Behaviorism, Psychology, and Parenting

First of all, I'd like to address the view of behaviorism and its function  in psychology and how you look at a this view as a parent. Behaviorism is the science of purely behavior, rejecting any introspection(the practice of asking people to report on their mental experiences). To you as a parent, you should understand that many parenting strategies, such as use of classical and operant conditioning, can be based on purely behaviorism and not ask you or you child about how they feel, because many psychologists do not use this practice as reliable evidence because they feel it is too subjective because it can not be directly observed and measured. A crucial leader in the view of behaviorism was John Watson. He and his loyal followers believed that psychology should focus more on how people act than how they feel.

As a psychologist, I have devoted many years to researching various psychological perspectives in an effort to shape my own personal view of psychology as a whole. I personally think behaviorism has its place in psychological research, but should not be relied upon fully. It is definitely important to observe children and how they act in various situations; however, I do not think it is right to disregard the fact that children do have brains and thoughts that should be heard and used in appropriate settings. The extreme view that we can only use how a person acts as research would not allow psychologists to observe or diagnose psychological illnesses and would disregard a large portion of what we view as psychology today. Also as it says in the picture above, if we as parents only use behaviorist techniques of using reinforcements and punishments to shape a child's behavior they will be less likely to develop intrinsic motivation, which can push them to achieve success for their own accord. Intrinsic motivation is much stronger than the later, extrinsic motivation that is based on external reward. Intrinsic motivation focuses on their own love for what they do and destines them for a bright future. As a developmental psychologist, behaviorism is a common topic is how we should observe children and implement parenting techniques. I as a parent, believe the younger they are the more effective behaviorist techniques are but as they start to mature and gain their own moral views and abstract thought, parents should be more sensitive to child's thoughts and views to create a healthy and fair family environment.

Overall, behaviorism is very effective in many settings such as shaping the behaviors of humans and children, but as a whole with the lack of introspection and taking a child's thoughts into consideration can cripple a relationship with a child and create a child who acts more like a well-trained puppy than a human child.

Photo: http://www.positive-parenting-ally.com/image-files/dr-sears-punishment-and-rewards.jpg