Championed by B.F. Skinner, radical behaviorism is a strict psychological philosophy asserting that scientific inquiry should be limited to observable behavior. This perspective intentionally disregards cognitive processes like thoughts and expectations, which Skinner famously termed the 'black box'—an entity considered unknowable and therefore not suitable for study.

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The stimulus response learning theory relates addictive behavior to habit formation and learning, where drug-related stimuli prompts a habitual response to take the drug. It has been hypothesized that repeated drug use elicits changes in dopamine receptors in the dorsal striatum that result in drug-seeking habits that are challenging to give up despite negative outcomes.
Other important elements of this theory include conditioned reinforcement and impulsivity.

Stimulus Response Learning in Addiction

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Everitt, B. J., Belin, D., Economidou, D., Pelloux, Y., Dalley, J. W., & Robbins, T. W. (2008). Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Vulnerability to Develop Compulsive Drug-Seeking Habits and Addiction. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 363(1507), 3125–3135. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20208727

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Compulsive Drug-Seeking Habits

Skinner's Radical Behaviorism and the 'Black Box' Mind

Edward C. Tolman, another behaviorist, presented findings that conflicted with the strict behaviorist principle of immediate reinforcement. His experiments with rats demonstrated that learning could take place without an instant reward, providing evidence for a cognitive component in the learning process.

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