Question

Each of the three assigned readings for this week was chosen as a representative for one of the three main sociological theories. Explain which theory is best represented by Lower Ed. Be sure to include specifics from the reading and show how this relates to the major tenets of the theory you chose.

Answer 1

Behaviorism is the view that only observable,. overt the activities that can be measured scientifically. John B Watson and BF Skinner strongly influenced the supporters of behaviorism. According to them the psychology should be studied only through the observable behaviour of an individual and they ignore cognition and other internal states.

The theory of functionalism and structuralism were rejected with the approach of behaviorism. It burst upon the field in 1913. Watson argued with passionately for the view that psychology should focus not on consciousness or experience but on behaviour - the actions that can be observed and measured. As Watson put it 'the behaviourists ask why don't we make what we can observe the real field of psychology? Let us limit ourselves to things that can be observed and formulate laws concerning only those things.

Skinner is the most famous behaviorist of all. He argued that because internal mental states cannot be studied scientifically, they should not be part of psychology. The field should focus only on over responses to stimuli. We should not make any assumption about internal states such as motivation. For instance, we can watch an animal who has not eaten for several hours press a liver to obtain food, but we cannot directly observe its hunger motivation.