126 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



Behaviorism is primarily a method of study. Psy- 

 chologists had become discouraged In trying to estab- 

 lish a science of the mind by the Introspective method, 

 where no observer could check the observations of any 

 other observer, and turned to the objective method 

 pursued by all the advancing sciences. They began 

 studying mental processes through the behavior of 

 living beings, where the results of that study could 

 be checked and verified. When this method was 

 adopted, the new science began to make an advance 

 comparable with that of all the objective sciences. 



It soon became evident to psychologists that in 

 studying mental processes In this way they were not 

 studying the expression of some inner being called 

 the mind or soul, but that they were studying the mind 

 Itself directly. This means nothing more than that 

 we are doing something when we think, reason, plan, 

 remember, and make decisions. It Is the man himself 

 who thinks and feels and wills — not some magical, 

 mysterious, metaphysical soul. The soul. Indeed, Is 

 born In activity — in behavior. The soul or mind is 

 the name we give to the totality of psychical or men- 

 tal processes, and by mental processes we mean those 

 activities of living beings by which they adjust them- 

 selves to their surroundings In such a way as to main- 

 tain their Integrity and satisfy their desires. Behavior 

 and its motives and their organization Into a definite 

 personality thus become the object of the study of 

 psychology. 



Mental processes are therefore wholly distinct from 

 biological and physiological processes. Physiological 

 processes have to do with the maintenance of the inner 

 economy of the organism, while psychological proc- 



