Neobehaviorism: is it possible to program human behavior?

Behaviorism is a movement in psychological science that determined the image of American psychology in the 20th century, radically reorganizing the entire concept of views about the psyche. His vision formulated an expression in which the subject of psychological science is behavior, and not consciousness. Where, in fact, do “legs grow” from, since translated from English. "behavior" literally means "behavior."

Due to the fact that at that time it was customary to establish an equal sign between such concepts as psyche and consciousness (mental processes included those processes that began and ended in consciousness), a version appeared that by eliminating consciousness, behaviorism, thus, removes psyche.

The real essence of this event, associated with the emergence and rapid formation of the behaviorist movement, was different and was not contained in the annihilation of the psyche, but in a change in its definition.

Within the framework of this article, such a psychological movement as Behaviorism is described. We will learn about the scientists who were at the origins of this trend, about the experiments they conducted, the theories and hypotheses they put forward, as well as about the birth of Neobihiveorism.

Behaviorism and Neobehaviorism in psychology

• 1.History of behaviorism 1.1.Thorndike
• 1.2.Trial and error method
• 1.3.Evolutionary theory

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History of behaviorism

Thorndike

Edward Lee Thorndike is considered the first founder of such a movement as behaviorism.
Although he himself did not consider himself a behaviorist, but referred to him as a “connectionist”, which is translated from English. means “connection.” However, people conducting research and their theories must be judged not according to what they call themselves, but according to their significance in the formation of knowledge. The works of Edward Lee Thorndike became precisely the first step in creating the theory of behaviorism. Thorndike explained his own conclusion in his doctoral dissertation, “The Intelligence of Animals,” written in 1898. Experimental study of associative processes in animals." Thorndike used the classic definitions - “intelligence”, “associative processes”, but their content was different.

Trial and error method

Hobbes once argued that human mental abilities are of an associative nature.
The fact that mental abilities guarantee the successful adaptation of an animal to its environment was generally accepted after Spencer. However, Thorndike was the first to show through experiment that the essence of mental abilities and their role have every chance of being studied, and they can also be assessed in the absence of an idea or by another action of the mind.

Association no longer meant the relationship between thoughts or thoughts and their movement, as in previously created associative concepts, but between movements and situations. The complete learning process was described in objective terms. To regulate behavior, Thorndike used Wen's "trial and error" method.

The selection of this particular method as a starting point had the deepest methodological basis. He marked the reorientation of the idea of ​​psychology into the newest method of deterministic explanation of its own subjects. Darwin deliberately did not concentrate the importance of “trial and error” in any way; this idea, of course, was one of the premises of his theory of evolution.

Since probable methods of response in constantly changing environmental conditions are not previously taken into account in the structure and methods of action of the organism, the regulation of this action with the environment is implemented only on a probabilistic basis.

Evolutionary theory

This theory in the development of behaviorism caused the introduction of a probabilistic condition that functions with the same kind of immutability as mechanical causation.
The probability of “no longer possible” had to be considered as a subjective idea (the result of ignorance of factors, according to Spinoza’s statement). The rule of “trial, error and unintentional success” explains, in accordance with Thorndike, the acquisition by living organisms of new configurations of behavior in absolutely all degrees of its formation. The advantage of this principle is undoubtedly when comparing it with the classical (mechanical) reflex circuit.

Reflex, in his pre-Sechenov view, meant a fixed process, the action of which is determined in such a way that the concepts of the nervous system are strictly fixed by methods. It was simply unrealistic to explain the adaptability of the body’s interactions and its learning ability with this definition.

Edward Lee Thorndike perceived the initial period of a motor act not as an external push that launched a physical machine with prepared methods of response into the process, but as a problematic situation, meaning such conditions in the environment, for adaptation to which the body does not have a motor response, but must create it with its own efforts.

Thus, the relationship between “ situation and reaction”

"In contrast to the reflex - in its interpretation exclusively known to Thorndike, it was characterized by the following properties:

1. The initial section is the problem environment (situation). The body resists it as a whole. He functions rapidly in search of choice. It is learned through the method of exercise.

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Is it possible to manipulate human free will using psychology?

And finally, a little about free will. Today, despite the fairly widespread use of Skinner's method of operant conditioning, the question of free will remains open. It is obvious that no modern techniques allow programming human behavior completely, and in each case we can only talk about fragmented learning associated with a specific situation. You can wean a person from being afraid of heights or confined spaces, you can teach a child to tie his own shoelaces or help his mother in the kitchen. But in all cases, the learning process is individual, depends on a large number of circumstances and, most importantly, on the characteristics of the individual himself.

We do not know what the future holds for the further development of psychology. It is possible that scientists will learn to influence and determine human behavior to a much greater extent than today, and, like any other technology, these capabilities can be used for both harm and good.

Unfortunately, in the case of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, it is difficult to expect the use of psychology for the benefit of the people. And this fully confirms the current state of affairs in our own country, when the mechanisms of manipulating public opinion through the media are fully involved. Alas, when it comes to maintaining power, her unscrupulousness knows no bounds.

We can only hope that when new advanced behavioral technologies appear, the world will change and become more peaceful and just.

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Situation – Reaction

The consciousness of Thorndike's approach, according to a comparison of the approach of John Dewey and other scientific minds of Chicago, is undeniable, since the conscious desire for a goal was perceived by them not as a phenomenon that needs clarification, but as a causal basis.

However, Thorndike, having eliminated the conscious desire to achieve a goal, restrained the thought of the active actions of the organism, the significance of which lies in solving difficulties in order to adapt to the environment. Thus, Thorndike greatly expanded the field of psychological science. He revealed that it extends far beyond the boundaries of reason.

Previously, it was believed that a specialist in the field of psychology beyond these boundaries could only be interested in unconscious actions hidden in the “repository of the soul.” Thorndike radically changed direction. The field of psychological science turns out to be the connection between an organism and its environment.

In the past, psychology claimed that connections emerged among the paradoxes of the mind; it called them associations. Past physiology stated that relationships arise between the excitation of receptors and the opposing movement of muscles. They were called reflexes.

According to Thorndike, connexation is the relationship between reaction and situation

. There is no doubt that this is a new component. In the words of another psychological science, connection is a component of behavior. Of course, Thorndike did not use the definition of “behavior” at that time. He claimed intelligence and learning.

However, Descartes in his time did not call the reaction he discovered a “reflex,” and Hobbes, being the progenitor of the associative theory, did not use such a combination of words as “association of ideas,” invented by Locke 50 years after his discovery. The idea matures before its definition.

The work of Edward Lee Thorndike would not have had the significance of a pioneer in the field of psychology if it had not been for the discovery of new direct psychological laws.

However, no less clearly does he see the insufficiency of behaviorist methods in the project of explaining human behavior. The regulation of which occurs according to a different type than was imagined by Thorndike and all, without exception, further adherents of objective psychological science, who considered the science of learning to be common to both man and other living creatures.

This kind of aspect has given rise to the latest configuration of reductionism. The inherent human patterns of behavior, which have reasons of a socio-historical nature, were reduced to a biological degree of determination, which, in turn, contributed to the loss of the opportunity to study these patterns in the corresponding scientific judgments.

Thorndike, more than anyone else, paved the way for the emergence of such a movement in psychology as behaviorism. At the same time, as noted earlier, he in no way considered himself to be in this direction; in his own explanations of the actions of learning, he used ideas that the subsequent emergence of behaviorism demanded to be banished from psychological science

Such definitions included, first of all, the field of psychology in its classical presentation (in particular, definitions of the states of discomfort and contentment experienced by the body when interrelations appear among motor reactions and external conditions), and secondly, this concerned neurophysiology (in particular, the “law of readiness "which, according to Thorndike, implies changes in the ability to carry out impulses).

The behaviorist concept did not allow the researcher of behavior to resort to what the subject feels and to conditions of a physiological nature.

MOTIVATION

Watson's behaviorism

The leader, based on the theory of behaviorism, was D. B. Watson.
His scientific life story is moral in the sense that it demonstrates, just as in the formation of an individual prospector, the influences that established the formation of the main thoughts of the trend are reflected in full. Having defended his dissertation on psychological science at the University of Chicago, Watson has been working at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore since 1908, where he heads and directs the department and laboratory of experimental psychology. The article he published in 1913, “Psychology from the Behaviorist’s Point of View,” is regarded as a kind of reversal of the latest trend.

Shortly after the article, Watson published the book “Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology,” where for the first time since the creation of psychological science and throughout its history, the assertion that consciousness is the subject of study of this science was categorically rejected.

Behaviorism in Russia

The slogan of behaviorism becomes the idea of ​​behavior as a fairly contemplated concept of the body's reactions to external and internal and internal impulses.
This idea originated in Russian science in the works of such scientists as: I.M. Sechenova, I.P. Pavlova and V.M. Bekhterev. They argued that the scope of psychological activity is in no way limited to the actions of the subject’s mind, cognizable through introspection, since the presence of such an interpretation of mental consciousness inevitably divided the organism into consciousness (soul) and body (matter). As a result, consciousness was separated from external reality, closed in the environment of personal phenomena (excitement), establishing it outside the actual interconnection of earthly objects and involvement in the process of physical actions.

Without recognizing such a judgment, Russian scientists have found a bold way to study the relationship of an entire organism with the environment, guided by specific methods, while the organism, in turn, is explained in accordance with its external and internal manifestations. This aspect denoted the future in order to identify the conditions for the interaction of the whole organism with the environment and the factors that determine the dynamics of this interaction. It was planned that understanding the factors would make it possible to implement in psychology the standard of other sciences with their slogan “foresight and guidance.” This newest concept suited the needs of the period.

The long-standing subjective psychological science has everywhere revealed its own inconsistency. This was clearly demonstrated by experiments conducted on animals, which, in turn, were the main subject of study by psychologists on the American continent. Reflections on consciousness and what happens in it in the animal when performing certain assigned tasks during the experiment turned out to be inconclusive. As a result, Watson came to the conclusion that observations of the state of consciousness are of little use to a specialist in the field of psychology. Only by renouncing the data of internal research and observations, he assured, would psychology be an impartial and true science.

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Neobehaviorism. Basic concepts, theories, representatives and problems of their works.

In the most general terms, neobehaviorism in social psychology is an extrapolation of the principles developed in traditional behaviorism and neobehaviorism to a new range of objects - objects of socio-psychological knowledge. Without considering behaviorism here in all its aspects, we will touch only on some of its provisions and characteristics that are relevant specifically to the analysis of socio-psychological phenomena.

The noted great influence exerted and exerted on Western social psychology by the neopositivist philosophical tradition is especially clearly manifested in the example of neobehaviorism. Considering the neobehaviorist orientation, it should be emphasized from the very beginning that it is neobehaviorism that most fully implements the methodological principles of the philosophy of neopositivism in social psychology.

The neopositivist methodological complex, to which neobehaviorism is objectively oriented, includes the following basic principles: absolutization of the standard of scientific research established in the natural sciences - in this sense, all sciences should develop in the image and likeness of the natural sciences; verification (or falsification) and operationalism; naturalism, i.e. ignoring the specifics of human behavior; negative attitude towards theory and absolutization of empirical description based on recording what is directly observed; rejection of the value approach, the desire to eliminate value attitudes in relation to the objects being studied as preventing the achievement of truth and scientific character in general; a fundamental severance of ties with philosophy. The socio-psychological implementation of these general epistemological principles can naturally be traced only when specific issues are presented. Now it is only important to note that the authors representing the neo-behaviorist orientation in social psychology differ from each other, in particular from the point of view of the rigidity of following the above methodological principles.

It is known that back in the 30s

There was a kind of demarcation in the psychological school of behaviorism.
Along with the orthodox line of development, a line of development of “softened” behaviorism, or neo-behaviorism, emerged, associated primarily with the names of E. Tolman, K. Hull and marked by the complication of the traditional behaviorist S-R scheme through the introduction of intermediate variables, the so-called mediators.
And in the field of social psychology we are faced with these two trends: the radical line is most clearly represented by the operant approach of Skinner and his followers, the so-called mediator line of development is represented most widely in social psychology and is associated with such authors as N. Miller, D. Dollard, A. Bandura, R. Walters et al.

As is known, the psychological principles underlying the neobehaviorist approach are a modern version of psychological associationism. In addition, this position is characterized by the active inclusion of the principle of psychological hedonism

, according to which the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain (in a broad sense) is considered as the main motivational force, the main factor determining behavior.

As for the methodological support of this direction, its representatives work primarily within the framework of laboratory experiments, and the culture of experimentation is traditionally developed and high. However, there has also been a tendency to combine laboratory experiment with field research. It is connected, in particular, with the works of A. Bandura. Within the framework of this orientation, his name is associated with a shift in attention to experiments in which the subjects are people rather than animals, which has always been characteristic of representatives of behaviorism.

The main problem of the behaviorist orientation is traditionally learning

. It is through learning that the entire repertoire of observable behavior is acquired, beyond which researchers usually do not go. Within the framework of behaviorism, a general description of the process of learning has been proposed and a number of laws and principles relating to the variables of the learning situation have been formulated. Trying to answer the question of how learning occurs, the authors focus on environmental conditions—stimuli that are “responsible” for the acquisition, modification, and weakening of certain behavioral patterns. Learning is thought of as the establishment or change of associations between the learner's responses and the stimuli that motivate or reinforce the learner.

Usually, a distinction is made between two types of learning—type S learning and type R learning—corresponding to two isolated schemes of a teaching experiment. The scheme of so-called classical conditioning was borrowed by behaviorists from I. P. Pavlov. In this case, the experimenter influences the body with a conditioned stimulus (for example, a bell) and reinforces it with an unconditional one (for example, serving food), i.e. an unconditioned stimulus is used to elicit an unconditioned response in the presence of an initially neutral stimulus. After a number of repetitions, the response becomes associated with this new stimulus. The product of learning according to this scheme is respondent behavior—behavior that responds to a specific stimulus. The delivery of reinforcement here is related to the stimulus, hence the designation of this learning as “Type 5 learning.”

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The scheme of so-called operant, or instrumental, conditioning was developed by Skinner. The essence of learning according to this scheme is that instead of offering a stimulus that causes a certain reaction, the experimenter, observing the organism, waits for the random occurrence of a reaction in the direction of interest to him. Its manifestation is immediately reinforced. The product of learning according to this scheme is operant behavior, or operant. Skinner defines the difference between respondent and operant behavior as follows: respondent behavior is caused by a stimulus “preceding it. An operant is a behavior caused by a stimulus that follows it." In this case, it is no longer the stimulus that is reinforced, but the body’s reaction, which is what causes the reinforcing stimulus. Hence the designation of such learning as “learning of the type.” The operant conditioning framework occupies a leading place in the research of neobehaviorists in the field of social psychology.

The commonality and differences between representatives of modern behaviorism are most fully manifested in the categorical apparatus.

The concepts of “stimulus”, “response”

are basic for this direction as a whole. Proponents of the Skinnerian approach define a stimulus as a physical, or material, event that must be observed and manipulated.

Proponents of the mediator approach focus on the division of stimuli and reactions into internal and external. They replace the S-R circuit with the S-r-s-R circuit. Internal, implicit r and s act as mediators (intermediaries).

Very important in this dictionary is the concept of a discriminative, or differentiating, stimulus. This is a stimulus that does not directly cause a conditioned reaction, but, as it were, signals the body about it. Only when this stimulus is present in the experimental situation does an operant response occur.

Another important term in the vocabulary of behaviorism is the term drive

(drive) - motivation. In the Skinnerian approach, drive is determined by the set of operations used to establish it. Here we have just one of the most striking examples of the manifestation of operationalism. Drive is not a reaction, not a stimulus, not in any way a psychological state, but simply a term for expressing the relationship between some previous operations of the experimenter and the strength of the body's response as a result. According to supporters of the mediator approach, drive is a certain force within the body (but not a need), which, reaching its optimum, activates behavior in the direction of reinforcement and, therefore, reduction of drive, in other words, it is an impulse to action. Thus, representatives of the mediator approach are characterized by an emphasis on the energizing and, one might say, directive functions of drive.

An important pair of categories are the categories of generalization (generalization) and discrimination (discrimination)

. To briefly define the essence of the principle of generalization, it is the tendency of a reaction obtained to one specific stimulus to be associated with another, new, but similar stimulus. The more similar the stimuli, the more successful the generalization. This is a very important explanatory concept in learning theory: generalization turns out to be the basis of explanation, in particular, for the rapid acquisition of language in a child. In a social psychological context, behaviorism faces the difficult question of generalizing two or more stimuli that do not have common stimulus properties. For example, the external physical properties of words may be different, but they are characterized by the equivalence of meanings.

Discrimination (differentiation) occurs when an individual learns to distinguish between similar stimuli and respond to one but not the other due to differential reinforcement. “Just as organisms learn to ‘economize’ behavior by generalizing stimuli, they learn to respond specifically to individual stimuli.” Discrimination becomes difficult when stimuli become too similar. Both processes—generalization and discrimination—are considered to be highly functional and adaptive for the organism.

The next important concept in the behaviorist tradition is the concept of reinforcement.

Skinner's definitions of reinforcement are essentially tautological. Positive reinforcers are defined as stimuli that, when presented, increase responses; Negative reinforcers are stimuli that increase responses when removed. The definitions of supporters of the mediation approach are somewhat broader. In their view, reinforcement leads to observable changes in external responses.

Forms of reinforcement can range from food and water to elements of social interaction (for example, verbal approval). The latter is especially characteristic of representatives of the mediator approach. Reinforcement is effective insofar as it reduces the level of tension created by the action of primary and secondary drives. The above concepts, of course, do not exhaust the entire set of concepts characteristic of behaviorism, but they allow us to present not only the essence of this approach, but also the main directions of its socio-psychological applications. It is through these relatively few concepts that behaviorists attempt to describe the acquisition and modification of all possible types of behavior. Instead of looking for the causes of behavior in appealing to empirically unobservable constructs (for example, in psychoanalysis this is the ego, superego), behaviorists see them entirely in the history of reinforcements of the individual and in his present environment.

Denoting the range of socio-psychological theories developed in the vein of a neo-behaviourist orientation, we should mention, first of all, the theory of aggressive behavior, the theory of imitation, associated primarily with the names of N. Miller, D. Dollard, A. Bandura, the theory of interpersonal interaction presented in the works of D. Thibault and G. Kelly, D. Homans.

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Conditioned reflex

The unified direction of the transition from reason to action, from an individual way of considering the psyche to an impartial one, was monitored in different parts of the scientific front.
Having read Bekhterev’s book “Objective Psychology,” Watson was completely confident in the judgment that the conditioned reflex is the main criterion for assessing behavior. Having familiarized himself with the works of Pavlov, Watson was firmly convinced that the conditioned reflex itself is considered to be precisely the source for the development of skills, according to the construction of difficult movements from ordinary ones, and, in addition, for various learning configurations, including those of an emotionally charged nature.

Behaviorism formula

Being influenced by positivism, Watson argued that the only thing that really matters is, perhaps, direct observation.
For this reason, according to his project, all the actions of the subject and his behavior must necessarily be interpreted on the basis of the relationships contemplated by the influence of physical stimuli on the body and its contemplated reactions in response to these stimuli. As a result, Watson derived the formula adopted by behaviorism: “stimulus-response”

(SR). It followed from this that psychological science must eliminate the sequential change of states that occur between the components of a given formula, whether nervous or mental processes, from its own hypotheses and explanations.

Since various forms of physical interactions were recognized as exclusively valid in behavior, Watson replaced all, without exception, classical views on psychological phenomena with their motor equivalents. The interdependence of various psychological functions on motor initiative that existed was thoroughly determined by experimental psychology at that time. This affected, for example, the connections between visual perception from the movement of the muscles of the visual organ, emotions from physical changes, thinking from the speech apparatus, etc.

It's all about movement

Watson used these data to confirm that specific muscular movements have every chance of being a substitute for individual psychological actions.
Based on this kind of premise, Watson explained the formation of intellectual initiative. Arguments were given that the individual thinks with his muscles. Children's speech emerges from random sounds. When combining any object with a sound pronounced by an adult, the object becomes the meaning of the phrase. Over time, children's external speech transforms into a whisper, after which they pronounce the words mentally. Such silent singing or, in other words, speech within oneself is nothing more than thinking.

Absolutely all reactions, both mental and associated with emotions, are possible, according to Watson's judgment, to be controlled. Psychological formation comes down to learning, in other words, to acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities that are not only intentionally created, but also appear spontaneously. That is, learning has a more extensive concept compared to teaching, since it contains knowledge deliberately developed during training. It follows from this that the study of the formation of the psyche leads to the study of the development of behavior, the relationships between stimuli and the reactions (SR) that appear in their base.

Psychology: what you need to know about it

Therapy and psychotherapy

Behavioral therapy is based on the works of I.P. Pavlov and B. Skinner. Psychotherapy is aimed at unlearning “bad” habits and reactions and further/replacement teaching correct behavioral patterns.

Behaviorism builds its learning theory not on explaining the essence of the problem to the client, but on direct influence on the “wrong” behavior pattern that needs to be corrected. Most often, operational learning and the method of conditioned reflexes are used for this.

Skinner's operative behaviorism is a theory that there are three types of reactions: unconditioned reflex, conditioned reflex and operant.

The latter type involves reactions that the body produces on its own, without an external stimulus, in order to “test” the results for their usefulness/positivity.

Classical conditioning

At the first stage, methods of reinforcement are identified that are most pleasant for a person. The client is then taught to relax.

After this, alarming situations are identified and ranked according to the degree of tolerance.

During therapy, at the moment of relaxation, the client is reminded of a minimally alarming situation , gradually rising to the most alarming.

Aversive conditioning

1. Example #1: Every time a person reaches for a cigarette, a device attached to the hand emits a weak current. An appropriate avoidance reaction is developed.
2. Example No. 2: Alcoholism coding is associated with taking drugs that cause vomiting in response to drinking alcohol. As a result, a person associates alcohol and unpleasant sensations.

Operant conditioning

For each positive action, the prisoner receives a token . For bad deeds, tokens are taken away. In the future, tokens can be exchanged for privileges (extra lunch, cigarettes, hygiene items).

Behaviorism in pedagogy is one of the basic methods of working with children (including preschoolers), which is used in synthesis with other methods.

Behaviorism and the role of the psyche

Adhering to this view of the psyche, behaviorists concluded that its formation takes place in childhood and depends on factors such as the society surrounding the child, the quality and conditions of his life, namely on the stimuli that the environment provides him.
For this reason, they rejected the idea of ​​age periodization, since they believed that there are no absolute patterns of formation for all children in this age range. This was confirmed by studies of the learning of children of different ages, with a specific learning goal set, even children of two and three years old could not only read and write, but even master typing skills. Based on this, behaviorists concluded that the sphere of influence in which the child is located affects his mental formation.

However, the impracticability of age-based periodization in no way excluded, from their judgment, the need to create a multifunctional periodization that would make it possible to determine the boundaries of learning the development of specific experience. For these reasons, the stages of developing a game, learning to read and write, or swimming are considered multifunctional periodization.

Emotions according to Watson

Evidence for the lifetime development of key psychological actions was provided by Watson in his experiments related to the development of emotions.
At first glance, James's assumptions about the primacy of physical changes and the secondary nature of psychological states should have satisfied Watson. However, he radically denied them, based on the fact that the very understanding of the subjective, experienced must be removed from psychological science. According to Watson, emotions contain nothing but internal changes and external expressions. However, he saw the main thing in something else - in the ability to manage emotional behavior according to an established plan.

Experiments performed

Watson experimentally argued that it is possible to create a fear response to a stimulus that belongs to something.
In his experiment, children were shown a bunny, which they, in turn, tried to stroke and pick up, but at the very second when the bunny was in the child’s hands, it was exposed to an electric discharge. As a result, the child threw the bunny away from him and began to cry. The experiment was repeated, and when the bunny was demonstrated 3–4 times, including at a distant distance, it initiated fear in most children. After this negative emotion was recorded, Watson sought to once again change the child’s emotional background in relation to the bunny, forming their interest and feeling of love for him. This time the child was shown a bunny while eating delicious food. At first, when they saw him, the children interrupted their meal and began to cry.

However, after some time, realizing that the bunny was sitting calmly at the end of the room and was not trying to get closer to him, and that sweets (chocolate, candies, popsicles) were very close, the child stopped crying. When the child stopped responding with sobs to the appearance of the hare at the end of the room, the researcher began to move it closer and closer to the child while at the same time adding sweets and goodies to his plate. Over time, the children stopped concentrating their attention on the bunny and, in the end, when it was near the plate, they did not react to it in any way, and some even tried to feed it and pet it. In a similar way, Watson argued that emotions can be controlled and managed.

People who have frequent outbursts of anger are not actually as smart as they think they are.

'Psychology with no psyche'

This principle of controlling and managing behavior became widely known in American psychology after Watson’s works.
Watson's theory (as well as all behaviorism) began to be called “psychology without a psyche.” This assessment was based on the judgment that psychological actions include only the confirmation of the subject himself, about what he believes is happening in his consciousness under “supervision from within.” But the sphere of the psyche is much broader and more fundamental than what is directly conscious. In addition, it contains the actions of the individual, his actions and behavioral acts. Watson deserves respect and this is indeed his considerable achievement in the field of psychology, since he was able to expand its field by introducing animal and human habits into it. However, these achievements came at a great cost to him, without recognizing as an object of science the great riches of the psyche that cannot be reduced to an externally contemplated form of behavior.

In behaviorism, the need to expand the object of mental study, associated with the development of logic in scientific knowledge, had an inappropriate impact. Behaviorism emerged as the opposite of the subjective point of view, which reduced psychological life to “precedents of reason” and believed that beyond the boundaries of these precedents there is a world distant from psychological science.

Assessing behaviorism, critics subsequently condemned its adherents for the fact that in their own reports, contrary to introspective psychology, they themselves were influenced by the modification of consciousness formed by it. Having established this modification as reliable, they believed that it was possible to either accept or reject it, but not to change it in any way. Thus choosing to do away with consciousness entirely rather than look at it anew.

This assessment is objective, however, it is small for understanding the research, criticism and theories of knowledge of the roots of behaviorism. If we return to consciousness its visual-figurative essence, which in introspectionism turned into illusory “subjective phenomena,” then even in this case it is impossible to explain the essence of the real action and its determination. The irreducibility of an action to its visual-figurative components is that real characteristic feature of behavior that arose exaggeratedly in the scheme of behaviorism.

What is it: short and clear

Let's look at the basic concepts.

Behaviorism is a branch of psychology that studies the set of reactions that are formed as a result of exposure to external stimuli.

The key feature of this direction is that it completely excludes the possibility of the existence of consciousness in humans as an independent phenomenon.

At the same time, consciousness was identified with behavioral reactions that arise in response to various stimuli.

Since behaviorists put behavior “at the forefront” , considering it precisely the subject of study of psychology, they seemed to cross out the phenomenon of consciousness as such.

And since before the advent of the revolutionary theory, consciousness was identified with the psyche, non-recognition of the first entailed the exclusion of the fact of the presence of the second.

Behaviorist - who is it? This is a follower of behaviorism who shares and accepts the position of behaviorism as a fair position in relation to the subject being studied.

Behavioral science is interpreted behaviorism that has been modified as a result of additional research and adjustments made.

Neobehaviorism is a direction of psychology that is a logical continuation or response to classical behaviorism, which is unable to explain the integrity of the behavior of intelligent organisms.

Thus, in the classical version, behavior was considered as a set of chains consisting of stimulus and response, formed due to reinforcement.

And the neo-direction introduces another variable called “intervening factors.” This variable influences the reinforcement process by helping or hindering it.

Famous representatives of behaviorism

Watson was undoubtedly the most famous leader of the behaviorist movement.
However, a researcher, no matter how colorful an example he may be in his field, is not able to single-handedly form an entire movement. Among Watson's comrades in the fight against consciousness, researchers such as W. Hunter and K.S. stood out. Lashley. W. Hunter, in turn, invented an experimental scheme to study the reaction, which he called delayed. This scheme proved that the animal has not only a direct reaction to a stimulus, but also a delayed one. Proof of this was the following example: the monkey monitored which of two containers the fruit was placed in. After that, a partition was installed between the primate and the containers, and after 5 seconds it was removed. The animal successfully found the fruit where it remembered it.

Watson's student K. Lashley believed that the mind is completely reducible to the physical work of the body. Lashley's famous experiments on the study of brain elements of behavior were created according to a specific scheme: at the initial stage, animals acquired experience in mastering a certain skill, after which one or another lobe of the brain was removed from it in turn, in order to establish the dependence of the acquired skill on the allocated lobe of the brain. As a result, Lashley came to the conclusion that the mind acts as a single whole and its various zones are equivalent, as a result of which they have the ability to replace each other.

Absolutely all behaviorists were bound together by the belief that the concept of consciousness is sterile, as well as the need to get rid of “mentalism.” However, integrity was lost in the argumentation of certain concepts.

Criticism of neo-behaviorism. Behaviorism

Behaviorism, which determined the face of American psychology in the 20th century, radically transformed the entire system of ideas about the psyche. His credo was expressed by the formula according to which the subject of psychology is behavior, not consciousness. (Hence the name - from English, behavior - behavior.) Since it was then customary to equate the psyche and consciousness (processes that begin and end in consciousness were considered mental), a version arose that, by eliminating consciousness, behaviorism thereby eliminates psyche. It came to be called “psychology without the psyche.”

The true meaning of the events associated with the genesis and rapid development of the behaviorist movement was different and did not lie in the annihilation of the psyche, but in a change in the concept of it. At the time of the emergence of behaviorism, psychology was understood as the science of consciousness. As is known, she was unable to turn consciousness into a subject of deterministic and experimental analysis due to the limitations of her methodological means. Neither structuralism nor functionalism created a science of consciousness. Their concept of consciousness was associated with a subjective method, disillusionment with which was growing everywhere. As a result, everything with which psychology, as it seemed to many, began its journey as an independent science, became illusory: its subject (consciousness), its main problem (what consciousness is built from), its method (introspection), its explanatory principle (mental causation as the conditioning of some phenomena of consciousness by others). There was a need for a new subject, new problems, methods, principles. This was felt especially acutely in the United States of America, where, due to the unique historical development of the country, the utilitarian approach to the study of man and his neuropsychic resources dominated. This was already evidenced by the functional direction, the center of interest of which was the problem of adaptive action, the most effective adaptation of the individual to the environment. But functionalism, which proceeded from the ancient view of consciousness as a special, goal-oriented entity, was powerless to provide a causal explanation for the regulation of human actions and the construction of new forms of behavior.