Behaviorism, Behavior Analysis, and the Career of Psychology

Abstract

Although behaviorism constitutes a veritable revolution in psychology, as the renunciation of animism in favor of a concern with directly observable events, it continually faces misunderstandings, both within and without the movement. Within the movement, it is confused with the technique of conditioning in various forms, while nonbehaviorists misinterpret the disapproval of animistic interpretations as a rejection of such important forms of behavior as perceiving, thinking, feeling, and so on. It is proposed that the interbehavioral version of antianimism shows the way toward a valid, comprehensive, system of scientific psychology.