Behaviourism

From Geography

Behaviourism

Behaviourism is a theory based on the way animals and human beings can learn. The most famous practitioner of the behaviour approach is Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936). He became famous with his discouvery of 'classical conditioning', where he studies the reflexes of a dog (H. Ernste, personal communication 02-2010). In the beginning there is a stimuli (for example food) and a response (the dog slobs), this is unconditioned behaviour, and has nothing to do with a learning proces.

Stimulus ---> Response

But the first stimuli (in this case food) can slowly be replaced by another stimuli (for example ringing a bell). And after a while the dog slobs when hearing the bell, even before he's seeing te food. So there is conditioned behaviour, when the bell rings the dog slobs. [1]

Critique on behaviourism

Behaviorism only focus on open behaviour instead of closed behaviour like thinking and different interpretations. This is also the biggest critique on this approach and the reason why behaviourism isn't used very often by geographers. Like the example of Pavlov showed, a reflex is a simple cause (stimulus) and effect (response) relation. It's a mechanistic and deterministic explanation. So the behaviour approach doesn't take consciousness into account. The so called 'black box' stays undiscovered. In human behaviour it is very important to know the interpretation and understanding of the stimulus by the subject (Ernste, 2012). When is a stimulus a real stimulus. What does the stimulus mean for the subject?

The critique has lead to a 'cognitive turn'. As a result behaviouralism was introduced. Behaviouralism focus on consciousness and what is happening inside the black-box.

Stimulus ---> Blackbox ---> Response

This approach is used much more often in geography (Golledge, 2006, p. 75).

References

• Ernste, H. introduction behaviourism (powerpoint) personal communication 02-2010

• Golledge, G. R. Philosophical Bases of Behavioural Research in Geography in Approaches to Human Geography (2006) p. 75-85. Sage. Londen.

• Pavlov principle found at 02-10-2010 on http://www.northern.ac.uk/learning/NCMaterial/Psychology/lifespan%20folder/PAVLOV.gif]

• Ernste, H. (2012). Lecture 1 Spatial Behaviour. January 2012. Nijmegen. the Netherlands: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Contributors

• Page created by Lisanne dols and Lorenzo Goudsmits
• Page enhanced by Henny Li 17:33, 4 October 2012 (UTC)