Psychological behaviorism

Concepts Basic behavioral repertoire Sensory-motor repertoire Language-cognitive repertoire Emotional-motivational repertoire Proponents Arthur W. Staats Relevant works Behavior and personality

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Psychological behaviorism is a theory of personality proposed by Arthur W. Staats. It argues that personality consists of a set of learned behavioral patterns, acquired through the interaction between an individual's biology, environment, cognition, and emotion.

Description

According to this theory, personality consists of three behavioral repertoires:

• sensory–motor repertoire, including basic sensory–motor abilities, as well as attentional and social skills;
• language–cognitive repertoire, including receptive language
  Language
  Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
  
  , expressive language, and receptive–expressive language;
• emotional–motivational repertoire, including positive and negative patterns of emotional reaction directing the whole behavior of the person.

The infant begins life without the basic behavioral repertoires. They are acquired through complex learning, and as this occurs, the child becomes able to respond appropriately to various situations.

Whereas at the beginning learning involves only basic conditioning, as repertories are acquired the child's learning improves, being aided by the repertoires that are already functional. The way a person experiences the world depends on his/her repertoires. The individual's environment to the present results in learning a basic behavioral repertoire (BBR). The individual's behavior

Behavior

Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment...

 is function of the life situation and the individual's BBR. The BBRs are both a dependent and an independent variable, as they result from learning and cause behavior, constituting the individual's personality. According to this theory, biological conditions of learning are essential. Biology provides the mechanisms for learning and performance of behavior. For example, a severely brain-damaged child will not learn BBRs in a normal manner.

According to Staats, the biological organism is the mechanism by which the environment produces learning that results in basic behavioral repertoires which constitute personality. In turn, these repertoires, once acquired, are modifying the brain's biology, through the creation of new neural connections. Organic conditions affect behavior through affecting learning, basic repertoires, and sensory processes. The effect of environment on behavior can be proximal, here-and-now, or distal, through memory and personality. Thus, biology provides the mechanism, learning and environment provide the content of behavior and personality. Creative behavior is explained by novel combinations of behaviors elicited by new, complex environmental situations. The self

Self (psychology)

The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive and affective representation of one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology derived from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the...

 is the individual's perception of his/her behavior, situation, and organism. Personality, situation, and the interaction between them are the three main forces explaining behavior. The world acts upon the person, but the person also acts both on the world, and on him/herself.

Methods

The methodology of psychological behavioral theory contains techniques of assessment and therapy specially designed for the three behavioral repertoires:

• classical sensorimotor techniques;
• language
  Language
  Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
  
  –cognitive techniques (verbal association, verbal imitation, and verbal-writing);
• emotion
  Emotion
  Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
  
  al–motivational techniques (the time-out
  Child time-out
  A time-out involves temporarily separating a child from an environment where inappropriate behavior has occurred, and is intended to give an over-excited child time to calm down and thereby discouraging such behavior. It is an educational and parenting technique recommended by some pediatricians...
  
   technique).

See also

• Behaviorism
  Behaviorism
  Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...
  
  
• Social behavior
  Social behavior
  In physics, physiology and sociology, social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social...
  
  
• Cognitive-affective personality system
  Cognitive-affective personality system
  The Cognitive Affective Processing System is a contribution to the psychology of personality proposed by Walter Mischel and Yuichi Shoda in 1995...
  
  
• Hypostatic model of personality
  Hypostatic model of personality
  The hypostatic model of personality is a contribution to the psychology of personality, summarized by Codrin Stefan Tapu in 2001. It argues that the person presents herself in different aspects or hypostases, depending on the internal and external realities she relates to, including different...
  
  
• Personality systematics
  Personality systematics
  Personality systematics is a contribution to the psychology of personality and to psychotherapy summarized by Jeffrey J. Magnavita in 2006 and 2009. It is the study of the interrelationships among subsystems of personality as they are embedded in the entire ecological system. The model falls into...
  
  
• Systems psychology
  Systems psychology
  Systems psychology is a branch of applied psychology that studies human behaviour and experience in complex systems. It is inspired by systems theory and systems thinking, and based on the theoretical work of Roger Barker, Gregory Bateson, Humberto Maturana and others. It is an approach in...
  
  
• Arthur W. Staats