Exploring Behaviorism: A Networked (Re)integration

Abstract

Skinner claimed when outlining his behaviorist philosophy, that concepts exist in the world before anyone identifies them, yet that they are inherently linked to social and cultural descriptions and predictions. The perspective has been dismissed by many researchers in the learning sciences as an important but obsolete relic in origin narratives introducing perspectives. In such a narrative, behaviorism is portrayed ontologically as incompatible with complex domains related to agency, emotion and engagement. However, researchers have started to consider its relevancy to clearly specify sequential learning tasks on a materialistic level integral to a networked sociocultural perspective.

Following the recent trend of defending behaviorism, the presented paper creatively explores the valuable and useful functions of behaviorist philosophy that are integral to research associated with design, teacher professional development, and digital ubiquitous technology. The paper aims to provide a philosophical foundation for further discussion of a scientific methodology by relating basic conceptual underpinnings of behaviorism to different domains and levels of analysis integral to the networked sociocultural perspective.

The networked sociocultural perspective concerns the organization of knowledge. This organization functions to link different practices, perspectives and theories without reducing one to another. This organization of knowledge is very similar to the way individuals are conceptualized in a behavioral analysis, constituted and reinforced by different processes of successful behavior, allowing individuals to integrate the successes of a particular organized domain into other knowledge domains and instances of emotion. Following this logic, organizations and professions linked to them depend on an integration of multiple domains, forming complex networked learning amplified at a rapid rate by technological developments since the beginning of the 21st century.

Linking practices, settings, perspectives and theories by an established alignment constitutes scientific rigor and a valid methodology. The behavioristic methodology assumes value to prediction and systematic, creative explorations of complex domains at the level of observable material events. From a networked sociocultural perspective, behaviorism may guide researchers to take the necessary and required steps to provide a clear analysis of sequential learning task outcomes at the level of observable material events. Further, these predictions should be formulated in such a way that as a great amount of networked practices, perspectives and theories can integrate as possible, without reducing one to another