What is behaviorism: 7 main principles, pros and cons

Behaviorism appeared almost simultaneously with modern psychology at the beginning of the 20th century and today is one of its main directions. Initially, it was a purely theoretical science that studied the behavioral characteristics of humans and animals, but later it became obvious that it was also useful as an applied science. His achievements are used in almost all spheres of human activity - from raising children to politics and economics. Today we will talk about the main ideas of behaviorism, the history of its development and its place in modern psychology.

What is behaviorism?

Behaviorism is a scientific direction in psychology that studies the behavior of people and animals. It is based on the assumption that our behavior is determined primarily by a reaction to external events, both current and deposited in our memories. At the first stages of its formation, behaviorism was guided by the postulates of Ivan Pavlov, known for his work on the study of reflexes in animals and humans.

This term is directly borrowed from the English language, in which the word behaviorism comes from the word behavior.

Early ideas of behaviorism were voiced back at the end of the 19th century, but its concept was first formulated in 1913 by the American psychologist John Brodes Watson (1878 - 1958), who is considered the founder of this movement.

It is important to understand that at that time psychology was a young science, which not everyone accepted, considering its postulates too dubious for a scientific discipline. Watson sought to find principles that would transform psychology into a more precise science based on objective research.

Motives for occurrence

The theory of behaviorism as a science of behavior was formed against the background of criticism of the most common method of introspection that preceded it in the 19th century, based on self-diagnosis and introspection. Doubts about the accuracy of such science were raised by the low level of objectivity of measurements and the strong disparity in the information received. J. Watson wanted to create a branch of psychology in which data could be accurately measured and objectively studied. The philosophical basis of behaviorism was the theory of J. Locke, who believed that a person is born with pure consciousness, and during his life he receives all the necessary experience that determines his state.

Key principles of behaviorism

To better understand what behaviorism is, let us formulate the main theses that clearly define it and indicate its place in modern psychology:

1. The main object of study of behaviorism is behavior and reactions to external stimuli (both in humans and animals).
2. The main tool for collecting information is observation.
3. Behavior determines the entire life activity of a living being.
4. Behavior in behaviorism is always viewed as a reaction to some external motivating factors.
5. Knowing what stimuli are present, one can fairly accurately predict the response.
6. The fundamental goal of behaviorism is to predict the reaction of an individual to circumstances and events.
7. All types of reactions are either inherited (unconditioned reflexes) or acquired (conditioned reflexes).

TOPIC 2. THE BIRTH OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM: “SOCIAL BEHAVIORISM” BY GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

Summary of the lecture

: George Herbert Mead, his life path, features of his intellectual heritage, posthumous publications.
— “Social behaviorism”, its radical difference from the classical behaviorism of J. Watson. — Organism-environment coordinate system. — The concept of “act”. — “Phases” of the act: “impulse”, “perception”, “manipulation” and “consummation”. — Correlation of the Foreign Ministry’s “act” scheme with the “stimulus-response” scheme. — The concept of “I” ( self
), its place in Mead’s concept.
- The ability to treat oneself as an object (as another). — Formation of meanings as acceptance of attitudes. - “I” and “meanings”. — Self-awareness as constant self-reflection (“internal dialogue”). — Sociality of “I”. - “I” as a process. - Two aspects (“phases”) of “I”: “I” and “me”. — The role of I
and
me
in the organization of human behavior.
— The concept of a “problematic situation.” — Mead's concept of socialization. — The role of “significant others.” — Acceptance of the roles (attitudes) of others. — Imitation; play
;
game
. — The installation of the “generalized other” as the “community installation.” — The principle of relativity and the concept of “multiple selves.” — Society as a process of interaction. — Levels of interaction: non-symbolic and symbolic. — The concept of “gesture”. - “Conversation with gestures.” — “Significant symbols.” — “Voice gesture”: the social significance of language. — The significance of Mead’s ideas for the sociology of the twentieth century.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), American philosopher and psychologist, one of the pillars of the philosophy of pragmatism.

Born February 27, 1863 in South Hadley, Co. Massachusetts, in a Puritan family.

Ancestors on the father's side are farmers and priests; the father himself is a pastor.

My maternal ancestors are intellectuals who are actively involved in public life.

Puritan atmosphere in the family: reading serious literature; early interest in social issues.

1897 - entered Oberlin College (Protestant theological college) in Ohio, where the family had moved by this time. The college's curriculum was classically oriented and included the study of ancient languages, rhetoric, literature, moral philosophy, mathematics, elementary chemistry and botany. — After college, Mead had a phenomenal knowledge of poetry and literature, as well as a good knowledge of Latin and Greek (he read ancient philosophers in the original).

1881 - father's death; financial difficulties. Mother taught at college; George continued to study. — Doubts about religious dogma; overcoming the influence of theological doctrines.

1883 - graduation from college. Job search: an unsuccessful attempt to work as a rural teacher. Then: railroad engineer (in Wisconsin, worked for three years). In the winter months he taught: home teacher in the family of William James. I read a lot in my free time.

Autumn 1887 – June 1888 - studying at the Faculty of Philosophy at Harvard. Close collaboration with pragmatist philosophers W. James and Josiah Royce.

1888-1891 — a trip to Germany to study philosophy and psychology (a few words about the significance of such trips for young American intellectuals at the end of the 19th century). Leipzig: introduction to the works of W. Wundt. Berlin: I wanted to defend my dissertation under the guidance of V. Dilthey. In 1891 he married his old friend Helen Castle.

1891 - return to America. Settled in Ann Arbor, pc. Michigan; taught at the Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology. Acquaintance and friendship with John Dewey.

1894 - together with Dewey, he goes to work at the Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology of the newly created University of Chicago; and works there until the last days of his life.

Since 1900 - teaching a course in social psychology (almost all students of the Faculty of Sociology took this course). Little known outside of Chicago. I didn’t attach much importance to my ideas. Few publications, mostly articles.

Mead's fame came after his death, when his students and associates prepared and published his handwritten legacy in book form (not only papers from his archive were used, but also lecture notes made by students). — Later, Herbert Bloomer systematized Mead’s sociological ideas and coined the term “symbolic interactionism” to describe them in 1937.

Posthumous publications:

1932 - “Philosophy of the present” (course of lectures)

1934 - “Mind, Self and Society” (published by C. Morris)

1936 - “Currents of Thought in the Nineteenth Century”

1938 - “Philosophy of the Act” (published by C. Morris)

1956 - “The Social Psychology of George Herbert Mead” (published by Anselm Strauss, republished in 1964 as “G. G. Mead on Social Psychology”).

Mead is considered the founder of symbolic interactionism

.
Mead himself, however, never used the term "symbolic interactionism", defining his social psychological ideas as " social behaviorism ".
Interactionist ideas developed at the beginning of the twentieth century. and other American philosophers, psychologists and social scientists (J. Dewey, W. James, C.H. Cooley, W.A. Thomas, E. Faris, etc.); nevertheless, it was Mead, without any special intention, who played a key role in laying the foundations of later symbolic interactionism. "SOCIAL BEHAVIORISM"

Mead contrasted this concept with the classical behaviorism of John Watson (who also worked at the University of Chicago and with whom Mead was friends). - The basic idea underlying this concept is that human behavior, because it is meaningful, cannot be adequately described using a stimulus-response diagram. - This idea makes Mead in common with other adherents of “understanding sociology.”

Rejecting the behaviorist explanatory framework of stimulus-response, Mead continues to remain within the framework of the general pragmatist frame of reference fundamental to the behavioral approach in psychology: this is the frame of reference of organism-environment .

In this frame of reference, the emphasis is on considering “experience,” the interaction of an “organism” (or “living form”) with an “environment” (“environment”) in which, among other things, other “organisms” are present. - “Behavior”, considered as “interaction”, is interpreted as primary (ultimately) in relation to subjective states, including “mind”, “consciousness”, “ideas”, etc.; "consciousness" is interpreted as merely an aspect (or "phase") of behavior that can only be interpreted in the context of the behavior as a whole, which also includes other aspects ("phases"). — The process of life activity of an “organism” (or “living form”) is a process of continuous interaction with the environment, during which it continuously adapts and re-adapts to this environment.

Instead of the concept of “behavior”, in its strict behaviorist sense, Mead proposes the concept of act , meaning primarily reflexive, meaningful behavior. - This concept is one of the central ones in Mead’s philosophy and is used by him not only for sociological and socio-psychological purposes (Rf.: “Philosophy of the Act”). At the same time, it can be considered fundamental to his socio-psychological concept: the “act” scheme replaces the “stimulus-response” scheme as a scheme that establishes the specificity of meaningful human behavior in comparison with the unreflective response of an animal to its environment.

THE ACT AND ITS “PHASES”

An “act” is defined by Mead as “a continuing event consisting of a stimulus, a reaction, and a result of the reaction.” — “Act” is considered as an integrity in which several aspects (“phases”) can be analytically identified. — In the Foreign Ministry’s scheme of the “act” these “phases” are presented in their logical

sequences, like stages.

"Phases" (stages) of the act:

(1) "impulse";

(2) “perception”;

(3) “manipulation”;

(4) “consummation.”

Impulse : this is a functional urge to action associated with an external stimulus. — An organism immersed in its environment continuously receives “impulses” that encourage it to act, react, and adapt to changes in it.

Perception : this is the central, organizing element of the “act”, consisting in the interpretation of the situation, i.e. in the formation of “objects” and giving them “meanings”, without which a meaningful response to an “impulse” would not be possible. “Here “consciousness” enters the process of action. — “Rehearsal in the imagination” (J. Dewey’s term) is possible here, i.e. the formation of an idea of ​​the “act” as successfully completed, in which its significant elements are orderly connected with each other. - Mead emphasizes that a person reacts not to physical events in the environment as such, but to semantic “objects” constructed by him in “perception”, endowed with certain “meanings”.

Manipulation : direct active intervention in the “environment”, based on those interpretations that are developed in the perception phase, and causing changes in this “environment”.

Consummation : the final phase of the act, including both the direct consumption of the results obtained through manipulation, and the integration of new experience into the already existing system of “percepts”. — In other words, the results of action continuously return to the perception phase, either confirming the interpretation schemes activated in it, or encouraging them to change. — Interpretation schemes are constantly tested during the process of action itself.

The “act” scheme is an analytical construct. Mead does not at all mean that human behavior is mechanically built up from individual “acts” as units or elements. “Act” is thought of by him as a continuous, “ongoing” process

. — Accordingly, the logical sequence of the named stages (“phases”) is in no way empirical. — All “phases” take place simultaneously.

“Perception” -: all its “phases” are present in it at once, as mental “objects” endowed with “meanings”. It is “perception” that transforms the basic mechanisms of human behavior from the simple patterns of direct response to stimuli postulated in behaviorism. — This element so transforms the nature of human interaction with the environment that not a single aspect of this interaction is a simple duplicate of the elements of behavior included in the “stimulus-response” scheme: “impulse” is qualitatively different from “stimulus”, and “manipulation” is from simple "reaction".

History of development

As we have already said, the American psychologist John Watson is considered the founder of behaviorism. He sought to make psychology a more accurate and objective science, studying the properties of the psyche using strict scientific methods. In doing so, he was guided by the work of Ivan Pavlov , who can be considered the predecessor of the theory of behaviorism. It was his studies of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes that formed the basis of this direction.

Watson voiced the fundamental idea of ​​behaviorism: a stimulus provokes a response. Thus, the behavior of each person always depends on external stimuli and how he perceives them. He was confident that his teaching in the future would make every person useful to society and in demand, regardless of innate talents and basic prerequisites.

Subsequently, the baton was picked up by the American psychologist Burres Skinner, who became the main popularizer of the behavioral theory of the 20th century. He developed a large number of research techniques that allow him to analyze behavior, identify patterns in it and compare it with certain external factors. Skinner made a huge contribution not only to the development of behaviorism, but also to its popularization. He positioned this area of ​​psychology as a tool that would transform society, improve the quality of life and cultural level.

The American psychologist Edward Thorndike also made a significant contribution to the development of the scientific field. Subsequently, his developments made it possible to significantly supplement and improve the general theory of behaviorism, but they did not fall into the classical concept, since they took into account the subjective and physiological characteristics of a person. In particular, Thorndike believed that the starting point for the formation of a reaction is not just a stimulus, but a certain situation that evokes a response in a person - positive or negative. In this case, the person reacts, and if the stimulus is indifferent to him, then no reaction will follow.

Behaviorism in psychology

The key idea of ​​this direction of psychology is that all human behavior is a consequence not of thoughts and feelings, but of a reaction to external stimuli. Thus, there must always be a combination of two elements:

• Stimulus. A certain influence of the external world that occurred at the moment or had an impact on a person earlier.
• Reaction. Actions taken to adapt to the impact.

Often there is also a third element – ​​reinforcement. This is an additional factor that can influence a person's decision. There are two possible forms of reinforcement:

• positive (encourages you to react and remember this reaction as correct);
• negative (forces you to refrain from reacting and refrain from it in the future).

Positive reinforcement can be praise or encouragement. Negative: criticism or punishment.

Behaviorists do not consider internal motives as factors determining behavior. At the same time, they do not deny them, but believe that they are extremely difficult to study objectively, and therefore will negatively affect the accuracy of the scientific model. In the very definition of what behaviorism is, there is a statement that it considers only external stimuli and the reactions that follow them.

Behavioral science research has two main goals:

1. Predict a reaction given a stimulus (or set of stimuli).
2. Identify a stimulus by a reaction (or to cause a reaction).

Initially, psychologists believed that human behavior is unpredictable and depends on many internal factors that cannot be taken into account. But after behaviorism became one of the key trends in psychology, the concept changed somewhat. Understanding what stimuli can provoke certain actions allows us not only to predict human behavior, but also to influence it, achieving the desired result.

Key Ideas

Representatives of behaviorism put forward the following main provisions of their theory:

• a person always acts based on the personal usefulness of his behavior, tries to behave in such a way as to gain approval and favor from others;
• behavior that can be observed objectively is a reliable scientific quantity;
• the main task of psychology is to study the mechanisms that stimulate the necessary behavior;
• animals and people always behave one way or another depending on the reactions caused by certain stimuli (stimuli);

• the study of stimulus mechanisms can predict the reaction of an animal or person;
• human reactions are formed only with the help of external influences.

Directions of behaviorism

Within the framework of modern behaviorism, there are quite a few independent directions, but there is no sufficiently accurate classification that would unite them all. Let's consider the most important areas:

1. Methodological. This is classical behaviorism, which is based on the assertion that only external stimuli influence human behavior. He does not take thoughts and feelings into account either as cause or effect.
2. Radical. This direction is based on the approach of Skinner, who considered internal events to be no less important. He believed that they also depend on external stimuli and can influence how a person perceives various circumstances.
3. Theoretical. This movement also takes into account thoughts and feelings that can be observed, analyzed and even quantified thanks to modern technology.
4. Psychological. This direction was founded by the American psychologist Arthur Staats as an applied science designed for practical use. In particular, psychological behaviorism is actively used in children's education, as well as in the development of modern approaches to education.

The essence of the approach

The essence of the behavioral approach is to study and shape human behavior through various stimuli. They can be determined by the environment - an example from life - the experience of a “hungry” time makes a person overly thrifty; or be artificial - for example, an experiment with little Albert, who was artificially made to be afraid of everything white and fluffy. In addition, stimuli can be both physically tangible - extreme heat or cold, physical punishment, frequent hugs; and verbal, coming from the environment - censure or praise. Subjective experiences - emotions, feelings, states - are not denied in behaviorism, but it is believed that they only depend on external influences, and are not determined by them.

Pros and cons of behaviorism

Behaviorism is a well-developed direction in modern psychology with a solid scientific foundation. However, there are certain limitations in its use, since it has both advantages and disadvantages. Practicing psychologists usually take them into account when choosing which tool to use to achieve the best effect.

The main advantages of behaviorism are that it:

• became one of the most important areas in psychology, expanded it, made it possible to make it not only an applied, but also a more objective science;
• has proven to be an effective tool for studying, explaining, predicting, and influencing behavior;
• established behavioral patterns quite reliably.

Opponents of behaviorism criticize it for the following disadvantages :

• consciousness, will, motivation, reflection and other human thought processes are ignored;
• a person is considered as an animal, and all forms of his behavior are considered as a system of instincts and reflexes;
• all behavioral skills come down to basic reactions to stimuli;
• Behaviorism does not explain why a person strives to satisfy the needs at the top of Maslow's pyramid.