International Relations

Behavioralism proposes that individuals, both alone and in groups, act in patterned ways. The task of the behavioral scientist is to suggest plausible hypotheses regarding those patterned actions and to test them. These scholars hope to predict future behavior. An example of the behavioral method is the Correlates of War project, which sought to understand why wars happen through collecting data about wars and looking for patterns.
During the 1980s and 1990s, scholars seriously questioned the behavioral approach. The foundational questions—the nature of man and society—are neglected by behaviorists because they are not easily testable by empirical methods.