Purposive behaviorism

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Purposive behaviorism is a branch of psychology that was introduced by Edward Tolman. It combines the study of behavior while also considering the purpose or goal of behavior.^[1] Tolman thought that learning developed from knowledge about the environment and how the organism relates to its environment.^[2] Tolman's goal was to identify the complex cognitive mechanisms and purposes that guided behavior.^[3] His theories on learning went against the traditionally accepted stimulus-response connections (see classical conditioning) at his time that had been proposed by other psychologists such as Edward Thorndike. Tolman disagreed with John B.Watson's behaviorism, so he initiated his own behaviorism, which became known as purposive behaviorism.

Tolman's purposive behaviorism focused on meaningful behavior, or molar behavior, such as kicking a ball. This focus was in contrast to simple muscle movements or molecular behavior such as flexing of the leg muscle. Tolman regarded the molecular behavior as fairly removed from human perceptual capacities for a meaningful analysis of behavior. This approach of Tolman's was first introduced in his book, Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men, published in 1932.^[1] To Tolman, it was obvious that all actions of behavior are goal-oriented, including those for animals.^[1] The main difference between other types of behaviorism and Tolman's purposive behaviorism is that in his view behavior is goal orientedas opposed to?^{[clarification needed]}.