Behaviorism

ehaviorism

Behaviorism describes positions ranging from the belief that the study of behavior is independently valuable of other concerns, to the claim that behavior is the one appropriate subject of psychology, and sometimes that mental terms (belief, goal, etc.) have no referents and/or only refer to behavior.

Early in the 20th century, John B. Watson argued for the value of a psychology which concerned itself with behavior in and of itself, not as a method of studying consciousness. This was a substantial break from the structuralist psychology of the time, which used the method of introspection and considered the study of behavior valueless. Watson, in contrast, studied the adjustment of organisms to their environments, more specifically the particular stimuli leading organisms to make their responses. Much of Watson's work was comparative, i.e., he manipulated and observed changes in the behavior of animals. Watson's work was much influenced by the work of Russian physiologi...