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Dictionary of Psychological Terms >> Behaviourist Theory
Behaviorist Theory
Behaviourist theory stands for the broad principles concerned with how behaviour changes in response to different configurations of stimuli (including stimuli often called 'rewards' and 'punishments').
Behavioristic psychology of the 20th century was a reaction to introspectionist psychology. Behaviorists said that introspection was too subjective, and they tried to be very objective, by limiting themselves to talking only in terms of stimuli and observable behavior.
Behaviouristic psychology became an immediate precursor of cognitive psychology.
Points:
It is not only the stimulus (seen objectively), but the understanding of the stimulus (seen subjectively) that causes organism's response
Even though we cannot study subjective internal processes from the behaviourist point of view, we have to study them in order to understand behaviour (studying objective events does not give enough information, studying subjective events in behaviourism is impossible)
"Pure" behaviourist psychology is impossible.
In its early days, behaviorist theory sought to avoid mentalistic terms.
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