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Functionalism: American Psychology Takes Hold

American functionalism became the dominant school of psychology in the early 20th century. Key tenets included that consciousness cannot be analyzed into elements, structure and function cannot be separated, and behavior should be viewed in terms of its significance to the organism. William James was influential in establishing functionalism in the US through works like The Principles of Psychology, which viewed psychology as the study of how people adapt to their environment. James also developed pragmatism, which held that ideas should be judged by their practical consequences. Thorndike's animal experiments on trial and error learning and instrumental conditioning helped bridge structuralism and functionalism to behaviorism by focusing on stimulus-response relationships.

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Tehran Davis
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170 views

Functionalism: American Psychology Takes Hold

American functionalism became the dominant school of psychology in the early 20th century. Key tenets included that consciousness cannot be analyzed into elements, structure and function cannot be separated, and behavior should be viewed in terms of its significance to the organism. William James was influential in establishing functionalism in the US through works like The Principles of Psychology, which viewed psychology as the study of how people adapt to their environment. James also developed pragmatism, which held that ideas should be judged by their practical consequences. Thorndike's animal experiments on trial and error learning and instrumental conditioning helped bridge structuralism and functionalism to behaviorism by focusing on stimulus-response relationships.

Uploaded by

Tehran Davis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Functionalism

American Psychology Takes Hold

American functionalism
central interest: how the animal uses its mind to adapt to
environment
key tenets:

consciousness cannot be meaningfully analyzed in


elements
structure and function cannot be meaningfully separated
behavior should be treated in terms of significance to
the organism

fit with American temperament: individualism,


independence, pragmatism
move toward applied psychology embraced
Functionalism by Titchener

William James
father of American Psychology
divisive figure:
heavy focus on mentalistic and psychical
(psychedelic) phenomena
religion, telepathy, seances, mind-altering drugs

not an experimentalist by trade (held positions in Psychology in


Philosophy department at Harvard)
concerned with the consequences of German mechanistic approach
disagreements with Wundt
not the founder of functional psychology per se, but ideas had huge
influence on American movement

James program
in James we see the first clear articulation of views in
opposition to European tradition
elemental science v. holistic discipline
pure science v. pragmatic discipline
scientific and philosophic approaches

synthesis of evolutionary ideas


The principles of psychology (1890) - James
study of people as they adapt to their environment
consciousness has a function (enables survival)
espoused a radical empiricism
anything that can be observed is important for James
use of introspective and comparative methods
both mental processes and behavior are important
Psychology a briefer course (1892) - Jimmy

James on pragmatism

Rationalism sticks to logic and the empyrean [lofty, abstract].


Empiricism sticks to the external senses. Pragmatism is willing to
take anything, to follow either logic or the senses and to count the
humblest and most personal experiences.
The corpus of the dispute was a squirrel a live squirrel supposed to be clinging to one
side of a tree-trunk; while over against the trees opposite side a human being was
imagined to stand. This human witness tries to get sight of the squirrel by moving
rapidly round the tree, but no matter how fast he goes, the squirrel moves as fast in the
opposite direction, and always keeps the tree between himself and the man, so that
never a glimpse of him is caught. The resultant metaphysical problem now is this: Does
the man go round the squirrel or not? He goes round the tree, sure enough, and the
squirrel is on the tree; but does he go round the squirrel?
The pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling metaphysical disputes that
otherwise might be interminable. Is the world one or many? fated or free? material or
spiritual? here are notions either of which may or may not hold good of the world; and
disputes over such notions are unending. The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to
interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences.

the validity of an idea must be tested by


looking at its practical consequences*remember the Sophists

the stream of consciousness


consciousness is a continuous flow, always changing, never the same twice.

consciousness is:
personal: makes no sense to look for general
principles (individual differences)

irreducible: cannot be divided up for analysis


makes no sense to look for elements

selective: certain events entering are attended to


and others are not

functional: serves to aid in survival of organism

on habits and instincts


animal behavior is guided by instinct but
modified by experience, new instinct-like behaviors emerge
habits:
functional (reduce fatigue, resources, increase accuracy and reliability)

neurophysiological explanation for the formation of habits?


Alexander Bain
spontaneous behaviors arise and are associated
with positive or negative outcomes voluntary
For every act of memory, every exercise of
bodily aptitude, every habit, recollection, train of
ideas, there is a specific grouping, or coordination, of sensation and movements, by
virtue of specific growth in the cell junctions

on the (empirical) self


everything that you can call your own
material: body, family, property
social: self as known by others

a man has as many social selves as there are


individuals that recognize him and carry an image of him
in their minds

spiritual: states of consciousness, the thinker

on esteem:
Success
esteem may be quantified: Pretensions

on emotion
the James-Lange theory of emotion
reverses traditional causal relationship
Tehran (sees spider) Tehran (knows fear) Tehran (heart raises) Tehran (runs)

stimulus

responses

the physical response precedes emotion


bodily change is the emotion

ideo-motor theory:
idea and action are one in the same, idea flows immediately to action
- anticipated modern motor theory (repository of action ideas)
- by attending to idea (will) behavior is caused.
Embodiment is sexy today
idea - body - environment are one in the same
bodily events shape thoughts (*see Proffitt)

Msterberg
James successor at Harvard

Applied psychology

study of abnormal behavior and mentally ill


treats addiction, phobia, dysfunction through
Reciprocal antagonism

forensic psychology: eyewitness testimony / objective test


On the Witness Stand
industrial psychology
methods of personnel selection, methods of
increasing work efficiency, and marketing and
advertising technique

Whiton Calkins
first woman president of APA
first lab at a womens college (Wellesley)
significant contributions to research in: memory
objects v. contents of consciousness
developed paired-associate technique

importance of modality,
recency, vividness, and
frequency in memorization
negative recency effect

G. Stanley Hall
Firsts:
American PhD in psychology
American lab in psychology
American journal in psychology
president of APA
president of Clark University
majority of early American PhDs
interests in human development and adolescence
new habits being formed

recapitulation theory
moral development
sublimation: tamp down ill sexual desires through work
I had never chanced again upon a book that seemed to me to degrade me in
my womanhood as the seventh and seventeenth chapters on women and
womens education of President G. Stanley Halls Adolescence

Francis Cecil Sumner

first African American PhD


first head of dept. @ Howard U.
paradoxically advocates for segregated higher-ed

Inez Beverley Prosser


first African American Woman PhD
work influence Brown v. Board of Ed.

Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark


segregations negative impact of on children (of all races)

doll studies: black children identify


with and prefer white dolls
major efforts in desegregation

Margaret Floy Washburn


The Animal Mind
first woman to receive her PhD in psych
second woman president of APA
student of Titchener
primarily interested in inferring
consciousness in animals at all phylogenetic
levels.
hundreds of experiments in such areas as sensory discrimination,
space perception, and learning ability (though focus was on
consciousness)
the ideal method of studying higher animal experience

Thorndike
a bridge to behaviorism
comparative psychology: using animals to gain
understanding of the first principles of learning
before Thorndike:
are human and animal intelligence / emotion equivalent?
Morgans canon: in no case are we to interpret behavior as the result
of a higher order process if it can be interpreted at a lower scale
all behavior is purposive
Moved to Columbia (brought his 2 best chickens) and began puzzle
box experiments
research into trial and error learning
early research with chickens - bitter corn and maze escape

instrumental conditioning
Trial and error turns to organized behavior
Learning is incremental and occurs automatically

The same applies to


ALL animals

bridge to behaviorism

a new type of associationism

early advocate of S-R psychology


relationship between sensation and ideas?
relationship between ideas and ideas?
relationship between ideas and behavior?

relationship between stimulus and response


Thorndike is not a behaviorist proper:
included notions such as satisfactory outcome (mentalese)
saw some value in introspection

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