Behaviorism

Definition

• Behaviorism first of all is a paradigm in research methodology.

• In Psychology and Education, behaviorism refers to approaches that study humans by (manipulating) and observing their behavior, usually in well controlled situations.

• Neo-behaviorism that is more popular in education asserts that thought could be conceptualized with intervening variables (see also: cognitivism).

The early years of behaviourism

The birth of behaviourism intended in a scientific manner can be dated in 1913, when John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) gave a lecture in which he claimed for a drastic revisioning of the aim and method of psychological research. According to him, psychology had to become "an experimental branch of natural science", oriented towards the study, the prediction and the control of behaviour.

As a consequence, introspective analysis took second place and behaviour was considered the unique parameter able to express the real psychology of a man, independently from the existence of any consciousness. In addition, this new theory equates man and animal, which fundamentally would follow the same behavioural scheme, even if man has developed more refined and elaborated forms of life.

After being included in the first chapter of Behaviour: A textbook of Comparative Psychology, Watson’s lecture became to all intents and purposes the “behaviourist manifesto”. Thus, we can consider February 24, 1913 as the day on which "modern behaviourism was born", even though this fact has been fairly emphasized by Watson’s followers, which for sure were enraptured by the overwhelming charisma demonstrated by Watson “the behaviourist” (on that occasion Watson solemnly spoke about him in the third person).

Moreover, Watson himself contributed to the wide circulation of his theory in different ways: by exploiting his relevant role as a professor of psychology at Hopkins University; by editing many writings about this subject-matter; and by redacting articles on newspapers. The interruption of his academic career in 1920 and the withdrawal from the active debate in the early 1930s did not blocked the diffusion of his ideas, which briefly drew the academic world’s attention.

Indeed, Watson was not the first to oppose behaviourism to the concept of introspection; and nor he was the first to adopt the unitary, objective and experimental method in the observation of behaviour. As many studies on the subject-matter had already been accomplished by the time in which Watson wrote his manifesto, we can say that his contribution was not so innovative and revolutionary as many followers state it was.

Nevertheless, we can avoid giving Watson credit for semantically and geographically extending the study of behaviourism during the 1920s, above all utilizing as attractive element the antagonism towards the mentalism in psychological theory. However, it is necessary to say that many behaviourists conceived theories which differed or went beyond Watson’s one, because under the leadership of brilliant professors, many universities (Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Missouri, Ohio State, Minnesota, etc.) developed their own conceptions about behaviourism, generating many elaborated alterations to Watson’s originary thought.

The union of all these contributions determined the premises for the strengthening of the behaviourist discipline inside the American psychology; a discipline that attracted many young interested in the objectivism. As a result, “by the mid-1930s American psychology had become the science of behaviour, and behaviourism, methodological and/or theoretical, had become its dominant orientation”.

Behaviorist educational psychology

• Behaviorist psychology considers the human brain as a blackbox that can't be accessed. Learning is considered as process of stimulus-response that one can observe and manipulate.

Behaviorist Pedagogy

• Behaviorist pedagogy aims to modify observable behavior and considers learning behavior that shows acquisition of knowledge or skills.

• Most behaviorist pedagogy, i.e. related instructional design models are actually neo-behavorist

• See also the article on learning type, e.g. levels of learning

Examples

• Gagne's Nine events of instruction, a partly behaviorist, partly cognitivist model.

• See also the whole range of instructional design models.

References

Wozniak, R. (1997). Behaviourism: the early years. Retrieved Sunday 3, 2006 from [1]