The Introspection And Behaviorism Movements

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

Research performed by Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener concluded that the only way to study thoughts is to introspect, or examine one’s own thoughts and feelings, to observe and record content of their personal minds and understand the sequence of their own experiences. This proved to be a difficult task, nonetheless. Wundt and Titchener believed that introspectors would need to be carefully trained. The training included being given a vocabulary to describe what they observed, taught to be as careful and complete as possible - reporting solely on their experiences, with as little personal interpretation as possible. Concerns grew with this style of research over the years. Investigators were forced to acknowledge that some thoughts are unconscious, which would mean that

Cognitive psychology is a pure science based mainly on laboratory experiments and began to revolutionize psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and became the dominant approach in psychology by the late 1970’s [ (McLeod, 2007) ] according to Saul McLeod. An example of the cognitive perspective would be when one learns to take blood pressure. First you must learn how to manipulate the blood pressure manometer, learn how to hear blood pressure sounds and understand the meaning of the sounds. As each time you practice these activity, you will gain more confidence and competence in performing the task. The strong point of this perspective is that it mostly uses rigorous scientific methods and the approach has had many practical applications. The weakness of this perspective is that it is to simplistic. It ignores the complexity of the human function, biological influences of the human function and it ignores the emotions, conscious experience and free will.

Psychology, due to its complexity can be approached in a variety of ways. To help us understand the human mind, behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches have helped us understand the alternative outlooks in the science of mind and behaviour. Both approaches can be examined by the means of theoretical assumptions and methodology.

Behaviorism on learning and memory occupies an important position in the history of psychology. John B. Watson is the father of behaviorism while B.F. Skinner is the most famous behaviorist of the twentieth century. Watson’s methodological behaviorism means that it is only the behaviors of an individual that can be objectively observed. Skinner’s radical behaviorism emphasized that behaviors of human and animals are blindly influenced by environment. In this case, Watson and Skinner share similar views of behaviorism. For instance, they believe that the proper objectives of behavioral research include prediction and control (Staddon and Bueno, 1991). However, there are remarkable discrepancies in their views of human equality and freedom. Watson promoted the progressive process of human equality by maintaining concept of “tabula rasa”, whereas Skinner insisted that freedom is an illusion, so that he provided the adverse effect to the dictatorial institution. The fact is that the potential ambiguity produces a strong influence on people’s thinking and has a practical significance on society.

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

Many ideas were shared between Watson, Tolman, and Skinner who all played a role in the forming of behaviorism. They did, however, differ on some of their beliefs as well as their methods of study. At this time, methods of studying psychology as well as psychology in general were in the developing stages. Watson was largely credited with the foundation of behaviorism, however, he was by no means the only one to make contributions. There has been some debate as to whether Watson’s contributions were enough to make him the “founder of behaviorism.” It is important to examine contributions from several of the early

Psychology is not just philosophical speculation and reasoning over the years it has evolved and it is now also recognised as a science, to understand what psychology is all about it is necessary to know it’s origins and the theorist who brought it out of obscurity, Sigmund Freud. He developed the Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytical perspective to enable better understanding of human behaviour these concepts will be discussed further later in this study. After Freud opened the gateway other perspectives and approaches have been developed, now with five main areas of psychology - Cognitive, Behaviourist, Biopsychology and Humanist approaches. For a comparison with the Psychodynamic theory, Behaviourist Theory will be discussed.

Psychologists have been focused on observing and understanding human behavior for centuries, dating back to the Greek philosophers when psychology and philosophy were considered one.Today, Psychology is the study of human behavior, beginning before birth and lasting until death. It is clear that the observance human behavior is a vast and profound source of data for psychologists. Early philosophers relied on methods of observation and logic. A physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt in the 1800’s began using scientific research methods in his study of mental processes. However, the situation was totally different in the beginning of 20th century when psychology still struggled to be regarded as a separate discipline with practical value(Mastering,2011). Psychologists had only begun to be accepted as a science. It was John B. Watson who established the school of Behaviorism and inspired many other psychologists to study patterns of human behavior and their mechanisms. Watson 's contribution to psychology is important not to underestimate; he studied animal and human behavior to come up with a methodology that would give Psychology a respected status among other scientific disciplines. This essay will focus on the biography and works of John B. Watson with a purpose to show why his works are important for Psychology today(Hergenhahn & Henley, 2013).

Although Watson was not the first to suggest an empirical and objective approach to psychological research he was the first to offer a coherent and organized program, and is often viewed as the catalyst for behaviorism, especially among American psychologists (Bewsbury, 2013). Perhaps the most famous behaviorist is B.F. Skinner (b.1904-d.1990). Skinner’s approach almost completely disregarded anything outside of observable behaviors, and his strict approach to looking at anything other than observable behaviors resulted in the development of the term radical behaviorism (Feist et al., 2013).

Traditional behaviorism focused exclusively on the direct observation of objectively measurable events (Wolf, 1978). Due to declining popularity, behaviorists had to rethink their position to remain relevant (Wolf, 1978). They discovered that society typically wanted to learn about concepts and ideas that are more subjective in nature (Wolf, 1978). Behaviorists began to acknowledge the social validity, or the relevance to society, of their research (Wolf, 1978). The population now had a voice in the research of behaviorists which stimulated research into new areas, such as teaching people how best to “relate” to young people (Wolf, 1978, p. 207). Behaviorists emphasize the importance of incorporating the subjective into what had once been an objective sub-division of psychology.

Behaviorism has often been described as too predictable, for neglecting the role of internal states including memory, emotions, thoughts, and motivation in individuals’ behavior. Similarly, behaviorism postulates that all behaviors can be observed when in fact subjective processes such as thinking, and feeling are subjective measures. The method of introspection is also rejected by proponents of behaviorism despite its importance in understanding individuals subjective experience of phenomena. For instance, how individuals perceive the experience of having a headache. Furthermore, the role of biological influences on individuals’ behaviors is neglected

looking at process rather than structure is a common attribute of modern psychology. As an

This definition of Hayes emphasizes the notion that cognitive psychology gives significance to the study of higher mental processes. According to Lichtenstein, among the appealing aspects of cognitive psychology is that it corresponds quite well to the common sense psychology of the layperson. If a student is

A significant piece of several psychological theories in the late nineteenth century was introspection, which is “the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes” (Press, 2013). In retort to this theory behaviorism came about. Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In other words behaviorism does not look at the biological aspects but it suggests that all behaviors are learned habits and changes in response to the environment. It endeavors to explain how these particular habits are formed. Behaviorism claimed that the causes of behavior was not necessarily found in the complexities of the mind but could be observed in one’s immediate environment, from stimuli that produced, reinforced, and punished certain responses also known later on as conditioning. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that the scientist began to discover the actual systems to learning, thereby laying a foundation for behaviorism. A theorist by the name of Ivan Pavlov was a major contribution to the discovering of significant behavioral theories.