What is BEHAVIOR in PSYCHOLOGY?

Behaviorism is a current of psychology that has accompanied and profoundly marked the history of psychology, science and science. Western social history of the 20th century, based on the concept that only behavior, as a measurable phenomenon, can be studied. An orientation that has expressed a therapeutic model based on the solution of symptoms and behavior modification, building therapies on conditioning and thawing techniques, where positive behavior is associated with positive reinforcement and vice versa. In this Psychology-Online article we will see together what is behaviorism in psychology, its theoretical definition, its main authors, the most important theories and some examples from behavioral psychology.

Index

1. Definition of behaviorism in psychology
2. Authors of behaviorism
3. Theories of behaviorism
4. Examples of behavioral psychology

In the early 20th century, attempts by psychologists to examine the structure of the mind and the nature of consciousness were based on the introspection, that is, in the verbalization of their thoughts and feelings, a methodology considered unsatisfactory by the U.S

In this way, Watson redefined the research field of psychology, profoundly influencing his studies and revolutionizing it, totally rejecting introspectionism (Macchi Cassi, Valenza and Simion, 2012). This behavioral psychologist rejected limited the object of study of behavior to the observable, thus excluding the mind from scientific research activity, a black box within which it is impossible to see and verify what is happening. To make the study of psychology scientific, therefore, it is necessary to limit ourselves to analyzing the sequence stimulus-response, the only observable and verifiable, consequently restricting the field of research to the study of learning: studying the learning means investigating the changes that manifest in the individual as a consequence of individual experience, that is, as consequence of exposure to the specific characteristics of the environment in which each individual is immersed (Macchi Cassi, Valenza and Simion, 2012).

Therefore, behaviorism in psychology can be defined as a psychological current that studies in an experimental, objective and natural way the observable behavior.

The methodology adopted in the field of behaviorism in the study of learning can be said to be based on the principles of:

• Reductionism: learning is based on associative principles and, therefore, complex behavior is the result of the association of simpler behaviors.
• Parsimony: a general mechanism of explanation should be preferred to one that explains a limited range of phenomena (domain-specific learnings are not assumed).
• Experimental control: the experiments are carried out in the laboratory and an attempt is made to minimize the influence of external variables.

The undoubted merit of the behaviorist approach has been that it first approached the study of human behavior from a rigorous theoretical and methodological framework, through objective research methods (Macchi Cassi, Valenza & Simion, 2012).

Behaviorism has never been a psychological school in the strict sense, such as Gestalt: under the roof of the behaviorism coexist deeply different positions characterized by metatheoretical and theoretical options contradictory; think about the methodological behaviorism of Watson and the intentional of Tolman, the deductive and mediational behaviorism of Hull and the descriptive of Skinner, the cognitive behaviorism of Bandura and the social behaviorism of Staats (Moderato and Presti et al., 2013).

There are many behavioral psychologists. There is no single monolithic behaviorism, but as many behaviorisms as its most authorized representatives, linked in some way to this theoretical current (Meazzini and Carnevali, 2019). Here is an overview of the three generations of the most relevant behaviorists:

First generation

• Watson, John Broadus (1878-1958)
• Pávlov, Ivan Petrovič (1849-1936)
• Thorndike, Edward Lee (1874-1949)

Second generation

• Skinner, Burrhus Frederic (1904-1990)
• Guthrie, Edwin Ray (1886-1959)
• Hull, Clark Leonard (1884-1952)
• Tolman, Edward Chace (1886-1959)

Third generation

• Bandura, Albert (1925)
• Staats, Arthur W. (1924)

The approach that more than the others consistently represents the positivist derivative thought orientation is undoubtedly the behaviorism, which dominated the field of psychology for some decades, imposing itself as a scientific reference model (Mantovani et al., 2003). This approach, in which the indications of the Pavlov reflexology and Thorndike's early intuitions, was developed into a complete psychological system, capable to account for all kinds of behaviors of authors such as Watson or Skinner (Mantovani et al., 2003).

Next we will see the main theories of behaviorism. They can stand out three families of behaviorisms important:

1. Methodological behaviorism: This theory of behaviorism refers to the first behaviorism, that of Watson, based essentially on two premises: maintain that psychology is a natural science assimilable to biology, physiology, etc., Y reject introspection as a tool for analyzing psychological data (Meazzini and Carnevali, 2019). From this premise it follows that the only data of interest to psychologists should be behavior, and the study of mental phenomena would be considered superfluous and misleading, far from a correct scientific approach (Meazzini and Carnevali, 2019).
2. Psychological behaviorism: aims to explain human and animal behavior by resorting to physical stimuli, to internal and external responses to the organism, to the learning history lived by the organism and the intervention of reinforcement (Meazzini and Carnevali, 2019). The psychologists who most identified with this form of behaviorism were Thorndike, Watson and Skinner (Meazzini and Carnevali, 2019).
3. Analytical or logical behaviorism: can be considered a philosophical theory, which has as its object the underlying semantics the mental terms or concepts; at the base is the conviction that the mind is just a metaphor, that it adds nothing to the actions carried out by the person (Meazzini and Carnevali, 2019). The most important philosophers who can be part of this behavioral vision were Ryle, Wittgenstein, Russel Quine, etc. (Meazzini and Carnevali, 2019).

Here you will find more information about the behavioral model and classical conditioning.

Some practical examples of behaviorism are the experiments of behavioral psychology:

Little albert

Much of Watson's research dealt with infantile conditioning and the acquisition of irrational fears, and the experiment carried out on his son Albert was famous. conditioned at a young age to be afraid of a white rat: every time the child tried to grab the rat, Watson made a very loud noise (a hammer blow on a steel bar), until (after replicating the experiment at weekly intervals) only by seeing the animal the child showed signs of agitation (Rago, 2018).

Noise is an unconditional stimulus capable of eliciting a fear response itself. By associating noise with another stimulus (the white rat), the child is conditioned to be afraid of the animal (Rago, 2018).

Skinner's box

Skinner's long research activity consisted of laboratory experiments on animals (predominantly rats and pigeons) observed within a cage of the construction of him, the Skinner Box, equipped with a food dispensing device, connected to a lever that allowed its activation (Rago, 2018). When the laboratory rat, free to move inside the cage, encountered the lever, food appeared on a tray; the rat then learned to operate the lever to obtain the food: the compensated behavior was repeated, which Skinner defined as operant conditioning (Rago, 2018).

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• Macchi Cassia, V., Valenza, E., Simion, F., (2012). It sviluppo della mind umana. Dalle teorie classiche ai nuovi orientamenti. Bologna: Il Mulino.
• Mantovani, G., (et al.) (2003). Manuale di Psicologia Sociale. Florence: Giunti.
• Meazzini, P., Carnevali, F., (2019). From behaviorism to behavior theory. Milan: Franco Angeli.
• Miller, H. P., (1983). Theories of Developmental Psychology. New York and Oxford: W. H. Freeman and Co.
• Moderato, P., Presti, G., (et al.) (2013). Cent’anni di behaviorism. Dal manifesto di Watson alla teoria della mente, dalla BT all’ACT. Milan: Franco Angeli.
• Rago, M., (2018). Gli espeimenti nelle scienze sociali. Milan: Franco Angeli.