Limitations Of Introspection And Behaviorism

Introspection has an incredibly large history with the first record of it being used going right back to the great Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, however this was in a philosophical sense about discovering oneself (Boring, E. G. 1953) which lead to the scientific methodology being born in the laboratory of arguably the father of psychology Wilhelm Wundt who used the method to measure peoples internal thought processes when presented with various stimuli in which the subject would self-perceive their internal thought processes and describe them to the experimenter. An example of this would be to present the subject with an object such as a pencil or odour and to describe it and their stream of consciousness as a result of this. Whereas Edward Titchener expanded this somewhat to break down the stream of consciousness to find its component parts and so as such when having to describe the item they could not say the item as that was to make a stimulus error and did not achieve anything and instead had to describe it in individual parts such as length, colour, shape and other such characteristics of the item however even these were frowned upon with more emphasis being put on the statements such as it is causing feelings of sorrow and tension within my body (Boring, E. G. 1953). However the definition of this process seems to be somewhat fluid

Behaviorism, also behavioral psychology, is that learning theory based upon the idea and belief that any given or all behaviors and conducts are obtained through conditioning. Conditioning actually occurs through the interaction with the environment. They (behaviorists) assume that our responses shape our behaviors to the environmental stimuli (Drisoll, 2000).

Behaviorism is a type of psychology and a theory of learning. Behaviorism mainly involves experimentation and observation. It doesn’t look into internal thoughts like thinking or emotions. What behaviorism believes that people have no free will and our surrounding and our environment determine our behavior. As we release our very first breath to this world, our brain is in a blank state. Which is ready to learn from what surrounds us in our environment. So behaviorism deals with the behavior modification.

The changes in how different psychological processes were identified and understood in the 1950s and 1960s is what many refer to as the “cognitive revolution.” The introduction of research in problems that have already been met - for instance, studying problems of memory and decision making - led to the new approach of theorizing. The cognitive revolution focused on just a couple of key concepts. One idea that stemmed during the cognitive revolution is that the science of psychology cannot direct study the mental world. Another idea that grew during the cognitive revolution was that in order to understand behavior, the science of psychology has to study the mental world (Cognition, pg. 8).

Therefore, it is not necessary to invent hidden processes of learning (e.g.. Freud) to explain why behavior happens. The behaviorists believed that behavior is caused by environmental events (stimuli, reinforcers). With this idea, it cannot be controlled. Behaviorism is deterministic, as we do not control our own actions, and so therefore cannot be responsible for them. However, it becomes possible for others to control our behavior by manipulation of environmental events (Vancouver 2001). Behaviorism assumes that human behavior should be studied using the same methods applied in the physical sciences - that assuming psychology should restrict itself to studying only those things that can be studied directly. In this way, it means that anything that cannot be observed cannot be studied and that w cannot fully explain human behavior and the complications behind it. Williams (2002) added that although stimuli, response and reinforcement are essential in behaviorist explanation of behavior, they are

Behaviorism is defined as,” a school of psychology that takes the objective evidence of behavior (as measured responses to stimuli) as the only concern of its research and the only basis of its theory without reference to

From Chapter 1: What were the intrinsic limitations of introspection and behaviorism, and how did these limitations lead to the “cognitive revolution”?

To many, this seemed unfitting from a scientific point of view. How is it that we within our own minds cannot be aware of our mental state? How can we begin to postulate on the mental states of others? These questions began to gain prevalence as scientists discussed the validity of the premises held by dualism and modern psychology that the mental realm was as disconnected from the physical realm as it had been described. With this came the rise of behaviorism.

So, should psychology study things and hypothesize about things that are not directly observable? Before I begin my argument I want to point out that the word "psychology" is the combination of two terms - study (ology) and soul (psyche), or mind. The derivation of the word from Latin gives it this clear and obvious meaning: The study of the soul or mind. I believe that Behaviourists such as Watson wished to alter the meaning of the word ‘psychology’ because it was not sufficient or capable of answering the metaphysical questions such as “what is the mind?” and “what is consciousness?” They believed that the discipline could only be effective or ‘scientific’ if every hypothetical question could be operationalized and therefore quantified,

-Behaviourism Theory is maintaining a focusing on the change in observable way as the formal way of learning.

Kimble, (2000) defined behaviorism as any psychology that views its necessity as the understanding of behavior and accepts stimuli (situations and responses). That if behaviorism wants to be a science it must take on some form of that approach aiming at comprehending observable events in the world, and the only such events available to psychology are responses and the situations in which the occur.

“Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with evident and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behaviour, behaviourist-learning theories emphasise changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response links made by the learner. Behaviour is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead

Behaviorism is a theory in psychology and philosophy that emphasizes the outward behavioral aspects of thought. The theory is that human as well as animal behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Behaviorism, the doctrine, is committed in its fullest and most complete sense of the truth of the following three sets of claims.

Behaviorism is the idea that all behaviors are absorbed through some form of conditioning, and behaviorists generally believe that all behaviors can be changed, trained, or even measured. So what does this mean? It means psychologist are challenging the thoughts that people are born innately good, by exploring the ideas that a person can be persuaded to behave a certain way simply by different forms of conditioning.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener’s atomistic views were dominant in psychology (Lefrançois, 2012). Wundt’s structural approach focused on reducing mental processes to the smallest individual unit in order to understand the whole. Introspection was Wundt’s chosen method for discovery. In the United States and elsewhere, behaviorism and its proponents were also directing research. The behaviorists rejected introspection for stimuli and responses, focusing on observable behavior (Lefrançois, 2012).