Behaviorism

Behaviorism is the school of psychology that studies only observable behavior, treating consciousness as unmeasurable.

Why ignore the mind?

If psychology wants to be a science, it should stick to what can be measured: stimuli in, behavior out. Anything else is speculation.

Key figure: B.F. Skinner. Strong emphasis on stimulus-response relationships and learning.

What a strict behaviorist accepts

• we can observe a child hearing words
• we can observe the child saying words
• we can observe rewards, corrections, repetition
• that is what psychology should explain

They would avoid:

• “the child has an internal grammar system”
• “the mind is using built-in language rules”

Chomsky attacked behaviorism on exactly this point: children say things they were never directly taught, so observable input can’t be the whole story.

Behaviorism’s real legacy is methodological. It pushed psychology toward rigorous, objective methods. Then the Cognitive Revolution opened the black box back up.