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 Behaviorism
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FAQs
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.
Why did behaviorism reject structuralism's approach to psychology?
Behaviorism rejected structuralism's reliance on introspection as unverifiable, restricting psychology to observable behavior instead.
Structuralism analyzed the mind through controlled introspection, asking trained subjects to report the contents of their own conscious experience. Behaviorism, founded by John B. Watson in his 1913 address Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, rejected introspection as unscientific because its reports could not be independently verified or replicated by another observer. Watson argued psychology should restrict itself to observable behavior and the stimulus-response relationships that produce it, discarding consciousness and mental content as data altogether.
Connections
Associated With
Skinner extended behaviorism into radical behaviorism and the experimental analysis of behavior after Watson's founding.
Source Wikipedia: B. F. Skinner
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.
Source Wikipedia: B. F. Skinner
Tolman conducted his cognitive map research within a behaviorist methodology, while diverging from the radical behaviorist wing represented by Skinner.
Source Wikipedia: Edward C. Tolman
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.
Source Humanistic psychology
Held Differently
Radical behaviorism inherits from behaviorism the position that the science of behavior is a natural science, extending it to include private events such as thinking and feeling as behavior subject to the same laws.
Source Wikipedia: Radical Behaviorism
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.
Source Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It (Watson, 1913)
Founded By
Source Wikipedia: John B. Watson
Has Member
Source Edwin Ray Guthrie (Wikipedia)
Source Karl Lashley (Wikipedia)
In Branch
Opposed By
Source Humanistic psychology (Wikipedia)
School Theories
Source Classical conditioning (Wikipedia)
Source OpenStax: Psychology 2e: 6.1 What Is Learning?
Source Wikipedia: Social Exchange Theory
Source OpenStax: Psychology 2e: 6.4 Observational Learning (Modeling)
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 section
his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It
Founded By: John B. Watson, intro paragraph
popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school
3. Wikipedia: Behaviorism
WikipediaLead
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and other animals.
Article text
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and other animals.
View the Source OpenStax: Psychology 2e: 1.2 History of Psychology
OpenStaxSection 1.2Quote, Section 1.2
Watson was a major proponent of shifting the focus of psychology from the mind to behavior, and this approach of observing and controlling behavior came to be known as behaviorism
Wikipedia: B. F. Skinner
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: B.F. Skinner, intro paragraph
Skinner, John B. Watson, and Ivan Pavlov are considered to be the pioneers of modern behaviorism.
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.
Wikipedia: Radical Behaviorism
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Radical Behaviorism, Radical behaviorism as natural science sectionQuote, Associated With: Radical Behaviorism, Radical behaviorism as natural science section
Radical behaviorism inherits from behaviorism the position that the science of behavior is a natural science, a belief that animal behavior can be studied profitably and compared with human behavior, a strong emphasis on the environment as cause of behavior, and an emphasis on the operations involved in the modification of behavior.
Wikipedia: Edward C. Tolman
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Tolman's Cognitive Map Experiments, Article body, section "Purposive behaviorism"Quote, Associated With: Tolman's Cognitive Map Experiments, Article body, section "Purposive behaviorism"
Although Tolman was firmly behaviorist in his methodology, he was not a radical behaviorist like B. F. Skinner.
Humanistic psychology (Wikipedia)
Opposed By: Humanistic Psychology, Article textQuote, Opposed By: Humanistic Psychology, Article text
Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the early- to mid-20th century in response to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism.
Classical conditioning (Wikipedia)
School Theories: Classical Conditioning, Article textQuote, School Theories: Classical Conditioning, Article text
Together with operant conditioning, classical conditioning became the foundation of behaviorism, a school of psychology which was dominant in the mid-20th century and is still an important influence on the practice of psychological therapy and the study of animal behavior.
Wikipedia: Social Exchange Theory
Wikimedia FoundationSchool Theories: Social Exchange Theory, Article textQuote, School Theories: Social Exchange Theory, Article text
Outcome = Rewards − Costs Homans based his theory on behaviorism to conclude that people pursue rewards to minimize costs.
OpenStax: Psychology 2e: 6.1 What Is Learning?
OpenStaxSchool Theories: Operant Conditioning, Page textQuote, School Theories: Operant Conditioning, Page text
All of the approaches covered in this chapter are part of a particular tradition in psychology, called behaviorism, which we discuss in the next section.
OpenStax: Psychology 2e: 6.4 Observational Learning (Modeling)
OpenStaxSchool Theories: Social Learning Theory, Page textQuote, School Theories: Social Learning Theory, Page text
Bandura and other researchers proposed a brand of behaviorism called social learning theory, which took cognitive processes into account.
Karl Lashley (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Karl Lashley, Lead, schoolQuote, Has Member: Karl Lashley, Lead, school
was an American psychologist and behaviorist
Edwin Ray Guthrie (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Edwin Ray Guthrie, Lead, schoolQuote, Has Member: Edwin Ray Guthrie, Lead, school
a behavioral psychologist, began his career in mathematics and philosophy
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