Methodological behaviorism is not radical behaviorism

1982 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-70
Author(s):  
Kurt Salzinger

Author(s):  
Jay Moore

Early approaches to psychology assumed that mental life was the appropriate subject matter of the new science, and that introspective verbal reports and reaction times were the appropriate methods to support inferences about that subject matter. The problem was that these early approaches were vague, unreliable, and generally ineffective. Methodological behaviorism arose as an attempt to deal with this problem by asserting that theories and explanations in psychology, as well as the concepts they deployed, should be agreed upon. The key to agreement was that psychologists should talk only about observables, although talk of mental unobservables was later permitted if they were designated as theoretical constructs that were operationally defined through their relation to observables. This later view remains prominent in traditional psychology. The radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner’s behavior analysis offers an alternative based on a critical analysis of the behavioral sources of control over a given term. In particular, the radical behaviorist concept of private behavioral events provides a unified account of nature in behavioral terms. Key words: verbal behavior, methodological behaviorism, radical behaviorism, operationism, prediction and control, private behavioral events, covering law, scientific method 



1990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen P. Reese
Keyword(s):  




1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Schneider ◽  
Edward K. Morris


1999 ◽  
pp. 159-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Ringen
Keyword(s):  


2020 ◽  
pp. 004912412091495
Author(s):  
Geoff G. Cole

In 2018, a peer-reviewed article was published under the name of Richard Baldwin in which the author presented a critique of fat exclusion and advocated “fat bodybuilding” as a sport. Some months later, it became apparent that the article was intended as a hoax written to raise awareness to, or “expose”, a certain ideology promoted by some academics. As a result, the editors retracted the article. Using the principles of methodological behaviorism, and other hoax or hoax-like articles, I will argue that the thoughts and opinions held by any author are not important to the argument they present. I will also argue that this form of reflexive ethnography is too problematic to serve as a method of enquiry. I will therefore conclude that the Baldwin article should be reinstated.



1979 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 601
Author(s):  
Marcia Parmerlee ◽  
Charles Schwenk
Keyword(s):  


1983 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Robert F. Strahan
Keyword(s):  


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