In this essay I will be comparing the identity theory to the behaviorist’s theory.
Both theories are similar in the sense that they are of the monists (physicalism) view but they do vary in many other ways that I will point out in the duration of my essay.
I do believe that the behaviorist theory is the better argument for reasons I will outline in this essay.
The identity theory
The identity theory refers to the understanding that the mind and the brain are identical. They say that mental processes are the same thing as brain processes. This gives us a better explanatory role with causation regarding mental states. According to the identity theory, the “Mind” and the “Brain” refer to one object (the physical brain). (Anthony Oyowe, personal
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Most would assume that Nick is in pain means that Nick is having some internal, private experience of hunger. According to behaviorists, this is not the case. To say “Nick is hungry” doesn’t mean that Nick is having some inner, private experience but instead, terms like “hunger” speak of observable behavior. But then it would be difficult to see that Nick is hungry if he is not showing any signs of being hungry. The mind just is behavior. Behavior is physical thus is the mind is physical.
Objections To Identity Theory
There are a few objections when it comes to the identity thoery. The Leibniz's Law of Identity says that if two objects are identical, then they have all of the same properties. So if you could show something true about brain events that are untrue of mental events, then you could prove that the brain and mind are not the same thing. (Anthony Oyowe, personal communication, march 11, 2015) Another objection could be with the fact that people who go through major damage to the brains, lets say due to brain surgery or a car crash, sometimes their mental fuctions are undisturbed. So how can we explain this since the theory suggests that if the brain were to be disturbed, the mental functions would be
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Firstly, it is like-minded with knowledge of humans and brains. Secondly, it accounts for the close relation we think there is between mind and body. When we talk about how a person thinks or believes, we are talking about how a human behaves. Thirdly, it is a monistic theory removing mental substance, which makes it an acceptable theory for materialists. In addition, the causal role for mentality is removed. So it could be argued that theory that the mind causes behavior is equivalent to theory that the mind is behavior.
The behaviorist theory solves the inverted qualia theory by the defining mental states in reference to their associated behaviours instead of of by reference to their conscious qualities thereby avoiding the inverted qualia problem altogether concluding that if two people behave as If they both see the same color then they probably do. (Jessica Lerm, personal communication, April 9, 2015).
The behaviorist theory also solves the The zombie/absent qualia since Behaviourism doesn’t define mindedness as possession of mental substance but by as behaving as one who is minded, it follows that there is no such thing as zombies at all: anybody who acts like they have a mind will by definition have a mind. (Jessica Lerm, personal communication, April 9,
Conclusion: The mind is substantively different from the body and indeed matter in general. Because in this conception the mind is substantively distinct from the body it becomes plausible for us to doubt the intuitive connection between mind and body. Indeed there are many aspects of the external world that do not appear to have minds and yet appear none the less real in spite of this for example mountains, sticks or lamps, given this we can begin to rationalize that perhaps minds can exist without bodies, and we only lack the capacity to perceive them.
The Behavioural Theory ‘The behavioural Theory can be defined as a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour (Weiten, 2014, p6)’. The Ivan Pavlov’s experiment of the dog that salivated at the sound of a tone because the food would follow, showed that a reflex which is an involuntary reaction, such as salivation, which normally happens when there is actual food in the mouth, could be caused by a totally unrelated stimulus, the ringing of a bell (Saudra et al, 2014, p27). John B. Watson in 1913 argued that psychology should redefine itself as the science of behaviour (Weiten, 2014,p6)’. B.F.Skinner bragged that he could teach a child from any type of background to be someone else when he was supporting his theory that it is not heredity but the environment which determines who people become.
Notre Dame University Faculty of Humanities Department of Psychology, Education and Physical Education Introduction to Psychology PSL – 201 (G) MOVING ON By SAMIR MEHANNA Presented to MRS. A. GHAIS Spring 2015 From the beginning of humanity, the individual has always been a mysterious specie that hides lots of unrevealed and hidden characteristics and mysteries, that have been the interest of numerous researchers around the planet. These mysteries were the concern of some researchers for some specific reasons: the human race’s mysteries, and as defined by “Psychology” which emerged in the XVIe century, define the behavior and the mind of the individual; these mysteries were used to define or explain specific situations.
Compare the Behaviourist and Psychodynamic Approaches to Psychology Before comparing the behaviourist and the psychodynamic approaches to psychology it is important to familiarise oneself with the background details of each approach. First the identification of each of their methods of investigation is essential. John B Watson (1878-1958) is thought to be the founder of behaviourism. Behaviourism is concerned with the aspects of the human behaviour that can be observed and measured. Watson believed that people are born with a certain amount of reflexes and the person’s behaviours are the result of their environment.
Behaviour is something which all individual’s uniquely have, each individual’s behaviour is different, whether it is how they act out or feel in certain situations. According to oxford online dictionary, Behaviourism is defined as ‘The theory that human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings,
The behaviourist perspective was the most scientific out of them all and the psychodynamic approach was the least, I believe this because the behaviourist approach outcomes were based on the experiments that were conducted and the psychodynamic approach was about the unconscious mind and dreams, none of it could be scientifically proven as we cannot prove what is happening in the mind which means it is not credible. The experiments that were undertaken in these theories, perspectives and approaches some were more ethical than others I believe the humanistic approach use the most ethical experiments as they were used in the right way and for good reason, I think the biological perspective was the unethical as they did experiments on people
Social Implications of Behaviorism Behaviorism first started during the late 19th century and early 20th century when introspective psychology was extremely popular at the time. Introspective psychologists used experiments that focused primarily on the consciousness of the individual, or their inner thoughts, and John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner were among the people disagreed with its practices1. They believed that the mind cannot be observed objectively, and thus behaviorism was born. Behaviorism in Social Interactions The primary keywords associated with behaviorism are: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and stimulus-response2.
The argument of whether or not a human has a soul has been argued throughout centuries. Derek Parfit discusses two separate theories of personal identity, Ego Theory and Bundle Theory. The argument of which present a more accurate account of personhood is very hard to determine. The Ego Theory has some flaws such the soul is separate from the body and is a immaterialist object within us. Bundle Theory is reinforced and proven by the split-brain case, however it can lead to the argument that there is no self.
Behaviourism was founded by John. B Watson (1878-1958), Watson revolved the main thesis of behaviourism around animal studies which was conducted through observation, testing, verbal accounts and the condition reflex method. Behaviourism revolved around classical and operate conditioning, founded by both Watson and B. F Skinner (1904-1990). Classical conditioning is the experimental process of conditioning a subject of which is believed will produce an automatic response of recognition to (Holt et al, 2012, p.276). ‘The little Albert Experiment’ is an example of this, where a baby is introduced to fire, monkey, dog, rabbit and a white rat, on introduction to each of these a positive reaction is perceived.
Behaviorists believe that anything to do with cognition is outside the study of psychology and they define psychology as the study of observable behavior whereas Freud placed much emphasis on mental life. Freud divided the mind into three parts the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious. He believed that the unconscious mind contained desires, inaccessible memories and impulses that are responsible for human behavior. Skinner embraced psychology as a science by using experiments and observations to prove his theories.
Ryle explains that there is no concealed entity called the mind inside the body. The nature of the mind is not an independent system that is in control of the body. The nature of the mind is not separate from the activity of the body; it is a way of explaining the actions of the body instead. Ryle criticizes the theory that the mind is a place where mental images are comprehended, perceived, or remembered. Sensations, thoughts, and feelings do not fit in to a mental world different from the physical world.
The mind is a psychological space that makes us aware of thoughts and the world around us. Mind represents both the soul and the spirit as part of our essential life. It’s similar to the body in that it is needed for life but it is still its own entity completely. According to Descartes, the body is a material and mechanical thing.
The example of metaphorical expression connected with mind being an entity is approached from two disparate perspectives. Those perspectives provide two contrasting ideas of how the term mind can be treated in both instances. Each perspective is concentrated on separate factor of human’s psychological background. A concept of mind being a machine creates a comparison between the brain and the specific characteristics of the functioning processes connected with machines. In other words, due to such concept human mind is treated as machine.
In its most general sense, Behaviorism, also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning developing as a result of the ideas and beliefs shared by a group of people who has influenced educators’ view of learning. The term behavioral psychology refers to a psychological approach which principally concerned with stimulus-response activities and emphasizes the role of environmental factors in a learning process, to the exclusion of own free will. There is a tenet of behavioral psychology that “only observable, measurable, an outward behavior is worth investigating” (Bush, 2006, p. 14). Historically speaking, behaviorism was originated in the 1880s and develops gradually in the twentieth-first century and beyond. Skinner and
The behaviourist approach: The behaviourist approach is the idea that our behaviour is influenced by the environment around us. Something in the environment will be a stimulus, and our behaviour is caused by our response to that stimulus. An example of this could be picking up a hot pan and immediately dropping it straight after. The hot pan would be the stimulus, and dropping it would be the response.