Comment by gress

10 years ago

Are you saying that talking about what goes on in the mind is unscientific and should not be done?

"What goes on in the mind" is behavior. It can be studied scientifically but one can run into the "private event" problem. That is, what goes on in the mind is a private event only observable to the subject. In many psychological experiments, what goes on in the mind is inferred from observable behavior. This is problematic.

In behavior analysis all behavior is considered the subject matter, including private events. So the answer to your question is: No, I'm not saying that.

  • It seems you think that people should only use behavior analysis when talking about the mind.

    I wish you luck in persuading people to accept this philosophy. You may have an uphill struggle convincing people that it is comprehensive enough to replace all the other ways humans have thought about their experiences to date.

    • >"It seems you think that people should only use behavior analysis when talking about the mind."

      That's not what I think. See the difficulty in inferring someone else's thoughts? ;)

      If we are just theorizing or talking about what the mind is and so on, then this belongs in the realm of philosophy.

      Behavior analysis is alive and well on the psychological scene. APA's lifetime achievement award this year went to an applied behavior analyst. If behaving is doing and behavior is the subject matter of behavior analysis, that's pretty comprehensive.

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