Dr. Sebastien Bosch

E-mail: sbosch@cuspautism.com

Tenet of Radical Behaviorism

A person is first of all an organism, a member of a species and a subspecies, possessing a genetic endowment of anatomical and physiological characteristics, which are the product of the contingencies of survival to which the species has been exposed in the process of evolution. The organism becomes a person [i.e., a unique individual] as it acquires a repertoire of behavior under the contingencies of reinforcement to which it is exposed in its lifetime. The behavior it exhibits at any moment is under the control of a current setting. It is able to acquire such a repertoire because of processes of conditioning, to which it is susceptible because of its genetic endowment. (Skinner, 1974, p. 213)

Additionally, many behaviorists would also argue that psychology ought to include ONLY observable behaviors.  Abstract mental processes and constructs are off-limits, and not necessary, or obstacles, in the accomplishment of the goal of a science of behavior (behavior analysis), which is to predict and control behavior.  If you believe that a person's behavior is "under the contingencies of reinforcement to which it is exposed in its lifetime," then psychology should focus on studying those reinforcement contingencies and not waste its time with such vague mental processes such as personality, memory, etc.  Howerver, we and others (such as Arthur Staats) beleive that these ill defined processes deserve more attention from behavior analysts because they are socially significant and, in most cases, describe real phenomena.  As such, these mentalistic processes should be reframed and studied within the behavior analytic paradigm.

Reference

Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: Knopf. 

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