behaviourism

/ bɪˈheɪvjəˌrɪzəm /

noun

1. a school of psychology that regards the objective observation of the behaviour of organisms (usually by means of automatic recording devices) as the only proper subject for study and that often refuses to postulate any intervening mechanisms between the stimulus and the response

2. the doctrine that the mind has no separate existence but that statements about the mind and mental states can be analysed into statements about actual and potential behaviour Compare materialism See also mind-body problem

Other Word Forms

• behaviouristic adjective
• behaviourist adjective

Example Sentences

The "unholy trinity" is at the core of a movement called behaviourism, which emerged in the early 20th Century.

Read more on BBC

McCarthy, Minsky and other Intelligentists had bought in to behaviourism, a field straddling the natural and human sciences and offering access to a rich psychological vocabulary.

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In his lectures, he described the concept of human intentionality — the ability of the mind to be proactive and to represent future goals — as another challenge to behaviourism.

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“We did go through the period in psychological science called behaviourism,” Keltner tells me.

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Skinner, the father of “radical behaviourism”, who found that training subjects by rewarding them in a variable, unpredictable way works best.

Read more on Economist