Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Behaviorism

Sigmund Freud was a neurologist. His neuroscientific education and his clinical experience with respect to the cases involving hysteria made him sensitive to the question of the relation between the mind and the body. Freud had begun his scientific career as a hard core materialist. However, as he started to handle a lot more clinical cases, he began to acknowledge the relationship between the mind and the body. His theory of Psychoanalysis marked his exit from a materialist framework. Freud divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscious level consists of all the things we are aware of, including things we know about ourselves and our surroundings. The preconscious consists …show more content…
Behaviourism began as a critique of introspection by John Watson. Watson wanted to replace the introspective method with the study of behaviours. This particular approach emphasized scientific and objective methods of investigation. This particular principle is based on the premise that since it is not possible to study the mind objectively (as the mind could not be observed), psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself. Behaviourism involves a systematic approach that is only concerned with behaviours that can be observed. According to this school of psychology, all behaviours can be learnt through interaction with the environment. One of the reasons as to why behaviourism gained popularity fast was because it made it possible to focus on events which could be quantified, reported reliably, and observed by someone other than the person who was undergoing the experience. Although this particular approach had many benefits, it was also prone to many shortcomings. When an individual only focuses on measurable responses and objective stimuli, much is lost. Propositions about psychological perspectives can only be stated from the viewpoint of the observer rather than the individual going through the event and experiencing it by themselves. Intentionality is not taken into account as behaviourism does not allow for itself to consider the relationship between the consciousness and its …show more content…
Phenomenology stresses the perceiver’s central role in determining meaning. Phenomenology doesn’t really study the objective world as such, as it was done before, rather phenomenology tries to understand and establish the subjective foundations that allow us to experience the world as objective, independent of our experiences. Phenomenology is said to be the “pre-condition for all knowledge and understanding”. Phenomenology focuses on how the world appears to, and is perceived by human beings through their experiences and their