Behaviorism and Humanism: A Comparison of Psychological Perspectives
Behaviorism: Based on scientific methods to study human behavior, it proposes to analyze observable actions in particular situations to explain behavior, including the environment and experiences that determine it. Human behavior is the unconscious side; personality does not exist. John B. Watson defended the idea of a psychology that considered behavior valuable in itself as an object of study. He studied the adjustment of organisms to their environments, specifically the particular stimuli or situations that lead agencies to act. Their approaches were influenced mainly by the work of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who emphasized physiology and the role of stimuli in producing classical conditioning.
Behavioral Engineering may be defined as the application of scientific knowledge for the design, development, and management of techniques for establishing, maintaining, or eliminating behaviors. This implies that human behavior is described as legally liable and that its operations assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of problems come to the tentative handling of such regularities.
Radical Behaviorism: B.F. Skinner defined human beings as mere creatures at the mercy of environmental pressures. From his point of view, personality is a fictitious product because individuals see what others do and infer traits and abilities. These dimensions exist only in the eyes of those who observe. Behavior is the product of environmental forces.
The concept of behavioral specificity refers to the elaboration of a definition of behavior based on taking what people do in any circumstance, which depends on a multiplicity of influences that vary depending on the situation.
Social Cognitive Learning Theory: Albert Bandura claimed that behavior is often shaped by particular circumstances and that early learning is important but does not end because it is lifelong. Humans are simple beings.
Behaviorist Critique of the Model:
I) Ignores consciousness, feelings, and states of mind. It does not assign a role to personality, the ego, or the “self.” It leads to freedom, will, or intent.
II) Does not try to explain cognitive processes, intuition, information, or the creative process. It sees the subject as a passive recipient.
III) Is mechanistic: it sees it as a set of psychological responses to stimuli. It neglects innate endowment and the role of the nervous system.
IV) Is outdated in the current development of science. It works with animals, assimilating human behavior. Its applications are debasing (rewards, punishments) and even brutal (electric shock).
V) Removes human emotion and freedom, seeks to shape the human being but does not understand it. The human being is based on the basis of stimuli.
Humanism: Is a critique of behaviorism. It emphasizes that we are all trying to understand the human being, who is good in essence. We are all free and have free will. There is a broad vision of human beings, and the mind is considered one with the body. It also arises from concepts of phenomenology, whose main representative was E. Husserl, which studies the phenomenon or immediate experience as it occurs, regardless of the past. Humanism is part of a broader phenomenological perspective. Behaviorism considers human beings very limited by reducing them to the status of a programmable machine. Humanism is also opposed to all the negative aspects of Freudian psychoanalysis. While psychoanalysts emphasize the negative, humanists wish to emphasize mental health and all the positive attributes of life.
Carl Rogers, a founder of humanism, developed non-directive and person-centered therapy.
Theory of Self-Concept (I): This is the image of each self that is forged with the views of others and the value given to those views. This image begins to develop from childhood unconsciously when children watch what other children do and also from self-inspection, assigning consistent behaviors and realizing certain characteristics. They place values on their characteristics as these are significant to others. As one grows, some aspects of self are strengthened, and others are replaced. Rogers believed that humans seek harmony with the self.
Positive Considerations: We all need the approval of others. Some children deny or distort their thoughts, emotions, and sensations to obtain parental approval, which is a bad practice. The self is subjective and leads them to develop their potential and achieve realization.
Abraham Maslow developed the Personality Theory, focusing on understanding human needs. His theoretical model is oriented towards healthy men. He discovered that certain needs prevail over others and believed that needs grow and change throughout life. As individuals meet their basic or primary needs, others occupy a higher level of prevalence in behavior and are indispensable. Maslow argues that human beings are constituted and composed of a physical, sociological, and spiritual body, and that any problem in one area impacts all areas.
Survival needs (physiological, social, security, and self-esteem – the most influential and important) are in the lower parts of his hierarchy, while development, self-help, and transcendence (secondary needs) are in the upper reaches. The differences between lower and higher needs are:
- The higher the need, the less essential it is to the survival of the individual.
- As higher needs are met, there is a higher level of survival of the person.
- Meeting higher needs will produce more desirable subjective results, for example, more happiness.
- A set of good external conditions is required for the coverage of higher needs.