Knowledge organiser:
Behaviourist approach strengths and weaknesses
Behaviourist approach strengths and weaknesses: D.R.A.I.N.S
Stance Positive / Negative
Determinism / Free Will
The behaviourist approach is firmly on the deterministic
side of the free will versus determinism debate. We are
born as a blank slate and the environment shapes us (en-
vironmental determinism). As children, we have little / no
control over the environment. The behaviourist approach
acknowledges a very small contribution from free will, e.g.
we are able to shape / choose our environment at times
BUT this is very limited.
On the one hand, supporting the concept of environmental determinism undermines the sense of choice or
free will that humans have when making decisions. This validates the idea that we have no personal or moral
responsibility for our behaviour and leads to a ‘blame culture’, for example aggression – an individual may
display aggressive behaviour and blame the environment (aggressive role models, being positively reinforced
for aggressive behavior, etc.) rather than seeing the behaviour as something they are responsible for.
On the other hand, by recognising the role of determinism in behaviour, we know what factors have
pre-determined a behaviour, such as a person’s phobia. This means we can aim to alter these factors in an at-
tempt to change the behaviour. In other words, we can replace the ‘faulty’ learnt behaviour/association to the
object and replace it with a new, more relaxed response, thus ‘curing’ any phobias.
Reductionism / Holism
The behaviourist approach is fairly reductionist as it
reduces complex human behaviour to simple stimulus-re-
sponse relationships. It suggests humans and animals
learn in the same way and this is perhaps too simplistic.
The behaviourist approach does not consider complex
psychological OR biological factors in its explanations for
human behaviour.
The benefit of adopting a reductionist view is that it can help identify simple causal factors for behaviour and
once the cause is identified it is much easier to modify the behaviour through treatments, e.g. systematic
desensitisation / aversion therapy see the cause of phobias / addictions as faulty learning and as such change
behaviour through counter conditioning.
However, it is also a weakness because, by ignoring the interacting factors and the complexities of human
behaviour, we are at risk of losing a real understanding of human behavior; for instance, there is evidence to
suggest that phobias could symbolise unconscious anxieties. Thus, the real cause of the behaviour is ignored,
therefore reducing the effectiveness of treatment.
Applications
It is clear that the behaviourist approach has been ap-
plied successfully to many aspects of society, for example
in the home, education and health.
The wide use of behaviourist principles in the real world can be considered a strength of the approach. It sup-
ports the principles of the approach by showing that they are effective in a real-life setting. It has also benefit-
ed society by improving behaviour and encouraging functional, helpful behaviours.
