Psychological Perspectives of Watson, Skinne and Tolman - Research Paper Example

Perspectives The improvements and developments in every field have led to many changes. The subjects of science, medical, IT, engineering as well as psychology has evolved tremendously. The psychological perspectives have also changed and developed with such progression towards modern day psychology. Since the advent of psychology it has been seen that a lot of psychologists have come in the arena and each psychologist has put forward his own opinion about the subject However, there are a few theorists and psychologists who contributed to the field in a manner that keeps their works alive even in the modern day. The principles and perspectives of John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner and Edward C. Tolman are some of those contributions that are still relevant to the field of psychology. They form the basis of the modern perspectives and theories of psychological studies. Each of the psychologist has a different perspective regarding the behaviors of individual. However it would be seen that these psychologists aimed for a specific goal of finding about the roots of animal and human behavior. These three psychologists were quite successful in achieving their aim and used experiments to confirm the effects on the behavior of an individual. This paper aims at comparing and contrasting the psychological perspectives of the mentioned psychologists. John B. Watson is a well-known name in the history of psychology. During 1913 John B. Watson proposed his personal opinions and understanding about behaviors and integrated them which is now known as ‘behaviorism’ or ‘behaviorists’. The three psychologists namely John Watson, B.F Skinner and Edward Tolman are all concerned with the functional group of psychology known as behaviorism. Watson gave different viewpoints about the basis of psychology and considered it as a science. He believed that science is a broad subject which can be based on the principles of experiments and observations. In other words he believed that the observations can lead to a conclusion in psychology. Watson issued a paper which revolved around the subject of consciousness and he believed that this phenomena is such that it cannot be observed. He believed that conscious is an entity that individuals cannot express or show to the outer world. In other words consciousness does not relate to the scientific methods of observation but rather can be analyzed through the process of introspection (a non scientific process). Watson believed that the study of psychology should not integrate consciousness in its basis as it does not relate to the scientific methods. He rather concluded that psychology should be adopted as a study of behaviors as these behaviors can be observed publicly through scientific methods. Moreover Watson proposed that different methods should be adopted to study behaviors and consciousness should not be a part of these behaviors when analyzing it (Harzem 2004).Watson is known for his work in modern psychology and it was him who defined the terms stimulus and response. These terms have been used by many other psychologists after him. Watson emphasized on observations to complete the study of psychology and carried out several experiments to find out about different behaviors. He carried out a famous experiment known as Little Albert. In the experiment a little boy was made to play with rats every day. Several sessions of play took place for Albert when finally Watson introduced a loud sound of a hammer along with the rats which scared Albert. Around seven sessions took place with this kind of a stimulus and finally it was found that Albert developed a fear for the rats. Every time Albert was introduced to a rat he would cry and thus the fear response was confirmed by Watson (McIntyre 2003). He was the first one to introduce classical conditioning in the field of psychology. B.F Skinner was a psychology student who carried out several experiments to find out different effects on the human beings. Skinner believed that inner emotions or consciousness played a major role when analyzing the behaviors of human beings. He carried out the works of John Watson to find out different effects on the human behavior. He believed that the effects that a behavior causes determine the reproduction of the behavior. In other words if a behavior causes a negative effect the individual would refrain from such a behavior whereas if it would cause a positive effect the individual would consider doing it again. He used the word ‘rewards’ for a behavior which would be done again and the behaviors which are reward less would not be seen to occur again. Skinner and Watson had almost the same views on psychology as they both carried out experiments to find out about different stimulus. On the other hand Skinner believed in the study of consciousness and behaviors together whereas Watson did not believe in this kind of study. Skinner believed that scientific methods could be adopted to find out about the inner emotions along with behaviors and these could be important in analyzing the behaviors. Skinner evolved the idea of operant conditioning and used control environments for the subjects. He used skinner boxes and found out about different phenomenon such as extinction and discrimination. He studied behaviors to conclude his research and believed in observing people rather than experimenting on them. He observed the behaviors of different individuals in accordance to their surroundings. He believed that environment played a great role in affecting the behavior of the individuals and these behaviors should be analyzed with regard to the environment. He believed that psychology can adopt both scientific and non scientific methods unlike John Watson to conclude about certain behaviors. And he also used these methods to carry out the processes of operant and classical conditioning (Goodwin 2008). On the other hand Edward Tolman was a psychologist who relied on his experiences to form an image about the nature of human beings and animals. Tolman believed that the world was a complex set of map which every human had to understand by using his/her cognitive abilities. He used variables to sort out the human nature and integrated his thoughts with the thoughts of the subjects to come to a conclusion. He believed that the cognitive skills that an individual possesses are the most important when analyzing their behaviors. He had a firm belief in the theories of Watson and Skinner but he did not believe in the muscular and glandular responses that were seen in the experiments. He believed that everything related to a behavior occurred because of cognitive senses which was different in every individual. In his belief cognition could not be related to the muscular and glandular responses of a person. He also believed in the theories of rewards like BF Skinner and carried out experiments to find out their effects. He used mazes for the rats and offered them food in the end and found out that the speed and cognitive ability of the rats was greatly affected by these rewards. He believed that learning could be achieved through a process of cognitive mapping. He believed in the processes of consciousness like BF Skinner and proposed that it was this conscious that helped a person to use his cognitive skills. He also believed in behaviors like Skinner and Watson and considered it to be the most important part of psychology. He believed that behavioral processes are the entities which help a person to function in a way that he does (Leary 2004; Goodwin 2008). These three psychologists have contributed a lot to the modern psychology. With the help of the experiments that they conducted several theories have been put forward. Cognition and behaviors have been related together by these psychologists. Although each of them had their own perception about psychology it can be said that they all worked towards a single goal. John Watson believed that consciousness did not have an active role in psychology whereas Skinner and Tolman believed that it did. Stimulus and response was considered very important when analyzing behaviors by both Skinner and Watson whereas Tolman did not believe in the muscle and glandular responses to the stimulus. Rewards were believed to be very important by these three psychologists as these can affect the behavior of almost every individual. In conclusion it can be said that these psychologists believed in the study of behavior through different means and each of them was successful in achieving his aim through different experiments. References Top of Form Harzem, P. (January 01, 2004). Behaviorism for New Psychology: What Was Wrong With Behaviorism and What is Wrong With it Now. Behavior and Philosophy, 32,1, 5. Mclntyre, T. (2003). The History of Behaviorism. Top of Form Goodwin, C. J. (2008). A history of modern psychology. Chichester: J. Wiley & Sons. Top of Form Leary, M. R. (2004). Introduction to behavioral research methods. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More