What is Behaviourism?

Behaviourism is widely termed as the study of behaviour and aspects of behaviour, such as emotions, as observable and quantifiable sources. This view states that behaviour is a learned skill and everything that humans do can and should be regarded as behaviour.

For example, Behaviourists argue that language is a learned skill through the process of operant conditioning (positive and negative reinforcement), according to Skinner (1957).

EH
Answered by Elizabeth H. Psychology tutor

4672 Views

See similar Psychology A Level tutors

Related Psychology A Level answers

All answers ▸

Outline a cognitive approaches to explaining depression, with reference to who founded it and examples to explore their ideas.


What is meant by the terms nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio data and why is it important to know the difference between the four terms?


What is the difference between normative social influence and informational social influence?


What is a type 1 error? Explain why psychologists use the significance level of 0.05 in research (3 marks)


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning