Question

1. Compare and contrast the trichromatic and opponent-process theories of color vision. How has this debate been resolved?

2. If you were a behaviorist, would you agree with the idea that consciousness is an area of serious psychological research? Please explain why you agree or disagree.

Answer 1

1.Contrast the trichromacy and opponent process theories of color vision in terms of

biological mechanisms and particular phenomena explained.

Trichromatic: the manner in which the photoreceptor cells (3 types of cones)in the eyes of humans and other primates work to enable color vision. the wavelength determines color while the amplitude determines brightness.

Opponent: When only one cell type in a pair is activated and the other kind is suppressed to keep perception sharp and vivid. Once the stimulus is gone however the cells that had been most active are fatigued and those which were suppressed bounce back.

2.yes I agree

Behaviorism is a major trend in psychology, one that directly follows from functionalism, the branch of psychology that focuses on the biological significance of natural processes, including behavior. Behaviorist theory goes further in its rejection of the unique nature of mental events. It does so by declaring that psychology is the study of only observable behaviors. Therefore, purely mental events, events that occur outside the realm of behavior are not the subject matter of psychology. In terms of a definition, behaviorism is the study of the relationship between individuals' environments and their behavior, without consulting hypothetical events that occur within their minds (Carlson & Buskist, 1997).

This movement gained much attention and praise from the vast number of scientists who claimed other theories in psychology were invalid because they were not empirical, and as a result not quantifiable. Behaviorism, in contrast, maintains an objective stance to ensure that research findings will be valid and capable of being relied upon. Behaviorists achieve this objective stance by refusing to deal with what they call the "black box" of the mind. One cannot measure what goes on inside an individual's mind, or at least not with certain validity. One can, however, measure and find patterns in that individual's actions in his or her environment.

After many years of supremacy in the field of American psychology, the theory of behaviorism finds itself now on the defensive. Behaviorism's dominance in psychology restricted the science's subject matter to that of observable behavior. Thus, concepts like consciousness were considered to be outside the realm of psychology. As Burt (1962) writes, "psychology, having first bargained away its soul and then gone out of its mind, seems now...to have lost all consciousness" (p.229).

Many psychologists have turned against behaviorism and turned to the study of thinking and consciousness, known as cognitive psychology. This type of psychology utilizes an approach called information processing, or how information that is received through the different senses is "processed" by various systems in the brain. This concept of imagery occurs within the confines of the brain, and is therefore still hypothetical. However, the behavioral data compiled by questions asked about certain images are, in fact, empirical and objective. These new theories force the psychological world to say that one cannot base psychology purely on observable behavior, if one is truly to probe the mind. The data gained through cognitive psychology's methods are behavior-based. They beg the question, can any theory in psychology be valid without the foundation of behaviorism?