History of Psychology 2008

History of Psychology 2008 Lecture 10 Professor Cupchik Office: S634 Email: cupchik@utsc.utoronto.ca Office hours: Wed 1-2; Thurs 12-1 Course website: www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~cupchik TA: Michelle Hilscher Office: S142C Email: hilscher@utsc.utoronto.ca Office hours: Wed 12-2 pm Textbook: Benjafield’s History of Psychology

THE CENTRE OF FUNCTIONALISM: THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO - 1892 John Dewey (1859 - 1952) He was a leading philosopher who did not intend to but in fact founded the school of functionalism. It was: (1) a reaction against Titchener’s Structuralismand (2) clarified early tendencies of James and others. He wrote an article in Psych. Review (1897)called The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology He argued against breaking down activity into parts or elements which are then interrelated. Rather, activity is continuous so that stimulus and response or sensation and movement are artificial units.

These concepts merely show that different phases in a continuous process serve different functions. In fact, the process taken as a whole can only be defined in terms of its final result or function which the activity achieves. Why distinguish between “sensation” and “movement” since one has visual sensations only as a result of “looking at” or discriminating part of the environment. The stimulus - response relation is a hold over of the mind - body dualism. The stimulus can be related to the perceiving mind while the response is associating with an acting body. In addition, responses or behaviour must be considered in context (e.g., gun fire associated either with (1) sentry duty or (2) the start of a race.

How a stimulus affects ongoing activity depends on the context. 1. We must think about the S-R sequence in terms of the consequences of the response for the needs and adaptation of the organism. So we see behaviour from the point of view of function and this is the start of the Chicago School. 2. Molar units of analysis should be used to prevent too much elementaristic analysis (this is similar to the basic assumptions of Gestalt psychology).

J. R. Angell (1869-1949) He studied with James and Wundt and disagreed with their approach to psychology. Functionalism deals with the basic operations rather than the abstracted “contents” of consciousness. One should ask about: (1) what an operation accomplishes rather than about the mental elements and (2) under what conditions. The function continues but the specific contents of consciousness change. So functionalism studies the total relation of the organism to the environment including all mind-body functions including unconscious behaviour.

The functionalist emphasis on the study of the utility of actions in their total context led to attempts to study practical problems (e.g., education) It also encouraged flexibility in the design of lab experiments during simple problem solving. The experimenter observes whether the subject succeeded or failed in the task along with what variables facilitated or inhibited success. Subjects were also encouraged to think aloud while solving the puzzles. As a consequence of this strategy, the Americans were less rigorous but more interesting than the Germans. The functionalists adopted a more inductive viewpoint than the Germans by emphasizing empirical findings over theoretical constructs.

In conclusion: We observe a shift from the study and analysis of perceptual data toward the study of actions and their effects on the subjects’ relations to their environment. (1) adaptive acts (2) empirically demonstrated functional relations Each act must be explained in terms of the immediate situation and the animal’s organization with reference to it.

Structuralism, Behaviourism & Gestalt Psychology

Structuralism This school follows directly from the work of Wundt and the Leipzig School in Germany. It refers to: The analytic study of the generalized adult mind through introspection. The school was represented in the United States by Edward Titchener (1867-1927). He distinguished between the structuralist and functionalist positions and launched the school in 1898 at Cornell University. He had an autocratic personality and lectured in traditional academic robes. He stressed the significant role of psychological experience and the idea that observation could be isolated, varied and repeated thereby ensuring clarity and accuracy. Titchener

*In physical sciences there is the notion of looking at. *In psychological observation the Wundtians adopted introspection as a process of looking within. It is crucial not to make a stimulus error which involves paying attention to known properties of the stimulus rather than to the sensory experience. Titchener was not interested in the meaning of words and influence in and of itself. He felt that applied science was a contradiction and was not concerned with the practical worth of this work. The basic question in structuralism is: “What is there and in what quantity, not what it is there for.”

Basic Propositions Derived From Associationism 1. Three basic elements - sensations, images and feelings. i. Images are elements of ideas. ii. Sensations are elements of perception. 2. Attention makes it possible to select elements in consciousness. 3. Other attributes of these elements are intensity and quantity. Recall Titchener’s conflict with the Wurzburg School regarding “imageless thought” which he said were unanalyzed kinaesthetic sensations and images.

Positive Contribution of Structuralism to Science Freed it from metaphysics and gave it an experimental method and empirical facts. But it was severely criticized. 1. The method of introspection was seen as actually a method of retrospection since it takes time to report about a state of consciousness. Retrospection may result in embellishment or error, especially if the person engaging in introspection has a vested interest in a theory being tested. This problem is only partly eliminated by having well-trained observers working in short time intervals. 2. The act of introspection may change the experience drastically - introspect on anger and it dissipates. 3. Absence of replication or comparable results.

4. There was a growing concern for data that properly belongs to psychology but is not accessible to introspection. These include unconscious meanings and imageless thoughts. 5. The narrowness of this approach was attacked because it was not interested in child or animal psychology. This approach died of narrow dogmatism.

Behaviourism Behaviourism attempted to apply the techniques and principles of animal psychology to human beings. Behaviour was considered to be the primary source of data in place of introspection. The radical form of behaviourism denied the existence of mind. The movement attempted to replace “subjective” (from introspection) with “objective” data based on the observation of behaviour. One important antecedent was Auguste Comte’s (1798-1857) emphasis on “positive” (i.e., not debatable) knowledge based on objective and shared observation. Only objectively observable behaviour could be valid. Since introspection depended on private consciousness, it could not provide valid knowledge.

Human critical thinking passed through three stages: (1) theological, (2) metaphysical and (3) positivist or scientific thought. Another important antecedent was animal psychology or comparative psychology which explored continuity between animals and humans in their adaptation to the environment. In America, Thorndike and Yerkes established labs (1890-1900) to study animal behaviour and learning. The official founder of the School of Behaviourism as J.B. Watson (1878-1958) who stated his position in 1913. Watson’s strong appeal during the 1920’s depended on his environmentalism and confidence that a well-developed science of behaviour would modify the social world.

Watson opposed heredity (of mental traits) and rejected the notion of instincts. He provided fresh hope for young idealists. 1. Behaviourism views psychology as a purely objective branch of the natural sciences. 2. Its goal was the prediction and control of behaviour. 3. Introspection is irrelevant and we should discard all reference of consciousness. 4. There are no differences between humans and animals. With no mention of psychic life or consciousness, the doings and sayings of humans constitute its subject matter. The two main objectives are: 1. Predict the response, knowing the stimulus. 2. Posdict the stimulus, knowing the response.

Stimulus: 1. Any object in the natural environment 2. Any change in tissues due to the physical condition of the animal (e.g., hunger). Response: Anything an animal does. So behaviour is: 1. Composed of elements that can be objectively (i.e., quantitatively) analyzed into stimulus-response units. 2. Composed of glandular secretions and muscular movements (i.e., reducible to physiochemical processes). 3. Strict cause and effect determinism in behaviour (Stimulus causes the Response). 4. Conscious processes cannot be scientifically studied.

E.C. Tolman (1886-1961) Watson had cast any notion of “purpose” aside as introspective superstition of no interest to behaviourists. Tolman developed the concept of “purposive behaviourism” by looking for objective purpose in behaviour. He distinguished between two approaches to behaviour. (1) Molecular - define behaviour in terms of strict underlying physical and physiological details. (2) Molar - behaviour is more than and different from the sum of its physiological parts. Behaviour has descriptive and defining properties of its own. It takes on meaning partly from the stimulus situation within which it occurs.

Tolman analyzes a behavioural act: If you clutch your hat when the wind threatens to blow it off: (1) it has a great number of physiological components (molecular) (2) but as behaviour it has a start and finish. It starts from a certain situation (gust of wind) and ends with a change made in response to the situation. (This sounds very much like a functionalist analysis). S-O-R What goes on in Organism between stimulus and response? The intervening process is called an intervening variable. But this variable is not directly observable and must be tied to an experimental variable. For example, the state of hunger can be tied to an experimental variable - the amount of time since the animal last ate.

There are two kinds of intervening variables: (1) Demands or motives (sex, hunger, safety needs) (2) Cognitive or know-how variables related to perception of objects, recognition of previously explored places, motor skills. VALUE X EXPECTANCY Cognitive Learning In Thorndike’s Law of Effect a response which leads to a reinforcement that reduces a need is strengthened. Tolman applied this idea so that by exploring his environment the animal gets to know about it. He comes to “expect” to find food in a certain place. If food is found there, the expectation is confirmed and confirmation becomes a kind of reinforcement. This led to the notion of “field maps”.

Clark L. Hull (1884-1952) He sought to construct a system for deducing laws of behaviour that would be testable and to show that learning and motivation were biological in nature. He opposed Tolman’s expectancy theory arguing that responses, such as turning of the head, were part of a series of conditioned responses. He broke things down into “fractional anticipatory goal responses.” DRIVE X HABIT Jack Atkinson combined these two models: Behaviour = Value x Expectancy x Habit x Drive

Gestalt Psychology The term Gestalt means “shape” or “form”. According to the Gestalt viewpoint, the basis data of consciousness are grasped immediately and spontaneously in organized, structured and dynamic wholes. This is precisely opposite to the atomism of Associationism and Structuralism which emphasized the use of analytical introspectionism to distinguish the sensory and feeling contents of experience. Gestalt psychology deals with the organization of parts (i.e., elements) into wholes and the laws of such organization. The principle that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” relates to the idea of hierarchy that is implicit in Gestalt theory.

Antecedents of Gestalt theory can be seen in: 1. J.S. Mill’s “mental chemistry” 2. Wundt’s notion of “creative synthesis” 3. Holistic ideas in German Romanticism 4. Brentano’s idea that psychology should concentrate upon the process of sensing rather than upon the sensation as an isolated content of consciousness. His use of phenomenological introspection anticipated the Gestalt method. Early ideas were expressed in Mach’s sensation of spatial form (e.g., a circle) or the sensation of time form (e.g., a melody). The forms are independent of their elements (e.g., circles can be red or blue, large or small but retain the property of circularity). This sounds like Plato’s notion of the forms. Also, notes in a melody can be played in another key without any alteration of their temporal form.

The Founding of the School It began with the study (1910) of the apparent motion phenomenon which is applied today in the concept of films. Problem: How to explain the perception of movement resulting from a series of still stimuli. Max Wertheimer worked with two slits, one vertical and the other inclined 20 to 30 degrees from the vertical. According to the phi phenomenon, when the lights were directed through one slit and then through the other, the slit of light appeared to move from one position to the other if the time between the presentations was in the proper range (optimally at 60 msec). At 200 msec the light was seen at one and then at the other position. The phenomenon could not result from the summation of the two independent images in the sense that the sensation of two stationary images could not yield the sensation of movement. The overall situation was critical in determining what could be perceived. So the perception of movement is a given “whole” in experiences and cannot be reduced to compounded sensory elements.

Contrary to Wundt, apparent movement could not be reduced to compounded sensory elements because analysis would destroy the phenomenon. It was a revolutionary idea to regard experience as having an existence of its own. The primary data of experience are typically Gestalten or whole structures. This contradicted the Wundtian and Structuralist ideas that such structures could be broken down into elements which were primary. The Gestalt psychologists believed that a relationship existed between experiences and physiological events in the brain. This was called isomorphism. So structural properties of brain fields and experiences are assumed to be topographically related. They de-emphasized past experience and focused on the physiological field.

The Principles of the Organization of Experience • (Wertheimer, 1923) • Figure/Ground organization of experience. Figure is central and ground is peripheral. 2. Proximity - elements close together in time or space tend to be perceived together.

The Principles of the Organization of Experience 3. Similarity - like elements tend to be seen together in the same structure. 4. Direction - We see figures such that direction continues smoothly. 5. Objective Set - If you see a certain type of organization, you continue to do so even if stimulus factors that led to the original organization are now absent (we fill in the gaps). 6. Common Fate - Elements shifted in a similar manner from a larger group tend to be grouped together.

The Principles of the Organization of Experience 7. Prägnanz - Elements are seen in as “good” a way as it is possible under stimulus conditions. A “good” figure is a stable figure. This relates to the principle of Closure. Köhler showed that animals do not respond to isolated stimuli but react in terms of perceived relations among objects. In sum: Gestalt psychology emphasized relations of antecedents and perception rather than perception and response of behaviour as they did in Behaviourist psychology.

History of Psychology 2008