Behaviouralism

From Geography

Behaviouralism (Assignment 1)

In the book Approaches to Human Geography (Aitken and Valentine, 2006) behaviouralism as a whole is described as follows:

An outlook or system of thought that believes that human activity can best be explained by studying the human decision-making processes that shape that activity. Originally developed in psychology, largely as a reaction the the mechanistic excesses of experimental psychology, behaviouralism - and more particularly cognitive behaviouralism - came to prominence in the human geography of the 1960s and 1970s. Primarily based on methods of quantification, behavioural geography has been criticized for its adherence to positivist principles, as well as its unwillingness to explore the role of the unconscious mind, althoug it still underpins many research projects, particularly those based on survey research. (Aitken and Valentine, 2006,p. 338)

From the chapter from Cloke, Philo and Sadler (1991)also follows that behaviouralism is a reaction to spatial analysis, which came up in the 1950s and eventually led to behavioural geography (cloke, Philo and Sadler, 1991, p. 66-67). In behaviourism, and also in behavioural geography, the mind is a 'black box' and behaviour is just the outcome of stimulus-response. Behaviouralism is the opposite of that, it investigates what happens in the mind and recognises that behaviour also depends on for instance someones character.

Sources:

- Cloke, P., Philo, Ch. and Sadler, D. (1991).Approaching Human Geography. Chapman, London.

- Aitken, S., Valentine, G. (2006). Approaches to Human Geography. Sage, London.