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Classical Mentalism vs. Behaviorism

The document discusses the history of mentalism and behaviorism in psychology. It describes how mentalism focused on consciousness and the introspective methods of Titchener and James. It then explains that behaviorism led by Watson began to dominate American psychology in the early 1900s by emphasizing the objective study of observable behavior over introspection and consciousness.

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Matt Demon
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20 views1 page

Classical Mentalism vs. Behaviorism

The document discusses the history of mentalism and behaviorism in psychology. It describes how mentalism focused on consciousness and the introspective methods of Titchener and James. It then explains that behaviorism led by Watson began to dominate American psychology in the early 1900s by emphasizing the objective study of observable behavior over introspection and consciousness.

Uploaded by

Matt Demon
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Classical mentalism[edit]

Psychologist Allan Paivio used the term classical mentalism to refer to the introspective psychologies of Edward Titchener and William James.[3]: 263  Despite Titchener being concerned
with structure and James with function, both agreed that consciousness was the subject matter of psychology, making psychology an inherently subjective field.[3]: 263 

The rise of behaviorism[edit]


Concurrently thriving alongside mentalism since the inception of psychology was the functional perspective of behaviorism. However, it was not until 1913, when psychologist John B.
Watson published his article "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" that behaviorism began to have a dominant influence.[4][3]: 267  Watson's ideas sparked what some have called a paradigm
shift in American psychology,[5] emphasizing the objective and experimental study of human behavior, rather than subjective, introspective study of human consciousness. Behaviorists
considered that the study of consciousness was impossible to do, or unnecessary, and that the focus on it to that point had only been a hindrance to the field reaching its full potential.[4][3]: 267–268  For
a time, behaviorism would go on to be a dominant force driving psychological research, advanced by the work of scholars including Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, Watson, and especially B.F.
Skinner.[6]: 30 

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