Lecture 15 - Pragmatism, Functionalism Flashcards
Pragmatism and Functionalism
What is the purpose of the mind?
What role does it play, and what functions does it serve?
Finding a balance between personal desires, freedoms, and rights and those
of others.
Safe individualism: “Your freedom ends where mine begins.”
This concept emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility, self-
control, self-monitoring, and, if necessary, self-therapy.
Pragmatism: embraces any concept or method that proves useful for
achieving an efficient and satisfying life.
Functionalism: combines pragmatism and Darwinism applied to psychology
The major role (function) of mental skills and processes is to aid in
the adaptation and survival of both
individuals and human groups.
American functionalism
A new trend in psychology,
influenced by pragmatism and Darwinism,
emphasizes the mind’s functions in survival
instead of pursuing a “periodic table” of
consciousness elements.
Zeitgeist and Ortgeist
- Physical strength, fitness, and self-defence abilities
- Assertiveness, autonomy, courage, and
individualism
- Personal responsibility for salvation (Protestantism)
- No social hierarchy, no aristocracy, yet the slavery
- Common-sense pragmatism and skepticism toward
theoretical concepts
- A simple, populist jury system
- An educational system focused on the practical
training of judges, physicians, engineers, priests,
and technicians
The rise of American colleges and universities
17th c. The early professional colleges: (Harvard, Yale
and King’s Colleges) and later, universities
American pragmatists and functionalists
* William James: “If you follow the pragmatic
method, you cannot look at any such words (e.g.
energy, reason, God) as closing your quest. You
must bring out of each word its practical cash-
value and view it as a program for more work.”
* G. Stanley Hall: “We need a psychology that is
usable, that is dietetic, efficient for thinking,
living and working; and although Wundtian
thoughts are now so successfully cultivated in
academic gardens, they can never be acclimated
here, as they are antipathetic to the American
spirit and temper”.
Pragmatic ethics
Finding a balance between personal desires, freedoms,
and rights and those of others is crucial.
Safe individualism: “Your freedom ends
where mine begins”.
This concept emphasizes the importance of personal
responsibility, self-control, self-monitoring, and, if
necessary, self-therapy
Ontology and epistemology
in pragmatic perspective
* Like the Greek Sophists,
pragmatism holds that truth is relative, and
transient.
* We should accept any concept, whether scientific
or not, if it promotes better adaptation and survival.
The only criterium for acceptance is
its practical usefulness in improving life
conditions
- There are no absolute ethical virtues or standards;
they change over time and across different cultures. - The primary criterion for ethics is safe
individualism, which means exercising one’s own
freedom and rights while respecting the freedom
and rights of others. - Balancing egoistic and altruistic principles requires
personal responsibility, self-control, self-monitoring,
and, if necessary, self-therapy.
Animal adaptation & survival of the fittest
extended onto humans
Ch. Darwin 1809-1882 adaptation to environment &
evolution by natural selection
H. Spencer 1820-1903 survival of the fittest
in animal and human groups
A good excuse for colonization & aggressive capitalism?
* William James
* Hugo Münsterberg
* G. Stanley Hall “evolution is like a music to my ears”
* John Dewey and Robert Woodworth
Functionalism again
The Darwin-Spencer concepts adopted in functionalist psychology
Darwin: The emergence and development of organs
and functions are driven by adaptability.
Spencer: Individuals with advantageous modifications of their organs or
functions have a higher chance of surviving and passing these
modifications on to their offspring.
Some individuals survive because they are the fittest.
They are the fittest because they survive ????????
Another example of idem per idem tautology: It is butter because it tastes like butter
It confuses the term being defined (definiendum) with the explanation of the term
(definiens).
The primary function of mental skills and processes is to aid in the
adaptation and survival of individuals and human groups.
William James, functionalist
William James, M.D. 1842 - 1910
The father of American psychology
, meeting with W. Wundt and other notable figures.
- Taught physiology and psychology at the Harvard Lab.
- Conducted experiments in parapsychology.
- Experienced a hesitation between philosophy and psychology.
- Published “Principles of Psychology” in 1890 and “Pragmatism” in 1907.
- Nominated Hugo Munsterberg to the Harvard Lab.
- Served two terms as president of the American Psychological Association
(A.P.A.).
- Met with Freud and Jung at Clark University in 1909.
Personal crises, auto-psychotherapy
theories of:
the stream of consciousness
the habits,
the self
the willpower,
positive thinking
facial feedback
emotions
The stream of mental processes
consists of a continuous flow of changing perceptions, ideas, feelings, and
motives influenced by an ever-changing environment.
Habits, emotions, and self-image are created and modified through rational
willpower.
Use your willpower to
- act in a way that aligns with how you want to feel and be perceived
- develop your empirical self: material, social, and spiritual
- develop, monitor, control and modify your habits, emotions, and self-
image
Theories of emotions
W. Cannon: physiological mobilization for fight or flight
A popular belief: An emotion is primary to bodily mobilization, e.g., fear
triggers an increased heart rate.
James: Bodily mobilization is primary to emotion
An increase in heart rate triggers feelings of fear, a hostile gesture
triggers anger, a smile triggers happiness, and
an optimistic body posture triggers a feeling of wellness.
S. Schachter: the simultaneous link: bodily mobilization and a
cognitive cue together trigger the emotion. Attribution.
S. Valins: bogus physiological cue. Misattribution
Harvard
W. James: “Science must constantly be reminded that its purposes are not
the only purposes. The uniform order of causation that it relies on may be
part of a larger order, over which it has no claims at all.”
William James (functionalist) vs. Wundt (voluntarist)
Wilhelm Wundt
1832 - 1920
His father: a Protestant priest,
immobilized/paralyzed - stroke
Trained in medicine but focused
on philosophy & psychology
No formal training in
psychology (auto-didactic)
1st Psych. Lab. in Europe
recognized
“Principles of Physiol. Psychology”
Promoting psychology
Voluntarism:
* The volition
* The consciousness and introspection
* Dimensions of emotion
* Anthropological view of language, arts, religion, customs
* Studies on schizophrenia with E. Kröpelin
William James 1842 - 1910
His father: a Protestant priest,
immobilized - leg amputation
Trained in medicine but focused
on philosophy & psychology
No formal training in
psychology (auto-didactic
1st Psych. Lab. in America recognized
“Principles of Psychology”
Promoting psychology
Functionalism:
* The power of will
* The self-awareness
* Theory of emotions
* Pragmatic view of human habits but also religious and philosophical
views of ethics
* Auto-psychotherapy based on the willpower and persuasion
Hugo Münsterberg
Born in Danzig (Gdansk), Poland
Ph.D. Leipzig University,
Wundt’s assistant
M.D. Heidelberg University
1st International Congress
of Psychology in Paris 1889
meeting William James
Director of the Harvard Psychological Lab
Psychology - a practically useful profession
Applied psychology:
industrial, forensic and clinical
“Psychotherapy” 1909 - criticism of Freudism.
Neurosis should be treated with effort, hard work, personal willpower and
the auto-therapy
Granville Stanley Hall
Granville Stanley Hall 1844 - 1924
functionalist, manager of science
Studies at the New York
Theological Seminary
Travels twice to Germany
to study theology & Wundt’s
Teaching at Harvard.
English literature
psychology
Friends with William James
1st Ph.D. in psychology in America,
supervised by James at Harvard Univ. 1878
Prof. at Johns Hopkins Univ. 1881
1st Psychological Laboratory 1883
1st American Journal of Psychology
1st president, Clark University 1888
1st president of the A.P.A.!!
Freud and Jung were invited to Clark University in 1909
1904 “Adolescence”
Recapitulation theory: the evolutionary stages
re-enacted in the child’s developmental stages
1922 “Senescence”
Promotion and popularization of psychology
as an academic discipline in America
Family crises; financial and interactional troubles
John DEWEY 1859 – 1952
Student of S. Hall (Johns Hopkins)
Ph.D. thesis on I. Kant’s
pragmatic anthropology.
Teaching at Univ. of Michigan.
Book “Psychology” 1886
Prof. at Chicago University
Functionalist, pragmatist,
Educational psychologist!
Learning by action!
Robert S. Woodworth 1869 – 1962
Studies at Harvard under James
& Ch. Sherrington (G. Britain)
Teaching at Columbia Univ.
functionalist and
experimental psychologist
Co-author with H. Schlossberg:
“The Experimental Psychology”
Dynamic Psychology: Critiquing the simplistic S-R formula introduced by radical behaviourism,
he extended it by adding the factor “O.” His formula, S-O-R, recognizes the
state of the organism, incorporating motivational and emotional arousal, as
well as instinctual endowment. It also considers the individual’s repertoire of
preferences and methods of action.
