Chapter 5: Strengthening the scientific standing of psychology Flashcards
wat zei watson over introspection
Watson (in his manifesto) argued that previous research on introspection into consciousness had failed and that in order to become a real science, psychology needed to focus on observable behaviour and ignore mental terms (everything that is related to consciousness, thinking, feelings, motives, plans, purposes, images, knowledge or the self).
“I believe we can write a psychology [as just described]… and never go back upon our definition: never use the terms consciousness, mental states, mind, content, introspectively verifiable, imagery, and the like. I believe that we can do it in a few years… It can be done in terms of stimulus and response, in terms of habit formation, habit integration and the like. Furthermore, I believe that it is really worthwhile to make this attempt now.” (Watson, from the Behaviourist Manifesto, 1913; from Brysbaert & Rastle, p. 194).”
watson
Chomsky evaluates Skinner’s work on the basis of how well it is able to predict behavior. Therefore, if it is unclear what kind of reinforcement causes a behavior, it can’t predict and is meaningless
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a tact is
a tact is a verbal behavior where an individual expresses or identifies something in their environment. For example, if a child sees an apple and says “apple,” that would be an example of a tact. The verbal response (saying “apple”) is evoked by the particular object (the apple) in the environment. Through reinforcement, the child is more likely to continue labeling objects in the future. Tacts are important in language development and communication skills.
verbal operant =
In behavior analysis, verbal operants refer to different functional units of language or verbal behavior.
dus gewoon taal
Chomsky uses the example of a fox to address the concept of a tact. What point is Chomsky trying to make with this example?
Hier wilde Chomsky laten zien dat de uitleg van Skinner over waarom mensen op een bepaalde manier reageren op een woord, niet klopt. Hij gebruikt hierbij het voorbeeld dat iemand het woord fox hoort, en vervolgens wegrent of om zich heen kijkt.
De twee assumpties van Skinner over een tact zijn: 1. De luisteraar heeft een geschiedenis met het woord fox, waardoor dit woord geassocieerd wordt met de actie om zich heen kijken, en wegrennen etc. en 2. De luisteraar heeft een interesse in het woord, en het bovenstaande gedrag is een reinforcer voor het zien van een vos.
Chomsky vind deze uitleg niet overtuigend, en geeft aan dat de luisteraar misschien nooit een vos heeft gezien, en ook geen interesse heeft in het zien van die vos, maar toch wel het gepaste gedrag uitvoert. Hiermee zijn de assumpties die Skinner stelt dus niet altijd van toepassing.
officiele term van tact door skinner, en hoe applied dit tot bv een stoel
Tacts are responses that are under control of a stimulus.
So, the chair and its property of redness control the response “red”
wat zei chomsky over denotation and connotation
This must seem familiar by now: Chomsky prefers the other terminology over Skinner’s. While denotation and connotation are not without their issues, he believes they are still more informative than stimulus control and property.
autoclitics are
Autoclitics are, then, responses to already given responses, or rather, as we find in reading through this section, they are responses to covert or incipient or potential verbal behavior
by 1900 there were 41 psychology labs in the usa.
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in 1892 the APA was founded
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what was the first american psychology stroming
functionalism
how was psychology in the usa molded by the culture
- strong interest in darwins evolution theory
- americans believed in the importance of the environment
- mistrust of intellectualism, knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
strong interest in darwins theory=
usa was struggling to establish a new nation, eugenics had a big impact, several states adopted legalislation aimed at preventing marriage or compulsory sterilization
galtons’ eugenics
he encouraged people with desirable features to reproduce with each other
importance of the environment
most of them were immigrants, convinced that human characteristics were not only due to inheritance but also depend on environment: could change and control human actions for the better (protestant religion)
mistrust of intellectualism =
usa was a nation of common sense business men, not interested in abstract science but in practical accomplishments that made money
wat was het verschil tussen american and european psychology
american psych = functionalists
european psych = structuralism, introspective study of consciousness
wat was nog een reden dat psychologen meer richting functionalism gingen
wundts research ran into problems in 1880: his lab had been centred on mental chronometry, extending Donders’ theory from three stages to five. but there were large individual differences, therefore they could not derive a scientific law from them. therefore wndt turned to introspection and historical methods, and usa turned to darwin
in early 20th century the future of psych was looking less glamourly, most labs were set up within philosophical and theological institutes
die dus niet open gesteld waren naar nieuwkomers
hoe probeerden ze in de psychologie de public te overwinnen
phrenology, mesmerism, spiritualism and other paranormal subjects
phrenology=
gall, different functions were controlled by different parts of the brain. well-developed functions were supported by parts of the brain with a larger volume. measuring parts of the skull would predict the strenghts and weaknesses of a person.
mesmerism=
able to look inside bodies and diagnose illnesses, vooral Charles Pywn en Fowler brothers
spiritualism=
the belief that spirits o fthe dead could be contacted by mediums
fox sisters
waarom werd echte wetenschappelijke psychologie niet zo bekend onder de general public
omdat het niet vet genoeg was, niet sterk genoeg bewijs om hun interesse te wekken
wie schreef survival of the fittest
Herbert Spencer in 1864
