PSYCHOLOGY FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A BEHAVIORIST I/ PSYCHOLOGY FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A BEHAVIORIST BY JOHN B. WATSON PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY COPT RIGHT, ^919, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PHI NTH) BY J. B. LJPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUAKB PRESS TO J. McKEEN CATTELL AND ADOLF MEYER PREFACE THROUGHOUT the preparation of this elementary text I have tried to write with the human animal in front of me. I have put down only those things that any properly trained individual can observe — it does not take a psychologist.qua psychologist to study human activity, but it does take a trained scientist and one trained along special lines. In this conclusion I am in hearty agreement with Cattell 's St. Louis address. The young student of behavior- istic psychology has to endure no holy vigil before beginning to use psychological material and methods, nor does he at any time have to pass through secret initiation ceremonies before beginning research work. The key which will unlock the door of any other scientific structure will unlock the door of psychology. The differences among the various sciences now are only those necessitated by the division of labor. Until psychology recog- nizes this and discards everything which cannot be stated in the universal terms of science, she does not deserve her place in the sun. Behavior psychology does make this attempt for the first time. It has been called physiology, muscle-twitch psychology and biology, but if it helps us to throw off the shackles of the present-day conventional psychology and teaches us to face the human being as he is and to deal frankly with him, what name it is given will not be a matter of much consequence. Nor does the author claim behavior psychology as a creation of his own. It has had rapid development and is a direct outgrowth of the work on animal behavior. Tt is purely an American production and the attempts of Titchener to tie it up with past "revolts" in psychology and of Miss Washburn to link it with the so-called objectivism of Beer, Bethe, von Uexkiill, Nuel and other continen- tal writers are based upon an insufficient knowledge of its tenets. Those so-called objectivists, so far as concerns their human psy- chology,— and this is true of Bechterew as well, — are perfectly orthodox parallelists. While behavior psychology borrows the conditioned reflex methods from Pavlow and Bechterew, and its vii viii PREFACE courage to face all aspects of human behavior from the psycho- pathologists, it is neither an objective psychology in Bechterew's sense nor a modified system of psycho-analysis.
The present volume does some violence to the traditional classification of psychological topics and to their conventional treatment. For example, the reader will find no discussion of consciousness and no reference to such terms as sensation, per- c« ption, attention, will, image and the like. These terms are in gobd repute, but I have found that I can1 get along without them both in carrying out investigations and in presenting psychology as a system to my students. I frankly do not know what they mean, nor do I believe that any one else can use them consistently. I have retained such terms as thinking and memory, but I have carefully re-defined them in conformity with behavioristic psy- chology. It is possible to retain attention, to re-define it and make it serve as a framework for presenting certain aspects both of the acquisition of any given type of organization and its later functioning. I have not done so because in an elementary text the less abstracting of partial functions one can make the better is the result for the student. Such abstractions are necessary for pedagogical reasons, but one should strive to get the beginner to view the organism as a whole as rapidly as possible and to see in the performance of each and all its acts the working of an integrated personality. I have tried to do this, but for the sake of clearness I have clung to the genetic method rather closely in the hope that if the student could grasp the genesis of the various types of organization he could put the organism together for himself. I should like to have had more space to consider the totally integrated individual in action, but by the time one has ••mphasized the necessary part activities, such as instinct, emo- tions and habits, one has all but exceeded the limits of an elemen- tary text. Another reason which deters me from enlarging upon this aspect of psychology is that the discussion of total activity involves a frankness in dealing with human nature which the American school public is not yet educated to entertain.
While the nervous system, muscles and glands have been given somewhat detailed treatment in two chapters, it is realized that PREFACE ix only the specially interested student will master them. They can be omitted without injuring the continuity of the text. I have given very few neurological schemes and brain pictures in the remaining parts of the text, because, as a rule, such static pic- tures interfere with the student's grasp of function. At best, they are lazy substitutes for a more thorough study of the func- tion itself.
THE AUTHOR.
BALTIMORE, MD,, September, 1919.
Tfl ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MY heaviest obligation is to Dr. Adolf Meyer and to the staff of the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic before whom the manuscript was read as it was prepared. In numerous instances, under the kindly criticism received there, the text has been altered for the better. Captain H. M. Johnson, Dr. K. S. Lashley, Dr. J. L. Ulrich and Dr. N. D. C. Lewis have given generously of their time in reading the manuscript and proof. Each one has made helpful suggestions. I am greatly indebted to Prof. Max Broedel of the Art Department of the Johns Hopkins Medical School and to two of his assistants, Miss G. L. Meakin and Miss A. Motter, who, under his direction, made the excellent drawings of the nervous system after Dr. Florence Sabin had kindly made the dissections. Miss Meakin also made the drawings of the larynx after Dr. Warren Lewis had placed the material at our disposal. Dr. Samuel M. Burka has assisted me greatly in the preparation of the cuts and photographs of the infants.
In 1917, upon recommendation of Dr. J. McK. Cattell, the sum of one hundred dollars was appropriated by the Committee on Grants for Research of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science for my assistance in studying the develop- ment of reflexes and instincts in infants. The expenses for the genetic work summarized in the text were defrayed in part by the above grant. I wish to make a grateful acknowledgment for this aid.
Finally, I have borrowed generously from many authors. Where the material has been often quoted in the past I have made no reference to the author. Where it is of the research type I have usually put the author's name in parentheses with no fur- ther reference. The student hungering for further work cannot be too early trained to use the Psychological Index.
CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. PROBLEMS AND SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY 1 II. PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS 24 III. THE RECEPTORS AND THEIR STIMULI 48 IV. NEURO-PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF ACTION 113 V. THE ORGANS OF RESPONSE: MUSCLES AND GLANDS 160 VI. HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: EMOTIONS 194 VII. HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: INSTINCT 231 VIII. THE GENESIS AND RETENTION OF EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 269 IX. THE GENESIS AND RETENTION OF EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT LAN- GUAGE HABITS 310 X. THE ORGANISM AT WORK 348 XI. PERSONALITY AND ITS DISTURBANCE...392 PSYCHOLOGY FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A BEHAVIORIST CHAPTER I PROBLEMS AND SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY Psychology a Science of Behavior. — Psychology is that division of natural science which takes human activity and con- duct as its subject matter. It attempts to formulate through systematic observation and experimentation the laws and prin- ciples which underlie man 's_reactions. Every one agrees that man's acts are determined by something, and that, whether he acts orderly or not, there are sufficient grounds for his acting as he does act, if only these grounds can be discovered. In order to formulate such laws we must study man in action — his adjust- ments to the daily situations of life, and to the unusual situations which may confront him. When sufficiently worked out, the principles we obtain from such a study permit of two generalizations: (1) To predict human activity with reasonable certainty. It is sometimes asserted that we can never reach a point where such predictions can be made — that human activity is too variable; and determined by too many momentary conditions to permit us ever to reach such a goal. A little consideration shows that common-sense psychology is already, and has been since the social life of man began, making* serviceable predictions. Every insti- tution and custom we have depends upon it; for example, our savings banks, churches, and business. When it comes to the individual the facts are not different. We accept a man's note because we predict (not always or ordinarily in words) from our study of his character that he will pay it at the proper time. The wife cheerfully begins the rearing of a family because she pre- dicts that her husband will remain attached to her, and provide herself and her children with bread. We can bring the matter 1 2 PSYCHOLOGY 1 2 PSYCHOLOGY still further down to a specific situation. If a man is walking in a wooded country when some one suddenly begins to fire at him with a revolver he will duck behind the nearest tree. Even that one who doubts most strongly our ability to predict human con- duct will not willingly leave his purse in an unprotected place. The more constantly we are thrown with an individual the more accurately we can map out his program of activity for the day.
(2) An equally important result coming from our psycho- logical study is our formulation of laws and principles whereby man's actions can be controlled by organized society. Psychology endeavors to guide society as to the ways in which the environ- ment may be modified to suit the group or individual 's way of acting; 'or when the environment cannot be modified, to show how the individual may be moulded (forced to put on new habits) to 'fit the' environment. It must be understood ^at the outset, though, that psychology at present has little to do with the setting of social standards of action, and nothing to do with moral standards. It does lie within her province to tell whether the individual man can act in accordance with such standards, and how we may control him or lead him to act in harmony with them. -These laws 'of control or training must be general and comprehensive, since social standards are constantly changing.
Psychology, when looked at in this way, is seen to be some- thing which every one has been using more or less all of his life without calling it by that name. We learn by failures and suc- cesses how to run our business, ho.w to get along with our col- leagues and associates. We teach our children to act in certain ways. They must eat with a £ ork, learn to dress themselves, to treat their playmates as they themselves like to be treated, to master the three R's, and then, later, a trade or profession. We skillfully or bunglingly steer theni on their course from infancy until they no longer need our guidance.
The Ancient Origin of Psychology. — Indeed, a glance at the mythology, folk-lore, or history of any given race will show that tho practical psychology of control began as soon as there were two individuals on the earth living near enough tog-ether for the behavior of one to influence the behavior of the other. The PROBLEMS AND SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY 3 serpent controlled Eve's behavior by offering her the delectable apple. Eve learned her lesson quickly, and tempted Adam in the same way. Atalanta, the swiftest of runners, was beaten, not through the superior agility of Hippomenes, but by the fact that she could not resist the temptation to stop and pick up the golden apples thrown by her suitor. The taboo system, the initiation ceremonies, and the machinations of the medicine men all serve to illustrate progress towards the control of group and indi- vidual behavior.
Common-Sense Procedure in Securing the Control of Behavior. — Long before the dawn of modern scientific psy- chology society found that by roundabout hit-and-miss methods she had secured a fairly serviceable body of data as to what man can do — his complement of acts; the appropriate situation for calling out any given act; and crude training methods- whereby the repertoire of the acts themselves might be enlarged. A brief glance at the practical procedure in securing control of indi- viduals and groups may serve to illustrate both how such data are obtained and how they are used.
The situations or devices for drawing crowds for whatever purpose show the greatest development of skill in practical psychology. If two or three individuals happen by chance to gather around a patent medicine vendor the vendor's momentary success is assured. The small crowd is an irresistible stimulus, and soon gathers unto itself a larger crowd. For this reason initial buyers, listeners, applauders, and, yes, even sometimes suitors and mourners are provided and paid for before the public is allowed to act. The advertisement of 'a ' ' fire sale ' ' is likewise >an ancient and honorable device for gathering a crowd. The announcement at Jamestown of a shipload of virtuous women to be sold as wives apparently, if historical report can be trusted, brought out the whole of the unmarried able-bodied male popu- lation of Virginia.
After the crowd has collected, devices for controlling the individual are numerous. Chief among these we find the various lottery schemes. Many individuals will not give twenty-five cents for a charitable purpose, but at any charity gathering they 4 PSYCHOLOGY will eagerly take one of a dozen twenty-five-cent chances on almost any object the total value of whiJh need not be greater than the cost of a single chance. So uniform is the response to lottery schemes that they have oftentimes become national mediums for raising government funds.
Organized society displays much ingenuity in devising situ- ations for the control of reaction; the clergyman, having found empty pews under an orthodox type of routine, and that the young people were not engaging in church activities, began to try out in a similar way what could be done by altering the old, austere situation, and by creating for the church entirely new situations. The exteriors of the churches were vastly modified, the interiors decorated, rest- and play-rooms added, as well as gymnasia and playgrounds. A certain type of action was expected, and the church arranged a situation for bringing it about. We see the same 'attempt at control illustrated in gov- erning bodies: state legislatures, depressed by the prevalence of drunkenness and crime, establish a new situation for prohibiting the sale of drugs and spirituous liquors, in the hope that such legislation will prevent that type of conduct. Finally, mention may be made of recent changes in prison methods. The more advanced prisons, becoming dissatisfied with the amount of insubordination, vice, sloth, and ignorance of all forms of gov- ernment among the inmates, are trying a new situation, with good results, viz., that of letting them establish a miniature n public. This republic makes its own laws, and metes out its own punishments. Society has developed by hit-and-miss methods a system of standards of action, but it does not know just what situations will produce the needed responses. The situations are set up in the social field by trial and error; they are modified, changed, etc., until the desired reactions take place, or until they are despaired of.
Watching the Act or Response to Obtain Data on the Stimulus or Situation.— We thus, as we see, get a part of our nowledpre of the factors underlying behavior by the trial and rror method of manipulating the situation, and noting the reac- tions that take place. This gives us a body of usable data on PROBLEMS AND SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY 5 what to expect of men when they are placed in certain situations. We deal here with situations of our own contrivance. Equally serviceable results are obtained by taking an individual who is performing some act (action not regulated by the observer), and examining immediately into the situation which led to that act —the act is known, the situation which led to it must be investi- gated. This method is, of course, supplementary to the first. It extends our knowledge of situations, and what to expect from them, and at the same time adds to our knowledge of man's repertoire of acts. Illustrations of the results of this type of practical procedure are numerous; it is hard to convince a mother that she cannot predict * what the situation is which leads her baby to give a certain cry. Depending upon the variations in the cry, she will say that the "baby is hungry, wet, or has colic" (her conclusions are often wrong, be it said). Advancing somewhat in the age scale we see, in passing through a forest, a youth trained to hunt firing upward into a tree, and we note that the dog he has with him has ' * treed. ' ' An observer responds to this picture by telling his companion that the boy is hunting squirrels. But if he sees the boy fire in another way, say, horizontally, and sees a dog in the act of pointing, he will state that the lad is hunting quail. If the boy fires towards the ground, and has a hound with him, he is shooting rabbits. Finally, if he is seen in the hunting fields on horseback, with no gun, but accompanied by a pack of hounds in full cry, our observer remarks that the boy is hunting a fox. Watching his actions, and taking note of all attendant circumstances, enables any one to tell with some degree of probability what the immediate situation is leading to the boy 's actions. Our ability to observe an act, and to tell what the possible or probable stimulus to that act is, depends upon the fact that often during our past life, when we have seen individuals doing certain things', we have immediately investi- gated the situations which led to the acts. A good and well- 1 By prediction we mean nothing but the common -sense, scientific, and logical use of material gathered from observation and experimentation. The planet Neptune was predicted; coat-color or eye-color of animal® can, within certain limits', be predicted before theAirth of the animal.
6 PSYCHOLOGY trained observer becomes adept in predicting not only the more immediate stimulus leading to an act, but also in getting a serviceable notion of the range and variety of the performer's training and skill.
Need of Acquaintanceship with an Individual's Past. — When we come to deal practically or scientifically with indi- viduals, too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the extent to which acquaintanceship with their past life will gradually afford the basis for making serviceable predictions1 as to their probable ways of acting, and as to the situations which will call out any given act. This can possibly be most easily illustrated in the animal world. We soon come to the prediction stage with our horses and dogs, and can map out with some certainty what they would do under the various situations which might confront them. After watching two monkeys for some time' I found after repeated observation that B would not touch food until J had finished and left the dish, and that J would eat and stuff three bananas into his cheek pouches, and drag off another with his right forefoot; that J would attack a problem-box rapidly and in a rough and harum-scarum way — pulling the box towards him, turning it over, and maltreating it generally; that B would approach cautiously, moving the parts slowly, and with no vio- lence; but, as a rule, would solve the problem before J.
But with an organization so highly developed as man's, the prediction of his actions is not always so easy. An individual's actions in every-day situations depend upon such complex factors as his heredity, his past success1 in adjustments, and his failures of adjustment; the responses he has just had to make, as well as upon the permanent and temporary conditions of his organic mechanisms (digestion, circulation, sleep, etc.). A badly cooked dinner, an insufficient amount of food (as in the case of a person who is dieting), or extreme heat, may so change the state of the organism that the response reasonably expected is not forth- coming. An approaching marriage, graduation, separation, offer situations which, by their involvement of emotional factors, may almost completely disrupt for the time being the every-day sys- tems of responses which are customary with a given individual.
PROBLEMS AND SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY 7 In such a complex setting a man may show a temporary break- down; he may make blunders, or show a general inability to go through with his ordinary routine. A bad dream, or a slight rebuff at the hands of a friend, likewise may upset a man 's reac- tions for a whole day. Further on we shall see that many of the habits formed in childhood and in adolescence, now long since discarded, such, e.g., as attachments to early playmates, to mem- bers of the family, early love affairs, may have had a potent influence in shaping the whole course of adult acquisitions.
If we are called upon to predict what a stranger of twenty- five years of age will do when confronted in a dark alley by a burglar, we are almost, but not quite, helpless so far as prediction is concerned. Now, give us an opportunity of systematically studying the make-up of the man, of knowing something of his reactions in past dangerous situations, the stability of his emo- tional tendencies, and we shall be able at least to make a crude but serviceable prediction, viz., that he will quickly throw up his hands and let the burglar go through his pockets. He will neither become hysterical, attempt to attack the burglar, nor will he suffer any severe after-effects by reason of his experience. The chances are good that he will report his mishap to the police, confess to his wife or friends that he has been held up, and then will cease to be further troubled by the experience. In another type of individual, whose heredity is questionable, whose reac- tions are unstable, who is generally excitable and liable to over- reaction, we venture the prediction that, even if he does throw up his hands (which he does not always do) and allow himself to be robbed, he will go to pieces after the experience, and may suffer some serious and lasting consequences.
Common-Sense a Crude but Genuine Psychology. — Most of our illustrations have involved little or no technical psychology, and yet they do illustrate a genuine psychological procedure. The business man, the artist, and the artisan have built for them- selves rather definite rules of psychological procedure, without ever calling it psychology. The church and the theatre illustrate this equally well. It is possibly even a debatable question whether common-sense has not kept closer to the fundamental truth under- 8 PSYCHOLOGY lying the psychology of reaction than has the too-detached psy- chology of the laboratory. But even tfiose who are the best practical psychologists realize that common-sense methods can never produce universal or widespread progress in psychology. Our great military leaders, our great religious leaders, the dema- gogues and the politicians, have accomplished their results1 by their very wide acquaintanceship with the reaction tendencies in man, and by their happy accidents in creating the situations which will call out such reactions. By reason of the fact that occasional success has been obtained by crude methods and happy accidents, we must not conclude that psychology should not attempt to discover and analyze and bring under scientific control the factors which have occasionally made such successes possible. Because an occasional business leader has known how to pick out and keep good men, we are offered no reason why we should not seek to understand and control the processes involved in picking and keeping good men. The same may be said of the factors in keeping men out of crime, keeping them honest and sane, and their ethical and social life upon a high and well-regulated plane. This brief summary of the every-day uses of psychology should convince us of two things: first, that common-sense, while a reasonable method so far as it goes, does not go far enough, and never can; and secondly, that in order to make progress, the phenomena of human behavior must be made an object of scientific study. We shall attempt next, then, to gain some impression of this systematic psychological procedure.