Problems of teaching the behaviorist perspective in the cognitive revolution
- PMID: 25379226
- PMCID: PMC4217616
- DOI: 10.3390/bs3010055
Problems of teaching the behaviorist perspective in the cognitive revolution
Abstract
This article offers some personal reflections on the difficulty of teaching the behaviorist perspective in the psychology classroom. The problems focus on the inadequacy of introductory textbooks-which mischaracterize behaviorism, only present the most extreme behaviorist positions, make no mention of the neobehaviorist perspective, fail to discuss that there is no accepted criteria for determining what type of behavior is cognitive, and provide a definition of cognition that is, not only inconsistent across texts, but so broad as to overshadow the behaviorist contributions. Suggestions are provided for instructors on how to present to their students an accurate portrayal of behaviorism.
Keywords: behaviorism; cognitivism; neobehaviorism; teaching; textbooks.
Similar articles
-
Behaviorism, latent learning, and cognitive maps: needed revisions in introductory psychology textbooks.Behav Anal. 2006 Fall;29(2):187-209. doi: 10.1007/BF03392130. Behav Anal. 2006. PMID: 22478463 Free PMC article.
-
Disavowal of the behaviorist paradigm in nursing education: what makes it so difficult to unseat?ANS Adv Nurs Sci. 2001 Mar;23(3):1-10. doi: 10.1097/00012272-200103000-00002. ANS Adv Nurs Sci. 2001. PMID: 11225046
-
Did John B. Watson Really "Found" Behaviorism?Behav Anal. 2014 Mar 15;37(1):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s40614-014-0004-3. eCollection 2014 May. Behav Anal. 2014. PMID: 27274955 Free PMC article.
-
Emancipatory teaching-learning philosophy and practice education in acute care: navigating tensions.J Nurs Educ. 2007 Feb;46(2):60-4. doi: 10.3928/01484834-20070201-04. J Nurs Educ. 2007. PMID: 17315563 Review.
-
A cognitive behaviorist approach to the study of animal behavior.J Gen Psychol. 2002 Oct;129(4):328-63. doi: 10.1080/00221300209602102. J Gen Psychol. 2002. PMID: 12494989 Review.
Cited by
-
Why the study of comparative psychology is important to neuroscientists.Front Behav Neurosci. 2023 Jan 10;16:1095033. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1095033. eCollection 2022. Front Behav Neurosci. 2023. PMID: 36703719 Free PMC article.
-
Behaviorist approaches to investigating memory and learning: A primer for synthetic biology and bioengineering.Commun Integr Biol. 2021 Dec 14;14(1):230-247. doi: 10.1080/19420889.2021.2005863. eCollection 2021. Commun Integr Biol. 2021. PMID: 34925687 Free PMC article. Review.
-
An Inconvenient Truth: Some Neglected Issues in Invertebrate Learning.Perspect Behav Sci. 2018 Oct 24;41(2):395-416. doi: 10.1007/s40614-018-00178-8. eCollection 2018 Nov. Perspect Behav Sci. 2018. PMID: 31976402 Free PMC article.
-
Plant Studies May Lead Us to Rethink the Concept of Behavior.Front Psychol. 2016 Apr 28;7:622. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00622. eCollection 2016. Front Psychol. 2016. PMID: 27242570 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
-
Learning in Plants: Lessons from Mimosa pudica.Front Psychol. 2016 Mar 31;7:417. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00417. eCollection 2016. Front Psychol. 2016. PMID: 27065905 Free PMC article. Review.
References
-
- Abramson C.I. Where have I heard it all before: Some neglected issues of invertebrate learning. In: Greenberg G., Tobach E., editors. Comparative Psychology of Invertebrates: The Field and Laboratory Study of Insect Behavior. Garland; New York, NY, USA: 1997. pp. 55–78.
-
- Abramson C.I., Place A.J. A note regarding the word “Behavior” in glossaries of introductory textbooks and encyclopedia. Percept. Motor Skill. 2005;101:568–574. - PubMed
-
- Adams F. Why we still need a mark of the cognitive. Cogn. Syst. Res. 2010;11:324–331. doi: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2010.03.001. - DOI
-
- Amsel A. Behaviorism, Neobehaviorism and Cognitivism in Learning Theory: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. LEA; Hillsdale, NJ, USA: 1989.
-
- Cromwell H.C., Panksepp J. Rethinking the cognitive revolution from a neural perspective: How overuse/misuse of the term “cognitive” and the neglect of affective controls in behavioral neuroscience could be delaying progress in understanding the BrainMind. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 2011;35:2026–2035. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.02.008. - DOI - PubMed
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources