What is behaviorism?

Psychology draws on different schools and approaches that have particular ways of understanding the mind and human behavior. The plurality of perspectives that converge enriches the vision of the object of study, both in its individual part and in its social part. One of these approaches is behaviorism.

For behaviorism, each human life develops in environments that reinforce certain patterns of responses, certain behaviors and certain ways of behaving in a different variety of situations.

This approach led thought in psychology from 1920 to about 1950. During these three decades, it developed into one of the strongest and most dominant schools of psychology.

What is behaviorism?

Of all the psychological processes, behaviorism focuses on learning. Its basis is that All behavior is acquired through conditioning, that is, through associations that occur in interaction with the environment. Therefore, all behavior would be determined by its history of reinforcements and associations.

For behaviorism, behavior can be analyzed and studied systematically independently of mental processes. This theory maintains that observable behavior is the only object of study in psychology, since thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and moods cannot be observable or measurable.

Behaviorism views the human being as a “blank slate” on which the medium writes. We come to the world “blank”, “empty”, and it is thanks to the interaction with the environment that we learn, “we become filled”. In this way, we create and maintain certain behavioral patterns that help us adapt to the different situations of daily life.

From behaviorism, it is understood that any behavior is acquired through conditioning.

Key Features

The main features of this approach are the following:

Behavior is learned in relation to the environment. Behaviorism emphasizes environmental factors that shape behavior. We learn new behaviors through conditioning, whether classical or operant.Psychology is the science of behavior, not of the mind. For this approach, all theories must be supported by empirical data collected through observation and measurement.Behaviorism focuses on observable and measurable behavior, not internal processes. He forcefully rejects all introspection as an object of study for understanding the actions of human beings.Behavior can be explained without referring to cognitive processes. The causes of behaviors are external, not mental, and can be reduced to the simple association of a stimulus and a response. This approach is deterministic, since behavior is predetermined by conditioning. An individual is what he is because of his conditioning.Behavior when learned is mediated by parenting practices and not by genetics. An organism is not born with an accumulation of learning, it acquires it in interaction with the environment. This approach is characterized by being reductionist, as it isolates behavior into parts to be studied. All behavior can be decomposed into simpler parts.Behaviorism is nomothetic, that is, conceives behavior governed by the same lawsthose of conditioning.

Types of behaviorism

There are different types of behaviorism, among the most notable we find the following:

Classical Watsonian behaviorism: It is focused on the study of the association between the stimulus and the response. He has been influenced by the conditioning work of Ivan Pavlov.Skinner’s radical behaviorism: proposes that all behavior is associated with the consequences, positive (reinforcements) or negative (punishments), that it has had for the organism. Therefore, the frequency of a behavior is modified or altered due to the consequences it has caused (Reynold, 1973).Kantor interbehaviorism: behavior is interpreted as an interaction, and not as a simple response to the environment. Behavior and the environment are interdependent, so the object of study in psychology must be interaction, interbehavior (result of a stimulus and a response).Tolman’s intentional behaviorism: behavior is understood as intentional, that is, as an action that directs the organism towards an objective. To achieve these objectives, mental maps are established. Therefore, behavior not only depends on the interaction of the environment, but also on internal processes, beliefs, feelings, attitudes.Clark’s deductive behaviorism: behavior is a survival mechanism. Learning is a means to adapt to the environment in order to survive. It takes into account mediating processes such as cognition, will, thought, among others.

Conditioning for behaviorism

Conditioning is the product of the association of stimuli and responses. Basically, it is a type of learning in which events or events are associated. In behaviorism, two types of conditioning are known: classical and operant.

classical conditioning

In this conditioningthe response that an organism emits to a certain stimulus is transferred to a new stimulus through an association between the two (Sarason and Sarason, 2006). The fundamental concepts of this conditioning are these:

Unconditioned stimulus (US): is any stimulus with sufficient intensity to produce a response.Unconditioned response (IR): is the response triggered by the unconditioned stimulus.Neutral stimulus (EN): stimulus that has no effect on behavior or that does not produce a response.Conditioned stimulus (CS): arises from the repeated association between the EI and the EN. Acquires properties of the IS to produce a response similar to the RI, known as conditioned response.Conditioned response (CR): aspect of IR that is triggered by the CS when they have associated.

Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a natural stimulus.

Operant conditioning

Operant or instrumental conditioning was proposed by Skinner and refers to a process through which the appearance of a behavior is modified or altered depending on the consequences it has produced. These are its fundamental concepts:

Booster: event that increases the probability of occurrence of a behavior.Punishment: procedure used to eliminate a behavior. It can be positive or negative.Extinction: It is the reduction in the frequency of the response when it is no longer reinforced.Acquisition: is the increase in the frequency with which a response occurs.

In conclusion, we can say that The behaviorist approach is a theoretical and practical commitment that represented a revolution, both for his ideas and for the way in which he allowed us to study them. Although today in Europe very important weight is given to the cognitive part, the presence or absence of reinforcements continues to be a very important point when planning any intervention.

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