Behaviourist Views on Human Behaviour - Essay Example

BEHAVIOURIST VIEWS ON HUMAN BEHAVIOUR 2006 BEHAVIOURIST VIEWS ON HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Understanding human behaviour has always been one of theprimary goals of psychological studies. Over the last century, numerous authors repeatedly published their views on how to understand the behaviour of other people or help individuals to study their own behaviour. Although the quest continues up to now, the most obvious outcome of the efforts is the constantly confirmed fact that human personalities are extremely complex, and there are only few areas that can be understood with an acceptable degree of accuracy. Each theory or set of theories that claimed to discover the underlying factors that determine human behaviour has been later dismissed for some or other reasons. In the middle of 20th century behaviourism was proclaimed as the saviour of the struggling psychological science in terms of explaining human behaviour, personality, motivations, learning, etc. Yet, despite much hype this doctrine failed short of its promise as many other theories before: overwhelming attention to the external aspects of personality coupled with rejection of the inner mental processes and events did not allow behaviourism become the dominant perspective in modern psychology. The doctrine of behaviourism in psychology rests upon the methodological proposals of John B. Watson, an American psychologist whom attempted to make the emerging psychological inquiry more 'scientific'. Behaviourism embraces hundreds of varying theories, practices, and trends that have emerged over the course of several decades. However, the underlying feature of any behaviourist theory or concept is emphasizing the outward behavioural aspects as the key to understanding the inner world of human beings. Thus, Wilfred Sellars (1963), the outstanding philosopher of the last century whom witnessed emergence development and decline of behaviourism in psychology noted "a person may qualify as a behaviourist, loosely or attitudinally speaking, if they insist on confirming hypotheses about psychological events in terms of behavioural criteria" (p.22). Behavioural evidence is the founding stone of a typically behaviourist inquiry. The basic assumption of behaviourism is the following: since psychology is a science it must employ a set of scientific methods that allow observation and measurement. The main concern of behaviourists is establishing a direct association between two separate events. The perfect example of this linkage is "Pavlov's dog". John Watson (1878 - 1958) is considered to first formulate the principle of behaviourism in psychology (Vander Zanden, 1993). Watson's definition of this approach was precisely practical. Psychology was announced an objective field of knowledge the aim of that was to predict and control human behaviour. Introspection and self-analysis are useless if applied to psychology and there is no difference between humans and animals. In fact, Watson neglected the concept of the conscious as such. The consciousness of human depends upon external circumstances; they exclusively determine life and behaviour of people regardless their genetic code, desires or way of thinking (Watson, 1913). In 1913, Watson gave his famous lecture entitled Psychology as the Behaviourist Views It at Columbia University in New York. In this monumental argument Watson set forth his highly controversial psychological views. The publication of text of the lecture in the Psychological Review (1913) marked the formal beginning of behaviourism. Watson believed "the prediction and control of behaviour" were the fundamental goal of psychology. He called for a radical revising of the scope and methods of psychological research: "Psychology as the behaviourist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behaviour. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with that they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviourist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behaviour of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviourist's total scheme of investigation" (Watson, 1913: 158). Introspection was to be abandoned in favour of the study of behaviour. Behaviour was to be evaluated in its own right regardless of its relationship to any consciousness that might exist. The concept of "consciousness" had to be rejected as an interpretive standard and eschewed as an explanatory device. As an objective psychology was supposed to make no sharp distinction between human and animal behaviour; consequently its goal was to develop principles by which behaviour could be predicted and controlled (Vander Zanden, 1993). He believed in a stimulus-response method in predicting and controlling behaviour. His methods, however, differed from those of Pavlov's in that he avoided the words 'stimulus' and 'response' in as narrow sense as the Russian physiologist did. A highly controversial element of the behaviourism theory dealt with language and thought. Watson found it necessary to transform the concepts of language and thinking into specific types of behaviour in order to maintain consistency in his views (Frager and Fadiman, 2000). B. F. Skinner, another highly influential representative of behaviourism, up to now remains one of the most famous psychologists worldwide. Influence of his scientific efforts far outstepped the narrow bounds of psychology. Skinner's mistrust toward mental processes (he called them "explanatory fictions") made him concentrate upon external forms of behaviour, which he believed to be objective, and try to define proper methods of observation, measurement and prediction of human behaviour. Skinner argued that the only acceptable and reasonable way to give the proper definition of human personality is studying his behaviour. Thus Skinner de facto excluded the separate category of personality from psychological analysis. In his account personality was nothing more than a set of behavioural patterns. Situational factors he recognized as predominant factors that cause different reactions of people. The letter depends upon the previous experience and genetic code of individual. Analysis of specific mental states Skinner considered useless stating that Freud with his concepts of conscious, unconscious, or super-ego put the clock of science back for 50 years (Skinner, 1984). Skinners theory of human development is probably the simplest among all other theories. He proceeded from the assumption that human behaviour depended exceptionally from external stimuli. That is why human development from early childhood follows this way: firstly, child is given a certain stimulus; secondly, he shows his reaction toward it and finds out if this reaction is correct or wrong, dependant upon its outcome (whether it is followed by reinforcer or not); thirdly, if in future the same stimulus occurs again the child usually reacts in the way that showed its effectiveness in the past. As a result Skinner came to a conclusion that human being can be taught any type of behaviour (Frager and Fadiman, 2000). Human development in Skinner's account is a process of accumulating different behavioural patterns that by lapse of time become more and more complex. Based on this assumption, he invented and well founded the method of programmed learning. Initially, a student set near the teaching machine that provided him with different tasks. The student had to react somehow, i.e. push buttons, make notes, etc. After the performance was over the student was shown key reaction and obtained the opportunity to check his own results. Amazingly, but the students improved their progress, probably due to constant feedback during the process of learning (Skinner, 1958). This finding of Skinner served as a foundation for future development of new teaching techniques, namely interactive computer learning. Albert Bandura can hardly be called pure behaviourist, like Skinner or Watson, although he also paid much attention to environmental influences on human behaviour. The essence of Bandura's views is the assumption that human being is shaped by the process of learning, i.e. acquiring various behavioural patterns (Frager and Fadiman, 2000). The most important property of human nature is cognition that helps man to utilize abstract thinking, adopt such difficult symbolic forms of communication as language, cognise the external world and determine behaviour depending upon different circumstances. The last is probably the key difference between Bandura's and Skinner's theories because it presupposes the conclusion that constant reinforcement of some certain behavioural pattern may not necessarily result in absolute acquisition of it. This phenomenon Bandura called plasticity of consciousness (Bandura, 1977). However, behaviour of humans is neither determined by barely inward causes (like instincts, desires) nor by only environmental influence, but by their dynamic interaction. Behaviour is not an absolutely passive object of influence. People may choose behavioural pattern that usually helps to predict possible reactions of the environment (other people). In this case the behaviour itself becomes subject of influence. Based on these assumptions Bandura developed the key concept of his theory - the concept of reciprocal determinism (Fedorko, 1986). In accord with this theory human behaviour is the result of interaction between three components - personal or inward peculiarities and cognition, exterior causes and behaviour itself. Obviously, such scheme allows for certain interdependence between behaviour and exterior causes. One more determinant - inward peculiarities - can be called personality, the main part of which is cognition (Bandura, 1978). Similarly to Skinner Bandura rejected possibility of any independent system of personality that shapes human's behaviour in a way to adjust it to some self-concept. However, people are not deprived off the possibility to regulate their behaviour: they have a set of persuasions that are in charge of assessment and regulation of behaviour (Frager and Fadiman, 2000). As it has been mentioned in the beginning Bandura considered that human being is shaped in the process of learning. If compared to Skinner, he extended the theory of learning. Bandura described two types of learning: enactive and observational. Earlier Skinner described the first one in his experiments with pigeons and rats. This type of learning is primitive, immanent to lower animals and directly depends upon positive or negative reinforcement. Bandura doubted that point of view: human behaviour is too complex to be shaped in such primitive way; conscious conceptualisation is necessary for reinforcement to have results (Bandura, 1986). Bandura developed the concept of observational learning that was inherent exceptionally to human beings. Observation allows us to learn without any involvement into the action that was doubted by Skinner who accepted only direct learning. Receiving reinforcement in Bandura's account was not necessary as well: people may acquire behavioural patterns based only upon observation of other people who receive reinforcement. This type of learning saves people the trouble of performing countless number of operations and accelerates the process of human development (Bandura, 1986). Theories of Watson and Skinner are alike in their theoretical base and general approach. They both are adherents of pure behaviourism: they do not distinguish between human beings and animals (for instance, Skinner obtained his data from experiments with pigeons and rats); they neglected role of introspection and cognition as determining factors of human behaviour; they considered that reinforcement played the main part in the process of learning. However, there is a substantial difference between these two scientists. Skinner developed a detailed and reasoned theory based on extensive experimental data, while Watson confined himself to giving several practical pieces of advise and did not managed to create a comprehensive doctrine due to lack of experimental data. Nonetheless importance of Watson's research cannot be doubted: first of all he pioneered an alternative approach to the problem of human development, although failed to well found it himself. It was done by the next generation of behaviourists, namely B. Skinner. The theory of A. Bandura focuses upon human ability for thinking and cognition, giving much less attention to the environmental influence if compared to Skinner for instance. One more deviation of Bandura's theory from classic behaviourism is indirect reinforcement and of course observational learning: if we observe that some certain behavioural pattern is rewarded we are likely to acquire this pattern, and on the contrary. Each major psychological theory that has been developed to explain human behaviour and personality has its own strengths and limitations. Psychoanalytic theories tend to neglect the positive potential of human nature focusing almost exclusively on the hidden sexual drives and motives as determinants of human behaviour. Humanistic theories offer the proper way of thinking and lifestyle for people to feel happy rather than provide a scientific, research-oriented and reliable explanation of human behaviour. Cognitive theories tend to pay insufficient attention to the environmental determinant focusing on the processes that occur inside human brain. Behaviourism also fails to provide a well-balanced account of human behaviour and personality by ignoring mental processes and events. Behavioural view of learning has been sharply criticized for extreme biologization and primitivization of human behaviour. It is necessary to admit that this criticism is quite reasoned: for example, Skinner performed majority of his experiments on rats and even pigeons, but applied his conclusions to explain and predict behaviour of human beings. Humans were stripped of their freedom, will, consciousness, responsibility, and dignity: an individual was reduced to a purely biological creature, behaviour of which is shaped by the environmental stimuli. In defence of behaviourism it should be noted that teachers benefited from Skinner's theory of reinforcement as well as Bandura's concept of observational learning won recognition from the scientists. Influence of television on behaviour of people has been already proved - it is a bright example of observational learning. REFERENCES Bandura, A. (1977). Social-learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Bandura, A. (1978). The self-system in reciprocal determinism, American Psychologist, 3, 356 - 357 Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A Social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NF: Prentice-Hall. Fedorko, L (Ed.) (1986). Understanding Psychology. New York: Random House Frager, R and Fadiman, J. (2000). Personality and Personal Growth, 4th edition. Longman Sellars, W. (1963). Philosophy and the Scientic Image of Man. In: Science, Perception, and Reality. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1-40 Skinner, B (1958). Teaching Machines, Science, 128, 969-977. Skinner, B (1984). Reply to Harnad's article, "What are the scope and limits of radical behaviorist theory Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 721-724. Vander Zanden, J. W. and W, James (1993). Human development, 5th edition. McGraw-Hill Inc. Watson, J.B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviourists view it. Psychological review, 20, 158 - 177 Read More