|
Behaviorism
by John Watson
A clear exposition of
the behaviorist approach to psychology written in 1925 by the American
psychologist who first developed it.
Table of Contents
I What is Behaviorism?
II How to Study Human
Behavior
III The Human Body: Part
I
IV The Human Body: Part
II
V Are there any Human
Instincts?: Part I
VI Are there any Human
Instincts?: Part II
VII Emotions: Part I
VIII Emotions: Part II
IX Our Manual Habits
X Talking and Thinking
XI Do we Always Think
in Words
XII Personality
Index
Watson
is another behaviorist who views Man as an animal, subject to the same
laws of stimulus-response that he observes in his animal experiments. He
flatly denies the existence of a "human mind", personal responsibility
and any type of "inner personality". It is essential to understand Watson
and other behaviorists to grasp where the current unworkable and basically
degrading theories and methods of pseudo-scientific psychology and psychiatry
come from. To Watson thoughts, will, intention, purposes and responsibility
are meaningless terms which only "seem" to exist. He considers them tedious
concepts which interfere with a "true" understanding of Man as a controllable
animal devoid of a soul, mind and any ability to act on one's own self-determinism.
According to Watson:
Behaviorism ... holds that the subject matter of human psychology
is the behavior of the human being. Behaviorism claims that consciousness
is neither a definite nor a usable concept.
The interest of the behaviorist in man's doings is more than the
interest of the spectator - he wants to control man's reactions as physical
scientists want to control and manipulate other natural phenomena. It is
the business of behavioristic psychology to be able to predict and to control
human activity ....
Why do people behave as they do - how can I, as a behaviorist, working
in the interests of science, get individuals to behave differently today
from the way they acted yesterday? How far can we modify behavior by training
(conditioning)? These are some of the major problems of behavioristic psychology.
Watson is not completely wrong - the environment
does influence people, sometimes dramatically. But his one-sided
approach tosses out any notion of a self-determined responsible human being
capable of acting (i.e. behaving) intentionally based upon ethical, moral
or well thought-out personal choices and decisions. As with most behavioral
psychologists, it's all environmental. He quite comfortably asserts
that notions regarding an indwelling thinking agent (i.e. you) are useless
and should be quickly forgotten! He also
quite comfortably views and treats Man like so many atoms, molecules, and
bricks in his attempt to "understand" Man, just as does the physical
scientist. This always eventually leads to oppression, control and brute
force, because Man is viewed as an animal with no soul or mind - in that
case, who cares what is done to him?
Watson is one theorist of many similar fools
spreading the anti-mind, anti-responsibility, and anti-soul view of Man
in modern times. He should be read with an aim towards understanding where
modern thought has gone wrong. Behaviorism
is one large example of this.
|
