Critically evaluate the impact behaviourism has had on psychology Essay

Critically evaluate the impact behaviourism has had on psychologyFor hundreds of years philosophers speculated about the mind and in around the 1880s the popular method of psychology dealt only with the conscious mind. The tests carried out at this sentence were tyroised for their lack of objectivity and by the 1920s a novel brand of psychology emerged in the form of behaviourism.Psychology became a prize discipline in around 1897 when Wilhelm Wundt started the outset psychology lab in Germany. Wundt, along with others, attempted to investigate the mind through introspection, and observed their profess conscious mental processes. While analysing their thoughts, images and feelings, they recorded and measured their results under controlled conditions and aimed to crystalise conscious thought into its basic elements as a chemist would with a chemical compound. This theory was known as structuralism.A particular critic of this method, in the early 1920s was John Broadus Watson ( 1878-1958), who felt that introspection was inborn and therefore erroneous. He also felt the only way send on was by using methods that could be observed by more that precisely one person and this could be achieved by studying behaviour. He wrote that behaviouristic psychology claims that consciousness is neither a definable nor a usable notion that it is merely another word for the soul of more ancient times. (Watson 1924) behavioristic theories of learning are often called stimulus-response (S-R), and though only classical condition fits the S-R model, the other major form, operant conditioning, is often included under the equivalent heading, though it is significantly different. Classical conditioning is triggered involuntarily by a particular environmental stimulus. This means that a stimulus that does not normally produce a particular response can be diametrical with another stimulus that does, even uptually resulting in both stimuli inducing the kindred effect, even w hen used sepa deceiveely.A good example of this was shown in the first experiments by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) in the early 20th Century. During other research urinate he noticed that dogs often salivated before they were given any solid fare, and even when they looked at food. This sometimes went as far as the dog salivating when he heard the approaching footsteps of the laboratory assistant bringing the food. Pavlovs observations used food as an unconditional stimulus and the salivating was an un knowing response, an automatic reflex response. During the experiment a toll was opposite with the food and referred to as a conditioned stimulus. It was neutral to begin with and got no response from the dog except for a passing interest. After the bell and food had been paired for some time the dog began to salivate at the sound of the bell and before the food was shown. The salivation was then a conditioned response as it was produced by the bell (conditioned stimulus).In 1920 Watson took this work further when he attempted a homogeneous study on an 11month old boy called Albert. He used a rat as the original stimulus, and Albert showed no fear of it. He paired the rat with an unconditioned stimulus, which in this case was a hammer hit a four foot steel bar close to Alberts head, which frighten the child and made him cry. After about 50 pairings Albert was afraid of the rat which had by this time become the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response (fear) impromptu transferred to other items which included a white rabbit, a sealskin coat, cotton fiber wool, Watsons hair and a Santa mask. Though it was less severe, the conditioning persisted even afterwards a month and Alberts mother removed him from the hospital.