The Strengths and Weaknesses of Behaviorism Essay
The strengths and weaknesses of Behaviourism
Nowadays, when psychologists speak about different states of consciousness that are possible to achieve it is especially important review all the strength and weakness of behaviourism. Mental events in behaviorism are not considered suitable for any scientific study and for getting any data from them. All the assumptions made by behaviourists are to be supported with a practical experiment and as mental processes cannot not, therefore they posses no interest for the behaviourists.
Weaknesses. Behaviourism examines human and nonhuman beings from the point of view of the behaviour they demonstrate. The base of behaviourism lies in understanding the behaviour of people and animals as a combination of movements, verbal and emotional answers (reaction) to the influences (stimulus) of external ambience corresponding to these movements. In other words it is the simple scheme S > R. The main weakness of behaviourism lies in its attempt to explain all the actions of a person only through visible phenomena, claiming the impossibility to directly observe the phenomenon of consciousness. So the main opposition that behaviourists face from the psychological world is that behaviour of a person cannot by any means be interpreted leaving aside the mental activity. So behaviour remains a learned association that was once supported or punished. Seems rather hard to explain all of the behavioural acts of a person in terms of his past experienced. At this point behaviourist starts neglecting the innate abilities of every person. Sometimes the reactions people demonstrate have nothing to do with their experience therefore they have another source – mental activity. Environment certainly plays a great role in the life of people, but nevertheless it is very hard to interpret the behaviour of people only focusing on the environmental factor. Behaviourism in some way neglects the individualism of every person making general behavioural
Nowadays, when psychologists speak about different states of consciousness that are possible to achieve it is especially important review all the strength and weakness of behaviourism. Mental events in behaviorism are not considered suitable for any scientific study and for getting any data from them. All the assumptions made by behaviourists are to be supported with a practical experiment and as mental processes cannot not, therefore they posses no interest for the behaviourists.
Weaknesses. Behaviourism examines human and nonhuman beings from the point of view of the behaviour they demonstrate. The base of behaviourism lies in understanding the behaviour of people and animals as a combination of movements, verbal and emotional answers (reaction) to the influences (stimulus) of external ambience corresponding to these movements. In other words it is the simple scheme S > R. The main weakness of behaviourism lies in its attempt to explain all the actions of a person only through visible phenomena, claiming the impossibility to directly observe the phenomenon of consciousness. So the main opposition that behaviourists face from the psychological world is that behaviour of a person cannot by any means be interpreted leaving aside the mental activity. So behaviour remains a learned association that was once supported or punished. Seems rather hard to explain all of the behavioural acts of a person in terms of his past experienced. At this point behaviourist starts neglecting the innate abilities of every person. Sometimes the reactions people demonstrate have nothing to do with their experience therefore they have another source – mental activity. Environment certainly plays a great role in the life of people, but nevertheless it is very hard to interpret the behaviour of people only focusing on the environmental factor. Behaviourism in some way neglects the individualism of every person making general behavioural