Behavioral Control and Functional Analysis in Behaviorism

I picked up the following two key ideas in behaviorism and pointed out the reductionistic aspect.

1 Behavior Control

Whereas many psychologists were interested in predicting human behavior in around 1950’s, Skinner had a strong interest in the control of behavior. To describe Skinner’s point succinctly, he contended that human beings are strongly controlled by the environment, and if we can change the environment, we can control behavior. In my view, if he defines the environment as only an exterior one, his idea is a little bit reductionistic. I admit the impact of the outer world on us, but it is not so easy to control our behavior when we change the only outer environment.   

In terms of Integral Theory which is proposed by Ken Wilber, Wilber (2000) addresses the importance of integral approach. In his theory, not only exterior environment (system, structure, etc.) but also interior environment (culture, shared meaning, shared value, etc.), interior individual aspects (thought, belief, emotion, sensation, etc.), and outer individual aspects (e.g., action, blood pressure, brain state) are also important. In that sense, when we want to change behavior, we need to at least the above four dimensions.

2 Functional Analysis

             Functional analysis deals with our behavior as a “function” of condition which can be described by physical terms. Put it in another way, the main idea of functional analysis is to elucidate the cause and effect of our behavior, and Frager & Fadiman (2002) point out: “Precise descriptions of behavior help us make accurate predictions of future behaviors and improve the analysis of the reinforcements that led to the behavior” (p. 257). However, I refute the assumption that the analysis of current behavior leads to a certain future behavior. I think that we need to consider not only behavioral patterns but also other factors which I mentioned above in terms of Integral Theory to predict a future behavior.

Reference

1 Personality and Personal Growth (6th Edition)
2A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality