islands in the summer, and not always doing lab experiments. I thought the island research would be fun because birds and tropical animals and always fun to watch in their natural habitat. Watson discovered mating behaviors as well as ethological views of instinctive behavior for species survival.


3. Little Albert- One of the most famous studies in psychology, and one of the most controversial. Watson experimented in a human lab on a baby on the conditioning of fear, rage, and love. Watson wanted to find out more about the instinctive emotions on children and wanted to condition the reactions of the child. The loud noises used to “condition” the baby to cry is a very ethical question when people study on humans today.




* One thing I did not enjoy about chapter 10 was recapping about Pavlov in every section. I have taken many psychology classes that have studied his behaviorist manifesto intensively, and it was no new information.



*The most useful information was the background on how behaviorism all started. Everyone knows of Pavlov, and Watson and all of these controversial experiments, but it was really interesting to learn because of animal observations and research, lead to objective thinking of our behaviors, and if we can alter/change them.



*This builds on to previous chapters because Thorndike started experimenting on animals and that eventually got American psychologists and others to discover behaviorism and study more in depth with our own species/behaviors.



*I would like to learn more about Watson’s island studies, and if he ever studied weather on behavior of animals/climate situations.



*One idea: If someone discovered something magical in the field of psychology by using/tormenting a human during the research, would it still be glorified? (Due to ethical reasoning)

Chapter 10

The first topic that I would like to discuss is Ivan Pavlov. The most interesting parts of the section on Pavlov, were the section about his life in the field of medical research, and the way the book presents his findings in psychology as seen by the Russians and the Americans. Before he ever even entered the field of psychology Ivan Pavlov had accomplished a lifes worth of work in physiology. His discoveries in relation to his work on the digestive system were so inovative in the fild of medicine that it was him a Nobel Prize in 1904, however he then stumbled upon something that would alter his choice of study and would consume the remainder of his life. I also liked that the book split up how the Soviets and Pavlov fared as well as how relations with Pavlov developed in the US. Immediatly after winning his Nobel Prize and having the winning taken away Pavlol was mad, but after the threat of the Nazis consumed the would he develped a sense of nationalism for Russia. The biggest thing in relation to Pavlov with the US is that his work would not be widly excepted until the 1920's.

Another topic that I found interesting in this chapter was the Behaviorist Manifesto by John Watson. I had never heard of this, but it was really interesting and showed just how pationate Watson was about Behaviorism. This paper/speech made the aspects of what Watson wanted psychology to be. He wanted psychology to be a science with clear goals and rules. In doing so the subjectiveness of psychology as it had been would be gotten rid of making it a more credible science.

The final topic that I found interesting that I would like to mention is Watson's study of Emontional Development. Watson described three basic emotions fear, rage, and love. With these three basic emotions he desribed the response behavior that go with them. Fear involved cathching of the breath, cluthing of the fists, blinking eyes, puckering leps and crying. Rage invloves crying and creaming. Love involoves smiling, gurgling, and cooing. I liked this research, because it was one of the few at the time that was on humans, which reduces the question validity of the study.

One thing that I found to be the least interesting in Chapter 10 was the Watson/Carr Maze studies. For me the importance if this study just doesnt resonate. Don't get me wrong I can see the importance of the study as it relates to kinestetics, but it just does not interest me at all. Something I tought about was how much different Ivan Pavlov and John Watsons personal upbringing was from the rest of the psychologists that we have seen so far. This mad me wonder if the acedimic environment was changing that allowed for more people to be involoved or was there some other reason why poeple of other socioeconmic statis were entering the field of academia. Which is something that I wold like to try to learn about if possible. Finally, this chapter builds on the others as the next step of psychology is underway. People wanted psychology to more credible and less subjective, so that it had more credibility than ever before. One thing that I think is the most important was the development of conditioning. Ivan Pavlovs development of conditioning allowed for the study of psychology to take a differnt more objective course to make it what it is today.

The information on Pavlov was interesting. Born in a small farming village in Russia, he eventually found his way to University and the study of physiology. His main area of focus was the digestive system but it was unclear how this came to be his main interest. Bad gas maybe? He performed complex surgeries and even collected samples of dog digestive fluid to give to people to consume in order to help the flow of their own gastric juice. Sick. He was incredibly anal about his lab work; going to great ends to make sure every detail was recorded and analyzed. His laboratory set-up was so precise that its foundations were soundproofed. This made sure subjects were reacting to laboratory produced stimulus alone. He was also portrayed as being a stickler for time. One guy was late to the lab because his normal route was dangerous but Pavlov wasn't having any of that. He told the guy he better leave earlier next time around. It was clear that Pavlov was somewhat of a sociopath especially after reading the section on experimental neurosis. He would present an image of a circle to a dog every time it was fed. He would then alter the image so that it looked similar to a circle to the point that the dog could no longer differentiate between the two. This caused some dogs to flip out and in some cases very violently. Driving anything that is living to the point of exasperation or violent insanity just for research seems a little cruel. Imagine if aliens did the same to us in some cage in an alien spaceship.
Watson was also an interesting fellow and shared the same heartless attitude towards his animal subjects. He decided he wanted to study animals by "removing their senses" and having them complete a maze. He literally removed the eyes from some, middle ears from others and olfactory bulbs from still more. Then he would place them in the maze to see how they would fare. Again I thought about if the tables were turned and aliens wanted to study the same things about us. You can argue the whole "animals are not the same as humans" or whatever but even if we were limited to the same capabilities as animals, having our eyes gauged out and then being thrust into a stressful situation like a maze would suck.
Reading about the Little Albert study was interesting and disturbing. Yet again, these guys want to learn more about, what is it this time, emotions? So they acquire some baby to run various tests on. They have him reach his hand to touch a rat and then as soon as his hand makes contact immediately frightening the baby with a loud noise. This was performed on multiple occasions. It was amusing how they put out a statement to make themselves feel better about what they were doing "oh those fears would arise anyway." I'm not saying this study was incredibly unethical but it was definitely unethical to a degree. Let’s just say I would not allow my baby to be tested like that especially if the experiment involves fear. Fear is one of the biggest influences on everyone’s life into adulthood and I wouldn’t want to expose my child to unnecessary fear especially during critical development stages.
Reading about the Manifesto wasn’t particularly enthralling. While it was influential and important to read about it wasn’t as stimulating as reading about the experiments themselves.
This chapter was devoted to behaviorism and a thorough understanding of behaviorism is good for not only understanding psychology but it is helpful in understanding a lot of things in life today such as advertising, Hollywood, video games, smart phones, etc. etc.
The maze research is similar to experiments conducted in earlier chapters and similar to the puzzle boxes. The evolutionary thinking and animal psychology discussed in chapter 5 also contributed to the experiments in this chapter.
I would like to learn more about the code of ethics in research back in the day and the development of this code in today’s research. It would also be cool to learn about how much of an impact behaviorism has had on mainstream society today. I mean it has everything to do with it, but I wonder how much of it is intentional.
A lot of my thoughts during this chapter were about animals and research conducted on animals. We will never know what goes on in the head of an animal no matter how many theories come out. I imagined aliens assuming we couldn’t have the kind of complex thoughts they do so they rip our eyes out and do all these surgeries to study seemingly pointless things. Just because we have the capability and the “authority” to use animals as we please, should we? Obviously we won’t face any immediate repercussions from doing so, but we never know what could happen down the line. Some Hindu religions believe that after death animals will have the same capabilities as humans and will treat those humans who treated them poorly the same way.

The first area of interest I had in chapter 10 was with John Watson. Partially because the name reminds me of my favorite detective Sherlock Holmes and partially because of all his contributions to behaviorism like systematic desensitization. From his maze studies and animal behavior research to his behaviorist manifesto and study of emotional development, John Watson is responsible for bringing behaviorism into the main line of scientific fields.

The second area I was interested in was the “Little Albert” study. The study seems so cruel yet funny. The thing that is most humorous is how they took precautions to “not disturb the child too seriously,” yet their experiment as a whole had a lasting effect on Little Albert’s behavior.

The final section I was interested in was with the popularization of behaviorism. I am impressed with the way that Watson popularized behaviorism. He was effectively able to create a buzz about the topic until it became main stream science. I wish he would have been able to perform his “dozen infant” experiment, the results would have been very interesting.

The section I found least interesting was on Pavlov. This is only because I have learned so much about him, but what he did for psychology with his conditioning is very important. I feel like knowing about Pavlov is very important for understanding psychologies history. First of all, why else would every single psychology class take time to learn about a man and his research if they were not relevant to that are. Second, Pavlov was a building block for many other psychologists with his conditioning research.

This chapter builds off the previous chapters because the ideas of psychologists like Pavlov and Watson are tied with those of psychologists like Bacon and Thorndike, who we learn about in previous chapters. Sir Francis Bacon became very important in behaviorist thinking and Thorndike was influential with animal research in psychology.

The area I would like to research more in is over systematic desensitization. I feel like this technique is actually useful and beneficial in real world circumstances. I learned a little bit about different techniques in abnormal psychology, but I would defiantly like to see more ways systematic desensitization could be used.

While reading this chapter most of my ideas came from the “Little Albert” study. Just how scientific everything seemed with the set up and procedure and yet how barbaric looking the study was a whole. It’s like a cartoon, sneaking up behind someone and then scaring them by banging metal with a hammer and then calling it science. Psychologists are absolutely crazy, but I still would like to be one.

After reading chapter 10, one of the first things that caught my attention and that I found interesting was the experiment with little Albert conducted by John Watson. Little Albert was exposed to a white rat a metal bar was struck with a hammer repeatedly so that Albert learned to be afraid of the rat because it was always associated with the noise. I think it is interesting that Watson should concern about damaging a baby but still went ahead with his experiment anyway. Thank goodness that sort of thing wouldn’t be allowed anymore. I think it would be interesting to see whether or not Albert carried the fear of a rat with him the rest of his life or if he was ever able to overcome that anxiety. The second thing from this chapter that I found interesting was Watson’s pretty inappropriate behavior with his graduate students. I never knew anything about his personal life and it is pretty disappointing and a little creepy that he married two of his students. I guess he was just attracted to women that enjoyed psychology like he did. It is strange that he joined and advertising agency, and even more that he was successful at it. The third thing from this chapter that I found to be interesting was learning about some of Pavlov’s work with the “Pavlov pouch”. Honestly, research on animals is always difficult for me to stomach but I’d rather read about it than do it myself. I also enjoyed reading about his conditioning with the dog salivating. Like little Albert, this was something I had already learned several times but I feel like I learn new pieces of information every time I relearn it.

One of the least interesting things I learned in this chapter was learning about the philosophies of empiricism and associationism. I really can’t stand philosophy and I think I just get lost when some of these terms are being described and explained, so I am hoping that it will be discussed further on Thursday in class. I think that the conditioned learning work done by Pavlov and Watson is extremely important in understanding the history of psychology. These are very famous studies and help us understand how humans function and the fact that we can actually be trained or conditioned to a stimulus was a very amazing discovery in its time.

I think that this chapter builds on previous chapters in that Watson had an experiment with rats using mazes to rely on their kinesthetic senses. I feel like in every single chapter at least one person is using rats in a maze to test some theory. I would like to learn a little more about John Watson’s personal life…I know that might be lame but I think it is really crazy that he had all of that going on and still being one of the most famous psychologists in history. When reading this chapter I just kept thinking that I wished babies and animals didn’t always have to be used in experiments. It is really sad to me that Albert was put through this kind of testing. I would assume that he turned out to be fine, and if he feared rats the rest of his life he wouldn’t be that different from the rest of us.

This chapter was particularly interesting for me because I have always been interested in behaviorism. I thought that behavior modification was a really cool course. The first part that I found to be extremely interesting was the section on The Watson/Carr Maze Studies. This section was intriguing for multiple reasons. First off, we have learned through psychology about Watson’s baby albert experiment, multiple times. I had never heard of the maze studies before today; or at least don’t remember learning about them. Secondly, the ethics of the experiment were quite different than today. Watson cut the eyes out of some rats and made it impossible for the rats to be able to sense their environments. He also removed ears and olfactory bulbs from different groups of rats. Nonetheless, the rats were STILL able to learn the maze. He found that even removing wiskers and anesthetizing the rat’s feet did not affect their ability to learn the maze. In the end, he found that the rats were able to learn how many muscle movements it took before a certain turn, so that they were able to find the end of the maze.

The second part that was interesting to me was the part on John Watson becoming an advertising executive. I think that it is most interesting for the simple fact that there are a lot of similarities between the study of advertisement and the study of psychology. When he was instructing at the University of Chicago, Watson fell in love with Mary Ickes. He married her and then later divorced. He met another woman, Rosalie Raynor, and his love letters were discovered by Ickes. These letters were later published. He was forced to resign from John Hopkins and he married Raynor. His career in psychology ended and he went on to become the vice-president of an advertising company. He was extremely successful, which I believe to be due to his knowledge of behavioral psychology. I think that this section should be a BIG hint to anyone graduating with only a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. There are jobs out there! Advertising would be a great job. I think that a double major in Advertising and Psychology would be particularly admired by employers.

I also found it interesting that John Watson was a APA President. This is something I did not know prior to today. (Maybe we learned in at some point, but I don’t remember.) In his presidential address, he used his newfound power to support his theories. He wanted to describe the conditioning of reflexes. In his presidential address, he made claims that he could use behaviorism to improve the quality of life. Looking at that claim today, I think he was right! Behaviorism has done a lot for the world that we live in. In particular: disciplining children. I think we have come a long way from the way that children were once disciplined in schools. From what I understand, children were once disciplined phycically in schools. Also, children were embarresed in front of their classmates (sometimes still are today), with the “duntz cap”. I think that we have found that punishment like this can have serious consequences.

The part of the chapter that I found to be least interesting was the section on Pavlov. The only reason for this is because I have learned about it SO much throughout the course of my Psychology degree. I do believe it is quite an interesting experiemtn, but I just felt like I was reading something I’ve read about 100 times before. I did however, find out that there were other psychologists that studied the same thing as Pavlov, such as Anton Snarskii who studied the effects of severing nerves in the face during a conditioned response.

This chapter relates to the rest of the book because all of the other chapters are talking about different fields of psychology (gestalt, functionalism, structuralism). I think that the book is slowly leading us to every field and how it developed through the years. Also, Pavlov and Watson’s work with animals relates to Darwin’s studies of animals. We have learned a majority of what we know about psychology from animals, or at least animals have helped us gain an understanding. Again, like I wrote about in previous blogs, I’m beginning to see that animals and humans aren't as different as we might think.

I’m most interested in learning about Watson’s experiments and the ethics behind them. That part of the chapter in particular made me begin to think about the history of ETHICS in psychology. I know that the syphilis studies were part of the reasons that ethic laws were changed, but I’d really like to learn more about other experiments that wouldn’t quite be “up to par” with the ethic laws we have today.

While reading this week’s chapter one of the first things that I found interesting was the Watson and Carr rat maze studies. Watson wanted to see which senses were needed for rats to learn a maze. He did a very unpleasant experiment. He removed the eyes from some of the rats, ears from another group, and olfactory bulbs from a third group of rats. After observing the rats, he found that they were using muscle memory to learn the maze. He called this kinesthetic impression. To test this theory he changed the maze length to see how the rats would react. He found that the rats tried to go to the path in which the maze was shaped originally, which led them to failing while trying to make shorter turns or finding a wall that wasn’t there before. I found this interesting because they were originally looking at what senses were used and found something different all together.

A second thing from the chapter that I found interesting was Waston’s work on the development of emotions. He thought there were three basic emotional responses: fear, love, and rage. He also studied how, for example, fear or a phobia could be conditioned in a baby by pairing a strange loud sound with a neutral stimulus. Then he showed ways to decondition phobias. This seems like one of the earliest uses of behavior therapy which we read about in behavior modification and in abnormal psychology.

The third thing from this chapter that I found interesting was Watson on behaviorism. In 1913 Watson thought it was time to proclaim what he believed psychology should do - which was the study of behavior and consciousness. He stated that -given a response- the stimuli can be predicted and -given the stimulus- the response can be predicted. This made me think of Skinner and his experiments on the analysis of behavior. Watson seemed to have made the path for Skinner. More than anything else he did Watson moved psychology to be about the study of behavior.

The concept from this chapter most useful in understanding the history of psychology is the story about the development of the study of conditioning and the development of behaviorism. Both of these subjects became very important in the history of American psychology. Nearly every course I have taken has touched on one or both of these subjects and has discussed both Watson and Pavlov. It doesn’t seem like you can say you know anything about psychology if you don’t know what these two did. Their methods and ideas are still very influential today.

This chapter relates to previous chapters because it shows how American psychology has been greatly influenced by Europe and other parts of the world. Pavlov is just another one of many examples of how American psychology was influenced by researchers in other countries, in this case Russia.

The topics I would like to learn more about are rat maze studies and more on kinesthetic memory. I would like to find more information on this phenomenon.

One thing I liked learning about in this chapter was about Watson and his work with rats and mazes. I’ve heard Watson’s name almost as much as Pavlov’s, but I always forget what he did in the psychology field. I thought trying to figure out what senses were needed for the rats to find their way through the maze was interesting. I thought surgically removing eyes and ears from rats was a little cruel, but I guess that’s how you had to do it to fully eliminate that sense. I think if someone blinded me and put me in a maze I’d have a hard time trying to find my way around. It is kind of mind blowing that rats started to figure out how many steps they needed to take until they had to turn.

I liked reading about Watson’s work with little Albert. I had learned about this study in other classes, but it was always research that I found interesting. It’s a little unsettling to read about research done on infants because you generally don’t want to upset a child. In his study, they wanted to test conditioning with how Albert dealt with fear when presented with various animals and other objects. I think using children at that young of age can be emotionally scarring though they probably won’t remember. I wouldn’t want to inflict any kind of fear on my children even if it was to try to benefit them.

I liked reading about how Watson advertised his work on behaviorism. He reached all kinds of realms of advertising not only into books, but magazine articles and radio broadcasts. I think Watson did all he could to get his research out there. It was cool to see that because of his efforts to make behaviorism more known found the interest in B.F. Skinner on thinking about behaviorism.

The thing I found the least interesting to read about was Pavlov. It’s not his work that wasn’t interesting, but it’s been repetitive since intro to psychology and all we ever hear about is his work with dogs and their salivating response with certain stimuli. Plus learning about classical conditioning isn’t hard to understand when you hear about it over and over again.
I think the most useful information in this chapter in relation to the history of psychology is yet again that one person’s work can influence another. Like with Watson popularizing behaviorism brought out B.F. Skinner’s liking to behaviorism and probably got him started on in Skinner box ideas and other research.

I would like to learn more about B.F. Skinner which
I’m sure we will touch on in another chapter, but I always like reading about his Skinner box because it’s been an invention of his I’ve never thought of as normal. I’d like to find more information on who else worked with behaviorism in relation to senses and eliminating them as well.

The one idea I had was again with the mazes. I wonder how humans would do compared to animals in a maze if their senses were eliminated. Would having sense of smell be better than being able to hear? Would the fact that rats have four legs make them quicker to get through the maze than humans on two feet? I think it’d be cool to put a rat in a maze and a human in an identical maze, take away the same senses and see who would finish first.

One thing I found interesting in this chapter was the Watson/Carr maze studies. The goal was to see which of the rat’s senses were needed in order for the rat to learn the maze. What Watson did was remove the eyes from some rats, the middle ears from others, and the “olfactory bulbs from a third group.” I found it interesting that even without their senses; the rats were able to learn the maze with “ease.” They found out that the rats were “learning to associate sequences of muscle movements with the various turns in the maze.” Basically they learned the number of steps between each turn. It reminds me of a blind person that I know. He knows the number of steps to different locations and objects in his home, so he is able to know where he is and is able to find the things he needs, it is very interesting.
The second topic I found interesting was the Zenith and the Nadir of a career: Little Albert section. Watson found that only a few stimuli would bring out the three instinctive emotions in infants, which are: fear, rage, and love. They tested the baby to see if he showed fear to animals such as a white rabbit, a rabbit, a dog, and a monkey. Albert did not show fear to these like some of the other babies did, but he was afraid of loud noises like the others. When the child would reach out to touch the animal, a loud noise was made. Eventually after all the experiments, just when the child was just shown the animal, he started crying. The baby associated something scary to him with the animal and then in turn would be scared of it alone. I think this is interesting, and really shows how conditioned the emotional responses are, but it is really sad that they experimented on babies who now could have gone through life with those fears because of the experiments.
I also found interesting Pavlov’s method for training his assistants. He would have them replicate studies that had already been done so he could see how well they would do.
The least interesting section in this chapter to me was Pavlov’s classical conditioning research. I thought this was least interesting, just because I have heard and learned so much of this subject in my classes.
One of the topics I thought was most useful in this chapter was where it told how Pavlov’s research over the years was a good example of how experiments never happen in isolation. They are ongoing “systematic” research programs. Outcomes of a study bring on more questions, and it is a chain reaction, one thing leads to another. I think this is important because it explains how experiments come about. It is a process of learning.
This chapter builds on well to chapter 2 and 3 because it talked more about the behaviorists and how the environment shapes behavior.
I would like to learn more about Watson and his life, because I find his experiments interesting. I really thought his maze experiment was interesting, and it spiked my interest to see what other experiments he may have done, and why he did them.
Though I like Watson’s experiments and find them interesting, I thought it was sad that he used babies in his fear study. It makes me wonder if the babies grew up with a fear of rats and rabbits because of this experiment.

The first topic I found very interesting was Pavlov’s extended research on experimental neurosis. This concept derived from his studies with differentiation and generalization. Differentiation has to do with distinguishing the difference between two stimuli and generalization is the reaction of a stimulus when a second stimulus reacts. This concept was formed after Pavlov experimented with dogs and creating a stimulus response with a circle and then showing food in that circle. The dog then associated the circle with the food and salivated. This experiment was altered and Pavlov came to the conclusion that different dogs have different perceptions of how they see a stimulus and react different ways such as being excited or reserved.
Watson’s views on behaviorism and classic conditioning were also a very interesting topic. He believed that emotional development was a key to improving a person’s life through experimentation. Watson did a lot of research with animals, but later he was given the opportunity to work with infants. This great idea was a good time to prove all of Watson’s skeptics a chance to realize that behaviorism can be used for good. Adolph Meyer allowed Watson to use a lab a John Hopkins Medical School to experiment. The school was very reluctant to fund the research, but Watson continued to do his research on investigating reflexes, basic emotional responses, and conditioned emotional responses. He then teamed up with J.B. Morgan and they discovered three fundamental human responses which were fear, love, and rage.
Watson and Carr’s maze was also a interesting subject and refresher after learning about it in previous psychology classes. This study was used to determine if problem solving could be achieved without the use of senses. They used rats in this study with short and long mazes and with the limit of eye sight. They determined that the use of kinesthetic senses was one of the most important senses. Tests like these were very important for research on the topic of behaviorism and what Pavlov and many other psychologists did. This chapter was very interesting and refreshed a lot of information from what I learned in past classes and it enables me to learn more of the history of these psychologists and the work they did to become great innovators. This also was a great chapter for behaviorism and the history of how everything has evolved into what it is today. I would love to learn more about Watson and his work with the infants.

One topic that I found interesting in this chapter was Pavlov’s use of replication within his laboratory. Whenever a new worker would enter his lab, Pavlov would assign them to a problem or issue that had already been investigated. This allowed students to learn experimental procedures without the pressure of having to produce new findings while also providing an ongoing program of replication. Once the student had replicated the research successfully they would be given a new problem to investigate. This method highlighted the importance of replication in regards to research, it is a cornerstone to sound scientific research and results that can’t be repeated have no value.

Another interesting topic in this chapter was the Watson/Carr maze studies. The goal of these studies was to determine which senses were needed for a rat to learn a maze. To eliminate the ability of the mice to use their sense, Watson and Carr removed the eyes of some rats, the middle ears from others, and the olfactory bulbs of another group. However, the rats still managed to learn the maze despite the loss of their senses. By process of elimination, it was concluded that they only important factor in the formation of learned associations was the kinesthetic sense. The kinesthetic sense was believed to allow animals to learn a sequence of muscle movements with the various turns in the maze. Therefore, muscle memory allowed rats to stay familiar with the maze, regardless of their senses being altered.

Watson’s transition to advertising was also interesting to read about. It shows how research done in psychology can be relevant in other areas. For instance, as an advertising executive, Watson developed a number of advertising campaigns in regards to his research involving three basic emotions: fear, rage, and love. To sell a product to a consumer Watson suggested one must “tell him something that will tie him up with fear, something that will stir up a mild rage that will call out an affectionate or love response, or strike a deep psychological or habit need”. Watson also used testimonials by well-known personalities or experts to sell products. For example, for an ad concerning baby powder Watson designed a message to scare young parents into buying the product by claiming their baby was at risk to infection without it and used doctors to support the claim.

One topic that I found less interesting was Pavlov. I realize he is one of the most important figures in psychology, however, I have learned about him in numerous courses. Therefore, while reading all the sections regarding him I couldn’t help but think “what else is there to know?” With that said, I don’t want to downplay the impact Pavlov has had in psychology and the contributions he has made.
I think the most useful information to help better understand the history of psychology is the work of Pavlov and Watson. These are two of the biggest names in psychology, therefore, in order to truly understand the history or psychology you must know about them and the impact they had in the field of psychology. You can’t learn the history of psychology without leaning about these two figures.

This chapter builds off previous chapters by introducing yet another new area of psychology: behaviorism. An important influence to behaviorism was the rapid acceptance of evolutionary thinking by scientists and the resulting growth of animal psychology (chapter 5). This chapter also continues the common theme of how new ideas in the field of psychology were made popular in America.

I would like to learn more about how the general public felt about animal research during this time. I know the use of animals in research has been a controversial issue for a long time and I think it would be interesting to know what people thought of Pavlov’s use of dogs or Watson’s use rats in their studies. While reading this chapter I remember questioning the ethics of some of the research done on animals during this time and thinking “there is no way they would be able to do that now.”

One thing that I found very interesting, as well as mind blowing, was Pavlov’s method of raising money for his laboratory. Apparently, he marketed dogs gastric fluids as a medicine for people with digestive issues. I found this crazy. People actually paid money and consumed dog’s gastric fluids? I mean, not only did it have to taste absolutely terrible, but wow. I just can’t believe people paid money for this stuff and actually consumed it. However, I would actually like to know whether or not it helped people with digestive problems. Poor dogs.

Pavlov’s special laboratory that became known as the “Tower of Silence” was interesting to me. The lab was specifically created to facilitate Pavlov’s conditioning experiments. The “Tower of Silence” caught my attention when I read about the extensive work done during its construction to eliminate noise and vibrations, and the fact that it’s currently Halloween (sounds sort of spooky). All the rooms that were used to house the dogs for conditioning research were insulated with sound proofing material. It didn’t stop with the rooms, the foundation and beams of the building rested on sand and straw. The use of sand and straw was an effort to reduce vibration. It’s incredible to see the lengths that Pavlov was willing to go to in order to make sure nothing interfered with the conditioning experiments.

The little Albert study also spurred my interests. We’ve all heard about the little Albert study several times as psychology majors. It was new information for me of how flawed the study was. Not only that, but I find the study unethical and immoral. It’s cruel to do that to a child, those experiences could affect the rest of his life. It’s also noted that Watson was potentially “rough” with Albert. This just makes it even more upsetting. So, I found it interesting to learn that the child was influenced by the experimenters more than anything. The text clearly states that the child was fearful of Watson, and other psychologists tried to replicate the experiment only to fail.

The least interesting thing I read was the parts consisting of the methods and principals of conditioning. At one time, it was interesting to me, but I’ve learned about it on so many different occasions throughout my collegiate career. Thus, it has lost, to an extent, some of my interest.

Reading about the impact that Watson’s little Albert study had on American behaviorism really helped me understand the history of psychology better. Even though the study was flawed, it gave behaviorism the evidence it needed. Respectively, the shift to behaviorism began.

I would like to learn more about John B. Watson’s forced resignation from Johns Hopkins. The text barely revealed any underlying information involving the nature of the affair and reasoning behind him being “let go” from Johns Hopkins.

***An idea I had while reading the chapter concerns the use of humans/animals for research and experimental purposes. Obviously, these practices with dogs and baby’s wouldn’t be acceptable in today’s day and age. I’m curious about how these sorts of practices from the past have possibly made an impact on present day society. When did we start realizing things to be immoral and unacceptable?

Obviously reading about Pavlov is always interesting to me. It has been taught to me and i have read about it for many years now. They talk about the commonly known experiment done by Pavlov and how he found out in a dog study that people can be trained to do things. For an example that is not in the book, there is the shower example. When someone is in the shower and someone else flushes the toilet, it gets the water hotter. The thing he learned is that whenever someone would do the thing (toilet flushing) the water would get hot. The noise would then trigger than to jump while in the shower not wanting to get hot water on them. The topic then changed to John B. Watson and his behaviorism. The Watson/Carr maze was bizarre to me. I thought the whole cutting out eyes of a rat was weird to see if they would adjust to two different sizes of these mazes. Basically they did it to see what would happen and be able to actually physically watch it happen which was behaviorism at its best. The little Albert study done by Watson and Rayner was also a study I have reviewed a lot. This just was you could show the child something and something that was generalized to it would cause the same effect if the third variable was present. An idea I had was wondering if you could do this kind of thing to help people remember things or do better on exams. Could doing something before an exam they do really well on and keep doing it affect the outcome? That would be very interesting. This has built on from other chapters in that it started with evolutionary which also looked at animals and now behaviorism is based off of mostly animals actions and observations.


I was least interested in reading about Little Albert and Classic Conditioning as I feel like we get the crap beat out of us with that topic as a psychology undergrad. I don’t think I can go through any of the basic, core psychology classes without there being a mention of Little Albert. I was interested in the topic when I first learned about it, but now it’s starting to become old and I a lot less interested.

The deeper explorations of Watson and Pavlov may be most useful in terms of the history of psychology. It obvious that these two men are important to psychology as no undergraduate can make it through a psychology course without having them mentioned. However, most of the time we look at the broader picture in terms of these two men. I think that the details this chapter got into in regard to their research will be very useful in the understanding of the history of psychology. This is because the more details and background that one has on a topic, the better they may understand the material. Specifically, mental neurosis and emotional development are topics from this chapter that give more detail in reference to Watson and Pavlov. It expands beyond the common facts that we are usually taught and gives a more detailed and useful background.

The chapter builds on the last ones as it talks about conditioning. While operational conditioning has been discussed in previous chapters, classical conditioning was also mentioned. Additionally, so were Pavlov and Watson. Neither of these psychologists are new to the content of this book and this chapter piggy backs on previous chapters as it looks at ways to modify behavior and talk about Watson and Pavlov. Behavioralism was also mentioned in the last couple chapters and expanded on here.

I would like to learn more about experimental neurosis and generalization. I’ve always loved Pavlov (even if he is talked about almost too much!). I think it would be cool to explore more information about what’s happening in his mind, his discoveries, the two stimuli of differentiation and generalization, and the story about Pavlov’s discipline in regard to the Russian Revolution and being on time. I would like to learn more about this as it regards more information on who Pavlov was as an individual and what his character was like. It also would be interesting to learn more about the new topics that were talked about.

While reading I had a couple ideas in regard to “observable behaviors” I was wondering where science would be if we disregarded all things that are not observable. If any behavior is not observable, is it important? Does it even exist? If you can’t observe it, does it become cognition? I had many ideas about the philosophical look on what “observable behaviors” would consist of and my mind wondered in that category for a while. What unobservable behaviors have been used in the past to support an idea or theory? I also started to wonder and have ideas about what some examples of “observable behavior” might include.

One thing I remember from chapter 10 is the section about Pavlov. I found it interesting to learn that Pavlov was originally going to become a priest, until he sparked an interest in science. He left seminary school and decided to study physiology. He investigated the physiology of the digestive system; this research earned him a Nobel Prize. I liked the part about Pavlov’s pouch. By studying the digestive system and taking digestive fluids and measuring the function of the substance, Pavlov opened doors to the development of surgical techniques that isolate and get digestive secretions in dogs that functioned normally otherwise. Food was not able to enter the body when it reached the stomach after going through the esophagus.
I found it interesting to read about Classical Conditioning. I am also taking behavior modification this semester and classical conditioning is something that we talk about a lot. I liked reading about it a different book because it is another person’s way of explaining it. You can easily confuse UCS, UCR, CS, and CR. I enjoy reading about generalization and differentiation too because they are things we do all the time that we don’t even realize most of the time. We tend to generalize our emotions towards someone who looks like someone we use to date, as an example.
Another thing I liked in this chapter was about how Watson started to work in advertising. Watson was asked to resign from John Hopkins University because of his affair with his graduate school while he was married. His chances of getting hired in the academic world were zero, so he decided to join the business world and work in advertising. Within four years Watson grew in the company and became Vice President. He was able to put to use his theories about the three basic emotions of fear, rage, and love through several advertising campaigns. One famous campaign Watson was a part of was an advertisement for Johnson & Johnson baby powder. He used testimonials to sell this product, personalities (like movie stars) and experts (like doctors). He left his mark in advertising by showing the need for applying scientific thinking to marketing. I enjoyed reading about this because he learned how to continue his career even though his name was tainted. He didn’t give up.
I disliked reading about John Watson’s behavior therapy technique, systematic desensitization. I find it interesting but I feel that I covered this topic it so much in all of my psychology classes. I also wish that the chapter would go more in depth about systematic desensitization and give more examples. It only really talks about the study of Little Albert.
Pavlov work with salivation seems like something useful to the understanding of history because it is one of the basic studies all psychologists need to know and understand. It was part of a big breakthrough in breaking down the ability to differentiate stimuli.
This chapter relates to the previous chapters because to shows how psychology keeps growing and expanding. Behaviorism is a different direction of psychology that was introduced to America. Watson and Pavlov were two big influences in behaviorism, so it makes sense that we would focus on these two historical figures in psychology.
I would like to learn more about systematic desensitization because I only disliked that section because it didn’t have enough information in it. I also thought that it would be more interesting if the book used more examples and instead of just focusing on the Little Albert study by
Watson.
This chapter made me think about how in psychology sometimes we have a lot of repetitive material. Pavlov and Watson are talked about a lot in psychology, especially in introductory psychology classes. It also made me think about how studies and the guidelines for research have changed over the years. A study like Watson’s with little Albert would not be allowed today.

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