SKINNER,B.F. RADICAL BEHAVIORISM - HISTORICAL MISCONSTRUCTIONS AND GROUNDS FOR FEMINIST RECONSTRUCTIONS

Feminist critiques of traditional psychological approaches have genera ted feminist revisions, most notably in psychoanalytic and develop men tal theory. Although behaviorism has attracted strong objections from feminist critics, claims of its antithetical positioning vis-a-vis fem inist theory construction have generally remained unchallenged. A prel iminary step in formulating grounds for a synthesis is to clarify mult iple meanings of behaviorism. Specifically, the fusion of Watson's met hodological behaviorism and Skinner's radical behaviorism in the liter ature must be disentangled in order to address the latter's potential as a conceptual framework for constructing feminist theory. Key concep tual features of radical behaviorism that suggest its potential as a v ehicle for building a feminist epistemology include: radical behaviori sm's contextualistic world view, its interpretation of agency, its tre atment of private experience and self knowledge, and its understanding of the pivotal functions of the verbal community.