RUSSIAN CONTRIBUTIONS:Vladimir Bekhterev

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 12

RUSSIAN CONTRIBUTIONS

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov is one of the greatest psychologists of the 20th century whose ideas left a long lasting

impact on the field. The importance of Pavlov's discoveries can be gauged from the fact that his theories, as

they emerged from his experiments, are today applicable to a very large area of psychology, including:

Animal/comparative psychology

Child psychology

Educational psychology

Organizational psychology

Industrial psychology

Sport psychology

Psychology of advertising

Clinical/Abnormal psychology

Psychotherapy

That is the magnanimity of the impact of Pavlov's discoveries on modern psychology.

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Vladimir Bekhterev (1857-1927)

Vladimir Bekhterev

Another contributor from Russia whose name deserves to be mentioned is Vladimir Bekhterev. He

was born in 1857 and died in 1927. He studied under Wilhelm Wundt, the psychologist who established the

first psychological laboratory at Leipzig, Germany.

One of the major contributions of Bekhterev is his experiments on animals and humans using mild

electric shocks. In other words, Bekhterev used electric shocks of low voltage which were not harmful, for

humans and animals. He then noted the response of the organisms to the shocks. The idea behind this

experiment was to trace the effect on learning. Bekhterev noted that shocks are associated with withdrawal

reaction. Withdrawal reaction means that humans and animals tend to move away from the source of the

stimulus. In other words, the action of the organism is to avoid the stimulus which was felt harmful by the

body. It therefore moved away. This response was called Associative reflex by Bekhterev. He stated that

associative reflex was learning which was similar to learning by conditioning as given by Pavlov.

Another contribution of Bekhterev is that he gave the idea of physical energy to explain the

phenomenon of consciousness. He proposed that consciousness is a form of physical energy. The energy

resulted in the person being aware of himself and his surroundings. He further stated that all higher

psychological functions such as thinking and generation of ideas are the forms of expression of physical

energy which represented the consciousness.

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