Where did Behaviorism start anyway?
Long before anybody had the idea of applying behavioral techniques to the workforce, a gentleman named BF Skinner developed his theory of behaviorism. I may be wrong, but I sense a little discord in the halls of academic theory. One school of thinking says that the solution to all behavioral problems lies inside the mind. You can only change behavior by sorting thru the murky waters of thought. While that science has it’s place, it is slow and time consuming (a good thing if you are just starting your psychology practice) Behaviorists are sort of mavericks. They say that we don’t have time for all that touchy feely stuff, instead, we should just focus on behaviors: which means what people say, and what they do. I have to tell you that this appeals to me, being the kind of guy who wants to get more done as fast as I can. We continue to flip the light switch (the behavior) because the lights come on (the positive consequences). We keep eating the donuts (behavior) because they taste good
