BEHAVIORISM
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 275 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences, Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
The school of psychology that considers that it is objectively possible to observe and describe animal and human behavior, stresses the role of environmental constraints upon such behavior in terms of inputs (stimuli) and outputs (responses), and admits that it is possible to modify habits by appropriate conditioning.
While it offers some systemic aspects, it is not really possible to admit behaviorism as a systemic theory because:
- with its over-emphasis on habits to explain behavior, it tends to trivialize the relationship of the acting animal onto its world as it perceives it.
- it reduces relationships between the animal and its environment to over-simplified feedbacks (a kind of simple and very deterministic mechanicism).
- it gives little consideration to the internal organizational closure of the animal, considering it only as apt to be conditioned and thus denying it any measure of autonomy (at least in B.F. SKINNER's version of behaviorism).
There is a strong antinomy between behaviorism and constructivism or autopoiesis.