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A biological approach to the problem of abnormal behavior.The value of the old psychology.

A biological approach to the problem of abnormal behavior.: The value of the old psychology. Having considered the origin of the old body and mind psychology, and the basic fallacy responsible for the building of it, let us now consider the question of what this psychology contains that is of value and that it may be necessary for us to retain; for we do not want to make the fatal mistake of throwing out the baby with the bath. That I am afraid is what Dr. J . B. Watson did when he cast out from his psychology, the data of consciousness, which is one of the reasons why Behaviorism is today in a state of temporary eclipse. Can a psychology which is built upon a false assumption, which attributes behavior to something that is not the cause of it, be of any use in making predictions as to what that behavior is likely to be? It all depends upon what we mean by the terms, true and false. A theory is true, in the sense in which we here use this word, when it is in harmony with the facts which it is built to explain. This means, of course, that what was true yesterday, with the facts we then had at our disposal, may not be true today when this range of facts has been somewhat increased, and what is a perfectly good and tenable theory today, may not be true tomorrow. In short, it means that truth is relative, that it all depends upon what facts are to be explained. Measured by one set of facts, a theory may be false, since there may be some of these facts which conflict with it, but measured by a different set of facts it may be perfectly true. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A biological approach to the problem of abnormal behavior.The value of the old psychology.

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Publisher
Science Press Printing Company
Copyright
Copyright © 1938 American Psychological Association
Pages
52 –66
DOI
10.1037/14704-004
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

Having considered the origin of the old body and mind psychology, and the basic fallacy responsible for the building of it, let us now consider the question of what this psychology contains that is of value and that it may be necessary for us to retain; for we do not want to make the fatal mistake of throwing out the baby with the bath. That I am afraid is what Dr. J . B. Watson did when he cast out from his psychology, the data of consciousness, which is one of the reasons why Behaviorism is today in a state of temporary eclipse. Can a psychology which is built upon a false assumption, which attributes behavior to something that is not the cause of it, be of any use in making predictions as to what that behavior is likely to be? It all depends upon what we mean by the terms, true and false. A theory is true, in the sense in which we here use this word, when it is in harmony with the facts which it is built to explain. This means, of course, that what was true yesterday, with the facts we then had at our disposal, may not be true today when this range of facts has been somewhat increased, and what is a perfectly good and tenable theory today, may not be true tomorrow. In short, it means that truth is relative, that it all depends upon what facts are to be explained. Measured by one set of facts, a theory may be false, since there may be some of these facts which conflict with it, but measured by a different set of facts it may be perfectly true. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Published: Mar 23, 2015

Keywords: old psychology; mind psychology; behaviorism; consciousness; truth; theories

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