Perspectives Paper

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Recommended: The Origins of Behaviorism

Behaviorists and cognitive psychologists have debated for many years. It is from these two schools of thought that dueling informational ideas have been born. Originally, behaviorism was the leading school of thought being led by John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner. Later new ideas regarding the mind became more prominent. Edward C. Tolman was one of the more prominent figures of this field. Behaviorists looked for more evidence of behavior and rejected any ideas about the mind. An idea that was highly looked into by cognitive psychologists.

Behaviorists emerged from frustration with psychoanalysts emphasis on the unconscious due to their desire to focus only on what was observable. The mind of course not being something that is capable of being observed. Some behaviorists denied the existence of the mind all together. It is in this school of thought however that John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner have created the practice of classical and operant conditioning. Based on the perspective that all things organisms do including thinking and feeling can be regarded as behavior. Watson, the founder of behaviorism, believed that people did not experience emotions; instead they are a response brought on by another stimuli

John B. Watson, an American psychologist, became a prominent figure in the field in the early 1900’s. This is a man who got his start by studying the behavior of animals, which lead of course to his later studies on human behavior. Studies, which dealt with the relationship between sensory input and learning and behavior. By 1913 Watson had published his views on what would become better known as behaviorism. One of the goals that he believed regarding this philosophy of psychology was the prediction and control of behavior....

... middle of paper ...

... it is due to their research that we are able to see both the cognitive psychology and behaviorist point of view and how they were able to come together.

References

A2zpsychology (2006). Edward C. Tolman (1886-1959). Retrieved on January 15, 2010

from http://www.a2zpsychology.com/great_psychologists/edward_c_tolman.htm

Watson, J., & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned Emotional Reactions.

Retrieved on January 15, 2010 from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/emotion.htm

Mclntyre, T. (2003). The History of Behaviorism. Retrieved on January 15, 2010

from http://www.behavioradvisor.com/BehavoristHistory.html

Vargas, Julie S. (2005), A Brief Biography of B.F. Skinner. Retrieved on January 15,

2010 from http://www.bfskinner.org/BFSkinner/AboutSkinner.html

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