Contents
The behavioral direction in practical psychology implements the principles of behaviorism: classical behaviorism and neobehaviorism.
Vision of a person in a behavioral approach
The behavioral direction considers a person:
- like an organism
For a behaviorist, a person is simply an organism. The words «man» and «organism» are used interchangeably. Human behavior for a behaviorist is the reflexes of his organism. “Reflexes, both conditioned and any other, are mainly associated with internal physiological processes in the body. However, most often we are interested in such behavior that has a certain impact on the world around us, ”writes Burres Skinner in Operant Behavior.
- as an object of influence in full analogy with the natural-scientific approach,
- works primarily with the externally visible, observable behavior of a person and his reactions.
“Psychology from a behavioral point of view is a purely objective, experimental field of natural science, which needs introspection as little as such sciences as chemistry and physics” (Reader “General Psychology” under the general editorship of V.V. Petukhov. V.1 ., M., 1997. pp. 118.. J. Utson, Psychology from the point of view of a behaviorist).
“In an objective study of man, the behaviorist does not observe anything that he could call consciousness, feeling, sensation, imagination, will, insofar as he no longer considers that these terms indicate genuine phenomena of psychology. He comes to the conclusion that all these terms can be excluded from the description of human activity. J. Watson.
The behavioral direction is completely in the behavioral paradigm and puts, first of all, the task of changing behavior.
Mission of Behaviorism
Behaviorism was born as a protest against the arbitrary speculative speculations of researchers who do not define concepts in a clear, operational way, and explain behavior only metaphorically, without translating beautiful explanations into the language of clear instructions: what needs to be done specifically in order to get the desired change in behavior from oneself or another.
“Your irritation is caused by the fact that you do not accept yourself. What annoys you in others is what you cannot accept in yourself. You need to learn to accept yourself! — This is beautiful, it may be true, but, firstly, it is not verifiable, and secondly, the algorithm of actions for solving the problem with irritation is incomprehensible.
As Skinner wrote about the history of behaviorism, «The scientists who stood at the origins of behaviorism spent a lot of time fighting the introspective methodology for the study of spiritual life, because of which the central importance of the main subject of their study was relegated to the background ..» (B. Skinner WHAT © Golovin N. A. 1999, from Skinner B. Was ist Behaviorismus? Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rohwolt, 1978. S. 9-11. http://intellectus.su/lib/00034 .htm#top).
Behavior change methods
The behavioral direction is based on the theories of I. P. Pavlov and B. Skinner and consists in modifying behavioral stereotypes through the use of the principles of learning theory (see →). Behavioral and emotional problems are understood to be reinforced as a result of the encouragement and reinforcement of maladaptive responses to environmental stimuli. The task is to eliminate or modify them. A behavioral psychologist or therapist answers 4 questions:
- What behavior is the target for change and what in the observed behavior is subject to strengthening, weakening, support?
- What events supported and support this behavior?
- What changes in the environment and systematic interventions can change this behavior?
- How can once established behavior be maintained and/or extended to new situations in a limited amount of time?
Fellow psychologists, please note that this approach initially contains the premise that only external events (changes in the environment) are the real source of behavior. The environment governs the man, not the man the environment. To change a person, you do not need to turn to a person for this — it is useless … The behaviorist does not believe that a person can seriously change his behavior on his own.
The behavioral approach works effectively both in psychotherapy and in the direction of personality development. See →
Therapy in the behavioral approach
Initially, behavioral therapy used exclusively conditioning: classical (according to Pavlov) and operant. Currently, therapy in the behavioral approach is the same as in the cognitive-behavioral approach. See →
Efficiency
As far as efficiency is concerned, in general it can be said that the behavioral approach has about the same efficiency as other approaches. The behavioral approach is more suitable for simple cases of psychotherapy: getting rid of standard phobias (fears), unwanted habits, the formation of desirable behavior. In complex, confusing, «personal» cases, the use of behavioral methods gives a short-term effect. There are historical preferences: America prefers behavioral approaches to all others, in Russia behaviorism is not honored. See →
Behavioral and behavioral approach
Often the concepts of «behavioral direction» and «behavioral approach» are used as synonyms, but in current practice there is a significant difference between these approaches. See →