Definition
Behaviorism is widely used to refer to the philosophy of a science of behavior. More specifically, within the field of psychology, behaviorism explains responses of humans and other animals only in relation to environmental stimuli and observable and measurable responses to those stimuli. There are various forms of behaviorism: structuralism; behaviorism that uses cognition as causal factors (e.g., cognitive behavior modification); social learning theory, in addition to methodological behaviorism; and radical behaviorism. In his text, About Behaviorism, B. F. Skinner (1974) wrote: “Behaviorism is not the science of human behavior, it is the philosophy of that science” (Cooper et al. 2007).
Historical Background
Prior to the introduction of behavioral science, the field of psychology consisted of the study of states of mind and mental processes. There are four historical building blocks of behaviorism: classical conditioning as presented by Pavlov, Thorndike’s law of effect,...
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References and Readings
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Mason, S.A. (2017). Behaviorist Theory. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_143-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_143-3
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