In psycology what was the shift from behaiourism to cognitivism?

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What can studying the history of psychology teach us about the development of theroies in psychology?

-- helen beckley (helenbeckley@hotmail.com), December 02, 2001

Answers

Hi Helen, well this will sound like a cheap shot, but if you really studied a theory and looked into its development, then by definition I think you are studying the history of psychology. You're just starting at the end and working your way backwards, instead of beginning at the beginning of psychology and working your way forwards through the book. And in fact, that's what the people who write the books on the history of psychology do. It just looks like history when you buy the book and start with chapter one, back then, and read up to the current theory, now. OK? Now, what can studying the development of theories teach you? For one, if you take the time to study the development of a theory, it will teach you how theories are made (for the lack of a better word), and once you get a feeling for how theories are made, you will never look any theory the same again. One trick might be to follow a personality as he/she develops the theory, biography in science. Hope that helps you, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), December 02, 2001.

Essentially, is was the shift during the 1950s and 1960 in the U.S. from the belief that the very idea of mental representation was somehow unscientific, to the idea that mental representations are crucial in understanding the causes of behavior in humans and otehr higher animals. Such representations were typically (though not always) counched inthe language of computer programs. Some of the main representatives of the change were Alan Turing, Noam Chomsky, Herbert Simon, Allan Newell, Hilary Putnam, George Miller, Jerome Bruner, Donald Broadbent, and Atkinson & Shiffrin.

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@chass.utoronto.ca), December 03, 2001.

A useful reference is:

Leahey, T. H. (1992). The mythical revolutions of American psychology. American Psychologist, 47, 308-318.

Much of this article deals with the shift from behaviorism to cognitivism, although Leahey does not think (nor do I) that cognitivism overthrew behaviorism.

-- Roger K. Thomas (rkthomas@uga.edu), December 05, 2001.


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