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Radical behaviorism is a branch of psychological study that postulates that human "behavior" is at the integral part of psychological study. Unlike other disciplines such as cognitive psychology that concentrates on internal factors such as thoughts or rather obsessive preoccupations, behaviorism theory only considers the "observable" factors of the outside environment. In this paper, I analyze the strengths and weaknesses of radical behaviorism in light of cognitive psychological theory.
Skinner who relied on Behaviorist Revolution advanced the theory that preceded philosophical argument that was presented by Watson. Fuentes (2000) traces the philosophical origin of the Skinner theory to empiricism and positivism. On the other hand, he argues out that its epistemological paradigm bear direct relationship to objectivism where reality dwells from without the individual, and knowledge is simply an illusion of reality (Fuentes, 2000).
Skinner's Radical Behaviorism was anchored in the notion that learning is a product of change that is orchestrated by behavior observed over some time. In fact, variations in behavior are factors of individual's reactions to stimuli that take place in their surroundings. Therefore, reinforcement stands out as the fundamental component of Skinner's theory. In this respect, a reinforcer is any factor that fortifies the sought after response. Examples of positive reinforcement include positive affirmations such as a pat on the back, a congratulatory statement, or a nod of the head (Russell & Cohn, 2012).
Similarly, Skinner's theory encompasses negative reinforcers, as the elimination of positive reinforcement that contradicts from repelling stimuli. The Skinner's theory further concentrates on the timings of reinforcements and their impacts on developing and preserving behavior. One of the unique features of Skinner's arguments is that it strived to offer behavioral accounts for a wide range of cognitive phenomena. For instance, Skinner explained the motivation-based deprivation and reinforcement timings (Fuentes, 2000).
Operant conditioning is a process that has been applied intensively,...
Examples of this include behavior modification, teaching in a classroom setting, and instructional development that entails giving out a programmed instruction. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that Skinner stood against theories that propagated the learning concept.
There are various principles that describe behavior management. To begin with is the idea of fortifying or weakening operant behavior. In the fortified case, any behavior that is reinforced positively will reoccur later. This reinforcement is further made effective through intermittent reinforcement such as addiction to gambling (Deubel, 2003). Secondly, the information that aims at developing behavior should be given in small "doses" so that the impacts of the new behavior can be long-lived. However, weakening a response is achieved through aversive stimulus, which, in general terms, is described as punishment. Essentially, punitive action tends to minimize the response rate in observed behaviors. Eventually, the effectiveness of the response tends to be short-lived and may end up being totally forgotten. A point worth noting is that reinforcements eventually build across same stimuli, thereby resulting in secondary conditioning (Russell & Cohn, 2012).
Radical behaviorism is regarded as an effective technique for self-learning: the student is expected to focus on clear goals and demands in order to respond autonomously when a situation occurs. For example, soldiers are trained and conditioned to respond to the silhouettes of adversary planes to the extent that their reaction is more or less automatic in nature (Fuentes, 2000).
Despite the strong points of radical behaviorism, various limitations cast Skinner's theory negatively. For example, the learner could be in a circumstance where the stimulus for triggering correct reaction does not take place. The expected effect is that there can never be adequate proof that learning took place (Deubel, 2003).
Radical behaviorism has also fallen short of explaining some given social behavior. For example, not all kids imitate the behaviors that were reinforced to…
References
Deubel, P. (2003). An investigation of behaviorist and cognitive approaches to instructional multimedia design. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 12(1), 63-90.
Funtes, B.F. (2000). Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan
Russell, J. & Cohn, R. (2012). Radical Behaviorism. Hoboken: Book on Demand
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