Behaviorism:After the Founding

Behaviorism as the third force in psychology have started out as a theoretical proposition of John B . Watson when he came out with Psychology as The Behaviorist Views It ' and have been known as the behaviorist manifesto (Benjamin , 1997 . Watson proposed that psychology is the study of behavior and have put forth four major assumptions that form the tenets of behaviorism as a school of thought . The first assumption is that of evolutionary continuity which means that the laws of behavior are applicable to all living organisms . This assumption has substantiated the

behaviorist 's use of animals in the study of human behavior . The second assumption is that of reductionism , this refers to the behaviorist 's belief that all behaviors have a physiological basis and that behavior is the body 's reaction to a stimulus . The third assumption is determinism , behaviorists support the idea that animals respond to external stimuli in specific ways and are inherently programmed into one 's brain from birth . The last assumption is empiricism which is one of the cornerstones of behaviorism and that it is the contention that only overt actions or behavior are measurable and observable and lend itself to the scientific method . Thus , to the behaviorist , psychology should be the study of overt behavior B .F . Skinner was a self-confessed convert to behaviorism after reading Watson 's monograph he was also influenced by the experimental studies of Ivan Pavlov (Bjork , 1997 . Skinner developed a theory that was based on the classical conditioning paradigm of Pavlov and integrated it with his own definition of behaviorism . Skinner 's major work is his theory of operant conditioning , wherein he said that behavior can be conditioned through reinforcement and behavior diminishes when it is not reinforced He borrowed from Pavlov the basic idea of conditioning , but instead of limiting it to a stimulus-response paradigm , he incorporated the importance of rewards and punishment , which means that behavior is not only exhibited as a response to a stimulus but also as a form of association between the reinforcement given after the behavior Skinner 's theoretical position made it obvious that he deviated from Watson 's radical behaviorism , because conditioning a she defined it involves cognition which Watson has strongly eradicated from his propositions . Moreover , the emphasis given to reinforcements and punishments hint at the need to acknowledge mental processes in the study of behavior Skinner 's work was well received by the academic community much even that Watson 's initial was and this have spurned the interest of like minded psychologists who did support the methodological implications of behaviorism but was not receptive of the radical arguments of Watson . Skinner 's ideas made more sense because it did not advocated the idea that men are not thinking beings and were more able to capture how man behaves . Skinner 's kind of behaviorism somehow married the opposing views of mind and behavior and also gave importance to how environmental experiences and influences shape human behavior Moreover , operant conditioning was...