Behaviorology is a natural science that studies the interaction between environment and behavior. Behaviorologists are interested in all behavior, regardless of complexity, produced by any creature with a nervous system. Natural sciences are the empirical and systematic study of naturally occurring phenomena; it only considers what can be tested and measured, and which evidence can be shown to confirm or explain its existence. Behaviorology has foundations in, but is distinct from the field of psychology, which is not a natural science and leaves much to speculation. The other natural sciences are: biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, astronomy, mathematics.
Naturalism and determinism are two key concepts that guide the field of behaviorology, Naturalism is a philosophy guiding scientific pursuits, based on the principle that “only natural events exist” (O’Heare, J. 2022) and that these are all quantifiable. It denies the existence or participation of any supernatural force. Naturalism sees behavior as a response to the environment; it does not consider spontaneous ‘free-will’ or that which there is no evidence for. Determinism is a concept derived from naturalism that declares any event that occurs to be part of a continuous feedback loop that is composed of causes and effects. Everything occurs as a reaction to something else.
Radical behaviorism is a philosophical framework that recognizes both respondent, operant, and other kinds of behavior. It applies the rules of natural science to Behaviorology and does not allow for hypotheticals (e.g. supernatural forces). The three guiding assumptions of radical behaviorism are 1) behavior is a natural phenomenon arising from cause-and-effect; 2) environment influences behavior and its effect can be analyzed by controlling variables and observing the result; and 3) private events, such as thinking, are considered and subject to the same principles that are applied to openly visible behavior.
The mode of causation influences the relationship between variables. Mechanistic causation refers to when something occurring immediately before something else directly causes its occurrence. Selection causation pertains to behavior selected as a result of the consequence- the consequence that occurs as a result of something affects the likelihood of that same thing occurring again and is influenced by the history of its consequences. Selection by consequences results from selection causation and can be used to understand the heritability of traits, different traits, and differences in events, an organism’s interactions with the environment, and differential selection. The consequences of a trait influence its perpetuation and expression, and allows events and reactions to be explained, predicted, and controlled.
Repertoire, the behaviors regularly exhibited by an organism, are developed throughout the individual’s lifespan as a result of the consequences of the actions of its behaviors. Various behaviors are reinforced through the individual’s life based on the results it evokes, and those with positive consequences are reinforced and perpetuated through the contingencies of reinforcement. Punishment will reduce or extinguish behaviors. The consequence of an organism’s actions causes their operant behavior repertoire to evolve throughout their lifespan.
The selection paradigm sees behavior as resulting from selection by consequences, based on whether a behavior is effective, beneficial, or produces and adverse consequence; it is associated with Behaviorology. The transformational paradigm is used within psychology and although it considers the relation between inputs and outputs, it focuses on the mental or cognitive actions that occur within an organism and rather the external environment in shaping behavior. This transformational paradigm cannot be reliably applied when working with animals.
Agentialism is a theory in psychology that considers the mental processes and internal decision making actions of an individual, but it is not measurable or quantifiable. Its use is among the reasons that psychology is excluded from the natural sciences. Agentialism considers how one thinks about oneself and rationalizes ones actions internally.
Behavior is an ongoing process that is exhibited by an organism and can adapt over time. To qualify as a behavior (in natural sciences), it must be measurable, in response to a stimulus, and involve the organism’s nervous system, where or not it is visible to the observer (activity in glands or neural circuit is also considered behavior). A volatile outburst is an example of a behavior, as a stimulus produces a strong emotion that motivates a behavior. However, tripping and falling would not be seen as behavior, because the organism is landing on their face due to gravity. There is the ‘dead body test’, as in, if a lifeless corpse could do the same motion, it is not a behavior.
Summary labels are often used in the medical framework and assign a range of behaviors that could be expected based on the diagnostic or characteristics assigned to an organism but it problematic because the label does not identify specific behavior. Because of their generalization and lack of specificity, they cannot be used to precisely describe or measure behavior.
Operant behaviors are a focus of training. Operant behaviors effect the environment, which then leads to a consequence that impacts the nervous system of the organism that produced the behavior. Operant behaviors are influenced by their consequences and can be either punished or reinforced. Respondent behaviors are caused by a stimulus and can be innate or hereditary and are not effected by consequences (e.g. blinking occurs automatically in response to anything approaching or touching the eye, cannot be interrupted). Respondent behaviors can also be conditioned but require consistently pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus. Both operant and respondent behaviors can be unconditioned or conditioned.
Conditioning occurs when stimulation from the environment alters the neural structure of an organism, changing their future response to a specific stimulus. The consequences that occur immediately following their behavioral response to the incoming stimulus impact whether this behavior is more likely to reoccur or be extinguished in the future. The reinforcer must occur immediately after the behavior in order to affect the likelihood of it reoccurring. Operant conditioning involves some change to the behavior, such as its rate, frequency, intensity, or shape. Reinforcement will increase the rate of the behavior and punishment will decrease it. Extinction occurs when the behavior is no longer reinforced, so the response to the formerly evocative stimulus weakens until it no longer elicits a response.
A functional relationship is the relation between a dependent and independent variable/s, in which the dependent variable is affected by the independent variable. In Behaviorology, the dependent variable being influenced is the organism’s behavior, and the independent variable is the stimulation produced in its environment. For a functional relation to exist, the dependent variable must be affected by the independent variable.
A contingency describes the variable and the relationship between them. To be a true contingency, it needs to occur within seconds of the event occurring; more, and it can be considered a ‘defective contingency’ if it still acts as a reinforcer, although conditioning is much less likely if it occurs later then almost immediately after the event. ‘Contingencies’ can be used simultaneously as ‘contingencies of reinforcement’. Contingency analysis is used to explain the process or describe an episode of behavior and its functional relations. If analyzing the contingency process, behaviorologists try to determine what functional relations the behavior isolated is related to. The three-term-contingency (ABC’s of behaviorology) is a simple formula to breakdown a single occurrence of an operant behavior. It is written A-B-P, in which ‘A’ is the antecedent, ‘B’ is the behavior, and ‘P’ is the postcedent stimulus (or A-B-C, in which ‘C’ is the consequence).