Behaviorism and Free Will
In general, the topic of behaviorism and free will has been widely discussed by a number of scholars from all over the world. The school of behaviorism was very popular a few decades ago and it was supported by many researchers. We can say that behaviorism has not lost its popularity even nowadays. There are interesting ideas offered by this school, which can explain a lot about general psychology of a human being. The interest in behaviorism and its tendencies are quite vivid nowadays and there are a lot of scholarly articles devoted to this theme, which appear nowadays. In this paper, I will focus on one of the articles written by J. Moore; it is called “Behaviorism.” The main ideas of the article will be discussed and its significance will be outlined. Besides, the most important questions raised by the author will be summarized and my personal impressions from it will be represented.
In his article, J. Moore describes behaviorism as a school in psychology. At first, the definition of it is given and we can find out that behaviorism is a paradigm in psychology, which was popular in the first half of the twentieth century. According to it, psychology should be seen as experimental natural science. The major task of psychologists is to observe people’s behavior, draw conclusions from it and consequently make predictions and try to control people’s will. This paradigm offers ideas about measuring people’s behavior and finding out what is objective. Behaviorism deals primarily with the outer signs of psychological processes, which are always expressed in people’s behavior. At the same time, it does not pay much attention to the internal processes, including emotions and thinking. According to this approach, scholars and researchers can explain these internal events with the help of behavior. It is not necessary to conduct deep analysis for this purpose and study something that you cannot see but can just feel. It is much easier to observe behavior and draw
In his article, J. Moore describes behaviorism as a school in psychology. At first, the definition of it is given and we can find out that behaviorism is a paradigm in psychology, which was popular in the first half of the twentieth century. According to it, psychology should be seen as experimental natural science. The major task of psychologists is to observe people’s behavior, draw conclusions from it and consequently make predictions and try to control people’s will. This paradigm offers ideas about measuring people’s behavior and finding out what is objective. Behaviorism deals primarily with the outer signs of psychological processes, which are always expressed in people’s behavior. At the same time, it does not pay much attention to the internal processes, including emotions and thinking. According to this approach, scholars and researchers can explain these internal events with the help of behavior. It is not necessary to conduct deep analysis for this purpose and study something that you cannot see but can just feel. It is much easier to observe behavior and draw
References: Moore, J. (2011). Behaviorism. The Psychological Record, 61(3), 449-455. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5052378903