Behavioural sciences

Behavioral science is the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic observation, and disciplined scientic experimentation. It attempts to accomplish legitimate, objective conclusions through rigorous formulations and observation.[1] Examples of behavioural sciences include psychology, psychobiology, criminology
and cognitive science.

Psychology, cognitive science, psychobiology, neural networks, social cognition, social psychology, semantic networks, ethology and social neuroscience are classied as
information processing sciences.
On the other hand, relational sciences deals with relationships, interaction, communication networks, associations
and relational strategies or dynamics among organisms or
cognitive entities in a social system. sociological social
psychology, social networks, dynamic network analysis,
agent-based model and microsimulation are classied as
relational sciences.

Dierence between behavioural

sciences and social sciences

3 Theories of Behavioral Psychology

The term behavioural sciences is often confused with the

term social sciences. Though these two broad areas are
interrelated and study systematic processes of behaviour,
they dier on their level of scientic analysis of various
3.1
dimensions of behaviour.
Behavioural sciences abstract empirical data to investigate the decision processes and communication strategies
within and between organisms in a social system. This
involves elds like psychology, social neuroscience and
cognitive science.

Classical Conditioning

A theorist that contributed a theory to behavioral science

is Ivan P. Pavlov. He was a Russian psychologist born in
1849. In 1883 acquired a medical degree from the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. He then received a Nobel Prize for his extensive research of the digestive glands
physiology at the age of 55 in 1904. In the United States
the majority of psychologists did not recognize Pavlov
for all his work, instead they only gave consideration to
his idea of classical conditioning.[2]

In contrast, social sciences provide a perceptive framework to study the processes of a social system through
impacts of social organisation on structural adjustment of
the individual and of groups. They typically include elds
like sociology, economics, public health, anthropology, Classical conditioning was discovered by Ivan P. Pavlov
demography and political science.[1]
in 1927.[3] Classical conditioning is accompanying a speObviously, however, many subelds of these disciplines cic stimuli with a certain response which is learned over
cross the boundaries of behavioral and social. For exam- a period of time. Pavlov came to the discovery of this
ple, political psychology and behavioral economics use theory through an experiment he carried out which inbehavioral approaches, despite the predominant focus on volved his dog and its reaction to their food. Pavlov had
systemic and institutional factors in the broader elds of noticed that his dog would salivate whenever they would
smell the food or see him coming. Intrigued by the conpolitical science and economics.
nection between the food and the salivation, he chose to
identify why this was happening. He concluded that the
dog salivating was an unconditioned reex, meaning it is
2 Categories of behavioral sciences something that they are born with and it is not learned,
and therefore he wondered whether he could pair the beBehavioral sciences can be divided into two academic havior of salivation with any other stimuli.[2]
elds: neural (information sciences) and social (relational He began the experiment where he would try to recreate
sciences).
the connection between the food and the salivation with
a connection between a conditioned stimuli and a conditioned response. When he was going to feed his dog he
would ring a bell and as the food would come into sight the
dog started to produce saliva. After doing this for a certain period of time, the dog would pair the sound with the

Information processing sciences deal with information

processing of stimuli from the social environment by
cognitive entities, to engage in decision making, social
judgment and social perception for individual functioning and survival of organism in a social environment.
1

6 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

food which resulted in the dog providing a conditioned

response. Over time the dog learned that whenever the
bell rang food would be provided therefore when the bell
was rung it would begin to produce saliva. By utilizing
the process of classical conditioning, Pavlov managed to
teach his dog to learn the pairing of the bell and his production of saliva.[2]

4 See also
Behaviour
Human behaviour
List of academic disciplines
Science
Fields of science

3.2

Operant Conditioning

Natural sciences
Social sciences
History of science

Another contributor to behavioral psychology was Burrhus Frederic Skinner, also known as B. F. Skinner, who
created the theory of operant conditioning. Skinner was
born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 1904 and was one
of two children. Once he graduated high school, he attended Hamilton College where he graduated with a degree in writing seeing as he was an English major. As he
was commencing his writing career, he felt as though he
had nothing to oer and decided to end his pursuit of a
career as a writer. Not being a writer led him to return
to school and he went to attend the Psychology Harvard
Graduate Program in which he graduated in 1931 receiving a PhD. With a doctorate degree he continued in the
psychological eld as he became the Chair of Psychology at Indiana University in 1945, but three years later
in 1948 he decided to return to Harvard when he was offered a job as a professor of psychology.[4]
Operant conditioning is a theory that falls under operant condition, it is composed of the idea that if behavior is reciprocated with a certain consequence, whether
it is a positive or a negative reinforcement, the behavior
is more likely to be repeated and become constant. A
consequence is a reaction to a behavior which serves as
a reinforcement. Although both a positive reinforcement
and a negative reinforcement will encourage the repetition of the specic behavior. A positive reinforcement is
a consequence that provides you with a good feeling that
then encourages the certain behavior, which led to this
positive reinforcement to be repeated until it becomes a
learned behavior that you do unconscientiously.[5]
For example, if you eat a chocolate and you nd it to taste
very good then you will most likely eat another chocolate
whether it is immediately after or some other time. In
the given event the pleasing taste of the chocolate was the
positive reinforcement and the act of eating it was the behavior that was reinforced. This scenario can also be altered to show the meaning of a negative reinforcement. A
negative reinforcement is a consequence that causes discomfort leading to the aversion of the behavior that led
to that consequence. For example say you eat the chocolate and you nd it to be disgusting, then that will lead
you to avoid eating that chocolate making the taste of the
chocolate the negative reinforcement and the avoidance
of eating that chocolate again the behavior.[5]

History of technology

5 References
[1] Klemke, E. D., Hollinger, R., and Kline, A. D., (1980),
Introduction to the book in 'Introductory Readings in the
Philosophy of Science': Bualo, New York, Prometheus
Books p 11-12
[2] Malone, John C. (1990). Theories of Learning: A Historical Approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co. pp.
5589.
[3] Fiske, Susan T., Daniel L. Schacter, and Alan E. Kazdin.
Annual Review of Psychology. Palo Alto, CA: Annual
Reviews, 2006. Print.
[4] O'Donohue, William T., and Kyle E. Ferguson. The Psychology of B.F. Skinner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage,
2001. Print.
[5] Skinner, Burrhus F. About Behaviorism.
Knopf, 1974. Print.

New York:

6 Selected bibliography
George Devereux: From anxiety to method in the behavioral sciences, The Hague, Paris. Mouton & Co,
1967
Fred N. Kerlinger (1979), Behavioral Research: A
Conceptual Approach, New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, ISBN 0-03-013331-9
E.D. Klemke, R. Hollinger & A.D. Kline, (eds.)
(1980). Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of
Science. Prometheus Books, New York.
Neil J. Smelser & Paul B. Baltes, eds. (2001).
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 26 v. Oxford: Elsevier. ISBN 9780-08-043076-8

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