Compare the importance that behaviorist and Gestalt approaches attach to such "mentalistic" concepts as thoughts and feelings. To which of these schools of thought is contemporary social psychology more closely related and why?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Behaviorists have historically believed that to understand human behavior, there is no need to consider such subjective internal states as thinking or feeling; instead, they have focused on characteristics of the external environment (e.g., punishment and reinforcement). In contrast, Gestalt psychologists assert that it is not enough to understand the objective characteristics of the situation; one must understand how people perceive and interpret the situation. Given social psychology's focus on social cognition and subjective construals, it shares more in common with Gestalt psychology. Social psychologists often view behaviorist concepts as simplistic.
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