Lecture 7 Flashcards
Why were people interested in motivation?
For social control and boosting production – raise moral of troops, get mor work done by employees.
Classically, what theories underpinned motivation psychology?
Think before Maslow
What examples of psychologists like this are there?
All behaviourist
The theories were mainly based on external reinforcers. No mention of inner sources, all research is predicated on external motivation. All the neo behaviourists fall into this category as do their theories. Kind of like Hall and his equation, Tolman and skinner. All based on external, extrinsic motivation.
What was the opposition to the behaviorist perspective on motivation (Before humanistic psych)?
Think instincts and propensities
Who came up wiuth this (scottish name)
But there was opposition. William MacDougall was an evolutionary psychologist. He posits that the main drivers of behaviour are our instincts. In contrast to Watsons basic 3 drives, he says there are more. We have 12 according to him. He called them propensities, and these can be mixed together to create a more complex behaviour. Marital love would be a combination of mating propensity (instinct for sex) and mothering propensity (instinct to protect the young). He was vocal against behaviourism, but his theory was not popular in academia (was in the population).
Who was William MacDougall and what did he think?
What was his theory called?
William MacDougall was an evolutionary psychologist. He posits that the main drivers of behaviour are our instincts. In contrast to Watsons basic 3 drives, he says there are more. We have 12 according to him. He called them propensities, and these can be mixed together to create a more complex behaviour
The theory of instincts
Can you give an example of a combination of propensities?
Marital love would be a combination of mating propensity (instinct for sex) and mothering propensity (instinct to protect the young). He was vocal against behaviourism, but his theory was not popular in academia (was in the population).
Was the theory of instincts useful?
If not, what was?
So why did we learn about it?
No.
Behaviourism offered a way to control behaviour. You could act on associations and change what people will do. With his theory of instinct, it is not clear what practically we can do if this. He also believed in Lamarckian stuff so even his fellow evo psychologists did not follow him. BUT he is a good example of dissent against the behaviourists in this era of psychology. He was about intrinsic motivation.
Abraham Maslo and his theory
Abraham Maslow
Proposed that humans are motivated by a hierarchy of needs.
Conceptually, what are Maslow’s needs like and what is the diffference between them?
Conceptually, these are like MacDougall’s instincts but they do not have evolutionary connatations
What are Maslow’s 2 types of needs and how do they differ
Deficiency needs: needs that are going to stir motivation if you lack something. E.g. no food = hunger = motivated for food. Once the need is met, the motivation drops. Then you turn towards something else.
Being (growth) needs. Self-actualization: a need to become who you are, develop the best aspect of yourself. These needs increase as you fulfil them. I.e., what keeps you going after you have the first 4 needs me? The self-actualization needs. They are there all the time, and they keep growing. These needs ever end.
What is self-actualisation
Self-actualisation: the tendency of psychologically healthy people to fulfill their potential in his words, this happens when: “The individual is doing what he is fitter for. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be… This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become everything that one is capable of being.”
Self-actualisation vs. Aristotle
Self-actualization is the idea that a psychologically healthy person will try to fulfill their potential. This implies that there must be a potential to fulfil. This potential must be intrinsic and so, individuals must be born with a purpose. Some forms of teleology state that natural beings are born with intrinsic purposes. As self-actualization seems to imply moving toward the person’s intrinsic purpose, we can say that the concept is teleological.
This is similar to Aristotle’s final cause
But Maslow was not directly influenced by Aristotle. He came to this via another path.
Maslow autobiography
What drew him to psychology?
What was the “new Athens” and how did it come about?
- Father of humanistic psychology
- The psychological perspective that rose in opposition to behaviourism and psychoanalysis
- Emphasizes the individuals inherent drive toward self-actualization; the process of realizing and expressing one’s own capabilities and creativity
- More against psychoanalysis but hits behaviourism too
- 1920s: Maslow was at first drawn to psychology by Watson and his behaviourism! Even though he would become its most ardent opposition
- This was because behaviourism was seen as more scientific
- Which could lead to social improvements
- We forget that at this time, racism etc. was rampant and behaviourism had no negative attitude to race or sex or whatever – there is no natural order to things, it is all learned
- For Maslow, as a Jew, this was really appealing
- In the 19330s PhD at Wisconsin with Harlow on the dominance behaviour of rhesus monkeys
- Harry Harlow – did the studies on baby monkeys if you remove them from their mother – the wire monkey experiments. Won’t do as well without their mom
- This dominance topic was previously studied by Adler, a follower of Freud. He said that the Oedipus complex is not the main issue for humans but an inferiority complex and so we strive for dominance
- Maslow studies this in rhesus monkeys in a ground-breaking comparative psychology way
- His thesis was ahead of its time
- Because he was Jewish, he could not find a position
- He compromises and does a postdoc at Thorndike at Columbia – used to be a lot easier to get a position!
- By that time Thorndike is not studying animals but has grants to work on educational topics
- In 1937 takes a poorly paid position at Brooklyn college
- BUT in the 1940sw a lot of intellectuals flee Germany and most went to New York and this city will become and intellectual hub, the “new Athens”
Who were Maslow’s original mentors in Psychology
He found neo-Freudian mentors like Adler, Horney and Fromm
Who was Eric Fromm and what did he do that is notable?
Who did he influence?
. Eric Fromm is a psychoanalyst and in 1941 he wrote Escape from Freedom: What makes us fundamentally human is our free will. This is central to our humanity, but it is hard to have freedom. Every time you choose something, you are rejecting something else. These are hard choices. So, humans are also driven away from accepting that they have free will. We want to escape from having to make those choices.
We can escape by choosing to follow a leader or religious rules very strictly. So, there are many ways but these will eventually be pathological. For Fromm, the only healthy way is to accept the responsibility of your choices yourself and this is difficult. This influenced Maslow big time.
Which gestalt psychologists influenced Maslow, what is the basic tenant of gestalt and what did they work on?
Maslow was influenced by Wertheimer and Goldstein who are Gestalt psychologists.; you cannot break down conscious perceptions into simple elements. But they worked on all topics, not just perception.
Who was Wertheimer and what influence did he have on Maslow?
Insight
Wertheimer: Taught at Brooklyn College with Maslow. For him, learning is not about trial and error. It is more complex than decomposing behaviour into smaller things that can be reinforced. In the context of learning, Gestalt psychologists emphasise insight (the aha moment). And this is important for Maslow as it critiques simplistic behaviourism.
Wertheimer was also critical of psychologies obsession with pathological. He wanted more focus on positive aspects of psychology.
Maslow mixed all of this into his hierarchy with self-actualization on top
Carl Rogers and what is Humanistic Psychology really relevant for?
Humanistic psychology is much more relevant clinically than academically, but Maslow was not a therapist. Rogers was
Rogers and psychoanalysis
Directed the counselling centre at U of Chicago. He slowly abandoned the psychoanalysis that he was trained in and created client-centred therapy.
Explain the basic ideas of client centred therapy
The client is not someone with a pathology, they are not a patient. It is normal for humans to go through hard times. Rogers sees himself as a therapist like a guide to get through these moments.
Why Client and not patient
Client has a more egalitarian meaning than patient.
What is non-directive therapy?
What theory is it in line with?
He does non-directive therapy. This is a lot more in line with self-actualisation. The goal is to help people make their own decisions and find their own way. By definition, the therapy cannot be directive.
In what way did Rogers use relection and what is it?
He uses reflection a lot. Taking what the client tells you, re-wording it and sending it back to the client. If done will, it is really good. Shows client that you understand (empathetic listening), and it can also be used to encourage the exploration of the issue under discussion and you can give your reflection angle which subtly directs the client (like emphasising the cognitions).
What is Free Will in a legal contect?
Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. This is what is used in courts of law, if you could have taken the other choice and nothing prevented it, then you had free will.
What did Skinner think about Free Will? Particularly in a legal context
Skinner felt that only actions that are free willed are seen as deserving credit or blame. This issue is that it is not clear what unimpeded means. There could be hidden motivation which pushes you one way or another. If that is so, there is no difference between freedom or coerced action.
What is the philisophical definition of free will and what is the problem with it?
Philosophers use the definition that free will is the capacity to make choices in which the outcome has not been determined by past events. This means there is nothing else other than you that makes this choice. Under this definition, it is very hard to have free will. Only via dualism can you have free will this way: where you fight your passion, you use your reason, and you have free will. Otherwise, impossible.
What is determinism relative to free will?
The opposite position is determinism, which suggests that only one course of events is possible, which is incompatible with the existence of free will thus conceived.
Is free will compatible with determinism?
We do not know.
What is incompatibilism and what are its two forms?
Incompatibilism
No, the two cannot be together.
(1) metaphysical libertarianism – determinism is false, free will is true. Cartesian dualism
(2) Hard determinism – everything is determined and free will is impossible
Up until this point, is psychology deterministic?
Give some examples (6)
(The sixth is ambiguous)
Psychology so far is totally deterministic (maybe cos it wants to be a science so badly)
- Physiology is deterministic (S>R)
- Hereditary intelligence is deterministic
- Depth psychology is deterministic. The psyche is influenced always by passions, external reality and moral demands
- Behaviourism is deterministic (external reinforcement)
- Instincts and needs are deterministic (MacDougall)
- Self-actualisation is… being determined by a certain potential (like you are being pushed by something towards something)? OR the result if exerting one’s free will? You can out this in the debate in many ways! Prof likes the second one.
Is self- actualisation deterministic?
Self-actualisation is… being determined by a certain potential (like you are being pushed by something towards something)? OR the result if exerting one’s free will? You can out this in the debate in many ways! Prof likes the second one.
