Watson, Hull, and the Methodological Foundations of Behaviorism

UPI Study › Courses › Psychology of Personality › Free lessons › Lesson 8.5 Free with a free account

Watson, Hull, and the Methodological Foundations of Behaviorism

Psychology of Personality · Chapter 8: Behavioral and Learning TheoriesSection 8.5 · lesson 50 of 837 min · free with a free account

← Social Learning Theory: Bandura's Bobo Doll Study and Vicarious LearningNext lesson: Behavioral Perspectives on Personality Differences and Change →

Earn 3 college credits for Psychology of PersonalityRecommended for credit by NCCRS · Psychology 300 · self-paced · one payment, lifetime access
Enroll in Psychology of Personality · $250 →Download the syllabus (PDF)

In this lesson

How behaviorism decided what counts as data, and how quickly it had to loosen the rule.

  • State what methodological behaviorism requires and why
  • Describe the Little Albert study and what it demonstrated
  • Explain how Hull's model differs from strict stimulus-response
  • Assess what drive-reduction theory achieved and where it failed

Free study notes

Get this lesson's notes by email

The key points and 4 practice questions with answers, in your inbox. One email, free.

One email. Unsubscribe in one click.

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,013 words). Read along, or search it.

Behavioral and Learning Theories

Watson, Hull, and the Rules of Evidence

Every science has to decide what counts as evidence. Behaviorism's answer was unusually strict, and stated unusually early. John Watson set the rule in nineteen thirteen. Only what can be publicly verified belongs in psychology. This section covers that founding move, and the study Watson used to defend it. It then follows Clark Hull, who accepted the framework and immediately loosened the rule. Because he could not explain motivation without something the rule forbade. That tension, set up here, runs through everything that follows in the chapter.

The Founding

A Manifesto Against Introspection

John B. Watson is regarded as the founder of behaviorism. In his nineteen thirteen manifesto he made a demand that sounds destructive. It was intended to be. Psychology, he argued, should abandon introspection. It should abandon the study of consciousness. And it should confine itself to observable behavior. But the argument behind the demand was narrower than the demand itself. Watson's objection to introspection was that it could not be publicly verified. And so, on his view, it was unscientific. Not that inner life is unimportant, or does not exist.

The Rule

Methodological Behaviorism

This position has a name. Methodological behaviorism. The view that only publicly verifiable data belong in a scientific psychology. Read that definition slowly, because the qualifier matters. It is a claim about method, not a claim about what exists. Introspection means self-observation of one's own mental states. Objectivity, here, means reliance on publicly verifiable evidence. So the rule excludes a class of evidence, rather than a class of things. The position is that private reports cannot settle a scientific dispute. Whatever else thoughts and feelings might be, they cannot be the data.

The Assumption

How Far Watson Pushed the Environment

Watson also emphasised the sheer power of the environment. He famously claimed he could shape any healthy infant into any kind of specialist. Purely through conditioning. Notice the grammar of that claim before you evaluate it. It says what conditioning could do. It states the ambition of the programme, and the strength of the assumption behind it. Hold it alongside what we saw in section eight point one. Behavioral theorists there acknowledge biological predispositions, while stressing environment. Watson sits at the far end of that range, not in the middle of it.

The Evidence

Little Albert and the Learning of Fear

Watson's best-known evidence is the Little Albert study. It showed that an emotional response such as fear could be classically conditioned in a child. The choice of target was strategic, and worth appreciating. Emotion was the strongest case anyone could make for something innate and internal. Fear feels given, not taught. So demonstrating that even emotions could be learned rather than innate. That attacked the opposition at its strongest point, rather than its weakest. Mechanically, it is the same procedure as Pavlov's bell. Applied to a person and to fear, rather than to a dog and to salivation.

The Revision

Hull Puts the Organism Back In

Clark Hull came next, and he wanted behaviorism to be more systematic and mathematical. He accepted the stimulus-response framework. And then he broke one of its rules. On Watson's strict model, a stimulus arrives and a response follows. Nothing in between belongs in the account. Hull argued that internal physiological states must be included. Particularly drives arising from needs. His model is usually summarised in exactly those terms. Adding the organism to Watson's stimulus-response chain. Stimulus, organism, response. The S O R model.

The Mechanism

Drive-Reduction Theory

The content of that organism term is drive-reduction theory. Hull proposed that behavior is motivated by the reduction of drives. Drives such as hunger or thirst. The sequence runs in three steps. A need produces a drive, which is an internal state of arousal. That drive energises behavior, and the stronger it is, the more reliably the organism acts. And responses that successfully reduce the drive are reinforced. What Hull has built there is a theory of motivation. Watson's model did not have one, and could not have had one. Strict stimulus-response can say which cue produces which act. It cannot say why the organism bothers.

Contributions

What Each Man Left Behind

It helps to see the two contributions side by side. Watson insisted on studying only observable behavior, and founded behaviorism on that. Watson stressed that environment shapes behavior, and offered Little Albert as evidence. Hull argued that internal drives had to be included, giving the S O R model. Hull proposed that behavior reduces drives, giving drive-reduction theory. And both men shared one commitment above all. Psychology as an objective science, held to methodological rigor.

The Limit

Hull's Equations Did Not Survive

Now the part that is often skipped, and should not be. Hull's specific equations were later set aside. The formalism did not survive. But the move he made did. Hull advanced behaviorism by treating motivation rigorously. And by formalizing its theoretical claims, so that they could be tested and found wanting. That is a pattern worth recognising in the history of any science. A theory can be wrong in its details and right in its structure. And still leave the field permanently changed.

In Practice

The Thirsty Animal at the Lever

The clearest illustration of Hull's idea is also the simplest. A thirsty animal presses a lever to obtain water. And it presses more reliably the thirstier it is. The lever and the water are the observable stimulus and consequence. The thirst is not observable. And the pattern of responding cannot be explained without it. Drive states energise behavior. Drive reduction reinforces it. That one unobservable term is the whole concession. Hull needed an internal state to explain a rate of responding. And once a single internal state is admitted to do explanatory work. The strict rule has already been broken.

Consolidate

The Shape of the Argument

Pull the argument of this section into shape. Watson set the rule. Only publicly verifiable data are scientific. And the environment, on his account, does most of the shaping. Little Albert supplied the demonstration. Even an emotional response such as fear can be conditioned, rather than being innate. Then Hull loosened the rule. Internal drives had to be inserted between stimulus and response to explain motivation. So behaviorism started relaxing its own restriction from the inside. Hull did it for drives. Bandura would later do it for attention and memory. The tradition's eventual integration with cognition began as an internal repair. Not as an attack from outside.

About Psychology of Personality at UPI Study

Psychology of Personality (Psychology 300) is a self-paced online course of 83 video lessons in 13 chapters, from Freud, Adler and Jung to biological, behavioral, cognitive, existential and humanistic theories, traits, personality disorders and culture. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.

Every lesson transcript is free on pages like this one, and the videos are free with a free UPI Study account. Enrolling adds a practice quiz after each lesson, the graded work and final exam that earn the credit, lifetime access, and an official transcript on completion. UPI Study has helped over 130,000 students with college credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Enroll now → Course details Download the syllabus All Psychology and social science courses Every course with PRO →

Compare: Abnormal Psychology vs Psychology of Personality

Why take it here

Why students take Psychology of Personality with UPI Study

What makes each person who they arePsychology of Personality compares the major explanations of why people differ: psychoanalytic and neo-analytic theories, biology and evolution, learning, cognition, existential and humanistic views, and trait models, plus how personality is measured and studied. It is a common course in psychology degrees.
Credit at a fraction of the priceThe same 3 credits can cost $750 or more at a US college. Here it is one payment, self-paced, with lifetime access.
Finish your degree soonerTransfer credits reduce the courses you still owe, so you can graduate earlier or lighten a heavy semester.
Strengthen an applicationA completed college-level course on an official transcript shows admissions and scholarship committees you can do the work.
Study on your own scheduleNo start dates, no deadlines. Watch the lessons, practice, and take the final when you are ready.
130,000+students helped with college creditsACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Where the credit goes

Universities that work with NCCRS

Psychology of Personality carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Thomas Edison State UniversityThomas Edison State UniversitySigned partnerUniversity of the PeopleUniversity of the PeopleSigned partnerCharter Oak State CollegeCharter Oak State CollegeSigned partnerStrayer UniversityStrayer UniversitySigned partnerColumbia Southern UniversityColumbia Southern UniversitySigned partnerIndiana TechIndiana TechSigned partnerPenn StatePenn StateWorks with NCCRSSouthern New Hampshire UniversitySouthern New Hampshire UniversityWorks with NCCRSSUNYSUNYWorks with NCCRS +many more cooperating universitiesFind my college →

Find my college → Not listed? Ask Athena in the corner of this page, or book a 15-minute call.

FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Watson, Hull, and the Methodological Foundations of Behaviorism

What did John B. Watson argue in his 1913 behaviorist manifesto?
John B. Watson argued in 1913 that psychology should abandon introspection and the study of consciousness and confine itself to observable behavior. His objection was that introspective reports cannot be publicly verified and are therefore unscientific, not that inner life is unimportant. This paper, Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, is why Watson is regarded as the founder of behaviorism. He also stressed the power of the environment to shape behavior.
What is methodological behaviorism?
Methodological behaviorism is the view that only publicly verifiable data belong in a scientific psychology. It is a rule about evidence, not a claim about what exists: thoughts and feelings may be real, but private reports cannot settle a scientific dispute, so they cannot serve as data. Introspection, the self-observation of one's own mental states, is excluded, and objectivity means relying on evidence any observer can check.
What was the Little Albert experiment?
The Little Albert experiment, reported by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920, showed that fear could be classically conditioned in an infant. By pairing a white rat with a sudden loud noise, they led the child to fear the rat. It was Pavlov's procedure applied to a person and an emotion. Because fear seems innate, showing that it could be learned attacked behaviorism's critics at their strongest point.
What is Clark Hull's drive-reduction theory?
Clark Hull's drive-reduction theory holds that behavior is motivated by reducing drives such as hunger or thirst. A need produces a drive, an internal state of arousal that energizes behavior, and responses that reduce the drive are reinforced. A thirsty animal presses a lever for water more reliably the thirstier it is. By placing internal states between stimulus and response, Hull gave behaviorism a theory of motivation that Watson's model lacked.

About the Psychology of Personality course

How many college credits is Psychology of Personality?
Psychology of Personality (Psychology 300) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Psychology of Personality cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 83 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
Which universities accept UPI Study credits?
UPI Study has signed partner agreements with universities such as Thomas Edison State University, University of the People and Charter Oak State College, and works with universities such as Penn State, SNHU and SUNY. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities. Use "Find my college" on this page to check yours.
How long does Psychology of Personality take?
It is self-paced with no deadlines. The 83 lessons total about 8 hours of video; most students add reading and practice time and finish in a few weeks to a few months, on their own schedule.
How are the exams done?
Quizzes and assignments are online in the course. The final exam is taken online with proctoring; a person on the UPI Study team checks assignments, usually within two days.
How do my credits reach my college?
When the course shows 100% complete, request the official transcript from your dashboard. It is sent to the college you name, and you can send it to more than one. Check your college first with "Find my college" on this page, or ask Athena.

Ready for the full course? Earn 3 credits in Psychology of Personality.

83 video lessons, a quiz after each one, and the graded work that earns the credit. Recommended for credit by NCCRS.

Enroll in Psychology of Personality →Download the syllabusEvery course with PRO →
Psychology of Personality
3 credits · NCCRSEnroll →