Human Psychological Functioning

It wasn’t until the last 100 years that psychology has begun to become a major field in science. It very well could have been 100 more years if it wasn’t for people that have major contributions to this field. John Watson, B.F Skinner and Edward Tolman are a few people that have contributed into making psychology what it is today. Watson helped to develop the theory of Behaviorism. John Tolman and B.F. Skinner were what are now known as neobehaviorists. These theorists have helped to form and mold our thoughts and theories, and to develop on what psychology is and how it can be used to help people today. Before John Watson came into studying psychology, psychologists believed in an introspective view. The basis of introspection was the study of the consciousness. Watson believed that there was so much more to psychology and developed a theory called behaviorism. Watson became the leading founder of behaviorism. He believed that psychology should veer away from thinking in an introspective perspective and start to study behaviors. Watson found it absurd that we put so much credit in the theory of introspection when the theory could never be verified. He was also disturbed with the fact that after psychologists couldn’t verify the results they would blame the results on the training of the introspectors. Watson did a lot of experimentation on animals to help explain his theory of behaviorism. When he was ready to address the world with his findings he released his theory in what was called the Behaviorist Manifesto. In this manifesto he explained how the introspection theory was absurd and how psychology should become a science of behavior. His behaviorist perspective focused on humans and how their behaviors are learned. Watson believed that all of our behaviors that we have are acquired through conditioning. The two types of conditioning are operant and classical. Watson was best known for testing these theories on animals and also his test on Little Albert that