Functionalism Flashcards
represents the first truly unique American psychology. As it evolved from Darwin, Galton, James, Hall and Cattell, its definition was:
.. ‘ The study of behavior as it functions in adapting the organism to the environment’.
This broad definition was inclusive of the many different approached to psychology from cognition to behaviorism and pure experimental through applied.
Functionalism
It represented a direct and effective attack on the narrowness of strict (Titchenerian) structuralism.
With no particular clear leader to narrow the movement, it went from a school of thought to absorption into (or the definition of) contemporary mainstream American Psychology.
Functionalism
Born 02/11/1809
Same birthday as Abraham Lincoln.
Grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and son of a wealthy physician.
Studied theology at Cambridge.
Charles Darwin
became interested in zoology and Lyell’s theory of geologic evolution.
Lyell’s theory of uniformitarianism held that the earths major features evolved slowly over eons rather than via rapid changes (eg., volcanism).
He also read Thomas Malthus (1789) Essay on the Principle of Population while on the Beagle voyage.
Charles Darwin
While in the Galàpagos islands, his observations on the isolation of sea turtles to the particular islands started his thinking about animal evolution.
He had already apprehended the theory of selective breeding of the best animals and plants by humans.
Combining Lyell and Malthus, he now extended that to nature making the selection by over breeding, overpopulation, and survival of the fittest.
Charles Darwin
Illness, some suggest psychosomatic (science religion conflict), contributed to the delay of the publication of his work.
His work, verified to have preceded that of Alfred Wallace by 15-years won him credit for the discovery
Charles Darwin
Origin of the species (1859) drew heavily on the Malthusian concern for population control.
Malthus had argued that population was growing geometrically while food supplied were growing arithmetically, predicting that only the most cunning would survive the inevitable competition for dwindling food supplies.
The actual data for the book were based on 22 years of research on the richness and variety of life gleaned from voyages like the Beagle.
Charles Darwin
The variety of life implied the importance rather than trivialization of individual differences.
Origin of the Species established a continuity between humans and non-human, and rational, irrational and instinctive behavior, producing a major impact on comparative psychology and psychoanalysis and psychology as a whole.
Charles Darwin
fully develops the physical and psychological continuity of humans as descended from other animals.
Charles Darwin - Descent of Man
had suggested two principles of evolution:
Development toward perfection with increasing complexity. (refinement)
Anomalies (mutations) reflect environmental interference. (adaptation)
Lamarck
illustrated an evolutionary linkage to the emotions to parallel the rational and physical similarities..
Darwin’s (1872) Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals
Darwin’s theory generated great debate and ridicule as this turn of the century (20th) cartoon caricature of Darwin illustrates.
Darwinian Controversy
Non-traditional/self educated.
Interested in Lyell’s theory of geologic evolution.
Major contributor to psychology and evolutionary theory
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
His first book, Principles of Psychology (1855) proposed evolutionary principles much like Darwin’s but had little impact because of his lack of academic reputation.
Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859) increased his stature as well.
He revised Principles of Psychology with an emphasis on philosophy of science, published as a 10 volume series The System of Synthetic Philosophy, 2 volumes of which (1870, 1872) dealt with psychology.
Herbert Spencer
The Spencer -Bain Principle
Voluntary behavior follows the pleasure principle.
Frequently made associations are passed on to future generations (Lamarckian)
“simple creatures respond in simple undifferentiated ways”…. (reflexively).
“Instinct is a compound reflex action”….
“Memory and cognition arise from instincts”….
Principles
There are that are true for all phenomena not just one class.
Eg., the Law of Evolution:
A process by which a system moved from” an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity.
This applies to the universe, solar system organisms, and cultures,
First Principles
is a first principle that extends to: The fittest geological structure The fittest organic life The fittest culture The fittest institution The fittest behavior Evolution proceeds from the simple to the complex with a purpose. Consider the child’s path to adulthood.
Survival of the fittest
“ if the doctrine of evolution is true, the inevitable implication is that Mind can be understood only by observing how the Mind evolved. If creatures of the most elevated kinds have reached those highly integrated, very definite, and extremely heterogeneous organizations they possess, through modifications upon modifications accumulated through an immeasurable past– if the developed nervous systems of such creatures have gained their complex structures and functions little by little:then necessarily, the involved forms of consciousness which are correlatives of these complex structures and functions must have arisen by degrees. And it is impossible truly to comprehend the organization of the body in general or the nervous system in particular without tracing its successive stages of complication; so it must be impossible to comprehend mental organization without similarly tracing its stages.” (Spencer , 1855, pp181-182)
Consider the impact of this quote
Progress (social evolution) can inevitably lead to good and bad ends
Social Darwinism
a process by which cultures regulate by balancing forces….to where …”an equilibrium exists between man’s nature and the conditions of his existence”.
Eg., The law of supply and demand.
Equilibration
Spencer, 1880, on an equilibrated society
“…the individual has no desires but those that may be satisfied without exceeding his proper sphere of action, while society maintains no restraints but those which the individual voluntarily respects. The progressive extension of liberty of citizens and the reciprocal removal of political restrictions are the steps by which we advance to this state”……if unimpeded, evolving naturally to a society ….”of the greatest perfection and complete happiness”.
Thus the evolutionary process will work best if the state does not interfere.
Those who struggle successfully should survive.
Those who are not successful should not survive.
The state must not interfere with this natural order or evolutions progress to perfection will be thwarted.
Spencer
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnagie and J.D. Rockefeller were strong supporters of social Darwinism with their “rugged individualism.
“ The Socialist or Anarchist who seeks to overturn the present conditions is to be regarded as attacking the foundations on which civilization itself rests, for civilization took its start the from the day when the capable, industrious workman said to his incompetent, lazy fellow if thou dost not sow, thou shalt not reap, and thus ended primitive communism by separating the drones from the bees”. (Carnegie, 1900)
Quote
Influence of Darwin (and Spencer on American Functionalism should be clear.
Functionalism’s emphasis on the adaptational function of behavior and the survival of the fittest behavioral strategy both within and between organismic life spans are clear descendants (not a Freudian slip) of Darwin and Spencer’s theories
Influence of Darwin (and Spencer on American Functionalism should be clear.
The continuity of mental, behavioral and physical life meant that animal studies were legitimate ways to understand human behavioral (including cognitive) evolution.
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As Darwin’s cousin, and with an IQ estimated at well over 200, Galton came from an educationally and financially privileged family.
Francis Galton
He used his independent wealth to attack the scientific study of numerous phenomena as a hobby more than a vocation.
In his youth, he set out to learn medicine by taking medications from A to Z to determine what they did. When he got to C ….croaton oil (a powerful purgative) he abandoned the approach.
At Trinity College he switched from medicine to mathematics, suffered a nervous breakdown, and finished school.
Francis Galton
His primary interest was in investigation the premise that intelligence was genetically determined.
His work marks the foundation of the psychology of mental testing, psychometrics, and assessment of individual differences.
He also founded the fields of eugenics and biometrics.
Francis Galton
His other contributions include:
Exploration of much of Central Africa
Invention of weather instruments
Devising a system for prediction of weather patterns
Invented a teletype machine to allow the rapid transmission of weather information over great distances to study global weather patterns.
Development of fingerprinting for Scotland Yard
Francis Galton
Leading fashion designer in London
Accomplished weight lifter and body builder
Ran experiments on the efficacy of prayer.
Wrote extensively on the future of the human race
He published Hereditary Genius in 1869 in which he argued that intelligence ran in genetic lines, based on extensive genealogical examinations.
He also noted that there was considerable variability and what we now call regression toward the mean.
Francis Galton
Founded the science of eugenics and its journal, Biometrica in 1901.
His eugenics lab (1904) is still productive today at the University College of London.
He argued forcefully for genetic engineering of a better race of humans through selective breeding. (sound familiar for W.W.II?)
Suggested that the British government pay highly intelligent people to breed prodigiously and pay low intelligence people to not breed. (pretty radical!!)
Francis Galton
Based on Jaques Quètelet’s (a Belgian astronomer) observation that biological and social data were distributed according to Gauss’s (Normal) distribution.
He assumed that the same would be true for mental characteristics and set out to measure them.
To do so he had to develop measurement techniques for the study of relationships between variables, so he developed the techniques of correlation and regression and used means, and, average deviations (and later variances standard deviations).
Francis Galton
His followers, Pearson and Spearman developed the methods further giving you most common methods for computing correlations…thank them!
Others who followed in his heritage included Thurstone (psychometrics) and Sir Ronald Fisher (F-distribution and Analysis of Variance)… thank them too!
Francis Galton
He set up a museum full of instrumentation to measure sensory/perceptual/memory capacities motor skills, strength, etc. and developed the questionnaire to get information from people about their dreams, cognitions and mental imagery.
His data was based on 9000 people who paid admission to go through the museum (creative AND frugal!!).
Francis Galton
All of these data became the basis for correlations that would assess intelligence and all appeared to be normally distributed.
He became so fascinated with the normal distribution that he counted everything, including yawns at the opera and found them to be normally distributed around the mean time of the performance.
Francis Galton
As another example of his divergent, creative thinking, he devised a system of arithmetic based on odors ;
camphor = 1,
peppermint = 2 etc.)
Using this system, he was able to do calculations by thinking of the odors.
Francis Galton
The pitch could be varied and he used the orienting response of people and animals to determine hearing ranges while walking around London.
Galton’s whistle
While he was not successful in developing a good intelligence test, he is clearly credited (for psychology) with initiating the mental testing movement, the questionnaire method and the statistical methods to support this research.
What is truly amazing is that he accomplished all this in 15 years of indulging his curiosity in a hobby.
Galton’s whistle
was born into a wealthy family with plenty of intellectual competition (his brother was the novelist, Henry James).
He traveled extensively for leisure and education.
William James
His early interest in science was displaced by an interest in art which he gave up when he found, as he put it that “he had no talent”.
He enrolled in Harvard at 18, in chemistry but disliked laboratory research and switched to medicine.
He concluded that “with the exception of surgery where something positive is accomplished there is too much humbug in medicine”.
William James
He went on the Thayer expedition to Brazil to try biology but found the rigorous laboratory methods of collecting, organizing classifying specimens too painstaking and he returned to medicine.
Finding himself depressed and suffering from psychosomatic illnesses, he went to Europe for rest and relaxation.
In Berlin he attended lectures on physiology and began to develop a strong interest in the emerging psychology as a science.
William James
He returned to America, completed his MD in 1869, became depressed and suicidal.
Having read a book on free will he willed himself to get over his depression and was “cured”
He took a teaching position at Harvard (in psychology) in 1872, took 1873 off to travel in Italy, and returned to teaching at Harvard in 1874.
William James
In 1875, he taught the first American course in psychology (called the relation between physiology and psychology) for which he received a $300 grant to set up a lab.
These two events mark the formal beginning of American Psychology. He was an assistant professor of philosophy in 1880, full professor of psychology by 1889.
William James
In 1878 he signed a contract with Holt Publishing to write an introductory psychology book. It was not published until 12 years later.
Work was interrupted by frequent trips to Europe where he met with many of the early psychologists including Wundt.
William James
Of Wundt he said, “He isn’t a genius, he is a professor. A being whose job it is to know everything and have an opinion about everything”.
After it’s publication in 1890 (two Vols.) Principles of Psychology was widely acclaimed and attracted many American students to psychology.
Most contemporary psychologists still consider it to be the best introductory book ever written.
William James
viewed it in his own words as …“A loathsome, distended, tumified, bloated, dropsical mass testifying to but two facts. There is no such thing as a science of psychology and William James is an incapable”.
Having published the book, he wanted to turn to philosophy (he became one of Americas leading philosophers), so he hired Hugo Munsterberg to teach psychology and run the teaching lab.
William James
Munsterberg was at Freiberg at the time and had been severely criticized by Wundt which made him highly praiseworthy in James view.
Munsterberg became an outstanding teacher, popularized the lab and trained many early psychologists, emphasizing applied (industrial) psychology. (see later)
James retired from Harvard in 1907.
William James
main impact therefore was through the book which was a masterpiece.
It established psychology as a natural biological science descended from Darwin.
It established the function of consciousness to be adaptive, laying the basis for functionalism.
It began the American attack on structuralism offering an appealing alternative.
William James
defined the subject matter of psychology as the science of mental life, both of it’s phenomena and their physiological conditions.
The Wundtean fallacy …‘is that the elements they extract have any meaning’.
“Sensory elements do not exist in conscious experience, only in the minds of the introspecters as tortuously extracted inferences or abstractions”.
James went on to say…“No one ever had a simple sensation”.
In the book, James
He called for a move away from reductionism and artificial analysis toward a positive program to….’understand the unity of the total experience as it flows and changes.
Consciousness in like a stream. Any attempt to stop it, or analyze it at the molecular level is a distortion’. Another of his famous one liners.
..”No one ever had the same thought twice”.
William James
Consciousness is a continuous stream
Consciousness is selective, filtering, emphasizing combining and separating the elements continuously.
Consciousness has a biological purpose to adapt the organism to it’s environment,
Unlike consciousness, habit is involuntary and serves an important purpose……
William James
Habit …. Is the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children from the envious uprisings of the poor. It alone prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from being deserted by those brought up to tread therein…… It dooms us all to fight out the battle of life upon the lines of our nurture of early choice, and make the best of a pursuit that disagrees, for there is no other for which we are fitted, and it is too late to begin again. It keeps the different social strata from mixing. Already at the age of twenty-five you see the professional mannerism settling down on the young commercial traveler, on the young doctor on the young counsellor-at-law. You see the lines of cleavage running through the character, the tricks of thought, the prejudices, the ways of the “shop,” in a word, from which the man can by-and-by no more escape than his coat-sleeve can suddenly fall into a new set of folds….
William James
On the whole is is best he should not escape. It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster and will never soften again.”
William James, 1890, Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, pg 121)
On the whole is is best he should not escape. It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster and will never soften again.“
William James
Problem solving involves adaptive, purposive, conscious behavior, exercising free will.
Methods that were acceptable were varied but immediate introspection was good if not used to rigidly analyze elements but rather ….”to catch the very life of a moment as it passed by, fixing and reporting a fleeting event as it occurred in a natural setting”.
William James
The James - Lange theory of emotion reversed the common sense theory of emotions as motivators
see the bear—> become afraid—-> run
to fear being the consequence of behaviors
see the bear—-> run—->become afraid.
Note the Cannon - Bard theory that has running and fear as concurrent processes fits contemporary data better.
William James
“Don’t trust anyone over thirty”
Jane Fonda (1969)
psychology was pragmatic (if it works, use it) adaptive (e.g. habits increased the plasticity of the nervous system freed the mind thought) and inclusive of a wide variety of subject matter. (comparative, abnormal, child , etc.) which made it an attractive alternative to the narrowness of Titchnerian structuralism.
Despite the brevity of his career, he was the most influential early American psychologist and defined the field, through the students he influenced with the book.
William James
Initially, he studied theology at Williams College (1863) and became captivated by Darwin’s Theory of evolution.
G. Stanley Hall
At his father’s urging (“……If you have to be a scholar at least be a minister”) he entered Union Theological Seminary in 1867, and quickly became known for his unorthodox views.
After his first trial sermon, in which he attempted to reconcile Darwin with creationism, he was advised to study theology in Germany.
He transferred to Bonn where he shifted from philosophy/theology to physiology and physics at Berlin.
G. Stanley Hall
