A-3 Radical Behaviorism

Question 1

Methodological Behaviorism

Answer 1

Philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the realm of science

Rejects all events that are not explicitly observable by others, externally or with instrumentation

Seeks to understand relationships between events through experimentation

Question 2

Mentalism

Answer 2

1. Approach in understanding or explaining behavior in a way that assumes mental or ‘inner’ explanations that differ from behavioral ones and that these mental/inner explanations can cause or directly mediate some form of behavior
2. Relies on hypothetical constructs and explanatory fictions
3. Circular view of cause and effect

Question 3

Explanatory Fiction

Answer 3

Fictitious or hypothetical variables that often takes the form of another name for the observed phenomenon it claims to explain.

Contributes nothing to the functional account or understanding of the phenomenon such as intelligence as explanation of why an organism engages in a behavior.

Question 4

Radical Behaviorism

Answer 4

B.F.Skinner- Radical Man

Form of Behaviorism that attempts to explain all behaviors including the private events such as thoughts and feelings

Question 5

Private Events

Answer 5

Covert events typically accessible only to the person experiencing them.

3 assumptions by radical behaviorism (Skinner):

1. Private events like thoughts and feeling are behaviors
2. Private behavior is only distinguished from public behavior by its inaccessibility
3. It has no special properties and is influences by the same kinds of variables as publicly accessible behavior.