Introduction
"When talking about human beings, behaviour is everything that we do - our actions, our thoughts, our language and our feelings are all behaviours." (UK Society for Behaviour Analysis)
Our behaviour is all that we do. When we talk - we behave, when we eat - we behave, when we feel sad - we behave. It's all behaviour. However, a scientific understanding of behaviour is relatively new to humanity. Starting in the early 20th century with J. B. Watson and the publication of "Psychology as the Behaviorist views it" and (quite separately) Ivan Pavlov and his discovery of the "conditioned reflex", scientists began to understand the inner mysteries of the human mind. None more so, however, than B. F. Skinner. Infamous for his "Skinner box" and his (apparent) obsession with pigeons, Skinner was a revolutionary in the true sense of the word. He bucked the trend of - as he called them - "explanatory fictions"; he refused to assign any mystical or other-worldly property to behaviour. It is Skinner who formulated the philosophy of science; Radical Behaviourism.
Radical Behaviourism
It may seem unusual to talk about behaviour and science in terms of philosophy, most people these days reject the connection between philosophy and science, saying (in the words of one of my friends) "philosophy is just someone's opinion, who cares?".
Philosophy, however, is incredibly important. As the mid-twentieth century philosopher Ayn Rand states;
"Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man’s relationship to existence. As against the special sciences, which deal only with particular aspects, philosophy deals with those aspects of the universe which pertain to everything that exists. In the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible."
Skinner, in one form or another, understood this simple truth. His Radical Behaviourism reformulated the science of human behaviour and has had a lasting impact on psychology (whether psychologists will admit it or not!). A full analysis of what Radical Behaviourism is far beyond the scope of this article, but at it's core it is a naturalistic philosophy. It seeks to make objective the laws that govern human behaviour. Behaviour, Skinner held, was largely operant (learned) in nature, and could be lawfully understood by applying laws of reinforcements.
An interesting aspect of Radical Behaviourism (and Behaviour Analysis [see below]) is it's reliance on induction (moving from individual observations to generalised principles). Induction has, historically, had a bad time of it, really. It stands in stark contrast to the typical "scientific method" of hypothetico-deduction (proposing a theory then trying to find evidence for it). In more recent times the issue of induction has been tackled by contemporary intellectuals such as David Harriman and Leonard Peikoff. Again it is beyond the scope of this article to elaborate, although these aforementioned sources are a good place to start.
Further Radical Behaviourism espouses a thoroughly pragmatic moral standard. In other words the "good" is that which works in any given moment. Skinner was in part inspired by William James and John Dewey the progenitors of the American Pragmatist movement. Unfortunately Pragmatism as a philosophy is replete with issues, namely since it rejects principles as such, then if it tries to take any principled action it must use the standards formulated by others. As such Radical Behaviourism (and Skinner) accepted as writ the prevailing moral standards of his time. Heavily influenced by "progressive" ideology he was a staunch advocate of a type of scientific-collectivism not dissimilar to communism but in no way as harsh. He rejected any notion of individualism or moral egoism, instead preferring a sort of Altruist-pragmatic hybrid.
Finally and perhaps most importantly Radical Behaviourism stresses the primacy of the environment (which to Skinner didn't stop at the skin, so your brain is technically the environment as well...) in behaviour change. All behaviour, it is is held, is a product of the environment (or genetic / physiological predisposition).
There are many more interesting questions raised and answered by Radical Behaviourism, however this article will now explore the previously mentioned central concept of Behavioural theory; operant conditioning.
Operant Conditioning
On operant conditioning (OC) there have been written numerous books (one of the most accessible perhaps being Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor). Without getting bogged down in the technical details OC simply attempts to account for behaviour change (or learning) through the alteration of consequences.
To put this in perspective think of a common example; you want a drink of water.
Many people would explain their behaviour like so;
I feel thirsty ----> I want a glass of water -- (after drinking water) --> I feel satisfied.
This makes intuitive sense; we feel thirsty, therefore we go for a drink.
The question is; why? why do you go for a drink of water when you feel thirsty? The answer is operant conditioning.
In actuality the behaviour will look something like this;
I feel thirsty ---> In the past water made me feel less thirsty ---> I'm more likely to get a glass of water now.
Now bear in mind this is a simplification to highlight a principle. In reality human behaviour is far more subtle and complex and in any given situation a number of other factors could be taking place. For our purposes here though, look at the the subtle perspective shift. We move away from the idea that "I felt thirsty therefore I got a drink of water". The "drinking" behaviour occurs because previous reinforcement has taught me that doing so reduces the bad feeling of thirst.
Such is the central theory behind human behaviour. To be sure a number of other theories come into play, and don't be fooled into thinking it's a simple matter. From this theory, however, was born the field of Behaviour Analysis.
Behaviour Analysis
Behaviour Analysis is the applied aspect of Behaviourism. It is the transference of experimental data into actual interventions. This is probably why you came to this site in the first place, right? The real meat of the issue.
Well I hope I won't disappoint. Behaviour Analysis is often associated with Autism. If you google "ABA" or "Behaviour Analysis", a lot of the links will be to forums for mothers and fathers and will be a relative discussion of the merits of ABA for Autism. This site is not primarily concerned with the clinical applications, and in my opinion the clinical applications are perhaps the least interesting aspect of the Behaviour Analysis. So let's leave that where it is and move onto the more interesting things.
As I mentioned at the start of this essay behaviour is everything we do. The extension of this is that all of our behaviour is malleable. To some people this is a terrifying prospect, to others an awakening.
In it's limited history (the field is considered to have been founded around 1968 with a seminal paper by Baer, Wolf and Risley exploring some key aspects of Behaviour Analysis) behaviour analysis has been applied to a number of interesting areas including environmental issues, smoking, exercising, reading, writing, maths, organisational issues and many, many more. If you want to see the flagship journal (Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis) go here.
In truth, Behaviour Analysis has a bright future if it can move away from its self-created bubble of Autism treatment. Society as a whole - and the individuals within it - could benefit massively from the tools and interventions developed.
In recent times books such as Nudge and the creation of the Wales Centre for Behaviour Change show that interest in behaviour change is growing. At the moment the limit really is only our imagination for what can be done.
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