Schools and Movements
Behaviorism
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Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and other animals, emerging in the early 1900s as a reaction against introspection-based psychology. It assumes behavior results from environmental stimulus-response pairings and reinforcement or punishment rather than internal mental states; Skinner's later radical behaviorism incorporated private events like thoughts and feelings as behaviors subject to the same laws. Watson and Skinner are considered its principal figures, alongside Pavlov as a pioneer of its conditioning methods.
Facts
Central QuestionHow can behavior be explained and predicted through observable stimulus-response pairings and reinforcement, without reference to unobservable internal mental states? 1 Founded Year Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Skinner extended behaviorism into radical behaviorism and the experimental analysis of behavior after Watson's founding.
Pavlov's classical conditioning research is considered a foundational pioneering influence on behaviorism, though Pavlov himself worked as a physiologist rather than as a member of the behaviorist school.
Critiqued Here
Maslow named behaviorism psychology's 'first force' and argued it systematically excluded the subjective data of consciousness and the complexity of human personality, one of the two schools humanistic psychology positioned itself as a 'third force' against.
Rejected Here
Watson's 1913 behaviorist manifesto rejected introspection and the analysis of consciousness into elementary mental constituents that structuralism had made its method and subject matter, redefining psychology as a purely objective science of behavior.
Founded By
In Branch
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Behaviorism
Wikimedia Foundationintro paragraphQuote, intro paragraph
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and other animals.
2. Wikipedia: John B. Watson
Wikimedia FoundationBehaviorism sectionQuote, Behaviorism section
his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It
2. Wikipedia: John B. Watson
Wikimedia FoundationFounded By: John B. Watson, intro paragraphQuote, Founded By: John B. Watson, intro paragraph
popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school
Wikipedia: B. F. Skinner
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: B.F. Skinner, intro paragraphQuote, Associated With: B.F. Skinner, intro paragraph
Skinner, John B. Watson, and Ivan Pavlov are considered to be the pioneers of modern behaviorism.
Wikipedia: B. F. Skinner
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Ivan Pavlov, intro paragraphQuote, Associated With: Ivan Pavlov, intro paragraph
Skinner, John B. Watson, and Ivan Pavlov are considered to be the pioneers of modern behaviorism.
Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It (Watson, 1913)
Classics in the History of Psychology (York University)Associated With: Structuralism, Opening paragraphsQuote, Associated With: Structuralism, Opening paragraphs
Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness.
Humanistic psychology
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Humanistic Psychology, History sectionQuote, Associated With: Humanistic Psychology, History section
Maslow believed the first force systematically excluded the subjective data of consciousness and much information bearing on the complexity of the human personality and its development.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does behaviorism differ from cognitivism?
Behaviorism studies only observable behavior; cognitivism studies internal mental processing.
Behaviorism restricts itself to observable behavior and how reinforcement shapes it, deliberately avoiding claims about internal mental states. Cognitivism, which grew out of the cognitive revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, instead treats the mind's internal processing of information as central to explaining behavior.
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