American psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1990) is considered the father of behaviorism, and his theory continues to have a significant influence on psychology and culture at large. The following are several philosophical notions underlying behavioristic psychology:

Pragmatism

Skinner stressed a pragmatic approach to psychology, stating that a “proposition is “true” to the extent that with its help the listener responds effectively to the situation it describes”; what is true is that which “yields the most effective action possible” (1974, 235).

The rationale for Skinner’s (1971) approach was that a culture depends on successful control over conditions that threaten it. External environmental factors are at the heart of this approach. For example, the environment explains why an individual drinks a glass of water. This behavior can be altered and controlled by manipulating variables such as room temperature, exercise, and the amount of salt ingested. In a classroom setting, pupils’ behaviors and actions are shaped entirely by external factors, such as the class environment and rewards.

Behaviorism stresses reward and punishment. In the classroom example, a reward can be an incentive encouraging good behavior (prizes, sweets, etc.) offered at the end of the week for the pupils or, alternatively, a punishment by removing such possibilities.

Determinism and Predictability

Behaviorism focuses on “what an organism is doing,” and the answer is found in observing an organism’s relations with its environment (Skinner 1938, 6). The behaviorist reduces human activity to two factors: stimulus and response, both of which are interpreted in terms of empirical science. Science stresses the idea of predictability. J. B. Watson (1878–1958), the founder of behaviorism as a school of psychology, wrote that,

“The goal of psychological study is the ascertaining of such data and laws, that, given the stimulus, psychology can predict what the responses will be; or, on the other hand, given the response, it can specify the nature of the effective stimulus” (Watson 1983, 10).

“If we are to use the methods of science in the field of human affairs, we must assume that behavior is lawful and determined” (Skinner 2012, 6).

“To have a science of psychology at all, we must adopt the fundamental postulate that human behavior is a lawful datum, that it is undisturbed by the capricious acts of any free agent—in other words, that it is completely determined” (Skinner 1947, 23).

“Man is a machine in the sense that he is a complex system behaving in lawful ways, but the complexity is extraordinary” (Skinner 1971, 202).

“If we have achieved a true scientific understanding of man, we should be able to prove this in the actual prediction and control of his behavior” (Skinner 1972, 259).

Determinism is what Skinner believed enabled human behavior to be understood scientifically. This was considered one of the primary goals of science. The individual is therefore not beyond the bounds of controlling factors. If the environment in which an individual lives is changed or adjusted, the result would be an alteration in his thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Materialism

Skinner rejected dualism, which asserts that the world consists of two fundamental realms: the physical (body and matter) and the nonphysical (mind or spirit). Instead, behavior is entirely determined by the environment. This materialistic philosophy rejects a non-physical world and only affirms the physical world.

“[My] position can be stated as follows: what is felt or introspectively observed is not some nonphysical world of consciousness mind, or mental life but the observer’s own body” (1974, 17).

Additionally, there is nothing unique about the human being who exists within the physical world: “A small part of the universe is contained within the skin of each of us. There is no reason why it should have any special physical status because it lies within this boundary” (1974, 21).

Reductionism

Skinner believed that psychology could be reduced to biology and physics: “Eventually, we may assume, the facts and principles of psychology will be reducible not only to physiology but through biochemistry and chemistry to physics and subatomic physics” (1947, 31).

This would establish psychology as an empirical science in which human behavior is explained reductively and solely through the individual’s interaction with the environment rather than internal states and feelings, which behaviorists generally consider unmeasurable and therefore irrelevant. All behavior, regardless of complexity, can be broken down into the fundamental processes of conditioning.

Radical Empiricism

Watson’s radical empiricism led him to reject anything that could not be observed from outside the individual. This led him to dismiss human consciousness as having a place in psychology, which he asserted in no uncertain terms.

“The time seems to have come when psychology must discard all reference to consciousness; when it need no longer delude itself into thinking that it is making mental states the object of observation” (1913, 163).

“This suggested elimination of states of consciousness as proper objects of investigation in themselves will remove the barrier from psychology which exists between it and other sciences. The findings of psychology become the functional correlates of structure and lend themselves to explanation in physical-chemical terms” (1913, 177).

“Psychology, as the behaviorist views it, is a purely objective, experimental branch of natural science which needs introspection as little as do the sciences of chemistry and physics. It is granted that the behavior of animals can be investigated without appeal to consciousness” (1913, 176).

“Psychology as a science of consciousness has no community of data. The reader will find no discussion of consciousness and no reference to such terms as sensation, perception, attention, image, will and the like… I frankly do not know what they mean, nor do I believe that anyone can use them consistently” (quoted by Wolman 2012, 77).

References

Delprato, Dennis., and Midgley, B. 1992. “Some Fundamentals of B. F. Skinner’s Behaviorism”. American Psychologist 47(11):1507-1520.

Skinner, B. F. 1938. The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis. Appleton-Century.

Skinner, B. F. 1947. “Experimental Psychology”. In Current trends in Psychology, edited by Wayne Dennis, 16-49. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Skinner B. F. 1971. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Skinner, B. F. 1974. About Behaviorism. New York: Knopf.

Skinner, B. F. 2012. Science And Human Behavior. Free Press.

Watson, J. B. 1913. “Psychology as the behaviorist views it”. Psychological Review 20(2):158-177.

Watson, J. B. 1983. Psychology, from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist. F. Pinter.

Wolman, Benjamin. 2012. Contemporary Theories and Systems in Psychology. Springer US.