ABSTRACT

During the 1950s, the field of psychology was dominated by stimulus-response (S-R) behaviorism. During the height of behaviorism’s popularity, it was widely believed that we could essentially ignore what goes on inside people’s heads; this was thought unmeasurable, and therefore an inappropriate topic for scientific enquiry. Some behaviorists thought this was one way Freud had gone astray, for he was constantly attempting to uncover mental mechanisms which were largely hidden from view. Therefore, many behaviorists regarded this as plain bad science, since people’s “inner states” could not be directly observed. It was asserted instead that we should focus on what is observable, namely outward or overt behavior (hence the name “behaviorism”), since this can be measured and tested.