Psicologia

Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.
John B. Watson (1913).
Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a
purely objective experimental branch of natural
science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and
control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential
part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its
data dependent upon the readiness with which they
lend themselves tointerpretation in terms of
consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get
a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no
dividing line between man and brute. The behavior
of man, with all of its refinement and complexity,
forms only a part of the behaviorist’s total scheme of
investigation.
It has been maintained by its followers
generally that psychology is a study of the scienceof
the phenomena of consciousness. It has taken as its
problem, on the one hand, the analysis of complex
mental states (or processes) into simple elementary
constituents, and on the other the construction of
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complex states when the elementary constituents
are given. The world of physical objects (stimuli,
including here anything whichmay excite activity in
a receptor), which forms the total phenomena of the
natural scientist, is looked upon merely as means to
an end. That end is the production of mental states
that may be ’inspected’ or ’observed’. The
psychological object of observation in the case of an
emotion, for example, is the mental state itself. The
problem in emotion is the determination of the
number andkind of elementary constituents
present, their loci, intensity, order of appearance,
etc. It is agreed that introspection is the method par
excellence by means of which mental states may be
manipulated for purposes of psychology. On this
assumption, behavior data (including under this
term everything which goes under the name of
comparative psychology) have no value per se. They
possesssignificance only in so far as they may
throw light upon conscious states.1Such data must
have at least an analogical or indirect reference to
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belong to the realm of psychology.
Indeed, at times, one finds psychologists
who are sceptical of even this analogical reference.
Such scepticism is often shown by the question
which is put to thestudent of behavior, ’what is the
bearing of animal work upon human psychology?’ I
used to have to study over this question. Indeed it
always embarrassed me somewhat. I was interested
in my own work and felt that it was important, and
yet I could not trace any close connection between it
and psychology as my questioner understood
psychology. I hope that such a confession will clear
theatmosphere to such an extent that we will no
longer have to work under false pretences. We must
frankly admit that the facts so important to us which
we have been able to glean from extended work
upon the senses of animals by the behavior method
have contributed only in a fragmentary way to the
general theory of human sense organ processes, nor
have they suggested new points of experimentalattack. The enormous number of experiments which
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we have carried out upon learning have likewise
contributed little to human psychology. It seems
reasonably clear that some kind of compromise
must be affected: either psychology must change its
viewpoint so as to take in facts of behavior, whether
or not they have bearings upon theproblems of
’consciousness’; or else behavior must stand alone
as a wholly separate and independent science.
Should human psychologists fail to look with favor
upon our overtures and refuse to modify their
position, the behaviorists will be driven to using
human beings as subjects and to employ methods of
investigation which are exactly comparable to those
now employed in the animal work.
Any...