Guessing

            Behavior study can only provide at best a guess as to the content of mind, a guess as to causes, motives, etc..

            Psychologists are always guessing about what is going on in the minds of those they are studying “objectively”.  So in most experiments and case studies, the error is equivalent to that of the behaviorist:  He reads into the reaction – he guesses – what is going on with the person.  He thinks, only as an afterthought if at all, to ask the persons himself.

            The challenge of course is that people often do not know what is going on in their mind.  They are guessing, too.

            They can tell us they saw an image of an elephant or felt an intense terror or heard a booming voice.  But they have little better idea of the causes of these phenomena that the psychologist does.