Geography Optional Online - 2021

NEETU SINGH
BEHAVIOURALISM IN
BEHAVIOURALISM
GEOGRAPHY
Behavioral Geography
Defining terms is an unusually important activity in the case of behavioral geography, since it has two
historically contingent meanings. The first views it sensu lato as a movement with multidisciplinary
leanings that enjoyed its greatest influence between the years 1965 and 1980. Broadly overlapping with
what others variously referred to as ‘environmental perception’, ‘behavioral and perceptual
geography’ or ‘image geography’, behavioral geography emphasized the role of cognitive processes
in shaping decision making and behavior, for which reason its underlying approach was known
as ‘cognitive behavioralism’.
In essence, its proponents argued that people’s spatial behavior depended on how they understood
(perceived, cognized) the world around them, but researchers varied markedly in how they conceived and
tackled their subject matter. Some embraced ‘cognitive science’, examining regularities in human spatial
cognition and behavior and using their findings as a basis from which to generate theories about how
people make decisions and act in geographic space. Others looked to ‘humanistic’ approaches. Critical of
what they saw as the reductionist tendencies stemming from scientific inquiry in general and mainstream
psychology in particular, they more often sought to understand human imagination and experience holistically
than wishing to make overt connections with behavior.
The second and more contemporary meaning of behavioral geography defines it sensu stricto as a
subdiscipline of human geography. To some extent, this definition arose by default. Tensions between
behavioral geography’s ‘cognitive science’ and ‘humanistic’ streams eventually led to these two schools of
thought parting company by the early 1980s. Henceforth, the term ‘behavioral geography’ described the
work of those previously associated with the ‘cognitive science’ wing and was largely confined to North
America, where it maintained an accepted but increasingly marginal presence in geographical research and
in the undergraduate teaching curriculum.
At first glance the existence of these two overlapping definitions would seem of little real consequence, but
the failure to differentiate between them lies at the heart of the prevailing historiographic misrepresentations
of behavioral geography. By the 1990s at least, the prevailing view was, first, that behavioral geography
was primarily a limited extension of spatial science and, second, that the limitations of its underlying positivist

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 1 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
philosophy led to it being challenged and replaced by alternative approaches. By failing to recognize its
true scope as a broad movement that provided a home for nonpositivist as well as positivist approaches
during the 1960s and 1970s, it becomes difficult to recognize behavioral geography’s contribution as a
forum that once nurtured what was later termed ‘humanistic geography’ and, indeed, indirectly helped to
lay the foundations of the ‘new cultural geography’.
Historical Perspective:
In geography, behaviouralism has a long history. Consciously or unconsciously, the behavioural approach
has been adopted since the time of Immanuel Kant. In the last decades of the 19th century, Reclus, the
French geographer, emphasized the point that in man- environment relationship man is not a passive agent.
The landscape school in American geography focused on man as a morphological agent. Similarly, advocates
of human geography—as a type of human ecology—owed much to the possibilist philosophical position
(French School) that stressed the significance of choice in human behaviour.
Sauer, the leading American historical geographer, also recognized fully the important role played by man
in shaping his socio-cultural environment by transforming and utilizing his physical surroundings. In 1947,
Wright put emphasis on behavioural approach for the interpretation of man-nature interaction. He proposed
that a profitable direction for geography would be to study geographical knowledge in all its forms, whether
contained in formal geographical inquiries or in the vast range of informal sources, such as travel books,
magazines, newspapers, fiction, poetry and painting. The works of Sauer, White and many others
demonstrate that people act according to habits and experience not as rational persons.
Wolpert (1964) concluded in his doctoral thesis that farmers face an uncertain environment—both physical
and economic—when making land use decisions, which in aggregate produce a land use map. Wolpert
decided that the farmers were satisficers and not economic men. They behave on the available information
and their image about the environment and the resource. Subsequently, Kirk (1952-1963) supplied one of
the first behavioural models. In his model, he asserted that in space and time the same information would
have different meanings for people of different socio-economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds living in a
similar geographical environment. Each individual of a society reacts differently to a piece of information
about the resource, space and environment. This point may be explained by citing an example.
The followers of behavioural geography do not recognize man as a rational person or an ‘economic man’
who always tries to optimize his profits. Man always does not take into consideration the profit aspect
while performing an economic function. Most of his decisions are based on behavioural environment
(mental map) rather than on the ‘objective or real environment’.

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 2 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
The objectives of behavioural approach are
· To develop models for humanity which were alternative to the spatial location theories developed
through quantitative revolution;
· To define the cognitive (subjective) environment this determines the decision-making process of man;
· To unfold the spatial dimensions of psychological and social theories of human decision-making and
behaviour;
· To explain the spatial dimensions of psychological, social and other theories of human decision-making
and behaviour;
· To change in emphasis from aggregate populations to the disaggregate scale of individuals and small
groups;
· To search for methods other than the mathematical and statistical that could uncover the latent structure
in data and decision-making;
· To emphasize on procession rather than structural explanations of human activity and physical
environment;
· To generate primary data about human behaviour and not to rely heavily on the published data; and
· To adopt an interdisciplinary approach for theory-building and problem-solving.
The fundamental arguments of the behavioural geography to achieve these objectives are that:
· People have environmental images;
· Those images can be identified accurately by researchers; and
· There is a strong relationship between environmental image and actual behaviour or the decision-
making process of man.
The behavioural approach in geography was introduced in the 1960s. Its origin can be traced to the
frustration that was widely felt with normative and mechanistic models developed with the help of quantitative
techniques.
These normative and mechanistic models are mainly based on such unreal behavioural postulates as ‘rational
economic man’ and isotropic earth surface. In normative models, there are always several assumptions,
and generally the centre of attention is a set of omniscient (having infinite knowledge) fully rational actors
(men) operating freely in a competitive manner on isotropic plane (homogeneous land surface).

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 3 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
Many normative models are thus grossly unrealistic as they ignore the complexities of real world situations
and instead concentrate on idealized behavioural postulate such as rational economic man. People behave
rationally, but within constraints—the cultures in which they have been socialized to make decisions.
Behavioural geography banks heavily on ‘behaviouralism’. Behaviouralism is an important approach adopted
mainly by psychologists and philosophers to analyze the man-environment relationship. The behaviouristic
approach is largely inductive, aiming to build general statements out of observations of ongoing processes.
The essence of behavioural approach in geography lies in the fact that the way in which people behave is
mediated by their understanding of the environment in which they live or by the environment itself with
which they are confronted.
In behavioural geography, an explanation for man-environment problem is founded upon the premise that
environmental cognition and behaviour are intimately related. In other words, behavioural approach has
taken the view that a deeper understanding of man-environment interaction can be achieved by looking at
the various psychological processes through which man comes to know environment in which he lives, and
by examining the way in which these processes influence the nature of resultant behaviour.
The basic philosophy of behaviouralism
· The behavioural geographer recognizes that man shapes as well as responds to his environment and
that man and environment are dynamically interrelated. Man is viewed as a motivated social being,
whose decisions and actions are mediated by his cognition of the spatial environment.
· The behavioural geographers argued that environmental cognition (perception) upon which people act
may well differ markedly from the true nature of the real environment of the real world.
· Space (environment) thus can be said to have a dual character:
· As an objective environment—the world of actuality—which may be gauged by some direct means
(senses); and
· As a behavioural environment—the world of the mind— which can be studied only by indirect means.
No matter how partial or selective the behavioural environment may be, it is this milieu which is the basis of
decision-making and action of man. By behavioural environment it is meant: reality as is perceived by
individuals. In other words, people make choices and the choices are made on the basis of knowledge.
· behavioural geographers give more weight to an individual rather than to groups, or organizations or
society. In other words, the focus of study is the individual, not the group or community. They assert
that research must recognize the fact that the individual shapes and responds to his physical and social

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 4 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
environment. In fact, it is necessary to recognize that the actions of each and every person have an impact
upon the environment, however, slight or inadvertent that impact may be. Man is a goal-directed animal
who influences the environment and in turn is influenced by it. In brief, an individual rather than a group of
people or social group is more important in man-nature relationship.
· Behavioural approach in geography postulated a mutually interacting relationship between man and
his environment, whereby man shaped the environment and was subsequently shaped by it .
· important feature of behavioural geography is its multidisciplinary outlook. A behavioural geographer
takes the help of ideas, paradigms, and theories produced by psychologists, philosophers, historians,
sociologists, anthropologists, ethnologists and planners. However, the lack of theories of its own is
coming in the way of rapid development of behavioural geography
Behaviouralism deals in behaviour environment. The subjective evaluation of phenomenal environment,
which surrounds a human subject, revealing his awareness of it and his intentionality towards the object
which constitute it is behaviour environment.
The concept of behavioural environment was developed by Gestalt School of Psychology, which
holds that the objects which we view in the world have a different meaning when viewed as a whole rather
than as individual parts. The perception being ordering and simplifying man-environment relationship. In
fact, it was the failure of models build with quantitative techniques, that led to the development of
behaviouralism.
The first model of behaviouralism was presented by Kirk in 1951, but the actual beginning was in 1960s.
Among the prominent contributors, Boulding, Gould, Pratt Sonnenfield and Porteaus are identified. The
sequential development of behaviouralism includes –
Phase I (1950-60) – The development was made by Krik, Gilbert, White and their respective disciples.
They attempted to analyses the mental reactionsto hazards. This was mostly the sociological and
psychological approach. Kirk elaborated the difference between actual and behaviour environment.
Haggerstrand contribution to ‘migration’ and ‘diffusion of innovation’. The behavioural paradigm has been
shown in Figure

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 5 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
In this paradigm, man has been depicted as a thinking individual whose transactions with the environment
are mediated by mental processes and cognitive representation of external environment. In geographical
circles, this concept is derived primarily from the work of Boulding (1956) who suggested that over time
individuals’ developmental impressions of the world (images) are formed through their everyday contacts
with the environment and that these images act as the basis of their behaviour.
The conceptual framework provided by Downs has been illustrated in Figure This framework proposes
that information from environment (real world) is filtered as a result of personality, culture, beliefs, and
cognitive variables to form image in the mind of man who utilizes the environment.

On the basis of the image formed in the mind of the utilizer about the environment he takes a decision and
uses the resources to fulfil his basic and higher needs. Downs’ framework also suggests that there exist an
‘objective’ and a ‘behavioural’ environment.

Phase II (1960-65) – Marked the development of man-environment relation, which was based on mutual
inter relationship and also the source of inspiration of decision makers, objectives and their aspirations.
These were developed predominantly by Lowventhal, Kates , Pred and White.
Phase III (1965-70) – diversified developments including the analysis of consumer behaviour (based on
Central Place Theory). The micro analysis of mobility trends in urban areas, the locational analysis of
industries on the basis of human behaviour etc. In fact all the development during the early tenure of this

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 6 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
phase was decision making
and environmental
perception. However
eventually different fields as
– Voting trend (Cox),
locational activities and
their analysis (Gould).
Brookfield’s analysis of
New Guinea tribal group
and Pratt’s analysis of
information as determining factor of behaviour sets the examples of cultural, historical fields with
behaviour applications.
Phase IV (1970 till date) varied contributions in different new arenas of geographical studies
• Loventhal and Tuan’s landscape study.
• Nickel and Pedel’s recreational studies
• Linch’s urban analysis based on folk perception
• Clark’s resettlement studies
• Huff’s consumer behaviour studies
• Tobler’s geometric analysis of ideologies.
A similar but slightly more complex classification
came from Porteous (1977) who recognized the
existence of:
· The phenomenal environment (physical
objects);
· The personal environment (perceived images
of phenomenal of real environment); and
· Contextual environment (culture, religion,
beliefs and expectations that influence
behaviour).
Sonnenfeld (1972) went even further and proposed four levels at which the environment should be studied.

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 7 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
The four-fold environment, advocated by Sonnenfeld, has been given as below:
· The geographical environment (the world);
The operational environment (those parts of the world that impinge upon a man, whether or not he is
aware of them);
· The perceptual (the parts of the world that man is aware of as a result of direct and indirect experience);
and
· The behavioural (that part of the perceptual environment that elicits a behavioural response).
Appraisal
The behavioural approach in geography is a fruitful one and it helps in establishing a scientific relationship
between man and his physical environment. The broad scope of behavioural geography is remarkable
even by the standards of human geography. There are, however, overall, biases in content towards urban
topics and towards developed countries. One of the main weaknesses of behavioural geography is that it
lacks in synthesis of empirical findings, poor communication, inadvertent duplication, and conflicting
terminology.
In behavioural geography, the terminology and concepts remain loosely defined and poorly integrated,
primarily owing to the lack of systematically-organized theoretical basis.
· Another shortcoming of behavioural geography lies in the fact that most of its data are generated in
laboratory experiments on animals and the findings are applied direct to human behaviour. Koestler
pointed to the danger of this strategy, in that behaviouralism “has replaced the anthropomorphic fallacy—
ascribing to animals human faculties and sentiments—with the opposite fallacy; denying man faculties
not found in lower animals; it has substituted for the erstwhile anthropomorphic view of rat, a ratomorphic
view of man”. In short, behaviouralist theories are elegant but unhelpful when it comes to understanding
the real world man-environment interaction.
· Behavioural geography has too often put too much emphasis on ego-centred interpretations of the
environment. Specifically, scholars are critical of two assumptions on which a great deal of behavioural
research in geography is based. The first assumption is that there exist identifiable environmental images
that can be accurately measured. It is not clear whether an environmental image can be extracted
without distortion from the totality of mental imagery. Moreover, not enough effort has gone into
checking and validating the methods by which images are elicited.
· The second critical assumption is that there exists a strong relationship between revealed images or
references and actual or real world behaviour. The main objection to this assumption is that it is an

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 8 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
 unfounded assumption because extremely little research has been under taken to examine the congruence
between image and behaviour.
· A more serious criticism of behavioural approach in geography is that it frequently views man as homo-
psychologicus and tends to treat environmental behaviour as a non-dimensional phenomenon to the
extent that the economic, social and political considerations that act concomitantly with environmental
influences are frequently overlooked.
· Another significant deficiency in behavioural geography has been the gap between theory and practice.
This has been most noticeable over the question of public policy. In fact, behavioural geographers
remain observers rather than participants. There is a serious lack of knowledge of planning theories
and methods amongst behavioural geographers, which is an impediment to more active involvement.
· It is a barrier that can be removed only by developing the requisite understanding of the planning
processes; it cannot be camouflaged by noble sentiments and moral tone. For instance, it will be only
rarely that a small survey carried out upon a sample of students will supply the basis for far-reaching
policy recommendations, yet the final paragraphs of many such works contain this seemingly obligatory
element.
· In other words, generalization on the basis of small sample studies should not be made the basis of
wider and important policy decision-making. It is, therefore, necessary to conduct research on problems
that specifically deal with policy questions, that are well-versed in planning theory and methodology,
and communicate the results intelligently to the interested parties.
· There are signs that such an approach is developing, but the gap is still wide. The future of behavioural
geography would be bright only if it could improve its standing in the subject while maintaining its
multidisciplinary links.
Despite several constraints and methodological limitations, behavioural geography is now widely accepted
within the positivist orientation. It seeks to account for spatial patterns by establishing generalizations about
people-environment interrelationship, which may then be used to stimulate change through environmental
planning activities that modify the stimuli which affect the spatial behaviour of ourselves and others.
The research methods of behavioural geography vary substantially but the general orientation—inductive
generalization leading to planning for environmental change—remains. Eventually, it is hoped, a ‘powerful
new theory’ will emerge. Golledge argued that substantial advances in understanding spatial behaviour
have already been made by studying ‘individual preferences, opinions, attitudes, cognitions, cognitive
maps, perception, and so on—what he terms processes variables.

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 9 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION
Use of behaviouralism and its impact:
Though behaviouralistic studies have been of great influence in geographical studies, its significance lies
predominantly on two specific grounds –
· Human migration – Knox, Walpet and Haggerstrand are the prominent contributors. It has been the
behaviour oriented mobility. In past, lack of availability of precise information, multidirectional movement
of people were seen from Europe to Anglo America, Australia. However, diffusion of information has
made movement much specific in direction. It is applicable to both rural urban migration and international
migration.
· Locational analysis – Worked on by Smith, Gould and Feter. The earlier concepts of location was
individual specific impression of the world. Smith’s approach of maximum revenue and minimal cost
reveals much applicable practical scenario. Gould and Haggerstrand worked on agricultural location.
specific in direction. It is applicable to both rural urban migration and international migration.

Copyright; 2019 Direction Ultimate Learning Experience Pvt. Ltd.

No part of this publiction may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any forms or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying recording or otherwise), without the prior
written permission of the copyright owner.

DIRECTION
Online Geograhy Neetu Singh 10 INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAMINATION