1. What Is Radical About Radical Behaviorism?

Krista Glover “What is radical about radical behaviourism? ”
Early psychology took an introspective approach into investigating how the ‘mind’ worked. Conscious experience was regarded as a purely mental process that was not a publically observable behaviour. Psychologists of the time used introspective research methods to analyse and report the conscious experiences of themselves and their assistants. This popular approach to psychological research led to much controversy over the ‘scientific’ nature of psychology. The introspective research methods used within psychology were criticised for being unscientific, vague and lacking in objectivity. Further ammunition was also drawn from the verity that the experiences of one person could not
Radical behaviourism was indeed ‘radical’, challenging the traditional notions of freedom and dignity, adding validity to a field previously considered ‘unscientific’. It forced society to consider the possibiltity that all organisms, no matter what their species, are controlled by contingencies of reinforcement, with society being nothing more than a set of contingences of reiforcement. Radical behaviourism will forever be challenged as it creates an unsettling, almost incomphrenhensible image that mankind is not autonomous, and is in no way a unique organism. By graciously accepting such within the scientfic community, the technology of behaviour has been used to significanly reduce the aversive consquences of behaviour, and maximise the achievement of indivduals who may have previously been considered lost causes, for example in the treatment of those on the autistic spectrum. The confidence in the effectiveness of ABA techniques is evidenced the recommendations for further investment in the future development of ABA (Clement- Jones & Baldwin, 2011). It could be agrued that advances in cognitive neuroscience weaken a case for the validity of radical behaviourism, but this is untrue; exciting studies by Soon, Brass, Hans-Jochen, & John-Dylan (2008) & Fried, Mukamel, & Kreiman (2011) have only added further staying power to the behaviourist movement, strengthenng an arguement against freewill. Technological advances in the cognitive neuroscience of psychology provides a means of progressing the field of psychology further by combining both proven radical behaviourism techniques and modern advances in cognitive neuroscience. Radical behaviourim is by no means dead, it is merely