BEHAVIOURISM
What is behaviourism?
Behaviourism is an ontology (theory of reality) founded on the premise that what appears to exist depends on how people are conditioned to behave and not behave. What about non-human reality? The answer to that (according to the behaviourist perspective) is that any "reality" that people experience depends on what and how they observe (a type of behaviour) and how and what they understand (also a type of behaviour). So, according to this perspective, ALL reality, of whatever type, depends on the content and pattern of human conditioning.
The response of some to this perspective is one of incredulity and scorn - these critics claim that behaviourism implies that humans are little more than automatons. But the terminology of behaviourism can be changed to alleviate most of these concerns. If we replace "conditioning" with "learning" then this seems to "round-off" and "humanize" the perspective, BUT with largely the same implications as with the original vocabulary.
How does behaviourism work?
In a basic sense, there are two types of conditioning: (1) Classical Conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov in the early part of the 20th century; and (2)Operant Conditioning was discovered by B.F. Skinner in the middle of the 20th century.
In classical conditioning of dogs, food was presented to a hungry animal and a bell was wrung simultaneously, after which the dog salivated. Eventually through "habituation" the ringing of the bell would produce salivation in the dog even without the presentation of food. Dogs could be conditioned with a limited number of these routines - people could acquire greater numbers of more elaborate behavioural routines than other animals, and this is what accounted for the amazing human learning capacity. The results of culture in general, and teaching in particular, were to condition people with all of the various habits and traditions humanity displays.
With operant conditioning, the organism's behaviour was observed and preferable instances of performance were encouraged by positive reinforcement, while neutral performance was ignored, and undesirable performance discouraged by aversive reinforcement. Through such conditioning schedules of behaviour could be shaped into quite elaborate routines, and then through random reinforcement the behaviour could be sustained indefinitely. In the case of operant conditioning, humans were also capable of acquiring and retaining considerable more routines, of a more elaborate nature than other animals. Between classical and operant conditioning, most, if not all of human behaviour could be accounted for. Despite continuing criticism, this perspective is still credible to those who accept its premises.
References
Stephen Ray Flora
THE POWER OF REINFORCEMENT
SUNY Press, Albany, 2004