Behaviorism Vs Reductionism Essay

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Behaviorists believe that the only things that are real and worth studying are things we can see and observe, hence the study of behavior. It’s opposition is to predict and control behaviors.

Inferences are made about the mind and brain with the primary focus on what people do.

In the late 1800’s John B Watson, well known his methodology and initiation of the study of behavior in relations to environmental influences, became the main wig head to speak about behaviorism. He was convictions convinced others that behavior could be explained once nervous system was more understood. Watson introduce “conditioning” into the world of psychology, which refers to learning by association by conditioning emotional stimulus.

After Watson, B.F Skinner took a new approach to behaviorism, referred to as radical behaviorism, in which he …show more content…

However, because behaviorist are mostly focused on observable behavior it neglects internal thinking that affects behavior.

Reductionism
Reductionism is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into smaller component parts.
Reductionists say that the best way to understand why we behave as we do is to look closely at the very simplest parts that make up our systems, and use the simplest explanations to understand how they work.

Behaviorism reduces all behavior (no matter how complex) to stimulus-response associations.

Behaviorist is commonly seen in positive and negative reinforcement techniques (operative conditioning), punishment, systematic desensitisation and self-management.

Strengths:
Many experiments to support theories ; Data is easier to quantify and collect , more statistics i
Humanism:
Identified comparisons between animals and

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