Events Leading up to the Birth of Radical Behaviorism

Charles Darwin contributes to animal behavior and psychology. His contributions help to form basis for comparative psychology.

Willhelm Wundt establishes first psychological laboratory in Germany, concerned with empirical study of conscious mind.

E.B.Ttchener established the structuralism program at Cornell.
Titchener’s structuralism resembled Wundt’s voluntarism. Emphasized “descriptions” of the contents and structure of consciousness based on reaction times and introspective reports.

Argued that subjects can observe the mental by looking inward to examine their mental processes at work.

Pavolv discovers classical conditioning in which two stimuli are "linked" or associated to produce a learned response. Classical conditioning then led to Watson's behaviorism

Thorndike's work on the learning theory led to the development of operant conditioning within behaviorism.

L.T. Lobbhouse manipulated antecedent conditions in empirical efforts to compare intelligence of various species.

John B. Watson presents series of lectures "Psychology as the Beahviorist Views it". 1913 is often taken as start date for behaviorism as a new movement in psychology.

Robert S. Woodworth popularized the SOR model. The "O" referring to organic states which was theorized to determine the effects of environmental stimuli. Thorndike was aware of the rise of neobehaviorism as an alternative to classical S - R behaviorism, and hisapproach also involved some of the same concepts that the neobehaviorists labeled as mediators. However, his continued emphasis on consequences and the law of effect meant that he remained independent of the neobehaviorists and their commitment to antecedent causation

MacCorquodale and Meehl propose theoretical terms intervening variables and hypothetical constructs

Skinner pioneers Radical Behaviorism offering a conceptual framework for study of behavior. Radical behaviorism becomes the philosophical foundation of the science of human behavior, known as behavior analysis