The experimental synthesis of behaviour

Abstract

The experimental synthesis of behaviour is a programme for the unification of psychology. The central core of the theory is behaviour analysis, and its aim is to explain the findings of contemporary psychology in behavioural concepts. The experimental synthesis of behaviour is not “eclectic.” Following a post‐Kuhnian description, the author states that psychological schools were analogous to paradigms, and that a state of normal science (in Kuhn's terms) could be reached. The main characteristics of the experimental synthesis of behaviour, as a programme for the unification of psychology, are as follows. (1) A behavioural level of explanation; psychology has its own level, which includes the behaviour of organisms and their varied relations to the environment; behaviour is not reducible, in strict sense, to biology or to social science. (2) The method is experimentation, but in the initial stages importance is given to observational and correlational procedures. (3) Emphasis is on learning: Human behaviour is primarily learned, with a biological (genetic) basis. (4) The wide range of phenomena that are to be explained include all the traditional fields of scientific psychological research. (5) Emphasis is also on the environment, both social and physical. (6) Importance is given to the basic technology derived from behavioural research.