Behaviorism at Work

Perhaps the biggest strength of behaviorism and the resulting social learning and social cognitive theories are their ease of application to real world examples.  Information gathered for learning theories such as these are often represented by statistics and facts, rather than theoretical concepts and ideas.  Therefore, applying them and measuring the outcome is much simpler.

We have also found that the treatment approaches developed from these theories is relatively simple and quick to administer.  Curing mental illnesses that would have taken months or even years with traditional psychoanalysis can now be completed in weeks, or even days.  

This chapter discusses the benefits of learning theories and behavioral psychology as well as the most commonly applied treatment, behavior modification.  It ends with a short discussion regarding potential short comings of the theory and the inevitable criticism that is given every theory in psychology.