Functionalism & American Psychology

Functionalism & American Psychology Structure of lecture 1. Brief characterisation 2. Background in C19 thinking 3. William James and John Dewey as examples 4. Cultural conditions & the nature of functionalism 5. The legacy of functionalism And so? adaptation & a good and happy life the entwining of science & morals & philosophy & psychology? Alan Collins, Lancaster University

A brief characterisation of functionalism Central intellectual concern: the purposes of psychological abilities and properties …. And what they allowed people to do E.g. How does the mind mediate between the environment & the needs of the organism? (Angell, 1907)functions not structures EVOLUTIONARY in tone Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Roots … Place of C19 moral & mental philosophy Producing an ‘appropriate’ social elite e.g. Richards (1995, 2004) Noah Porter and James McCosh Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Philosopher President of Yale 1871-1886 Author of The Human Intellect (1868) … amongst other works Noah Porter (1811-1892) Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Porter’s Psychology A science of the soul requiring: ‘exact observation, precise definition, fixed terminology, classified arrangement and rational explanation” (1868). Phenomena “apprehended by consciousness” Emphasized the importance of mental operations, individual character and the habit of self-knowledge Alan Collins, Lancaster University

“If … we would know our fellow-men to do them good, we must first know ourselves. This suggests the important service which psychology may render to teachers of every class.” (Porter, The Human Intellect, 1868) Self knowledge - Other knowledge Protestant moral project of self scrutiny and this project as effortful Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Porter’s psychology A coming together of: scientific aims to know and religious aims to know … in order to be a better person and to lead a better life Richards (1995) this approach gave psychology an explicitly moral dimension Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Porter’s legacy Psychological knowledge as having moral dimension Influential on his students e.g. G. T. Ladd Yale Professor of mental &moral philosophy 1881 Taught physiological psyc from 1884 Wrote early, popular American texts on Physiological Psychology shared P’s religious leanings and the moral aspects of psychology Also concerned with practical benefits of psychology … not an uncommon pattern Alan Collins, Lancaster University

William James (1842-1910). New England, wealthy, scholarly family UG at Harvard medicine Early 1870s starts to recover from emotional problems 1875 course in Physiological psychology at Harvard Some functionalist views on Psychology Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Some major works 1890 Principles of Psychology Wundt (allegedly): ‘It’s literature, it’s beautiful, but it’s not Psychology The Will to Believe 1899 Talks to Teachers on Psychology 1902 Varieties of Religious Experience 1907 Pragmatism Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Consciousness and free will “…consciousness grows the more complex & intense the higher we rise in the animal kingdom. …it seems an organ, superadded to the other organs which maintain the animal in the struggle for existence; & the presumption …is that it helps him in some way in the struggle.” consciousness helps regulate a complex nervous system … it has adaptive value Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Much of the functional value of consciousness came through the possession of free will. James ‘chose’ to believe in free will opposing determinism… idea that complete knowledge of the present allows perfect prediction of the future BUT free will operates under constraint Alan Collins, Lancaster University

James on emotion stimuli – evoke reaction – experience emotion stimulus – behaviour – experience bear on path – freeze – fear bear on path – run – fear bear in zoo – gaze – admiration … emotions differ … idea of emotion as embodied and action-based not simply mental and passive Smith (1997): functionalism also embedded a general tendency to focus on what people do rather than on what they think Alan Collins, Lancaster University

James on the self Self as multi-faceted known – an object of knowledge: empirical ego or me material self social self …. itself a variety of selves spiritual self Self as knower – transcendental ego or I … which cannot be the object of investigation … but which is the essence of personal identity and (illusory) sense of continuity Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Self & self-esteem Self-esteem: a ratio of success to ‘pretensions’ I, who for the time have staked my all on being a psychologist, am mortified if others know much more psychology than I. But I am contented to wallow in the grossest ignorance of Greek. My deficiencies there give me no sense of personal humiliation at all. Had I 'pretensions' to be a linguist, it would have been just the reverse. So we have the paradox of a man shamed to death because he is only the second pugilist or the second oarsman in the world. That he is able to beat the whole population of the globe minus one is nothing; he has 'pitted' himself to beat that one; and as long as he doesn't do that nothing else counts. He is to his own regard as if he were not, indeed he is not. Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Yonder puny fellow, however, whom every one can beat, suffers no chagrin about it, for he has long ago abandoned the attempt to 'carry that line,' as the merchants say, of self at all. With no attempt there can be no failure; with no failure no humiliation. So our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do. It is determined by the ratio of our actualities to our supposed potentialities; a fraction of which our pretensions are the denominator and the numerator our success: thus, Self-esteem = Success / Pretensions. Such a fraction may be increased as well by diminishing the denominator as by increasing the numerator. To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them gratified; and where disappointment is incessant and the struggle unending, this is what men will always do. The history of evangelical theology, with its conviction of sin, its self-despair, and its abandonment of salvation by works, is the deepest of possible examples, but we meet others in every walk of life. Alan Collins, Lancaster University

… & truth James ‘Pragmatism’ (1907): “Ideas (which themselves are just part of our experience) become true just in so far as they help us get into satisfactory relations with other parts of our experience.” truth is found through instrumental means … truth is instrumental Alan Collins, Lancaster University

What was James’s Principles of Psychology about…? Richards (1996) “[Principles of Psychology is]at heart really about how to stay sane and honest” Alan Collins, Lancaster University

…again a set of instructions & a theory: psychology and the good life Refuse to vent a passion and it dies. Count ten before venting your anger, and its occasion seems ridiculous. Whistling to keep up courage is no mere figure of speech. On the other hand, sit all day in a moping posture, sigh, and reply to everything in a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers. There is no more valuable precept in moral education than this.....if we wish to conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves, we must assiduously, and in the first instance cold-bloodedly, go through the outward movements of those contrary dispositions which we prefer to cultivate. The reward of persistency will infallibly come, in the fading out of sullenness or depression, and the advent of real cheerfulness and kindliness in their stead. Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key, pass the genial compliment, and your heart must be frigid indeed if it do not gradually thaw! Alan Collins, Lancaster University

James is revealing & instructing On how to: live our lives he lived his life Through using: autobiography psychological knowledge moral and ethical injunctions Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Philosophy at Johns Hopkins PhD with Hall Chair in Psy & Phil at Chicago then Columbia Education Another functionalist: John Dewey (1859-1952) Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Dewey’s most famous paper: The Reflex Arc (1896) Background reflex: stimulus-links-response three stages each causing next Dewey: this is wrong! Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Stimulus - association - response are not separable psychic entities they are differing functions within an integrated whole … and one does not cause the other in any simple sense Analogy watch cat through a peephole conclude: whiskers cause tails Alan Collins, Lancaster University

The S – R account Response Stimulus Stimulus Response Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Reflex arc NOT see candle-grasp-burn-withdraw hand (stimulus-response-stimulus-response) but act of looking, of seeing, reaching and pain Activities obtain their significance only as part of the whole so not see – reach – grasp but an integrated system (see also Charles Sherrington) Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Dewey as functionalist Perception-action as adaptive Mind was representational: allowed organism to guide organism and allow it to adapt and anticipate Mind is an actor on the world knowledge of it becomes a means of understanding and then changing the world Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Back to the cultural context Summary so far… Broadly what functionalism is Intellectual roots in moral philosophy .. Psychological knowledge for improvement of self, others & society Examples of functionalist style William James & John Dewey Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Where from ..? Moral philosophy as discussed More widely in US culture: Religion Enlightenment project Education Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Religion Centrality of religion … moral imperatives Religious belief common among psychologists … compatible with science … allying knowledge and values [beware anachronistic thinking] Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Enlightenment project Crudely: to understand the nature of the world through human effort & the application of rational enquiry – and beliefs in the importance of direct experience, progress and egalitarianism. Criticism in late C19 Europe Germany: elite’s fear of Enlightenment (Harrington, 1996) But in USA more persistent … Constitution .. Social values Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Roger Smith writes of Cattell ‘Cattell, like many in his generation, believed in expertise as the means to make America modern, civilized and democratic. His interest in science was an interest in the occupations that he believed would contribute to social advance; he was not interested in the development of an academic discipline for the sake of learning. It was precisely because these values were widely shared that psychology gained an academic base so quickly in the US in the 1890s.’ Smith (1997, p. 523) my emphasis Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Education Equiping immigrants for life in America Education allows exploitation of opportunity and to attain individual fulfilment. Education a site for inculcating the right morals and the right values. Expertise in child development and in the process of education was worthwhile (Baldwin, Dewey, Hall) Alan Collins, Lancaster University

The project of moral training of providing a conventional morality in a pluralistic society a. no longer solely the provinces of philosophy and religion but has been taken on by the New Psychology b. it is no longer solely a programme for the elite - it is a moral project for the population Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Legacies of functionalism Attitude rather than specific theories … notion of expertise becomes central & loaded. E.g. testing (week 4) Values: knowledge is of value for its own sake? or for the benefit of society? Or the individual life? Recurrent themes: adaptiveness, action, Dewey and reflex arc, role of free will, consciousness, improvement Are we all functionalists now? Most of all: how notions of values, science, and purposes of psychology can become inseparable? Discuss….. Alan Collins, Lancaster University

Functionalism & American Psychology