Blackwell Reference Online

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Behaviourism is based on the analysis and manipulation of environmental factors which modify a higher form of behaviour. Its object of study is operant conditioning, i.e. the positive and negative reinforcements which the actions of the environment exert upon a given behaviour, as a function of trial-and-error learning. The behaviour therapy which results from that study seeks to isolate the dependent variables, the ‘contingencies of reinforcement’, and act explicitly on the environmental factors capable of eliminating an unwanted symptom or of giving rise to a desired behaviour. ‘Behaviourism is not the scientific study of behaviour, but a philosophy of science regarding the subject-matter and methods of psychology’ (Skinner, 1969). In actual fact, behaviourism has influenced a great number of sciences (psychology and linguistics through the work of Leonard Bloomfield in particular), as well as the arts (the American thriller). Behaviourism was initially associated with the reflex model and the stimulus-response schema. B. F. Skinner made a thoroughgoing critique of this latter. Such a schema omits to consider the action of the environment on the organism after a response has been produced. Skinner suggested that the stimulus-response schema should be supplemented by the addition of the model of operant reinforcement . By re-afference-a circular reflex - the response modifies ... log in or subscribe to read full text