Russian Psychology

Russian Psychology focused on physiology. Indeed, Pavlov thought psychology to be only a fad.

Sechenov, Ivan Mikhailovich (1829-1905)

Raised in a wealthy family, Sechenov was tutored at home, sent to the finest schools, served in the military, and trained Ian a physician. He also studied widely across Europe. He studied with Helmholtz (nerve speed) and Du Bois-Reymond (nerve action potential). Sechenov was greatly influenced by Johannes Muller, as was Wundt. Muller was known for his view that a sensory nerve carried only one type of information. A single nerve might be important to vision or hearing but not both. There are no multi-media nerves.

Sechenov Proposed that the brain was primarily electrical. He contributed to many areas of research but is best remembered for emphasizing the importance of objective research. At a time when research was more philosophical that scientific, Sechenov championed the scientific method. He is know as the father of Russian physiology. He also laid the foundation for scientific psychology.

Pavlov, Ivan (1848-1936)

Although he won a Nobel prize for his work in explaining the processes of digestion, Ivan Pavlov is best remembered for his discovery of classical conditioning. A physiologist by training and in practice, Pavlov thought psychology was a fad. His explanations of conditioning were pure physiological but they were interpreted by Watson and others as psychological.

Born in Ryazen (central Russia), Pavlov attended the University of St. Petersburg where he studied under Ivan Schenov (who had been a student of Muller and Helmholtz). After receiving his MD in 1883, he studied physiology for two years in Leipzig, Germany. In 1889, Pavlov’s experiments on the digestive process brought about a curious observation. He noted that the dogs being used as subjects in his experiments salivated not only to the presence of food but to associated stimuli (sound of keeper’s bell jingling, etc.). Exploring the matter as a good physiologist would, Pavlov employed a surgical procedure which allowed him to collect and measure the amount of saliva produced by each dog. Having established a reliable dependent variable, Pavlov varied one independent variable at a time and noted the results.

Pavlov’s classical description notes that the presence of an unconditioned stimulus (food) produces an unconditioned response (saliva of a given amount; varying somewhat between trials and between dogs). After sufficient pairings of the food with another, previously unused stimulus (e.g., light), the conditioned stimulus (light) could bring about a response (conditioned response). The conditioned response was weaker than the unconditioned response (i.e., less saliva) and forgettable (if repeated too often without food being presented).

Pavlov called the conditioned response “psychic secretion,” and explained it as being the result of higher cortical involvement. Interestingly, when the conditioned stimulus was repeatedly given until no psychic secretions occurred, a period of rest was all that was needed for the conditioned response to reappear. Pavlov assumed that this “spontaneous recovery” of the association was due to excitation of neural connections.

Pavlov studied classical conditioning quite thoroughly. He showed that similar stimuli to a conditioned stimulus produced similar results. That is, there was “irradition” (a spread of effect to other parts of the brain). For Pavlov, stimulus generalization was a neurological process. Similarly, neural physiology was assumed to explain discrimination. That is, subjects were able to learn to salivate in response to a particular tone but not salivate when other tones were presented. Naturally, if too fine of a discrimination was required, the dogs could not solve the problem. Pavlov called their resultant barking and unmanageability “experimental neurosis.”

For Pavlov, reinforcement was in terms of reiteration. One reinforced behavior as in reinforcing steel (added more of it). Pavlov believed that mental functioning was completely neurological. He proposed a “dynamic stereotype,” a neurological mapping of the environment.

Bechterev, Vladimire (1857-1927).

A contemporary of Pavlov and a major competitor, Vladimir Bechterev began the first experimental psychology lab in Russia (at the University of Kazan). Following his graduation, Bechterev studied with Wundt, DeBois-Reymond and Charcot.

Apparently jealous of Pavlov’s success, Bechterev insisted on using his own notation. Instead of Pavlov’s conditioned reflex, Bechterev called it an “associated reflex.” Instead of studying secretions (a very physiological orientation), Bechterev studied motor reflexes.

For Bechterev, behavior was completely explainable within a S-R (stimulus-response) format. Indeed psychology was for him simply “human reflexology.”

Russian Psychological Society

In 1885, Russian psychologists formed an organization to encourage the development of psychology. Actual members are less interesting than the honorary members, which included Wundt and Helmholtz (from Germany), Ribot (France), and Titchener (England-America), Bain and Spencer (England) and William James (American). The Society was dissolved, revived in the 1950s, and reconfigured in the Soviet era.