In many higher educational institutions, almost every department gives a course of lectures on psychology. Therefore, many students are interested in the direction of behaviorism and other branches of science. Such knowledge will be useful in practical life. Psychology gives an idea of how the psyche of an individual works. This knowledge is important for every person, because it makes it possible to understand oneself and others well.
Behaviorism is a branch of psychology that studies the behavior and activity of an individual. But one of its founders, Skinner, called his creation more of a philosophy. It was based on the work of Russian scientists in the field of reflexology and the ideas of Darwinism. The founder of the movement, John Watson, wrote a special manifesto in which he spoke about the meaninglessness of the concepts of consciousness and subconsciousness. The direction gained particular popularity in the 20th century. To some extent, behaviorism is similar to psychoanalysis, but they are still different. Proponents of behaviorism believe that all concepts of "consciousness", "subconscious" and the like are quite subjective. Therefore, observation cannot be used, only the information obtained by objective methods is reliable.
Behaviorism is a directionbased on responses and incentives. That is why his supporters are so fond of the works of the famous Russian physiologist Pavlov. Reaction is understood as activity, external and internal, first of all, these are movements. They can be fixed. The stimulus is the cause of a particular behavior. The nature of the reaction depends on it.
Initially, it was believed that behaviorism is the simplest direction, and Watson's formula is ideal. But in the course of further experiments, it was found that one stimulus can cause different reactions or many reactions. That is why the idea of an intermediate link between stimulus and response was put forward.
The development of behaviorism after Watson was continued by Skinner. His main task was to study the mechanism of behavior. He developed the idea of positive reinforcement. According to Skinner, a positive stimulus influences the production of certain behaviors. In the course of scientific experiments, he confirmed his thoughts. But in general, he was not interested in education, it was much more important for him to study the mechanisms of behavior.
According to Skinner, behaviorism is a branch of psychology that should provide specific answers to the questions posed. If this cannot be achieved, then there is no answer. For him, the presence of creativity in every person was a controversial point. He doesn't deny it, but he doesn't show support either.
In the course of his scientific work, Skinner came to the conclusion that a person is formed under the influence of society. He deniedFreud's ideas that everyone creates himself as a person.
But still, the behaviorists made a few mistakes. The first was that any action must be considered in conjunction with a particular person. The second mistake was not wanting to understand that a stimulus can cause many different responses. Even if it was produced under the same conditions.
