The History of Psychological Concepts Dr. Geoff Bunn

1. The History of Psychological Concepts Dr. Geoff Bunn

2. Learning Outcomes To understand …the difference between a natural kind of thing and a psychological kind of thing. …why psychological objects have to be understood historically and culturally.

3. Natural objects (the things studied by the natural and biological sciences, e.g. ‘Sodium Chloride’) are not the same as Psychological objects – things studied by psychology, e.g. ‘Intelligence’.

4. Let’s try to illustrate the difference between a natural kind of thing and a psychological kind of thing. Consider this question: “What’s the difference between a broken bone and a broken heart?” Write down as many differences as you can think of.

5. Broken Bones, Broken Hearts • Broken bone: a natural object, appropriately studied by anatomy, physiology, medicine and physiotherapy. • Broken heart: a psychological object that can only be understood in terms of experience (“One of the worst things that happened to me.”; “I know what you’re going through”) and meaning (“It turns your world upside down.”)

6. Broken Bones, Broken Hearts • A broken bone is real! • A broken heart is also real…but not in the sense that a broken bone is real. • A lot of Psychology has laboured under the mistaken impression that it is studying natural objects (‘broken bones’) when in fact it is in fact studying psychological objects (‘broken hearts’). This is a ‘category error’!

7. “Whereas in orthodox sciences there is always some external object of enquiry – rocks, electrons, DNA, stars, - existing as essentially unchanging in the non-human world …this is not so for Psychology.” (Richards, 2002, p.7)

8. [picture of A natural object: Adenosine triphosphate]

9. [diagram of Krebs Cycle]

10. There are no theories of equivalent complexity in psychology! …because psychology has no natural objects. Natural objects have stable, predictable and controllable properties. Psychology possesses no objects with these properties.

11. Draw up a list of… Natural objects: Psychological objects:

12. Natural Objects, Psychological Objects Natural objects: rocks, atoms, electrons, chemicals, cells, stars, genes, electricity, weather, hormones, viruses, bones, trees, dinosaurs, gravity. Psychological objects: depression, love, melancholy, intelligence, schizophrenia, self-esteem, autism, attitudes, motivation, emotion, dyslexia, cognition, behaviour, nostalgia, mind, soul, ADHD, shell shock, sexuality, race, personality, development, introversion, feeblemindedness, hysteria, temperament.

13. The Tragic Case of Clark Hull • American behaviourist psychologist (1884-1952). • Devoted his life to finding a ‘Global Theory of Behavior’ to explain all human action. [photograph of Clark Hull]

14. Stimulus – Response chains account for all behaviour [Pictures of Skinner box and behaviorist mazes]

15. sEr = (sHr x D x K x V) - (sIr + Ir) +/- sOr Where: • sEr, Reaction potential • sHr, Habit strength, is determined by the number of reinforces. • D, Drive strength, is measured by the hours of deprivation of a need. • K is the incentive value of a stimulus • V is a measure of the connectiveness. • sIr, Inhibitory strength, is the number of non reinforcers. • Ir, Reactive inhibition,is when the organism has to work hard for a reward and becomes fatigued. • sOr accounts for random error

16. The Strange Case of William McDougall (1871-1938) • “..the most celebrated British psychologist of the first half of the century.” (Thomson, 2006, p.55) • Hugely influential ‘hormic psychology’, 1910-1950s. • His Introduction to Social Psychology (1908) “…marked an epoch in the history of psychology.” (Hearnshaw, 1964, p.188) [photograph of McDougall]

17. The Strange Case of William McDougall (1871-1938) But McDougall is studied by no-one today and he left no intellectual or practical legacy. Hull and McDougall’s psychological objects have vanished.

18. Psychological Objects… …are not mythical: they do exist (if temporarily!) …exist within networks of other linguistic categories (‘discourses’). …make possible human experiences, identities, capacities, feelings and qualities. It does matter which word you choose to describe the experience in question: it does change the nature of the experience!

19. Unlike natural objects… …which can exist in an isolated pure state (e.g. pure Oxygen, Sodium Chloride, DNA) outside of human culture and society, psychological objects are made possible by a network of related discursive terms - which is itself a reflection of a particular human society and culture.

20. Psychological Objects… • Are not reducible to more fundamental or basic units (unlike e.g. molecules). • Cannot be described in mathematical terms (unlike e.g. electricity). • Do not produce stable phenomena across time and place (unlike e.g. gravitation). • Do not have predictable qualities (unlike e.g. light). • Cannot be integrated into complex theories (e.g. genes into evolutionary theory, or ATP into the Krebs Cycle).

21. Questioning the Historical Continuity of Psychological Objects Much of contemporary psychology believes “that the objects of current psychological discourse are the real, natural objects and that past discourse necessarily referred to the same objects in its own quaint and subscientific way… (Danziger, 1990, p.336, emphasis added.)

22. Questioning the Historical Continuity of Psychological Objects Much of contemporary psychology believes “that the objects of current psychological discourse are the real, natural objects and that past discourse necessarily referred to the same objects in its own quaint and subscientific way. What this organization of historical material overlooks is the possibility that the very objects of psychological discourse, and not just opinions about them, have changed radically in the course of history.” (Danziger, 1990, p.336, emphasis added.)

23. Natural Objects, Psychological Objects Natural objects: rocks, atoms, electrons, chemicals, cells, stars, genes, electricity, weather, hormones, viruses, bones, trees, dinosaurs, gravity. Psychological objects: depression, love, melancholy, intelligence, schizophrenia, self-esteem, autism, attitudes, motivation, emotion, dyslexia, cognition, behaviour, nostalgia, mind, soul, ADHD, shell shock, sexuality, race, personality, development, introversion, feeblemindedness, hysteria, temperament.

24. Natural Objects… • have always existed (they have no history). • retain their properties in different historical and geographical contexts. • are universal. • can be purified. • can be isolated and studied in the laboratory without altering the object. • exist independently of our descriptions of them. • exist outside of human culture; they are not embedded in particular forms of human life. • are uncontested and not controversial.

25. Psychological Objects… • have not always existed (they have a history). • change between historical and geographical contexts. • are not universal. • cannot be purified. • can be isolated and studied in the laboratory only if violence is done to the object (i.e if the object is changed in the process). • do not exist independently of our descriptions of them. • do not exist outside of human culture; they are embedded in different forms of human life. • are contested and controversial.

26. Natural Objects, Psychological Objects • The proper way to study natural objects is in the laboratory, using the tried and tested methods of science. • The proper way to study psychological objects is through an analysis of the meanings and descriptions of human experiences in their particular contexts. • The proper way to study psychological objects is through historical and conceptual analysis.