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A more explicit strategy is to abandon the search for causes and simply describe what people do. Anthropologists can report customs and manners, political scientists can take the line of"behavioralism" and record political action, economists can amass statistics about what people buy and sell, rent and hire, save and spend, and make and consume, and psychologists can sample attitudes and opinions. All this may be done through direct observation, possibly with the help of recording systems, and with interviews, questionnaires, tests, and polls. The study of literature, art, and music is often confined to the forms of these products of human behavior, and linguists may confine themselves to phonetics, semantics, and syntax. A kind of prediction is possible on the principle that what people have often done they are likely to do again; they follow customs because it is customary to follow them, they exhibit voting or buying habits, and so on. The discovery of organizing principles in the structure of behavior— such as "universals" in cultures or languages, archetypal patterns in literature, or psychological types-may make it possible to predict instances of behavior that have not previously occurred.The structure or organization of behavior can also be studied as a function of time or age, as in the development of a child's verbal behavior or his problem-solving strategies or in the sequence of stages through which a person passes on his way from infancy to maturity, or in the stages through which a culture evolves. History emphasizes changes occurring in time, and if patterns development or growth can be discovered, they may also prove helpful in predicting future events.
Human behavior is the subject matter of behavior modification.
Behavior is what people do and say. The characteristics that define behayior are as follows.Behavior involves a person's actions (what people do or say); it is described with action verbs. Behavior is not a static characteristic of the person. If you say that a person is angry, you have not identified the person's behavior; you have simply labeled the person. If you identify what the person says or does when angry, then you have identified behavior. For example,
"Jennifer screamed at her mother, ran upstairs, and slammed the door to her room." This is a description of behavior that might
be labeled as anger.Behaviors have one or more dimensions that can be measured.
You can measure the frequency of a behavior; that is, you can count the number of times a behavior occurs (e.g., Shane bit his fingernails 12 times in the class period). You can measure the duration of a behavior, or the time from when an instance of the behavior starts until it stops (e.g., Rita jogged for 25 minutes).
You can measure the intensity of a behavior or the physical force involved in the behavior (e.g., Garth bench pressed 220 pounds). You can measure the speed of behavior, or the latencyfrom some event to the start of a behavior. Frequency, duration, intensity, and latency are all physical dimensions of a behavior.
• Behaviors can be observed, described, and recorded by others or by the person engaging in the behavior. Because a behavior is an action, its occurrence can be observed. People can see the behavior (or detect it through one of the senses) when it occurs.
Because it is observable, the person who sees the behavior can describe it and record its occurrence.
• Behaviors have an impact on the environment, including the physical or the social environment (other people and ourselves).
Because a behavior is an action that involves movement through space and time (Johnston & Pennypacker, 1981), the occurrence of a behavior has some effect on the environment in which it
occurs.Sometimes the effect on the environment is obvious. You turn
the light switch, and the light goes on (an effect on the physical environment). You raise your hand in class, and your professor
calls on you (an effect on other people). You recite a phone number from a web site, and you are more likely to remember it and to dial the correct number (an effect on yourself).
Sometimes the effect of a behavior on the environment is not
obvious.Sometimes it has an effect only on the person who engages in the behavior. However, all human behavior operates on the physical or social environment in some way, regardless of whether we are aware of its impact.
• Behavior is lawful; that is, its occurrence is systematically influenced by environmental events. Basic behavioral principles describe the functional relationships between our behavior and environmental events.Definition and History of Behaviorism
Behaviorism as a philosophy is grounded in the principles of empiricism and determinism. These principles are not compatible with mentalism, another widely held philosophy that emphasizes assumed internal processes such as thought and perception as the key to understanding why human beings behave the way they do.
Empiricism is the belief that knowledge can be derived only from sensory experiences - from that which can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled. Therefore, direct observation is inextricably necessary in establishing a knowledge base. It is a well-founded principle of behaviorism that human behavior must be defined in terms of that which can be observed and measured.
For example, it is not acceptable to a behaviorist to describe a behavior as an internal emotional event, such as joy. A behaviorist would instead describe and quantify behaviors that might indicate the person is joyful, such as smiling, laughing, jumping up and down, or making cheering noises.
Empiricists also do not accept an idea simply because it appears to be logical, well argued, or coherent. They insist on putting ideas to the empirical test, a scientific experiment arranged to directly
experience the truth or untruth of a statement or hypothesis.Determinism is the belief that nothing that happens in the world

is haphazard. Determinists believe that there is a systematic order in which phenomena relate to each other. Every effect has a cause, and it is possible through scientific experimentation to discover, understand, and exert control over a cause-effect relationship.
The philosophical concepts of empiricism and determinism demand explanations of human behavior that cannot be derived from a mentalistic viewpoint. Mentalism is the belief that humans act the way they do because of internal, unobservable phenomena, such as mind, thought, and free will. There are a myriad of other hypothetical constructs that mentalistic authors have set forth.
Freud (1949), for example, described id, ego, and super ego as the prime determinants of human behavior. Chomsky (1965) proposed an internal language acquisition device (LAD) as the mechanism by which children acquire language. Modern-day authors have proposed many models showing how the brain processes information in much the same way as a computer does without the neurological data to prove such processes (e.g., Schyns, Gosslin, & Smith, 2009). All of these are examples of hypothetical constructs that do not lend themselves to observation and measurement and therefore cannot be subjected to empirical testing. Behavioral scientists therefore argue that, although such constructs may be a part of the human experience, they do not contribute much to a