Neo-behaviorism

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The neobehaviorism was an end of the 1920s founded flow in the psychology , which can be understood as a reaction to that specific research problems using the classical behaviorism could not be solved.

Neobehaviorism is based on the idea that a stimulus is processed in the organism and only then does a reaction occur. This processing cannot be seen from the outside, which is why we also speak of a black box here . In contrast to older concepts, internal processes of the organism are taken into account.

An important founder of this new scientific point of view was Clark L. Hull , who tried to close these gaps in behaviorist theories with new hypothetical constructs. The theory developed by Hull in this context is called systematic behavior theory - due to its systematic conception . Since Hull still saw behavior as a purely passive sequence of stimulus-response connections , his theory can be classified as an SR theory (S = stimulus, R = reaction).

Another co-founder of neo-behaviorism, Edward C. Tolman , saw the behavior of an organism as an action based on insight into certain environmental relationships and as a goal-oriented function of internal organism factors such as needs, beliefs, values ​​and willingness to perceive.

Important concepts developed by him include: a. instrumental stimulus-stimulus connections (the expectations in a current situation that certain behaviors lead to success) and cognitive maps (spatial stimulus-stimulus connections). Since stimulus-stimulus connections are of fundamental importance for Tolman's approach, one speaks here of an SS theory in contrast to Hull's theory . The proximity of this approach to cognitive theories justifies the term "cognitive behaviorism" in contrast to Hull's approach, which is termed "quasi-physiological behaviorism".

Since the 1960s, new theories have hardly been based on behaviorism in its basic form; integrative approaches predominate.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. a b c E. Scheerer: Theories of Psychology: Volume 6: The behavior analysis . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-82042-7 , pp. 15 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. E. Scheerer: Theories of Psychology: Volume 6: The behavior analysis . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-82042-7 ( limited preview in Google book search - 17).