What is behaviorism and what it can teach us

What is behaviorism

This is a branch of psychology that studies only objective observable phenomena in human behavior (primarily reactions to stimuli), and not subjective ones like feelings or consciousness. According to behaviorism, the stimulus-response relationship determines all of our actions and actions.

This concept arose on the basis of the work of the Russian biologist Ivan Pavlov on conditioned reflexes. Inspired by his writings, psychologist John Watson wrote an article on the principles of behaviorism in 1913. The American suggested looking at a person in a new way through observable phenomena: stimuli, reflexes and instincts.

Since feelings, motives, consciousness and reason cannot be investigated experimentally, their behaviorists consider them unknowable. They also oppose considering any inner experience, calling it subjective. It is only important how a person reacts to the world around him, and not what he thinks about it.

So the behaviorists wanted to give psychology more weight and translate it into the category of natural sciences. And in many ways it worked out. For example, the proponents of this approach were able to use mathematical and statistical methods, as well as to confirm the results of experiments with repeated experiments.

In the wake of the rise of evidence-based science in the first half of the 20th century, behaviorism became very popular, especially in the United States.

Why behaviorism has been criticized

From the very beginning, the approach was very limited. Behaviorism completely ruled out the factor of heredity, ignored the role of thinking and decision-making processes, and did not consider the discoveries of neurobiology to be significant.

Representatives of the latter, for example, found that the areas of the brain that reinforce certain behavior do not coincide with the areas responsible for our pleasure. Therefore, even in animals, feeding does not always lead to learning new skills, or, more simply, training.

Behaviorists also believed that there were no differences in the behavior of humans and animals. This played a cruel joke with them, because most of their experiments were carried out on rats, and the results extended to human behavior. Of course, this approach is not entirely scientific.

Therefore, today behaviorism in its pure form is practically not used.

What behaviorism can teach us

Despite criticism, some of its provisions have not lost their relevance.

1. The environment affects us strongly

This principle, even today, when behaviorism is more than 100 years old, remains one of the fundamental in psychology. Psychologists find sources of complexes, fears and worries in external causes.

The environment largely determines our actions. For example, one of the most famous behaviorists, Bernes Frederick Skinner, believed that a person remembers the reaction of the environment to his behavior, and then acts in one way or another, depending on the possible consequences. That is, we learn which conditions lead to a positive result, and which to a negative one, and we act accordingly. Therefore, if you want to remain yourself, do not forget to analyze your actions: did you really do what you wanted, and were there any outside factors.

2. People's behavior can be influenced

Behaviorists too absolutized the idea of external influence on human behavior and practically denied the role of personality. For example, they stated that in completely controlled conditions they could raise anyone from a child. Moreover, his innate abilities, inclinations and desires should not have much importance.

Today we know that this is not the case. For example, children in orphanages are brought up in approximately the same social conditions, but they still have different characters.

Nevertheless, there is some truth in the views of behaviorists. For example, with annoying ads, marketers can 1. R

2. to form our desire to purchase a product. In fact, this is a slightly more complex stimulus-response relationship: the hero of the commercial repeatedly calls for the purchase of a product, and we have an idea of the need for it. So you need to be more careful about such thoughts - it is quite possible that such spending is not so necessary.

3. You need to fight not with the consequences, but with the cause of psychological problems

The focus on finding the source of problems, rather than on correcting the consequences, was adopted by cognitivists. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is based on this principle. It helps a person to change their habits, behavior and thoughts so as not to experience negative psychological effects. For example, worrying about other people's behavior.

4. Encouragement works, but punishment is not very good

The reward reinforces certain actions, and the punishment repels them from them. This is how the grading system works.

However, the behaviorists have offered a slightly more sophisticated view. Skinner wrote that the carrot is more important than the stick. The psychologist believed that the reward best stimulates a person, and punishment does not turn away from bad deeds, but only makes them look for other ways to commit them. For example, learning to lie. Therefore, if you want to develop good habits in yourself or in someone else and minimize bad ones, use praise more actively.