Explain how the ethologists were instrumental in reducing the influence of radical behaviorism.
Radical behaviorism can be defined as the conceptual analysis of human behavior. It was pioneered by B. F. Skinner. The theory is distinguished from methodological behaviorism by virtue of its emphasis on thoughts, emotions, and other psychological activities. It is often termed as experimental analysis of behavior.
Ethology is a branch of zoology, which studies human behavior and social organization from a biological perspective. Ethologists focus on studying and observing the meaningful behavior in people. They follow descriptive studies. They also study animal behavior and take on a broad range of species for their comparative studies. However, they prefer not to consider pet animals. Though they are also called species specific behavioral people, they have sublimed radical behaviorism.
Radical behaviorism follows environmental factors for behavior study, though ethologists stated that experience and genetic factors related behavior also matters. The radicalists stated that animal behavior can be studied as well as compared with human behavior, but strong emphasis is to be given to the environment for human behavior.
Ethologists stated that only environment cannot influence any behavior. Evolution and day to day experiences matter a lot too. These strong beliefs and practical moves resulted in diminishing popularity of radical studies.