PHL240H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Behavioralism, If And Only If, Behaviorism
Document Summary
History of psych: descartes" views having a tremendous influence: what they all had in common is the use of introspection for gathering data, an ability we seem to have, turn the mental eye upon itself. Look within and try to characterize the mental state. Introspective observation is what we have to rely on; science of psych should be based on careful introspection: they began to worry because psychology as a science cannot be based on introspection. Science has to be based on evidence that"s publically accessible. I cannot look into your mind to tell whether the pain is throbbing and nor can you look into mine: ppl like skinner argued there is no such thing as mental states; these things don"t exist. We talk as if they do, but we"re wrong. What exists are patterns of publically observable stimulus and response (rats and the mazes: we"re going to talk about a slightly weaker view: logical behaviouralism.