Behaviorism

Behaviorism is a school of psychology that believes that psychology should be an extension of the natural sciences, with similar goals of prediction and control. Behaviorism emphasizes the study of observable behaviors that can be objectively measured. For instance, Howard Rachlin advocated for focus on pain-related behaviors over the internal experience of pain to understand and treat pain-related psychopathology. A corollary to this orientation is that the behavior of humans is not unique or substantively different from that of nonhuman animals; human and animal behavior are equally important to understanding behavior in general.

Some behaviorists hold firmly to an exclusive focus on overt (i.e., observable) behavior with little consideration for internal or mental events that cannot be measured. However, more modern forms of behaviorism are more ...