The Samelson’s article was a very interesting read for me, not only because I like the behaviorist school of thought but because it captured a very crucial development in the field of psychology. Throughout its existence, psychology as a discipline has experienced several shifts in its proposed focus on what to study as a science. As such, Samelson in his article provided an extensive and appropriate overview on how the Behaviorist movement spearheaded by Watson attempted to dominate and define what the field of psychology should be concerned with. Samelson also discussed how Watson’s work in the initial stages was discredited but gained tremendous credence and became a dominant force in the field after his 1913 lectures and publications on…show more content… While I understand Watson’s view that anything that cannot be observed should not be studied, I consider elements that that are unobserved as imperative to developing a profound understanding of the human being. When I think of psychology, terms including thinking, problem solving, reasoning, behavior, decision making, and emotions become salient as I seek to understand why humans act, think and behave the way they do. Likewise, as a function of my respectful curiosity, I would like to understand the thoughts and thought processing behind the behavior. I consider psychology to be the "why" that is synonymous to the "so what?" of a research question. Consequently, by neglecting internal processes, I believe that Watson’s Behaviorist stance, fail to recognize how one understands and make sense of the world. Largely through obtaining knowledge, individuals’ behaviors are represented as they seek to act on what they learn and integrate from others and past…show more content… I believe that some behaviors are often predictable but are not all by any means. Take a child for instance, who has earned a candy through tantrum behaviors. In conceptualizing the Behaviorist viewpoint, another time that child sees a candy bar they really want, tantrum behaviors is predictable as this has allowed access to the candy bar before. On the flip side, assigned articles for this course differs each week and is accompanied by reflection papers such as this with a different article of focus. Mt performance on each reflection might not be predictable as the content pf each article differs, likewise my understanding of each. This is an example of how unpredictable one’s actions can be as well as emphasizes the concept of state dependency and mental
