Discussion Post on Psychology: Comparing Mentalism and Behaviorism

This discussion post delves into the contrasting perspectives of mentalism and radical behaviorism in psychology. The author explores how mentalists attribute behavior to unobservable mental events, while radical behaviorists focus on observable actions and environmental influences. The post highlights the different views on feelings and thoughts, with mentalists considering them explanatory fictions and radical behaviorists viewing them as private events. The author provides a personal example of a situation involving anger to illustrate the different approaches. The references include key texts on applied behavior analysis and the divergent paths of behavior analysis and psychology. This analysis provides a clear understanding of the two behaviorist schools of thought, their core differences, and their implications in explaining human behavior.

Running head: DISCUSSION POST ON PSYCHOLOGY
DISCUSSION POST ON PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1DISCUSSION POST ON PSYCHOLOGY
Behaviour is a reaction to the peripheral stimulus. Therefore, different people have
different perspectives on analysing and resolving issues faced by a human (Moore, 2003).
The perception of mentalist and radical behaviourists differ with respect to feelings, state of
minds and unobservable mental events. As per the view of a mentalist behaviour, an action is
caused because of occurrence of unobservable events, whereas radical behaviourist refers all
the conducts that are either observable or unobservable in nature (Thyer, 2015). The
recognition of feelings and thoughts by the mentalists is stated to be an explanatory fiction
that is public in nature. On the other hand, the radical behaviourists are of the opinion that the
feelings and thoughts are private in nature and thus, can be observed by one individual.
Cooper, Heron and Heward (2007) stated that the two behaviourists describe the mental
events in a different manner based on environmental stimulation. The radical behaviourism
says that feeling is a clue and react according to their own opinions responding to an ongoing
event.
In an extreme situation, I fought with Billy, in a fit of rage, and I had struck him. As
per the mentalist behaviour, no insight explains the reason for hitting Billy. This is because it
is evident that people get mad at some situations and at that moment, there is no control over
the mind. In response to radical behaviourism, rejection of feeling, thoughts and mental
processes are private in nature. Thus, usage of verbal behaviour that might be aggressive in
nature or use of argumentative conversation can be a public response to the private affair.

2DISCUSSION POST ON PSYCHOLOGY
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Definition and characteristics of
applied behavior analysis. In Applied behavior analysis (pp. 2-23). Prentice Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Moore, J. (2003). Behavior analysis, mentalism, and the path to social justice. The Behavior
Analyst, 26(2), 181-193.
Thyer, B. A. (2015). The Divergent Paths of Behavior Analysis and Psychology: Vive la
Différence!. The Behavior Analyst, 38(1), 137-141.