Radical Behaviorism

Radical behaviorism is a philosophy of the science of behavior developed by the psychologist B. F. Skinner. It refers to the philosophy underlying behavior analysis and is distinguished from methodological behaviorism, an approach that places an intense emphasis on observable behavior alone, by its willingness to include thinking, feeling and other private events within its analysis of human and animal psychology, treating these inner events as behavior subject to the same kind of explanation as outward action rather than excluding them from scientific study. The research program built on radical behaviorism is called the experimental analysis of behavior, and the applied field that grew out of it is called applied behavior analysis, originally termed behavior modification. In education, radical behaviorism's inclusion of private events distinguishes it from a narrower behaviorism concerned only with outward, observable classroom behavior, and its applied offshoot has informed structured teaching techniques used with learners who benefit from clearly defined behavioral goals and consequences.