ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a review of studies that revealed the limitations of behaviorism to explain human behavior. Despite its deficiencies, behaviorism discovered important principles of behavior analysis and behavior modification that have been applied in a variety of domains, most prominently in behavior therapy. Behaviorism built on a philosophical tradition called empiricism, which claimed that humans are born with some basic reflexes but otherwise the mind at birth is a blank slate. To undermine the crucial assumptions of behaviorism, one would have to show that there is learning that cannot be explained in terms of classical or operant conditioning. Behaviorists distinguished four types of relationship between behavior and consequences: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and omission. The legacy of the behaviorists lies in their exploration of two main principles of learning – classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
