At a very basic level, psychology is concerned with what people think (cognition) and what they do (behavior). Nowadays, cognitive and behavior are both embraced by most psychologists, as evidenced by the fact that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most popular therapy treatments around. For decades in the 20th century, however, the cognitive-behavioral split defined the field of psychology.
A definition of behaviorism
Behaviorism is “a doctrine — a way of doing psychological science itself”, and a behaviorist is “someone who demands behavioral evidence for any psychological hypothesis. For such a person, there is no knowable difference between between two states of mind (beliefs, desires, etc.) unless there is a demonstrable difference in the behavior associated with each state” (Graham, 2016). Fundamentally, behaviorists believe that behavior should be the main focus of psychology, either because it is more relevant to the study of humans or simply because it is easier to study than cognition.
The beginnings of behaviorism
If behaviorism has a founder, it’s John B. Watson (Spence, 1948). At the time (around the 1910s), this “new brand of psychology … proposed to break with tradition and deny that psychology had anything to do either with a mentalistic entity called consciousness or a method known as introspection”. In other words, it was a conceptualization of psychology which focused solely on behavior.
Watson’s early behaviorism was defined by his Little Albert experiment published in 1920 (Watson & Rayner, 1920). Along with Rosalie Rayner, Watson was able to establish specific phobias in a baby (the famous Little Albert). They simply paired loud noises with animals that Little Albert was not scared of, including a rabbit, a rat, a dog, and a monkey. Through classical conditioning (as outlined in Pavlov, 1927, making Pavlov another hugely influential figure in early behaviorism), they were able to establish a fear of all of these things in Little Albert. This is one of the defining experiments of early behaviorism.
B.F. Skinner and radical behaviorism
At risk of simplifying decades of history (this is a brief overview of behaviorism, after all), the next major development in behaviorism (or at least behaviorism’s popularity) came from B.F. Skinner’s radical behaviorism. Radical behaviorism was Skinner’s re-declaration that behavior should be the sole focus of psychology, not mental states. To Skinner and other behaviorists, their “objection” to focusing on cognition and thoughts instead of behavior in psychology “is not that these things are mental but that they offer no real explanation and stand in the way of more effective analysis” (Skinner, 1963).
Skinner’s main contribution (well, arguably) to psychology is operant conditioning. Pavlov’s classical conditioning takes an unconditioned stimulus (like food) that naturally elicits an unconditioned response (like a dog’s drooling), pairs it with a conditioned stimulus (like a bell), and eventually the conditioned stimulus elicits the now-conditioned response of drooling. Skinner’s operant conditioning, on the other hand, takes a response (like a rat pressing a lever) and pairs it with a consequence (like a food reward) in order to strengthen that response. In classical conditioning, the involuntary response follows the stimulus, while in operant conditioning the voluntary response precedes the consequence. Furthermore, classical conditioning aims to strengthen an association between a stimulus and a response, while operant conditioning aims to increase the likelihood of a response.
Modern behaviorism
Nowadays, modern behaviorists reflect Skinner’s belief that whether or not cognition is an important part of psychology, behavior is more practical to study. Cognitive psychology is much more popular now than it was during Skinner’s heyday, and advances in brain imaging and neuroscience have mad cognition easier to study concretely. Behaviorism still plays a role in the aforementioned CBT, as well as other treatments, though, and will always be an important part of the field of psychology.
References
Herrnstein, R.J. (1977). Evolution of Behaviorism. American Psychologist, 32(8), 593-603. doi:10.1037//0003-066X.32.8.593
Graham, G., “Behaviorism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/behaviorism/.
Pavlov, I.P. (1927). Conditional Reflexes. New York: Dover Publications.
Skinner, B.F. (1963). Behaviorism At 50. Science, 140(357), 951-958. doi:10.1126/science.140.3570.951
Spence, K.W. (1948). The Postulates and Methods of Behaviorism. Psychological Review, 55(2), 67-78. doi:10.1037/h0063589
Watson, J.B., Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3(1), 1-14. doi:10.1037/h0069608
