In the history of psychology, there are many schools, the subject of study of which was certain facts of reality and psychological manifestations in people. Since ancient times, researchers have been interested in issues related to interpersonal interaction between people and explaining the causes of behavioral reactions. Different psychological schools interpreted behavioral reactions in their own way, placing certain criteria and parameters at the forefront. For example, the behaviorist approach proposes to interpret all a person’s actions from the point of view of his behavior, denying the conscious component of the personality. The founders of behaviorism believed that the basis of people’s thoughts and feelings can be considered motor acts and response stereotypes accumulated during life.
Desire to study reality and behavior
Definition of behaviorism in psychology
Behaviorism is a direction in psychology that studies the behavior of animals and humans. This scientific approach changed the prevailing views of scientists on the psyche.
Behaviorism is an American branch of psychology. The founder of behaviorism was J. Watson. The researcher criticized the provisions of structural, functional and associative psychology.
Interesting. Before the advent of behaviorism, researchers attempted to explain the characteristics of people's reactions through consciousness.
The essence of the approach, pros and cons
The theory of behaviorism considers a stimulus, which can be any external influence, to be an important determining factor in the behavioral reactions of humans and animals.
Psychoanalysis by S. Freud - brief and clear
Over time, proponents of the behavioral approach realized the limitations of the theory they had developed. However, this direction of psychology cannot be considered irrelevant. Today, behaviorism is briefly used in psychotherapy and a number of other applied sciences related to the study of social interaction between people.
Attention! The contrast to behaviorism in psychology is the concept of the cognitive approach, where the main object of study is intellectual abilities and mental activity.
As an independent movement, behaviorism in psychology has the following advantages:
- The subject of research in this area is behavioral reactions. In order to record them, studies use observational methods and descriptive statistics. Against the background of alternative approaches to the study of man, behaviorism operates with real facts that the researcher sees.
Behavioral reactions
- The discovery of new things in behavior and the determination of the causes of behavioral reactions were carried out during a specially organized experiment, where the conditions were clearly thought out. This made it possible to compare the results of different groups of subjects.
- Psychological characteristics of personality were studied objectively in this school. Observation, unlike introspection, allowed the experimenter not to interfere with the course of the study, but only to state and describe what he saw.
Despite a number of advantages, this scientific concept has some disadvantages:
- The researchers did not identify differences in the behavior of animals and humans. There are certain similarities between the organization of the mental life of animals and people, but this does not give the right to equate them. For example, animals, like people, have access to some emotional experiences, but the ability to empathize is a uniquely human manifestation.
- The authors of the approach completely ignored consciousness as a rational link in human social activity. The idea of the concept was to study the stimuli of behavior. However, without taking into account people’s ability to reason and analyze a situation, such a scheme for explaining behavior looks one-sided.
- The motivational block of the individual and his value orientations were ignored. Behavior was reduced to the totality of human actions. His needs, desires and emotions were not considered as reasons for certain actions.
- The social bases of behavioral reactions were not taken into account. At the same time, the uniqueness of behavioral manifestations can be observed only in conditions of interpersonal interaction. If a person is alone, he will not show emotionality and his typical typological features of activity.
- Scientists believed that people's reactions to the same external influences would be similar. The individuality of the individual and his ability to consciously choose a response option were not taken into account.
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.
Motives for the emergence of behaviorism
Humanistic psychology - brief and clear
Behaviorism in psychology arose in the last years of the 19th century as a result of the discovery of the imperfections of introspection as a scientific method. Well-known scientists doubted the reliability of the results obtained through introspection.
Self-observation bias
One can identify the following motives for the emergence of the behavioral approach in psychology:
- Achievements of zoopsychology, development of concepts of child psychology (in these sciences, the method of self-observation cannot be used as the main diagnostic tool).
- The provisions of J. Locke's concept in philosophy that a person does not have concepts from birth. The mental component of the structure of behavior was denied. In the philosophy of J. Locke, human behavior and activities were explained by his environment.
- The provisions of the biological approach are that the impact of any stimulus causes a certain reaction.
- The body's reactions to a stimulus can be measured and recorded. This means that these reactions can be considered the subject of scientific study.
- By the time behaviorism appeared, science was already aware of the experiments and conclusions of Pavlov, who studied reflexes in animals.
Who is Skinner?
An outstanding American psychologist who lived in the 20th century. He made significant contributions to the development of behaviorism. He is best known for his theory of operant conditioning. In addition to his achievements in psychology, Burres Skinner was an excellent inventor. One of the scientist’s inventions is a box named after him - the Skinner box. This design is intended to explore the principles of operant conditioning.
Skinner pioneered the work of functional analysis. It was he who proposed it as a method for studying behavior.
It is known that in 1958 the famous psychologist was awarded the prize “For Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Science.” And this award was presented by the American Psychological Association. It was noted that few American psychologists were able to make such a significant contribution to the development of psychology.
In 1972, the same Association recognized Burres Frederick Skinner as the most outstanding psychologist of the 20th century. The second place at that time was taken by S. Freud.
The famous psychologist has hundreds of articles and several dozen scientific books to his credit.
Skinner's theory of behaviorism is a breakthrough in the science of psychology. And it will be discussed below.
Behavioral theory
Gestalt psychology - what is it in psychology briefly
The theory of behavior analysis took shape as an independent school and was called “behaviorism.” Representatives of this school identified the following as the methodology of psychological behaviorism:
- Theoretical basis: human behavior is determined by physiological reflexes (some forms of behavior are innate, others are inherited);
- Subject of study: behavior and various behavioral reactions;
- The main method is observation;
- Hypothesis: the emergence of behavior occurs as a result of the action of stimuli (if the stimulus is known, the reaction can be predicted) and systematic learning (clear examples of this are mastering speech and the formation of thinking);
- Condition for confirming the hypothesis: the development of mental functions contributes to the consolidation of acquired skills;
- The task of the direction: to shape and control people’s behavior.
Important! Behaviorism is a systematic approach with a clear structure. According to the provisions of this scientific school, human behavior is a set of external reactions that arose as a result of exposure to external stimuli on the body.
Beyond freedom and dignity
When talking about Skinner, it’s hard not to mention this book. It overturns all the previous values and ideals of an ordinary person. The author clearly and clearly sets out how people can be managed. What is money, for example? Are they a benefit to people or a way to influence the crowd? Or how to force a person to work? It is enough to pay him a monthly salary in such an amount that it is enough only for food. This technique has been known since the times of Ancient Rome, where people worked for food. Now its role is played by rustling pieces of paper.
What is the value of human life, and most importantly, how can you reconsider your own views and decide to change your usual way of life? Berres Frederick Skinner gives specific and very clear answers to these questions in his book. For those who want to change something in their life, it will be an excellent impetus to action.
Representatives and main ideas
Founder of behaviorism - J. Watson
The founder of the behavioristic approach is J. Watson. In addition to this scientist, there were other representatives of this psychological school. For example:
- W. Hunter, who in 1914 developed a delayed schedule for studying behavior. The works of this author were subsequently classified as neo-behaviorism. He studied the behavior of monkeys: the animal saw in which box a person put a banana, after which an opaque partition was installed between the monkey and the box for 40 seconds. When the partition was removed, the monkey unerringly opened the box where the experimenter had placed the banana. His experiments with monkeys proved that the animal continues to respond to a stimulus even if it has ceased to act.
- K. Lashley formed simple skills in animals through training, then removed one or another part of the brain to determine whether it was involved in the development of the skill being trained. As it turned out during the experimental work, despite the removal of one or another part of the brain, the skill formed as a result of training was preserved. If one structural unit is excluded from complex brain activity, its functions are compensated by the work of other parts of the brain. The researcher came to the conclusion that a complex behavioral act is the result of the combined work of parts of the brain. He proved that, if necessary, parts of the brain can be interchangeable.
Thorndike's studies
E. Thorndike, based on behaviorist ideas, developed the theory of operant learning, which is based on the trial and error method. He proposed to reinforce positive forms of behavior with praise and expressions of approval, and to suppress negative forms of behavior with the help of censure, punishment, and condemnation.
In addition, he proved the existence of a connection between ideas in a person’s mind and his movements. According to his approach, the stimulus for a reaction is not just a stimulus, but a problematic situation. It forces a person to adapt to changed conditions, developing a new form of response.
Pavlov's theory
Important! The roots of behaviorism are in biology and zoology. The difference between these sciences and the psychological movement that studies behavior is that specialists in the field of basic sciences conducted experiments only on animals, and behaviorists began to involve people in participating in experiments.
Biology and Zoology
The ideas of the Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov had a significant influence on the understanding of what behaviorism is. The researcher proved that behavioral reactions are based on unconditioned reflex activity. If you change the conditions for the manifestation of behavioral characteristics, the animal’s reaction to the stimulus will change. So, I.P. Pavlov came to the conclusion that a person has the ability to form the necessary model of animal behavior.
Directions of behaviorism
Attention! Followers of behaviorism felt the inadequacy of this approach. The explanation of the work of human consciousness did not fit into the standard “stimulus-response” scheme. There was a need to introduce a motivational element into behavioral patterns.
As a result, behaviorism split into several directions:
- Cognitive behaviorism, founded by E. Tolman. The researcher added the intermediate link “cognitive activity” to the traditional “stimulus-response” scheme.
- Goal behaviorism is the argumentation of behavior by the goal facing an animal or person. For example, a number of studies have clearly illustrated that rats run through a maze because they are hungry, driven by hunger. The purpose of their behavior is to find food.
- Social behaviorism suggests taking into account one’s social experience when studying a person’s response to a particular situation.
The origins of behaviorism occurred in the 19th century. The original methodological foundations of this approach cannot be taken for work in an unchanged form. However, today the achievements of this psychological school are used in psychoanalysis, political science and management.
Behaviorism in management
