Behaviorism

Abstract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Russian and US psychologists crafted behaviorism. However, scholars such as George Herbert Mead and George Homans adapted it for more explicitly social theories. The study of learning and stimulus‐response (S‐R) connections became the dominant theoretical paradigm in social and behavioral sciences during the first two thirds of the twentieth century. Because of its emphasis on socialization and the environment, behaviorism starkly contrasted with the Social Darwinist and biological determinism paradigms of the time, and helped pave the way for social egalitarian movements. Other adaptations, such as those by Lev Vygotsky, contributed to explaining the development of the self and internalizing social norms.