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Behaviorism
The core of behaviorism is “Do this and you’ll get that.” The wisdom of this technique is
very rarely held up for inspection; all that is open to question is what exactly people will receive
and under what circumstances it will be promised and delivered. We take for granted that this is
the logical way to raise children, teach students, and manage employees (Kohn 3). Behaviorism
has been around for years, yet some may not have realized that it has a name. Behaviorism was
actually the first psychology that looked at human behavior and how humans actually learned.
Behaviorism is a very popular way of conditioning that has been proven time and time again in
all aspects of our world.
Where did such an extreme view originate, and how did it come to dominate psychology
– especially in the United States – as it did from the 1920s or so until the 1960s? “It was a
rejection of structuralism and its subjectivity, of psychoanalytic theory’s often-murky
observables, and of functionalism’s emphasis upon the conscious mind” (Baucum 7).
Behaviorism, while not considered an educational philosophy, is most often recognized as a
psychological theory about human behavior and learning. In their studies, behaviorists focus only
on observable human behavior and discount mental processes. They believe that all behavior is
learned, and they believe that new learning is a result of acquiring new behavior patterns by
means of environmental conditioning (Ozmon & Craver 208). Although behaviorism totally
ignores thought processes, it does consider positive and negative reinforcement to encourage and
produce desired behavior.
Behaviorism and its main ideas can be characterized as a type of psychology that
examines the overt, observable actions and reactions of an individual. Instead of looking at the
mind, behaviorists study the unbiased, environmental conditions that influence a person’s
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behavior. Behaviorism holds that the subject matter of human psychology is the behavior of the
human being. “Behaviorism claims that consciousness is neither a definite nor a usable concept.
The behaviorist, who has been trained always as an experimentalist, holds, further, that belief in
the existence of consciousness goes back to the ancient days of superstition and magic” (Watson
2). Behavior theorists define learning as a more or less permanent change in behavior.
Behaviorists believe that human behavior can be understood by studying particular
behaviors. “Behaviorists think human traits such as personality, character, and integrity are not
internally determined by each individual, but are the results of behaving in certain ways and are
established through behavior patterns which are developed through environmental conditioning”
(Ozmon & Craver 208). Behaviorists also believe that we have no right to project our feelings or
ideas onto the subjects that we investigate. For example, if a person gives a piece of meat to a
dog, it is legitimate to describe the dog’s behavior (i.e., the animal jumps up, drools, opens its
mouth, and eats the meat). However, it is not legitimate to say that the dog “likes” the meat since
that projects the attitudes or feelings of the human onto the dog, and there is no evidence to
support the statement (Pulliam & Van Patten 169).
Behaviorism started back in 400 B.C. with Aristotle and was the most dominant learning
theory in the first half of the 20th century. Behaviorism has roots in several philosophical
traditions. It is grounded in realism, especially the materialistic brand, which maintains that
behavior is caused by environmental conditions. “Instead of concentration on mind or
consciousness, behaviorists look at observable facts, capable of empirical verification” (Pulliam
& Van Patten 38).
Ivan Pavlov, (1849-1936) considered to be the father of the conditioning theory, strongly
influenced the behaviorist movement by his studies of conditioned reflexes in humans and
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animals (Gray 2). Born in pre-Soviet Russia, he was an eminent experimental psychologist and
physiologist. He found that when a bell is rung each time a dog is fed, the dog is conditioned to
associate the sound of the bell with food. Consequently, when the bell is sounded, the dog
physiologically anticipates food. “Pavlov was also a strong opponent, throughout his life, of the
Freudian interpretation of neuroses” (Ozmon & Craver 210).
Pavlov considered only conditioned reflex behavior, whereas modern behaviorists use
operant conditioning that includes action on the part of the organism being conditioned. The
organism can act to change its environment, and the resulting changes reinforce the behavior of
the organism in some way. “The modern view tends more toward a two-way flow, while Pavlov
showed it only one way. Nevertheless, his pioneering was of crucial importance” (Ozmon &
Craver 210).
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) began a series of learning experiments with animals.
After a series of trial and error activities, the animal would chance upon the “solution” that
released food. Further trials in the same puzzle box resulted in the animal’s making the proper
response more rapidly than at first. This led Thorndike to his “law of effect,” which he also
extended to human activity. He found a very strong effect from rewards but also discovered that
punishment was a less effective means for the control of behavior. Following Pavlov’s lead,
Thorndike assumed a connection between stimuli and responses. If stimulus A is known to be
associated with response B, repeat A until B is produced without hesitation whenever A occurs.
Teachers rapidly accepted Thorndike’s laws of learning, which they found to be highly useful
devices for classroom instruction (Pulliam & Van Patten 169).
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Thorndike was one of the first to understand that education and psychology were closely
linked. “Psychology forms the foundation for the science of education, and schools furnish
subjects and data sources for psychological research” (Pulliam & Van Patten 169).
John B. Watson, (1878-1958) considered the “Founder of Behaviorism,” repudiated the
introspective method in psychology as delusive and unscientific. He relied solely on an
observational technique restricted to behavior. He believed that fears are conditioned responses
to the environment. In experiments, he conditioned people to be fearful and then deconditioned
them. “He thought of the environment as the primary shaper of behavior and maintained that if
he could control a child’s environment he could then engineer that child into any kind of person
desired” (Ozmon & Craver 211). In an experiment to prove his point on the matter, Watson
performed an interesting experiment. After studying infants at Johns Hopkins Hospital in
Baltimore, Watson stated, that if he were given a child with a healthy body, he could mold that
child into any kind of expert he chose. He said:
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, to bring them up in any way I
choose and I’ll guarantee you to take any one at random and train him to become
any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and
yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies,
abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors (Hamachek 18).
Watson held that environment is far more important than heredity in the determination of human
behavior. He rejected innate ideas and most instincts. His experiments with infants caused him to
conclude that almost all emotional responses are learned. “Watson held that if the environment
could be strictly controlled, any normal child could be raised to be a mechanic, an athlete, a
professional person, or a thief” (Pulliam & Van Patten 170).
“Watson believed that psychology should be confined to those activities that could be
verified by an outside observer” (Pulliam & Van Patten 169). He also thought that psychologists
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should study only directly observable behavior, not mental processes and consciousness
(Staddon 4). Watson argued that animals, including humans, will work toward things that aid
their survival and reproduction (ex: food, water, sex) and avoid things that harm them. He
believed that humans were simply more complicated than animals but operated on the same
principles. He was responsible for many experiments – some of which included animals and
humans (i.e. Kerplunk Experiment and the experiment involving Baby Albert). “Watson was
very influential, and the strong movement in American psychology toward behaviorism is often
directly attributed to him” (Ozmon & Craver 211).
Born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) taught
psychology at the University of Minnesota and Indiana University before returning to Harvard,
where he had taken his Ph.D. Earning a reputation as one of the most important contemporary
psychologists, his work on animal behavior is a major contribution to knowledge (Pulliam &
Van Patten 38).
Skinner believed that the importance lies in human behavior and how it makes us what
we are. Perhaps the most accurate description of Skinner’s view is that we are both controller
and controlled. “Another way of putting it is that, in a very real sense, we are our own makers”
(Ozmon & Craver 217).
“He believed that reinforcement follows behavior; it does not precede it (even though
most human behavior is conditioned by previous reinforcement)”(Ozmon & Craver 214).
Behavior develops in directions that are positively reinforced; consequently, we should be
controlling, devising, or using contingences that reinforce desired behaviors. “Skinner thought
that if we want to change culture or individuals, we must change behavior, and the way to
change behavior is to change the contingencies (i.e. culture or social environment)”(Ozmon &
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Craver 214). Skinner took the possibilities of his theories into the area of social and cultural
reform. “He saw behavioral engineering as applicable on a global scale, maintaining that it is
possible to solve problems of hunger, warfare, and economic upheaval if we will do so through
the development of technology of behavior” (Ozmon & Craver 228). Although best known for
his programmed instruction derived from the principles of operant conditioning based on
laboratory experiments with animals, Skinner has moved behavioral engineering into the realm
of utopian planning, the nature of humankind, social values and a definition of the good life
(Pulliam & Van Patten 38).
Many people argue that the aim of behavioral engineering is to turn out robots, people
who are at the beck and call of others who control them. “Skinner countered that this is not true;
for when we look around at our present world, we find that most people are controlled by forces
of which they are unconscious” (Ozmon & Craver 223).
“People act to improve the world and to progress toward a better way of life for good
reasons, and among the reasons are certain consequences of their behavior, and among these
consequences are the things people value and call good” (Skinner 103).
A person’s behavior is at least to some extent his own achievement. He is free to
deliberate, decide, and act, possibly in original ways, and he is to be given credit for his
successes and blamed for his failures. “In the scientific view (and the word is not necessarily
honorific) a person’s behavior is determined by a genetic endowment traceable to the
evolutionary history of the species and by the environmental circumstances to which as an
individual he has been exposed” (Skinner 101). Neither view can be proved, but it is in the
nature of scientific inquiry that the evidence should shift in favor of the second. “As we learn
more about the effects of the environment, we have less reason to attribute any part of human
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behavior to autonomous controlling agent. And the second view shows a marked advantage
when we begin to do something about behavior” (Skinner 102). “Autonomous man is not easily
changed; in fact, to the extent that he is autonomous, he is by definition not changeable at all.
But the environment can be changed, and we are learning how to change it” (Skinner 103).
Skinner was a strong advocate of education, although many critics argue that what he
meant by education is not education but ‘training’” (Ozmon & Craver 223). Skinner charged that
much of what passes for education is not good education because it is not reinforcing, it does not
properly motivate students to progress, and does not deal with immediate reinforcement.
Skinner thought that one of the most effective kinds of instruction may be done through
the use of teaching machines, including small computers. He is often referred to as the “father of
the teaching machine” and has done significant research in this area. The questions in a teaching
machine are interrelated and are usually arranged in sequences of increasing complexity.
“Skinner thought that learning should take place in small steps and succeeding questions should
have some relationship to the preceding ones. He preferred that students have nothing by
success” (Ozmon & Craver 225).
Skinner recommended the use of programmed instruction, which is simply a system of
breaking down information into small parts and organizing it in a way that students can
understand. While teaching machines are not necessary, Skinner believed that the computer is
the best teaching machine because students are actively involved in their work and are not
passive. Furthermore, students can work at their own pace through carefully selected
instructional programs that provide immediate feedback as reinforcement (Bigge & Shermis
111).
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Many critics charge that Skinner’s theories belittle and limit humanity, but there is a
strong argument that his views are optimistic, holding the promise that we can become
practically anything through proper behavioral engineering. The principles of behaviorism and
the techniques of behavioral engineering go back at least to Pavlov and Watson, but B.F. Skinner
pioneered their implementation in many fields of contemporary life. “Skinner saw behaviorism
extending into politics, economics, and other social organizations. He strongly championed it as
an educational method that is more practical and produces greater results than any other”
(Ozmon & Craver 221). Skinner viewed the educational processes as one of the chief ways of
designing a culture, and his attention was also directed at numerous other institutions. He
believed that positive reinforcement can induce us to begin to alter and control our schools and
other institutions. “It has grown in popularity and is used frequently, particularly in areas of
special education and with disadvantaged children” (Ozmon & Craver 221).
Although many people disapprove of the concept of behavioral engineering, it has
increasingly become part of our educational process. One might even argue that conditioning has
always gone on in education, though it has not been labeled as such. Teachers have conditioned
students to sit up straight and to be quiet through looks, grades, and physical punishment
(Ozmon & Craver 221).
Behaviorism has been increasingly used in education since the 1960s, and many
educators are zealous supporters of the behavioral techniques that they are using in their
classroom. “Behaviorism is based on the assumption that teachers can adequately describe what
people do in terms of observable behaviors and that these behaviors are acquired through
experience via simple conditioning or learning” (Jacobsen 31). The behaviorist model is
extremely mechanistic – a concept of teaching based on the use of measurement (testing) to
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determine deficiencies and accomplishments and the use of reinforcement to teach specific
objectives (Spring 321). In such areas as special education, teachers find the concept of
immediate reinforcement particularly useful in controlling and directing children with motor and
mental handicaps (Ozmon & Craver 228).
Behaviorists view the child as a highly conditioned organism even before entering
school. Whatever has gone on before, including contradiction in the values exhibited by parents
or the environmental control of institutions such as churches, will have an impact on the school
environment. Since teachers must engage in the modification of behavior, it is important that
they know what goals they wish to achieve and how to reach them with efficiency. “Skinner does
not see this process as evil but as a means for expanding possibilities and developing a
preference for a better kind of civilization” (Pulliam & Van Patten 39).
Many people see education and conditioning as two different things. Education
presumably represents a free mind being exposed to ideas that one may look upon critically and
accept or not accept, whereas conditioning is seen to represent the implementation of certain
specific ideas in the pupil’s mind with or without her critical consent. Skinner, however, drew no
distinction between education and conditioning. He did not feel that the mind is free to begin
with. “Whatever kinds of critical judgment or acceptance of ideas students make are already
predicated on ideas with which they have been previously conditioned” (Ozmon & Craver 222).
Obviously, there are many strengths of behaviorism for it to be so admired. Behaviorism
clearly states one’s objectives, which allows the learner to focus on one goal. The success of the
desired outcome is easily measurable and specific learning is guaranteed. Cueing responses to
behavior allows the learner to react in a predictable way under certain conditions. A big strength
of behaviorism and the resulting social learning and social cognitive theories are their ease of
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application to real world examples. Information gathered for learning theories such as these are
often represented by statistics and facts, rather than theoretical concepts and ideas. Therefore,
applying them and measuring the outcome is much simpler.
In spite of behaviorism’s popularity and success, there are many criticisms against it. It is
said that behaviorism sees the human being as an automaton instead of a creature of will and
purpose. Critics believe that behaviorism limits one’s retention unless it is reinforced. Behavior
or responses are reinforced by repetition, as well as positive and negative reinforcers. However,
it is very difficult for a single educator to appropriately and individually reinforce thirty or more
learners at the same time. Critics claim that behaviorism limits one’s learning by association. The
learner sees much of the information as irrelevant to his everyday life. Students are unable to put
the pieces together and apply them to other situations. It is also said that a negative side to
behaviorism is that the learner is usually externally motivated. Motivation for correctly
responding to a stimulus is directly related to the time between the response and the
reinforcement.
After discovering the many regions of behaviorism, the writer discovered that
behaviorism is found in the core of parenting, education, the military, as well as the work force.
Our world is constantly changing, however one thing seems to remain the same. We are all
conditioned one way or another. Humans, as well as animals, seem to follow certain guidelines
that have been programmed into their being. As Watson argued, humans, as well as animals, will
do what they have to do to survive and avoid things that will hurt them. Why does this happen? It
all relates to BEHAVIORISM!
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Works Cited
Baucum, Don. “The Origins of Behaviorism.” Behavioral and Social Science:Psychology. New
York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 1999.
Bigge, Morris L., and S. Samuel Shermis. Learning Theories for Teachers. 5th ed. New York:
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1992.
Gray, Jeffrey A. Ivan Pavlov. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Hamachek, Don. Psychology in Teaching, Learning, and Growth. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, 1990. Jacobsen, David A. “Behaviorism in the Classroom.” Philosophy in
Classroom Teaching: Bridging the Gap. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall, 2003.
Kohn, Alfie. “Skinner-Boxed: The Legacy of Behaviorism.” Punished by Rewards: The Trouble
with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s , Praise, and Other Bribes. New York: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1993.
Ozmon, Howard, and Samuel Craver. “Behaviorism and Education.” Philosophical Foundations
of Education, 5th ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1995.
Pulliam, J. D., and Van Patten, J. J. History of Education in America. 7th ed. New Jersy: Merrill
Prentice Hall, 1991.
Skinner, B. F. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1971.
Spring, Joel. The American School 1642-1985. New York: Longman Inc., 1986.
Staddon, John. The New Behaviorism: Mind, Mechanism, and Society. Philadelphia: Psychology
Press, 2001.
Watson, John B. Behaviorism. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1930.
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