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Functionalism can be defined as “a philosophy of the mind according to which mental states are defined by their causes and effects” (History and Philosophy of Psychology, Open University Malaysia). As interest in psychology grew, many were not satisfied with structuralism and felt compelled to initiate new systems and explanations. This was founded by a group of psychologists in Chicago University – John Dewey, James Angel, Harvey Carr, Cattell and others. Edit: Mental states that are defined by their causes and effects according to the philosophy of mind is called functionalism. The majority were not pleased with structuralism and felt the urge to begin a new systems and explanations as their interest in psychology grew. Functionalism was founded by a group of psychologists in Chicago University – John Dewey, James Angel, Harvey Carr, Cattell and others. The subject matter of functionalism was thought of as the “fundamental utilities of consciousness”. They were interested in the functional processes of the mind and not just in the structures. They did not restrict their method to just the introspection but added observation and experimentation to their methods of data collection. They emphasized both subjective and objective methods. Edit: The study of functionalism was speculated as the “fundamental utilities of consciousness”. The functional processes of mind that is not exactly in the structures as they were fascinated by it. The method was not being limited to only introspection but adding observation and experimentation to the method of data collection. Methods of subjective and objective were highlighted. Subjective means: influenced by or based on personal beliefs or feelings, rather than based on facts Objective means: based on real facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings Edit: The meaning of subjective is when you are influenced based on your personal beliefs and feelings rather than factual information while the objective means it is based on real actual facts and will not be influenced by your personal beliefs and feelings.

William James – Pragmatism William James was an American philosopher and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James was also known for contributing to functionalism, one of the earliest schools of thought in psychology. Edit: The first mentor to bring forward psychology major in the United States was William James whose an American philosopher and psychologist. He was known to contribute towards functionalism as one of the first school of thought in psychology to pioneer. The Principles of Psychology by William James is widely considered to be most important text in the history of modern psychology. Edit: In the history of modern psychology, The Principles of Psychology by William James is universally considered as the most important study. He has been famous for three things in the history of psychology: his analysis of the stream of thought, his characterization of the self and his theory of emotion. Edit: William James was notable for three subjects which were his experimentation on the stream of thought, the characterization of the self and the theory of emotion. Pragmatism is a philosophy, and to William James, it was a philosophy of truth. James was a pragmatist, and he understood truth through the lens of pragmatism. Pragmatism means practical, and William James believed only the practical, those things that are beneficial and help to move us in the right direction, are worthwhile. Pragmatism as a philosophy of truth was something James believed in, to him the truth was arbitrary; it depends on belief. Edit: William James viewed pragmatism as a philosophy, he was a pragmatist and he understood the meaning of truth through the lens of pragmatism. William James truly believed in the practical of pragmatism, those tools that are helpful in moving us into the right direction which are beneficial.

William James founded the school of Functionalism. This school of thought in psychology was developed in direct response to the school of structuralism and the work of Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt criticized functionalism as nothing more than literature, and James criticized structuralism as "all school and no thought." When the criticisms faded, functionalism went on to influence the major schools of thought still in use today, such as the cognitive-behavioral and behavioral schools. Edit: The school of functionalism was founded by William James. It was growing rapidly in respond towards the school of structuralism, in the work of Wilhelm Wundt. Wilhelm denigrated functionalism as nothing more than just a literature, meanwhile William viewed structuralism as “all school and no thought”. When the criticisms were fading, major schools of thought were influenced by the study of functionalism which still being use till this day such as the cognitive-behavioral and school of behaviorism.

Functionalism focused on the human propensity for individualism and this heavily influenced how education was structured. James was influenced by his early physiology education and the work of Charles Darwin. Functionalism was built around a more systematic approach to understanding mental processes. William James developed functionalism to search for consciousness and behavior.

Edit: The human propensity for individualism was the focal point for functionalism and extremely impacted on how education was structed. His early physiology study and the work of Charles Darwin was influential. The theory of functionalism built a systematic approach towards understanding the mental processes. He developed functionalism in search of consciousness and behavior.

Pragmatism In the Principles, these characteristics combined to yield some of the richest descriptions of human experience, human behavior and human nature ever to appear in a work of non-fiction. As psychologist, James was as interested in and knowledgeable about the phenomena of psychopathology and exceptional mental states as he was in those of normal consciousness. He was a heart philosopher who concerned with issues such as the problem of other minds, the relationship of the mind to body, the continuity of self, the mechanism of objective reference and the nature of necessary truths. More important than any other of these characteristics for the claim of James’ text to uniqueness and for its extraordinary and continuing influence was the exceptionally innovative way in which the subject matter of psychology was approached. The more traditional topics (for example, functions of the nervous system, sensation, the perception of time, space, objects, reality, imagination, conception, reasoning, memory, association, attention, emotions and will) were rarely dealt with in a traditional manner; a whole series of non-traditional topics (for example, habit, the stream of thought, consciousness of self, discrimination and comparison, the production of movement, instinct, and hyponitism) were introduced in ways that forever changed the discipline. He has been famous for three things in the history of psychology : his analysis of the stream of thought, his characterisation of the self and his theory of emotion. Each of these will be briefly described; but it should be kept in mind that, with James, there is no substitute for reading the original. James’ analysis of the stream of thought was first published in an article on the mind, entitled On some omissions of introspective psychology.

Three of these, all of which flowed directly from James’ recognition that psychology had traditionally attributed to thought, characteristic, true only of the objects of thought. The first of these components was an attack on the idea that sensations constituted the fundamental elements of consciousness. Sensation, James argued, was an abstraction from not a fact of experience. “No one,” he wrote, “ever had a simple sensation by itself. Consciousness, from our natal day, is of a teeming multiplicity of objects and relations, and what we call simple sensations are results of discriminative attention, pushed often to a very high degree”.

The two remaining components emphasised change and continuity in thought. For James, thought contained contained no constant elements of any kind; be they sensations or ideas. Every perception was relative and contextualised, every thought occurred in a mind modified by every previous thought. States of mind were never repeated. Objects might be constant and discrete, but thought was constantly changing and sensibly continous. James’ chapter on the self introduced numerous self-related concepts and distinctions into psychology. The phenomenal self (the experienced self, the “me” self, the self as known) was distinguished from the self thought (the I-self, the self as knower). “Personality,” he wrote, “implies the incessant presence of two elements, as an objective person known by passing subjective thought and recognised as continuing in time. Hereafter let us use the words ‘ME’ and ‘I’ for the empirical person and the judging thought.” Three aspects:   

The material self : All those aspects of material existence in which we feel a strong sense of ownership, our bodies, our families and our possessions) The social self : Our felt social relations The spiritual self : Our feelings of our own subjectivity

These aspects were then treated in terms of relevant feelings of self-worth, and self-seeking actions; and in the course of this analysis, James made three major contributions to self-theory. He articulated the principle of multiplicity of social selves (a man has many social selves as there are individuals who recognise him and carry an image of him in their mind), defined self-esteem in terms of the ratio of successes to pretensions, arguing that self esteem can be easily increased by lowering aspirations as by increasing successes and distinguished ideal selves from real selves.

In addressing the “I-self”, James turned first to the feeling of self-identity, the experience that “I am the same self that I was yesterday,” pointing out that “the sense of our own personal identity….is exactly like any one of our other perceptions of sameness among phenomena”.

He then proceeded to review the classical (spiritualist, associationist and transcentalist) theories of personal identity and concluded with an extremely important discussion of the phenomena and implications of multiple personality. In the last especially, we see James in his element, struggling with the nature of the most complex manifestatons of the self. Finally, James’ chapter on emotions, revised from an 1884 paper, presented his famous theory of emotion. The chapter began with a clear recognition of the close relationship between action and the expressive and physiological concomitants of emotion “Objects of rage, love, fear, etcs.,” he wrote “not only prompt a man to outward deeds, but provoke characteristic alterations in his attitude and visage, and affect his breathing, circulation and other organic functions in specific ways”. Here James also made it clear that emotion could be as easily triggered by memory or imagination as by direct perception of an emotion producing event. As he phrased it, “One may get angrier in thinking over one’s insult than at the moment of receiving it”. In what was to become known as the James-Lange theory of emotion,James then went on the argue that emotion consists of our experience of these bodily changes. As he put it, “My theory…is that the bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur which is the emotion…we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike or tremble because we are sorry, angry or fearful as the case may be”. Although James may have been a bit too strong in equating emotion with experience of bodily change (and in other sections of the chapter made claims in relation to the neural basis of emotion that have not been supported), his description of the nature of emotion anticipated much of what is commonly held by modern theoriests to be characteristic of emotion: the presence of an external or internal precipitating event, physiological change, expressive movement and a characteristic affective experience. It is impossible in brief to summarise the many ways in which James’ Principles, read and assimilated by those coming to academic maturity in the decades following its publication, altered the course of development of the newly emerging scientific psychology. James’ views, especially those on the stream of consciousness, played a major role in shifting psychology away elementalism towards a functional, process-oriented account of the mind (and eventually behaviour). James’ concern with emotion, motivation and the nature of the self, the social self and self-esteem, not only laid the groundwork for dynamic psychology, but for a dynamic psychology that recognised the importance of social factor in personality. James’ deep and abiding concern with exceptional mental states helped legitimise an emerging, indigenous American psychotherapy and paved the way for the eventual acceptance psychoanalysis within psychology.

Paradigm of Functionalism:  

Psychology is the study of mental activity (for example: perception, memory, imagination, feeling and judgement); and Mental activity is to be evaluated in terms of how it serves the organism in adapting to its environment.

Edit: The paradigm of functionalism can be described as in term of psychology as the study of mental activity in which consist of perception, memory, imagination, feeling and judgment. Evaluation of mental activity to see how it serves the organisms for adaption to new environment. Mental activity can be studied through introspection. Introspection is the examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings. Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection. By the terms of introspection, William James meant a kind of active observation and a description of the contents of one’s own consciousness. Edit: Relate to introspection The Basic Idea of Functionalism When you ask yourself “What is my purpose?’, you are asking for an explanation of the function you have to contribute to this society. Simply, you are asking what function you are serving to yourself. If you see a machine, you asked “ What is it for?” In asking those questions, you are asking for an explanation of the function that the machine serves. In many contexts, when we ask “What is it?” what we ultimately are asking for is an account of what it does. For example, a mousetrap – what you know is the function it performs. You know nothing about how it performs its function or what materials it is made of. Also, you may not care; so long as it performs its function well. Edit: The basic idea of functionalism is how you ask yourself “What is my purpose?”, you are asking what is your function in this society. In addition, we ask what is the purpose of the machine, we are seeking for an explanation of the function it serves. In various contexts, the question of “What is it?” demands us to seek what is the function of the object. Although, you might not care to its purpose as long as the function works well. The Idea of Functionalism Functionalism in the philosophy of the mind is the doctrine that what makes something a mental state of a particular type does not depend on its internal constitution, but rather on the way it functions or the role it plays in the system of which it is a part. The focus was on the ongoing stream of consciousness – the ever-changing pattern of images, sensations, memories and other mental events. This approach also encouraged psychologists to measure individual differences in mental processes.

Edit: The ideology of functionalism in the philosophy of mind is the concept that perceived mental state of a particular type that does not rely on its internal constitution, however rather it focus on the functions or the role in they system. The focus of it was on the continuing stream of consciousness that ever-evolving pattern of images, sensations, memories and other mental events. It encouraged other psychologists to determine the differences in indivual’s mental processes. The Major Themes that Characterised Functionalistic Psychology Functionalism is to understand the function of mind rather than its structure. Functionalists interested in the “why” of mental processes and behaviour led directly to a concern of motivation. Functionalism is interested more in what makes organism different from one another than what makes them same. Functionalists accepted both mental processes and behaviour as legitimate subject matters for psychology. Edit: Functionalism is the function of mind instead of its structure. Therefore, the functionalists are interested in the reason of why in which how the mental processes and behaviour led to the concern of motivation. The subject is interested in what makes the organism different from each other than what makes them similar. They have recoqnized that both mental processes and behaviour as a legitimate subject in psychology.

John Dewey is the co-founder of functional psychology. He led the “progressive” movement in US and is world renowned for his works on education, nature, democracy and inquiry. Edit: The co-founder of functional psychology or functionalism is John Dewey who led a progressive movement in United States and known as the world renowned for his works on the education, nature, democracy and inquiry. Dewey did not identify himself as a pragmatist per se, but instead he referred to his philosophy as “instrumentalism”. He is considered one of the three major figures in American pragmatism, along with Charles Sanders Peirce, who invented the terms with William James, who popularised it. Dewey worked from strongly Hegelian influences, unlike James, whose intellectual lineage was primarily British, drawing particularly on empricist and utilitarian ideas. Edit: Unlike William James, he did not identfy himself as a pragmatist and instead he introduced his philosophy as “instrumentalism”. Neither was Dewey so pluralist or relativist as James. He stated that value was a function not of whim or purely of social construction, but a quality situated in events (“nature itself is wistful and pathetic, turbulent and passionate”; experience and nature). Edit: Furthermore, he concluded in the valuity in the function, which was not from a whim or from the social construct, but a quality situated in an event. He treated the stimulus separate from the response. A person focuses on something, and then decides what to do and then acts on the decision. Dewey argued that how we acted in the environment is how we learn.

Edit: In addition, he considered the stimulus to be separate from the response. For example, when a person focus on something and then later make a decision on what to do and acts on the decision. John argued that the way we acted on the environment is how we learn from it. The Contribution of John Dewey in the Development of Functionalism Dewey used James’ ideas as the basis for his writings, but asserted that consciousness and the will were not relevant concepts for scientific psychology. Instead, the behaviour is the critical issue and should be considered in the context in which it occurs. For example, a stimulus might be important in one circumstances, but irrelevant in another. A person’s response to that stimulus depends on the value of that stimulus in the current situation. Thus, practical and adaptive responses characterise behaviour, not some unseen force like consciousness. Edit: John Dewey’s contribution towards the development of functionalism is that he used James’ ideas on the basis in his writing however he argued about consciousness and the will were not relevent for the scientific psychology. Otherwise, the behaviour is the significant issue and need to be considered in the context on which it occurs at. John Dewey’s Theory on Functional Psychology Dewey was committed to Hegelian idealism....