Lecture Notes: Freud, the Unconscious, and Behaviorism

Introduction

• Recap on Freud and the unconscious.
• Discuss the unconscious from an evolutionary standpoint.

Freud and the Unconscious

• Question: Why would an unconscious evolve?
• Importance of Unconscious: Most of our brain's functions are unconscious.
• Evolutionary Explanation: Deception as a survival mechanism.
  • Animals and deception (e.g., chimpanzees, angler fish).
  • Humans excel in mental and behavioral deception.
  • Better liars believe their own lies.
• Example: Story about Hitchcock using deception with child actors.
• Unconscious Motivation: Sinister motivations are more effectively unconscious to avoid detection.
• Freud's Ideas: Challenges the concept of Oedipal complex with a humorous anecdote.

Transition to Behaviorism

• Contrast between Freud's psychoanalysis and Skinner's behaviorism.
• Behaviorism existed before Skinner; he expanded and popularized it.

Core Principles of Behaviorism

1. Emphasis on Learning:

   • Everything is learned through experience.
   • Egalitarian view: No inherent human nature.
   • Quote by John Watson about shaping a child's future regardless of background.

2. Anti-Mentalism:

   • Science should focus only on observable behavior.
   • Rejects internal mental states as unscientific.

3. Species Equality:

   • No fundamental differences across species.
   • Human learning can be studied through animals.

Learning Principles in Behaviorism

1. Habituation

• Simplest form of learning; getting used to stimuli.
• Importance: Helps focus on new events and objects.
• Used in developmental psychology to study non-verbal creatures and young babies.

2. Classical Conditioning

• Learning association between two stimuli.
• Pavlov's Experiment: Dog salivation in response to a bell.
• Conditioning Process:
  • Unconditioned stimulus (food) and response (saliva).
  • Conditioned stimulus (bell) and response (saliva).
• Examples of Classical Conditioning:
  • Fear (Little Albert experiment).
  • Phobias, hunger, sexual desires.
• Purpose: Preparation for events.
• Example from "A Clockwork Orange" illustrating classical conditioning.

3. Operant Conditioning

• Learning based on consequences of behavior.
• Thorndike's Puzzle Box: Cats learning through trial and error.
• Skinner's Theory: Reinforcement and punishment shape behavior.
• Shaping: Reinforcing successive approximations to teach complex behaviors.
• Real-world Examples:
  • Training animals using primary and secondary reinforcers.
  • Token economies in institutions.

Criticisms and Current Views on Behaviorism

• Innate Knowledge: Recognized as a factor in learning.
• Mental States: Now considered essential for explaining behavior.
• Learning without Reinforcement: Evidence that rats can learn without direct rewards.
• Species-Specific Learning Constraints: Some behaviors are innate.
• Chomsky's Critique: Behaviorist explanations for human behavior are vague and scientifically weak.

Legacy of Behaviorism

• Provided a richer understanding of learning mechanisms.
• Effective techniques for training animals and aiding in education and therapy for special populations.
• Recognized as a significant contribution to psychology, though not comprehensive.