Behaviorism

Behaviorism is a worldview that operates on a principle of “stimulus-response.” All behavior

caused by external stimuli (operant conditioning). All behavior can be explained without the
need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.

Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to

environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and behavior is
shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both positive reinforcement
and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent behavior will happen
again. In contrast, punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the likelihood that the
antecedent behavior will happen again. Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative
indicates the withholding of a stimulus. Learning is therefore defined as a change in behavior in
the learner. Lots of (early) behaviorist work was done with animals (e.g. Pavlov’s dogs) and
generalized to humans.

Behaviorism precedes the cognitivist worldview. It rejects structuralism and is an extension of

Logical Positivism.

Behaviorism was a movement in psychology and philosophy that emphasized the outward
behavioral aspects of thought and dismissed the inward experiential, and sometimes the inner
procedural, aspects as well; a movement harking back to the methodological proposals of John
B. Watson, who coined the name. Watson's 1913 manifesto proposed abandoning
Introspectionist attempts to make consciousness a subject of experimental investigation to focus
instead on behavioral manifestations of intelligence. B. F. Skinner later hardened behaviorist
strictures to exclude inner physiological processes along with inward experiences as items of
legitimate psychological concern. Consequently, the successful "cognitive revolution" of the
nineteen sixties styled itself a revolt against behaviorism even though the computational
processes cognitivism hypothesized would be public and objective -- not the sort of private
subjective processes Watson banned. Consequently (and ironically), would-be-scientific
champions of consciousness now indict cognitivism for its "behavioristic" neglect of inward
experience.

The enduring philosophical interest of behaviorism concerns this methodological challenge to

the scientific bona fides of consciousness (on behalf of empiricism) and, connectedly (in accord
with materialism), its challenge to the supposed metaphysical inwardness, or subjectivity, of
thought. Although behaviorism as an avowed movement may have few remaining advocates,
various practices and trends in psychology and philosophy may still usefully be styled
"behavioristic". As long as experimental rigor in psychology is held to require
"operationalization" of variables, behaviorism's methodological mark remains. Recent attempts
to revive doctrines of "ontological subjectivity" (Searle 1992) in philosophy and bring
"consciousness research" under the aegis of Cognitive Science (see Horgan 1994) point up the
continuing relevance of behaviorism's metaphysical and methodological challenges.
 Behaviorism
It has sometimes been said that “behave is what organisms do.” Behaviorism is built on this
assumption, and its goal is to promote the scientific study of behavior. The behavior, in
particular, of individual organisms. Not of social groups. Not of cultures. But of particular
persons and animals.
In this entry I consider different types of behaviorism. I outline reasons for and against being a
behaviorist. I consider contributions of behaviorism to the study of behavior. Special attention is
given to the so-called “radical behaviorism” of B. F. Skinner (1904–90). Skinner is given special
(not exclusive) attention because he is the behaviorist who has received the most attention from
philosophers, fellow scientists and the public at large. If he is not often cited or discussed today,
if some contemporary behavioral scientists who call themselves behaviorists wish to dissociate
themselves from some of his main ideas, this means that his active influence has waned.
However, his historical reputation and influence as the paradigmatic behaviorist remains intact.
Lessons can be learned from Skinner about behaviorism in general.
One has to be careful with "ism" words. They often have both loose meanings and strict
meanings. And sometimes multiple meanings of each type. Behaviorism is one of those "isms".
Loosely speaking, behaviorism is an attitude -- a way of conceiving of empirical constraints on
psychological state attribution. Strictly speaking, behaviorism is a doctrine -- a way of doing
psychological science itself.
Wilfred Sellars (1912–89), the distinguished philosopher, noted that a person may qualify as a
behaviorist, loosely or attitudinally speaking, if they insist on confirming “hypotheses about
psychological events in terms of behavioral criteria” (1963, p. 22). A behaviorist, so understood,
is someone who demands behavioral evidence for any psychological hypothesis. For such a
person, there is no knowable difference between two states of mind (beliefs, desires, etc.) unless
there is a demonstrable difference in the behavior associated with each state. Consider the
current belief that it is raining. If there is no difference in my behavior between believing that it
is raining and currently thinking that the sun is bright, there is no grounds for attributing the one
belief to me rather than the other. The attribution is empirically unconstrained.
Arguably, there is nothing truly exciting about behaviorism loosely understood. It enthrones
behavioral evidence, an arguably inescapable premise in not just psychological science but in
ordinary discourse about mind and behavior. Just how behavioral evidence should be 'enthroned'
(especially in science) may be debated. But enthronement itself is not in question.
Not so behaviorism the doctrine. It has been widely and vigorously debated. This entry is about
the doctrine, not the attitude. Behaviorism, the doctrine, has caused considerable excitation
among both advocates and critics. In a manner of speaking, it is a doctrine, or family of
doctrines, about how to enthrone behavior not just in the science of psychology but in the
metaphysics of human and animal behavior.
Behaviorism as a Philosophy of Education Behaviorism is a branch of psychology that, when
applied to a classroom setting, focuses on conditioning student behavior with various types of
behavior reinforcements and consequences called operant conditioning. The principles of
behaviorism and the techniques of behavioral engineering go back at least to PAVLOV,
WATSON, and SKINNER . But skinner pioneered their implementation in many fields of
contemporary life. . Into politics, economics, and other social organization.