Social Behaviorism: History And Theoretical Principles
The study of the human mind has traditionally been carried out through the analysis of verbalizations, physical reactions and behaviors. Different tests and tests have been proposed through which to infer the mental state of people and how they react to the natural and social environment.
One of the many aspects that have been studied is the socialization process and the ability to relate to our peers. Studied among other disciplines by social psychology, this object of study has been observed from different perspectives, including behaviorism.
Although the latter is based on the association between stimuli and responses in the same subject without generally taking into account the intermediate mental processes, there is a branch of this that did take these factors into account, attempting to explain the mind through behavior, focusing on social interaction processes. This is social behaviorism l
Behaviorism is one of the main theoretical currents that have emerged throughout history with the purpose of understanding why human beings act the way they do. This paradigm It is based on the objective observation of reality seeking empirical and scientific knowledge based on observable and measurable evidence.
Since the mind is something that does not enjoy such characteristics, behaviorism in general ignores its direct study and is based on behavior as an object of study. To do this, it is based on the observation of the capacity for association between stimuli, which allows responses from one stimulus to another to be generalized. Thus, The basis of behaviorism is the association between stimulus and response
Since behaviorists began to work based on operant conditioning, it was considered that the performance of a specific behavior is mainly influenced by its consequences, which can be positive (so the behavior emitted will become more probable). or negative, assuming the performance of the behavior is a punishment (something that reduces the behavior).
Although behaviorism is aware that the mind exists, it is considered a “black box”, an unknowable element to which little importance is attached to explain behavior and that is located at an intermediate point between stimuli and responses. The human being is a fundamentally passive being that is limited to capturing stimuli and responding accordingly.
However, the mere association between stimuli and responses or the link with positive or negative consequences is not enough to explain a large number of complex behaviors, processes such as thinking, or understand the reason for certain behaviors (such as some due to psychopathologies). .
The mind does not cease to have an influence on this process, which would make it As time went by, other currents emerged, such as cognitivism focused on explaining mental processes. But before that, some authors tried to take into account the existence of an intermediate point. This is how social behaviorism was born.
social behaviorism
Traditional behaviorism, as we have seen, bases its theory on the association between stimuli and attempted to explain behavior directly. However, it left aside the influence of internal processes and ignored the role of subjective and non-measurable facets in behavior of our mental life. Elements such as the opinion of others or beliefs, which in principle do not imply immediate harm or reinforcement on a physical level, were not considered.
This is why some authors, such as George H. Mead, decided to try to explain the mind through behavior, focusing their research on the field of social bonding and initiating the type of behaviorism called social behaviorism.
In social behaviorism, more focused on the process of formation of behavior and the factors that initiate it, It is considered that the human being is not a mere passive element in the chain between stimuli and responses but rather it is an active part that is capable of acting based on internal impulses or external elements. The person interprets the stimuli and responds according to said interpretation.
Thus, in social behaviorism it is taken into account that all those traces left in our minds by interaction with others and their study is partly behaviorist, in the sense that it is based on the systematic observation of behavior in the process of realization. of social events. However, it is not possible to ignore the existence of internal processes that affect the performance of social behaviors.
Although the link between stimuli and responses continues to be used to explain behavior, in social behaviorism this link is exercised through the concept of attitude, in the sense that Through the accumulation and interpretation of experiences we form an attitude that will alter our behavior and induce a specific type of response, while said responses and attitudes can act as a stimulus in others.
The social, both the interaction itself with others and the cultural context in which it is carried out, is used as a stimulus for the emission of behaviors, while in turn the behavior elicits a response from the environment.
Keys to understanding this psychological school
Below you can see a series of ideas that help you understand the perspective from which social behaviorism starts and what methodology defines it.
1. Social behavior
Social behaviorism considers that the relationship between people and the actions and behaviors we carry out They become a stimulus that will provoke a response in another which in turn will become a stimulus for the first.
In this way, the interaction will occur continuously, affecting the actions of each other and partly following the stimulus-response chain.
2. The importance of language in the construction of the person
For social behaviorism, one of the main elements of interest that mediates every social act is communication and language. The person emerges as such in a specific context in which numerous meanings have been socially constructed, acquiring different attitudes regarding them and exercising our behavior based on them.
Sharing the use of meanings through language allows the existence of learning, and based on this the subjectivity through which we guide our behavior can be born. This is why for Mead and social behaviorism the self and the mind are a product, a consequence of social interaction.
In fact, the formation of personality depends largely on language. Throughout development, the child will participate in different situations and games in which his or her actions will receive a series of responses from the rest of the components of society, which are communicated to him or her through language and action. Based on them, different attitudes will be formed towards the world and towards oneself, allowing the personality and self to be forged.
3. Self-concept from social behaviorism
For this current, the term self-concept refers to the set of verbal self-descriptions that a subject makes of himself, descriptions that are used by others in order to interact with him.
It can therefore be observed that these self-verbalizations act as a stimulus that elicits a response in other subjects, a response that, as we have said, will generate a response in us. But These self-descriptions don’t appear out of nowhere but they depend on the stimulation that the person has received.
4. The I and the me
Thus, a person’s subjectivity depends largely on capturing the responses of our behaviors, which we use as a stimulus.
Mead considered the existence in the self of two internal elements in the structuring of the person, the me and the I. The self is the perception that the individual has regarding how society, understood as the “generalized other”, perceives him. This is the evaluative part of the person that integrates external expectations into one’s own being, reacting and acting based on them.
On the other hand, the self is the most internal part that allows the existence of a specific reaction to the environment, the primal and spontaneous part. It’s about what we believe we are, a part of us that will emerge through the conjunction and synthesis of the different “my” perceived. Through this we can once again observe how within Mead’s social behaviorism the mind is considered as something emerged and prepared from and for social action.
