Abstract

PENA CORREAL, Telmo Eduardo. Is behaviorism viable in the XXI century?. liber. [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.2, pp.125-130. ISSN 1729-4827.

A conceptual review of Behaviorism is presented in which its main features are discussed with the purpose of assessing its viability as a proposal for the XXIth century. Based on the premise that behaviorism is not a unified theory of psychology, but a philosophy of this science, some of the topics on which there is greater coincidence between the behaviourists are presented, namely the assumption that psychology is a natural and empirical science, which attempts to generate knowledge in which subjectivistic biases (objectivity) are controlled and finally that it prefers the experimental methodology in their empirical studies. Also are brought some topics on which there is debate among the behaviorists, such as the level of molecularity or molarity in the analysis, the need or not of mediating factors and the use of ideographic vs. nomotetic research. Work concludes by pointing out how some of the more known concepts as «stimulus», «response», or «conditioning» among others, are not essential to Behaviorism and they could eventually be replaced by others.

Keywords : Behaviorism; Experimental Methodology; Molar Analysis; Molecular Analysis; Psychology.

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