behaviorist

behaviorist noun: one who studies behavior of humans or animals.

Noun

behaviorist (plural behaviorists)

(US) One who studies behavior of humans or animals.
(US, countable) A supporter of behaviorism.
- The behaviorist has nothing to say of “consciousness.” How can he? Behaviorism is a natural science. He has neither seen, smelled nor tasted consciousness nor found it taking part in any human reactions. How can he talk about it until he finds it in his path?1928, John B. Watson, The Ways of Behaviorism, New York; London: Harper & Borthers Publishers, page 3
- According to “the official view,” one never sees another mind; at most, one sees the physical behavior of another person. But, says the behaviorist, if we were really talking about unobservable entities when we talk about other minds, then each of us would naturally be skeptical about other minds...1979, Thomas D. Davis, Philosophy: An Introduction Through Original Fiction and Discussion, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 20

behaviorist (comparative more behaviorist, superlative most behaviorist)

From behavior + -ist.

What does behaviorist mean?: Behaviorist means one who studies behavior of humans or animals.
What part of speech is behaviorist?: Behaviorist can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of behaviorist?: The plural of behaviorist is behaviorists.

Adapted from Wiktionary: behaviorist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “behaviorist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/behaviorist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.