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The behavioral approach as a behavioral paradigm is not behaviorism, it is more interesting and broader, see →. This is a masculine and active approach in practical psychology, where the focus is on actions: external actions as a reality, internal actions as decisions. Action, behavior — that’s what is evaluated and, most importantly, created, done. What is important is what will be the result, what will be done and what will be done. Everything internal, spiritual and deep is important only to the extent that it is connected with real behavior, with what is being done.
Views, values and practice of the behavioral approach
In the behavioral approach to life in general, to people and affairs in particular, decision and action are more important than fears and other feelings: sensations and experiences are curious, but nothing more. Objective things and tasks are more important than subjective relations. For the behavioral approach, psychology, as the content of a person’s inner world, is always secondary to life. Reality, activity determines consciousness, determines the inner. In internal state management, this is an approach from external to internal, from behavior to feeling. In counseling, a behavioral approach is the translation of messages from the language of feelings into the language of action and, instead of an in-depth analysis of the past, working with actual behavior. See →
Directions within the behavioral paradigm
The behavioral approach is not behaviorism, behaviorism is only one of the directions of the behavioral paradigm. The main directions within the behavioral paradigm are the behavioral direction, the cognitive-behavioral direction and the active (personal-active) direction. See →
Approaches in practical psychology based on the behavioral paradigm
Fully within the framework of the behavioral paradigm — the development of the cognitive-affective theory of Walter Mischel, the theory of social learning by Albert Bandura and the theory of social learning by Julian Rotter.
Almost completely in the behavioral paradigm — REBT (rational-emotional-behavioral approach), mainly the synton approach, a large part of NLP. See →
Paradigms of practical psychology — and science
Practical psychology works in different paradigms, directions and approaches, and therefore somewhere has less to do with science, somewhere more. Practical psychology, working in a behavioral paradigm, relies more on a scientific basis. Psychologists working in the phenomenological paradigm rely more on the generalization and analysis of practical experience, as a result of which in some cases they are ahead of science (science is really not very nimble and often lags far behind), in other cases they leave science in completely arbitrary speculation. See →