Psychology From The Standpoint Of A Behaviorist

PSYCHOLOGY PROM THE STANDPOINT OF A BEHAVIORIST PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION PRINCIPAL CHANGES IN TEXT The present volume introduces many changes in text and many additions. The first nine pages are entirely new. The section on Vision, from pages 86 to 128, are entirely new and prepared by a specialist in vision, Professor H. M. Johnson, of the Ohio State University. Considerable new material pages 208 to 212 is given in the chapter on Glands. The authors Johns Hopkins experiments in the conditioned emotional reaction will be found on pages 233 to 236. The gist of the whole paper on thinking as expressed at the meeting of the International Congress of Philosophy and Psychology will be found on pages 346 to 356. Since 1919, when this book was first published, behaviorism has been passing through an emotional and logical evaluation. Whether it is to become a dominant system of psychology or to remain merely a methodological approach is still not decided. The strong reaction for and against behaviorism points to the fact that psychological students are restless. Nor will they lie down and sleep, nor turn to the doings of other things until their trial and error wanderings bring an adjusting formulation. Most of the younger psychologists realize that some such formulation as behaviorism is the only road leading to science. Functional psychology cannot help. It died of its own half heartedness before behaviorism was born. Freudianism cannot help. Where it is more than a technique it is an emotional de fense of a hero. It can never serve as a support for a scientific formulation. Hence behaviorism must be looked upon as the rough scientific clay which all must shape or else rest content with theVstic idol already fashioned and worshipped by structural psychology. The form of behaviorism the present author has stood for is now suffering a most serious set-back at the hands of those who are structuralists at heart, yet who profess to be behaviorists viii PREFACE and since behaviorism has become f respectable many who know little of its tenets claim to believe in it. Such half-way behaviorism and such half-way behaviorists must necessarily do harm to the movement because, unless its tenets are kept dis tinct, its terms will become cluttered-up, meaningless and ob scure. This is what has happened to functional psychology. If behaviorism is ever to stand for anything even a distinct method, it must make a clean break with the whole concept of consciousness. Such a clean break is possible because the meta physical premises of behaviorism are different from those of structural psychology. Behaviorism is founded upon natural science j structural psychology is based upon a crude dualism, the roots of which extend far back into theological mysticism. Prof. K. S. La hleys brilliant formulation Psychological Review, July, 1923 of behavioristic contentions shows that any student loathe to give up consciousness with all of its past complications should find happier sailing on some other craft. Since the origin of behaviorism is now under discussion, the preface to the 1924 edition may fitly carry a word about the authors connection with the behavioristic approach. His researches in animal psychology, stimulated first by Lloyd Morgans work and then, more powerfully, by Thornclike led him to his first conversational formulation in 1903. This formula tion was not encouraged. He was told thatit would work for animals, but not for human beings. The authors first public expression was in the form of a lecture before the Psychology Department of Tale University in 1908. The sentiment there likewise was against it...