perspectives paper

Psychology has evolved and progressed over the years especially from the years of discipline. There are many theories that once were used and respected are not used today. Their are still some fundamental parts of psychology that psychologists and there theories are still respected and used today. This paper will compare the theories that John Watson, Edward Tolman, and B.F Skinner brought forth and these great minds have heavily influenced psychology with their psychology. These psychologist not only influenced psychology but more specifically behaviorism. “In a system of psychology completely worked out, given the response the stimuli can be predicted; given the stimuli the response can be predicted”,(Watson, 1913). Behaviorism is known for its importance in psychology, and I started from a philosophical point in psychology. Behaviorist want to understand what each behavior means and the reasons behind them and how the develop. “Behaviorism has a clear affinity with several of the philosophical movements “, (Goodwin, 2008).

The founder of behaviorism as a school of thought in American psychology was John Broadus Watson”, Goodwin, 2008). Watson was born January 9, 1978, raised in North Carolina didn’t consider himself a very good student even though he attended college at age 16. He graduated with his masters at age 21, and then went to the University of Chicago and started studying psychology under philosopher John Dewey. Watson however, didn’t completely agree with Dewey and his theories so he started getting advised by James Angell and Henry Donaldson who were both functionalist psychologists. Watson then got his Ph.D and became a teacher of psychology, he taught at John Hopkins University. In 1913 Watson presented his behaviorist ideas at the seminal lecture at Columbia University. His thoughts were based on observing behavior unlike others that studied the unconscious mind.

“According to John Watson, psychology should be the science of observable