Habit in Watsons behaviorism: a historical study of the explanations for habit formation before and after the incorporation of conditioned-reflexes to the theory

• Grant number: 11/02696-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2011
• End date: April 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Helena Leite Hunziker
• Grantee: Mariana Zago Castelli
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The term habit, despite being today little known in its tecnical use in psychology, was very common in the late XIX century's and early XX century's experimental psychology. Among the eminent psychologists who have worked upon this matter is John broadus Watson - the first exponent of the behaviorist approach since his behaviorist manifest, published in 1913. Habit can be formulated, in a general way, as an organized and integrated combination of responses that has become the standard reaction of the organism to a specific stimulus. Habit was conceived by Watson (1930) as the result of the organism's moving that produces adaptation in situations for which the organism doesn't possess in its innate repertory a unique reflex response that allows adaptation. Habit formation is, for Watson (1930), the process through which new responses are created. New responses, that is, new combinations of responses already present in the organism's repertory. It can be deduced from there the important role that the process of habit formation (and the consistency of its explanations) plays in Watson's project for psychology: on habit formation depends the possibility of extending the behaviorist approach to complex behaviors such as creativity, thought as characteristical of human beings. However, the main aspect of habit formation for Watson's project for psychology, that is, the integration of responses in the construction of a new response, was not elaborated by Watson until he incorporated to his theory Pavlov's findings about the conditioned-reflex. The research here presented is conceived in a historical perspective and intends to deepen the comprehension of habit formation in Watson's works, exploring the following topics: (1)when and how the conditioned-reflex was incorporated ; (2) how were Watson's behaviorism and his approach to habit before this incorporation; (3) whether the recency and frequency factors were maintained or discarded as explanations for habit formation since conditioned-reflex became part of the theory.