The Behaviourist Approach

The Behaviourist Approach

1. Developed at the beginning of the 20th Century

2. It began as a reaction to the ideas of the time (e.g. introspection and psychoanalysis) that concentrated on the mind

3. John Broadus Watson

   • In 1913 wrote an article entitiled 'Psychology as the Behaviourist views it' in which he stated that psychologists should "never use the term consciousness, mental states, introspectively verify, imagery and like"
   • Established a key principle of Behaviourism, studying only visible and observable behaviour
   • Wished psychology to be a science comparable to biology or chemistry.
   • Attacked the idea of innate or instinctive factors e.g. inherited factors
   • "Give me a dozen healthy infants and I'll guarentee to take any one at random, and train him to become any type of specialist I might select... regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors"

4. Behaviourism is concerned with the learning of all behaviour, which occurs through conditioning

   • Classical Conditioning
   • Operant Conditioning

5. For Behaviourists, there is "no dividing line between man and brute" The behaviour of man, with all its refinement and complexity, forma only a part of the behaviourist's total scheme of investigation

6. Studying non-human animals makes sense if we and animals are the same

7. Radical Behaviourism presented human behaviour as entirely determined by past experiences and conditioning

8. B.F. Skinner

   • Developed his ideas further in the science-fiction book 'Walden 2'; originally written in 1945
     • He presented a 'behaviourally engineered' utopia where Operant Conditioning was used to control society
       • Through applying the principles of reward and punishment, everybody had food, clothing and shelter, worked 4 hours a day and lived peacefully together

9. Other forms of behaviourism include:

   • Methodological Behaviourism
     • Takes the view that all approaches in psychology use some aspects behaviourism
   • Neo-Behaviourism
     • Attempts to include cognitive processes and ideas