A.     MEANING OF BEHAVIOR: OVERT AND COVERT BEHAIVOR

Behaviors is 1) any response(s) made by an organism, 2) specifically, parts of a total response pattern, 3) an act or activity, and 4) a movement or complex of movements (Atkinson, Berne and Woodworth, 1987). Behavior is the observable action an organism uses to adjust to the environment.

American psychologists generally agree that the subject matter of psychology is largely the observable behavior of humans and other species of animals. But there is considerable divergence of opinion as to precisely what ought to be included under the category of behavior. In broader sense, behavior includes anything the individual does or experiences. Ideas, dreams, glandular responses, running, maneuvering a space ship – all are behavior. In Behaviorists’ sense or in narrower sense, behavior can be defined to include only objectively or publicly observable responses. This narrow definition would exclude such conscious phenomena as thinking, perceiving, judgment, and the life, except as these may be studied through their consequences in behavior. But these few psychologists define psychology in such a narrow sense.

So it can be said that behavior is a collective name for all kinds of manifestation. It includes activities that provides movement (e.g., walking, playing etc.) as well as knowledge (perceiving, remembering, reasoning etc.). Behavior is psycho-physical in origin thus both internal world as well as external world play their role in occurrence of the behavior. The ultimate aim of the behavior is to adjust in environment. Observable behaviors such as speaking, walking, running, working, or taking a test can be directly observed, but an individual’s mental processes cannot. Many human activities are really private, internal events such as reasoning, creating, thinking and dreaming. Many psychologists believe that such mental processes, though not directly observable, represent the most important subject of psychology inquiry. The challenge of studying mental events has led to the development of innovative research techniques.

The observable behavior is defined as overt behavior and unobservable behavior such as thinking, dreaming, glandular responses, reasoning and so on are defined as covert behavior because they are not observable but has tremendous influence on observable behavior. Thus, behavior is the collective name for all kinds of manifestation.

B.      S-R AND S-O-R PARADIGM

The Stimulus-Response (S-R) concept of psychology which is regarded as positivist approach emphasizes the study of observable behaviour and its objective measurement.  S-R psychology was advocated by Behaviorists and dominated the field of psychology for many years. John B. Watson and other behaviorists like B.F. Skinner were the main proponents of this view. The basic emphasis is that behaviour is the function of stimulus or it can be stated as B=f (S). Behavior is the individual’s reaction to stimulus. The nature of reaction or response depends on nature of stimulus. A child living in physically violent environment learns to be violent. The violent environment is stimulus and the reaction is violence. To survive a child has to react violently. This violent behaviour is the function of violent environment (stimulus).  This is how S-R paradigm explains human behavior.

However, studies based on observable behavior failed to explain many complex behaviors that cannot be understood by merely looking at action of the people. Furthermore, other perspectives like psychoanalytic and Gestalt psychology had been looking the human nature from another angle that was quite different from behavioristic point of view and their contribution was equally important like that of behaviorists. Psychoanalyst and Gestalt psychologists look at the ‘subjective’ world of the individual and tried to find out the meaning of the behavior. For Freud and other psychologists, ‘subjective’ world constituted different levels of mind (conscious, subconscious and unconscious) and divisions of personality (i.e., id, ego and superego). For Gestalt psychologists, ‘subjective’ world constituted the psychological process like perception and thinking. Cognitive psychology that appeared in the later half of twentieth century has its root in Gestalt psychology. These perspectives differ with the radical positivistic view of behaviorism. These psychologists did not attribute the behaviour as the result of environmental stimulus only but also the person who does not always act like a machine but also thinks and make reasons.

S-R paradigm is also regarded as a simplistic approach to behaviour. It cannot explain behavior that is complex. Most of the people are familiar with the saying that "beauty lies in the eyes of beholder." Or say, a cow is a cow and always a cow. But it can generate different reactions from a Hindus, Muslim and Buddhist depending upon the meaning they attach to a cow. It can be symbol of goddess Laxmi, delicious meat, or a beautiful animal.

Further, S-R approach in psychology did not always provided an adequate or appropriate answer to many psychologists who were following this paradigm. Many experimental psychologists faced myriad of problems and S-R psychology could not answer them. Such situations usually lead to anomaly, dissatisfaction among the researchers and generate distrust in the theory. They may revolt and search for new paradigm that can answer their questions. What some behaviorists did to solve this problem was the introduction of S-O-R concept. They realized that between Stimulus (S) and Response (R) there is some process that goes within the person and this process is not observable but has its impact on person's response. Thus, they introduce the concept of Organism (O). Because of 'O' the cow is interpreted differently and reacted differently. This new approach is explains as B = f (S, O, R). This view emphasized both behavior and cognitive processes are important to get a complete picture of human functioning. The concept of behavior is broadened with the S-O-R view.