Creating lifelike characters isn’t about giving them quirks or cool backstories. It’s about understanding what makes them tick. You know, like what makes a character writhe in pain just from hearing a very specific sound? Or what smells makes them gag. Even how the weather affects their mood.
I’ve found that applying the simpler—emphasis on SIMPLER—principles of behaviorism in writing is a game-changer. By applying these principles, you can write believable characters who resonate with your readers. Because behaviorism focuses on how people act and respond to the world around them. And by using this approach, you can develop characters that feel real and relatable.
About Me
Hi, I’m Ashley Holmquist, the author behind the ARTIFACTS OF ANARCHY series, a young adult fantasy world full of adventure and emotional twists.
When I’m not writing these novels, I work as a Behavior Interventionist. I also have a background in counseling psychology, with four years of training and a few specialized courses in both addictions and child development.
I love incorporating what I’ve learned into my writing. And through my blog, I share tips on how you can bring real-world psychology into your stories to create more authentic characters.
To create characters that feel real and are well-loved by your audience, it’s essential to understand human behavior on a deeper level. Through behavior analysis, you can pinpoint your character’s motivations, reactions, and decisions. Doing so not only makes them more believable, but also more relatable. By mastering character psychology, you unlock the key to writing characters that come to life on the page.
Definition of Behaviorism
Behaviorism, a foundational theory in psychology, emphasizes how a person learns all behaviors through their interaction with the environment. It suggests that behavior is simply a response to external stimuli, without focusing on internal thoughts or emotions. I know, that’s already kinda a heavy definition. I’ll try to break it down.
So back when nobody really knew what psychology was—or when we were kinda just learning about it—behaviorism became accepted by this famous theory known as Pavlov’s Dog. I’m sure you’ve heard of this before. And if not, I will now.
In Pavlov’s Dog experiment, the researchers paired a neutral stimulus (a bell) with food. They rang the bell enough times that eventually the ringing caused the dog to salivate. Whether it’s through positive or negative reinforcement, all behaviors—no matter how complex—are shaped by the surrounding environment. BUT BUT BUT, this has no relation to someone’s feelings about the things that affected them. This is just the recurring act that reinforced certain beliefs.
You want to know what else counts as behaviorism? Taste aversions; like when someone grows up eating cereal for two meals every single day, they eventually hate cereal. Or learned emotions, like anger instead of sadness. When someone teaches a child that sadness is weak, the child’s body converts that sorrow into frustration, which leads to stronger emotions. Even phobias show how people respond to environmental stimuli.
Behaviorism highlights the nature vs nurture debate. It suggests that there are only minor differences between the human and animal learning processes, and it strongly focuses on observable behavior.
This is key in crafting believable characters. It allows writers to create realistic motivations and actions based on what your character has previously lived through. There are more in-depth theories about how your past influences affect your future character. But for the sake of keeping this blog somewhat easy to follow, I’ll leave them out for now.
If you’d like a deeper dive into operant conditioning or classical conditioning and their influence on character development, drop a comment below!
Using Behaviorism to Profile Your Characters
When using behaviorism to profile your characters, you need to know your character FULLY before diving into their learned behaviors. Create a profile page, write a few chapters, draw them, make a playlist, even a Pinterest board to visualize your character—whatever you have to do to make them tangible in your mind. Just make them real. And know them well! Here’s why…
People are defined by the events they live through.
Your characters should not be any different from this rule.
For example, my main character Danilo, from my YA fantasy novel, Sword of Audantei, is paranoid, aggressive, and struggles with emotional connection. Of course, these traits make him appear cold and unlikeable—AKA, a jerk. But after applying behavior analysis in writing, we see that Danilo’s personality is a learned behavior. A product of his history as a child soldier, forced into combat by his implied-to-be-abusive military father. Suddenly, Danilo’s character feels more understandable and complex.
This is the beauty of behaviorism in writing.
Let’s look at some other fictional character. I’ll do one that’s super niche, and one a little more popular. First up is Andrew Minyard.
Now, if you know who Andrew Minyard is, and what series he’s from, you know that he’s a character defined by a traumatic childhood filled with instability. After being bounced around from foster house to halfway house and then—eventually—juvie, it’s no wonder he’s distrustful, pessimistic, and violent. His attributes make sense when viewed through the lens of behaviorist psychology.
But consider Frodo from the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Frodo’s people-pleasing behavior stems from his upbringing in a polite, repressed society. Now, as far as I’m aware (please correct me if I’m wrong), Frodo grew up in a fairly repressed society. They lived the same comfortable lives with almost no change. But then there was his uncle, who told him lavish stories of the adventures he lived. That same uncle was obviously out-casted from society because of his differences. This led Frodo to becoming a people-pleaser, which we can gather from the conflicting views of said upbringing.
Obviously, it is harder to break down the behaviorism of certain characters. It is obviously harder to break down the behaviorism of certain characters, particularly those with histories that are not thoroughly discussed or are fairly ‘average’. But with the characters you write, it is important to consider their behaviorism. Especially for their trauma.
Trauma in Behaviorism & Plot Progression
Trauma can be a powerful tool to progress the plot of your story. It can shape the internal dialogue and behavior of your characters. And internal dialogue is important! Most of us have these internalized thoughts that are recognized under the term ‘radical behaviorism’.
In behaviorism in writing, traumatic events serve as stimuli that can evoke strong and conditioned responses. According to radical behaviorism, internal experiences like thoughts and emotions are critical to understanding why characters act the way they do.
For instance, when a character experiences traumatic events, it has a lasting, negative impact on their behavior, altering their character psychology in unexpected ways. This is traumatic behaviorism.
The basics of traumatic behaviorism are as follows. Traumatic events directly change behavior in more ways than one. And individuals learn instinctively that discomfort is bad and that it is used as a punishment.
Take, for example, a situation where your character works for a fearsome boss—someone who has become a negative stimulus. The boss enters the room, and immediately, the character scrambles to appear productive, hiding distractions like snacks or a cellphone. Their heart rate increases, palms sweat, and the character anxiously awaits reprimand.
This is stimulus control in action: experiences of punishment have brainwashed the character’s response.
Relational Frame Theory (RFT) comes into play here by emphasizing the connection between words, events, and behaviors. The presence of the boss evokes fear-based behaviors. By understanding behaviorism and character development, you can create more lifelike characters whose trauma-driven motivations push your plot forward.
Using Behaviorism to Enhance Reader Experience
I know I’ve thrown a lot of terminology at you. Just hold on, it’s about to get a little less psycho-babbly. Slightly. Maybe. Probably not.
Sorry.
But now that you know what behaviorism is, hopefully you can kind of grasp how it can be used to make realistic characters. Because now you know that it’s not about why your character feels a certain way, it’s why they respond the way they do to certain events.
And it’s important to know that you should never ask what your character feels about that. Because that’s not the job of a professional behaviorist. They don’t ask someone why they’re crying, they only observe the behavior. Then they use the response to deduce what happened in the past to cause this response.
So don’t make it your job. If you do, you end up cheapening the reader’s actual observation. You want to know what happens when you don’t? Your readers start inferring deeper emotional truths without you telling them. This strengthens your overall narrative.
Integrating Behaviorism into a Character’s Internal Dialogue
Now, you might ask, ‘how am I supposed to write a character’s internal thoughts if I can’t talk about how they feel?’. Well, this is up to you. You’re the author. The crafter of this fictional world and the characters in it. Really, there’s only one right way for you to write it.
But know this: people respond to events differently. Your characters should all have a different thought to act on, a different emotion driving them, just make them DIFFERENT.
For instance, if you’re writing a character with PTSD due to surviving a war, their responses should align with common trauma reactions—trigger flashbacks, aggressive reactions to loud or sudden noises, hesitancy toward physical intimacy. If your character has lived through similar things, such as abuse or major accidents, the responses should be similar too.
On the other hand, a character who is shy or a loner shouldn’t automatically avoid physical contact. This is not behaviorism UNLESS their environment has conditioned them to. Shyness is usually selective social interaction. The reserved character should show moments of extroversion with individuals they consider themselves close to.
For a deeper dive into how to craft these complex personalities using behavioral theories in fiction, check out my other blog post.
Conclusion
Mastering character psychology through the lens of behaviorism allows you to craft characters that truly resonate with your readers. By focusing on observable actions, you give your characters depth and realism. Which makes them more relatable and believable. Behaviorism emphasizes that our behaviors are learned, which means your characters’ motivations and decisions should reflect their unique experiences and histories.
Whether you’re developing trauma-driven arcs or subtle personality traits, applying behavior analysis ensures that your characters come to life with authenticity. When characters’ actions mirror real human behavior, your readers will not only understand them—they’ll connect with them on a deeper level. By using behaviorism in your writing, you enhance the reader’s experience, resulting in a more immersive and engaging story.
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