B. F. Skinner's Cognitive Psychology

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According to numerous references in the field of Psychology, a cognitive psychologist is an individual that studies topics such as thinking, problem-solving, learning, attention, memory, forgetting, and language acquisition, among several others. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes, and its core focus is on how people acquire, process, and store information. While great research has been done within the field of psychology, there are individuals such as B.F. Skinner who criticize its strides, purposes, and research methods.
Like some other psychologist, B.F. Skinner has criticized cognitive psychology in reviewed articles, providing examples and reasoning’s to justify his belief that cognitive psychology …show more content…

Skinner is not a cognitive psychologist because he does not see evidence of an inner world of mental life that is relative to analyzing behavior nor to the physiology of the nervous system. In other words, he does not think the brain and its mental functions have proven enough evidence to verify their effectiveness in analyzing behavior within the field of psychology. Skinner has chosen not to be a cognitive psychology because of his belief that behavior cannot be changed by changing “the minds and heart of men”- yet that is the overarching purpose of cognitive psychology. Skinner believes that there is more to changing behavior such as the inclusion of altering the environments, both physical and social, in which we live. Without doing so, Skinner believes it is impossible to change …show more content…

While I do believe that the mental thought process does alter a person’s behavior, I believe that the environment has a greater influence- this is not to say that I do not agree that the mental processes such as reasoning, logical thinking, and memory do not alter ones behavior because scientific evidence proves that they do. However, I believe that our environment and circumstances influence our attitudes, logic, reasoning, and thinking, making it the foundation of human behavior. Overall, I do agree with many ideas, concepts, and methods in both behaviorism and cognitive psychology, however, I think science becomes more trustworthy when the information can be located and it is measurable- causing me to agree with many of the points that Skinner makes in his article “Why I Am Not a Cognitive

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