PSY 3615 Exam 2 Chapter 7 PDF

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Exam 2

Chapter 7: Development and Founding

(Functionalism) ...

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History and Systems of Psychology  Exam 2: Lecture Notes  Chapter 7: Functionalism: Development and Founding  Evolution’s Neurotic Philosopher: Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) ● A famous man who engaged in odd behavior ○ Provoked by unwanted people and disturbances ○ Wore earmuffs to insulate himself ○ Had various physical symptoms ● He comes from Britain to America where he and his ideas are celebrated ● Despite the praise, he suffers from neurotic illnesses  ● Evolution Comes to America ○ Spencer extends Darwin’s theory of evolution ○ Darwin’s theory had been embraced by many  ○ Social Darwinism: application of the “Theory of evolution to human nature and society” ■ evolutionary development of all aspects of universe ■ principle of “survival of the fittest” (coined the phrase) ■ utopian view: human perfection inevitable if nothing interferes with the natural order  ■ promoted individualism and a laissez-faire economic system; opposed government interference ■ individuals and institutions that fail to adapt should be allowed to perish ■ well-suited to America’s individualist spirit ■ U.S. as living example  ■ nation of productive, enterprising, self-sufficient people with a pragmatic outlook ■ functional psychology and theory of evolution well-suited to the American temperament ■ Consequence: Spencer’s views permeated every learning area  Synthetic Philosophy: “Spencer’s Idea that Knowledge and Experience can be Explained in Terms of Evolutionary Principles”  ○ application of evolutionary principles to all human knowledge and experience ○ 1860-1897: ideas published in sequence of 10 volumes  ○ The Principles of Psychology: the two synthetic philosophy volumes ■ used by James as textbook for psychology course at Harvard

■ mind exists in present form due to past and continuing efforts to adapt to environments  ○ human processes: adaptable ○ increasing complexity of experiences/behavior: normal evolution ○ organism survival depends on adaptation to the environment  ● The continuing evolution of machines ○ Do machines evolve the way animals do?  ● Samuel Butler (1835-1902) ○ extended theory of evolution to machines ○ processes: natural selection and struggle for existence ○ predicted machines would become self-regulating and self-acting ○ predicted machines would be capable of simulating human intelligence  ● Machines more complex than Babbage’s calculating engine were needed ○ anticipated complexity of 1890 U.S. census ○ 1880 census: 1,500 clerks took seven years to hand-tally data reported in 21,000 page document  ● Henry Hollerith and the punched cards ○ engineer Hollerith (1859-1929) invented information-processing method ○ census data for individuals punched on paper or cards as a pattern of holes ○ machines used to count holes and tabulate results  ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

62 million participated card capacity: 36 eight-bit bytes of information census completed in two years cost savings: $5 million Hollerith started own company, Tabulating Machine Company, which eventually turned into the IBM Corporation

 William James (1843-1910): Anticipator of Functional psychology  ● General paradox ○ major American precursor of functional psychology  ● Pioneer of new scientific psychology in the United States ○ viewed by some colleagues as negative force re: scientific psychology ■ espoused mentalistic and psychical phenomena ■ not an experimentalist in attitude or deed ■ Psychology: ● that “nasty little science”

● “an elaboration of the obvious” ○ did not found functional psychology ○ did influence the movement  ● James’s Life ○ wealthy family ○ early schooling: international ○ frequent journeys abroad, particularly when ill ○ Created mishaps with chemistry sets, etc. ○ Age 18: failed artist  ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

enrolled at Harvard: Lawrence Scientific School decline in health and self-esteem: became lifelong neurotic abandoned chemistry: lab work too demanding medicine: cynical view of it rejected biology after a zoological trip on Amazon River: intolerant of methodological precision and arduous field work  returned to medical studies; frequently ill depressed, he departed for a German spa attended lectures at University of Berlin speculated: time for psychology to be a science expressed interest in learning from Helmholtz and Wundt  1869: earned M.D. from Harvard considered suicide intensely fearful; institutionalized himself

 ○ an epidemic of neurasthenia ■ George Beard 1st used term to refer to a peculiarly American nervousness; James called it “Americanitis” ● insomnia, hypochondria, nervous symptoms and the like ● most typically afflicted: educated, self-aware people ● often led to career postponement  ■ Rexall drug company: Americanitis Elixir ■ Prescription ● women: 6 week bed rest + weight gain ● men: travel, adventure, exercise  ● Discovering psychology ○ 1869: started building a philosophy of life after months of depression ○ after reading about free will decided 1st act of free will would be to believe in it ○ 1872: taught physiology at Harvard

○ interested in mind-altering chemicals; experimented with them  ○ academic year 1875-1876: taught his first course in psychology ○ 1st time experimental psychology taught in United States ○ 1st psych lecture James attended was his own ○ 1878 ■ married wife of his father’s choice ■ publishing contract with Henry Hold ■ started 1st book on honeymoon; finished it 12 years later  ○ compulsive traveler ○ birth of children: made him nervous and jealous; traveled and flirted ○ 1885: professor of philosophy ○ 1889: title changed to professor of psychology  ○ 1890: Principles of Psychology published ■ 12–year effort ■ two volumes ■ great success ■ influential ○ panned by Wundt and Titchener  ○ panned by James: ○ “there is no such thing as a science of psychology” ○ “[James] is an incapable” ○ decided he had nothing more to say about psychology  ○ not an experimentalist ■ no longer interested in the laboratory: hired Münsterberg ■ never convinced of the value of lab work ○ 1890’s America’s leading philosopher ○ began educational psychology with Talks to Teachers (1899) ○ The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)  ● The Principles of Psychology (1890) ○ James: perhaps greatest American Psychologist ■ wrote with a clarity rare in science ■ opposed Wundt re: goal of psychology ■ offered alternative view of mind  The Principles Presents the Central Tenet of American Functionalism  ○ goal of psychology: study of people as they adapt ○ function of consciousness: survival ○ treats psychology as a biological science

○ emphasizes nonrational aspects of human nature  ○ intellect operates under physiological influences of the body ○ beliefs are determined by emotional factors ○ reason and concept formation affected by human wants and needs  ○ The subject matter of psychology: A new look at consciousness ■ “Psychology is the Science of Mental Life, both of its phenomena and their conditions.” ● phenomena: the subject matter is immediate experience ● conditions: the importance of the body, especially the brain ● physical substructures of consciousness: a basic part of psychology ● unique to James: awareness of biology and brain’s effect on consciousness  ■ rebelled against artificiality and narrowness of the Wundtian position ■ introspection does not show elements exist independently of the observer: to think otherwise = psychologists’ fallacy simple sensations do not exist in consciousness experience; are inferred ■ mental life is a unity  ■ consciousness is ● a continuous flow: stream of consciousness ● always changing ● not recurrent ● Cumulative  ■ consciousness is selective: criterion is relevance ■ consciousness is purposive ● has some biological utility ● enables one to adapt to one’s environment by allowing one to choose ■ conscious choice vs. habit (which is involuntary and unconscious)  ■ Original source material on consciousness from Psychology (Briefer Course) (1892) ● “Consciousness is in constant change.” ○ has duration but not repeatable once a given state is gone ○ “...there is no proof than an incoming current ever gives us just the same bodily sensation twice.” ○ instead, get a repeat of the same object ○ want to detect the “sameness of things” 

○ reports of subjective character of different sensations = virtually worthless as proof of fact ○ cannot tell if two separate sense impressions are exactly alike ○ attend to ratio rather than absolute quality ○ feel things differently according to circumstances or mental state ○ nonetheless, believe we are experiencing the same world  ● The methods of psychology ○ introspection is a basic tool, albeit less than perfect ○ experimental method ■ did not use it much ■ acknowledged its use as means to psychological knowledge, especially for psychophysics experimentation  ○ comparative: advocated using a wide variety of subjects (including animals) ○ implied functional psychology is not restricted to a single technique  ● Pragmatism ○ emphasized the value of pragmatism ○ validity of an idea is its practical utility ○ anything is true if it works ○ advanced by C.S. Peirce (1870s mathematician and philosopher) ○ 1907: Pragmatism: formalized the doctrine as a philosophical movement  William James-Theory of Personality ● William James developed a theory of personality (the three-part self). ● The self is made up of the material – our body, family, home, and style of dress. ● The social – recognition we get from others. ● The spiritual – the inner subjective being.  ● William James believed that clothing communicated much about the self. ● In what ways do the clothing on your campus communicate? In society? ● In your opinion, what sorts of messages are being communicated?  ● The theory of emotions ○ the then-current theory: emotion precedes physical arousal/response ○ James: physical arousal/response precedes emotion ■ bodily change is the emotion ■ if not bodily change, then no emotion ○ simultaneous discovery: Carl Lange (Denmark)  ● Habit ○ living creatures are “bundles of habits” ○ habit involves the nervous system ■ repetitive action increases plasticity of neural matter

■ repetitions become easier to perform ■ repetitions require less conscious attention ■ become difficult to change ○ enormous social implications  The Functional Inequality of Women   ● Mary Whiton Calkins (1853-1930) ○ James facilitated her graduate education ○ helped her overcome prejudice and discrimination ○ later in career ■ developed paired associate technique for memory research ■ 1st woman president of APA ■ 1906: ranked 12th among 50 most important psychologists  ○ not allowed to formally enroll at Harvard ○ James invited her to his classes and urged that she be granted Degree James: Calkins Ph.D. examination “brilliant” ○ denied PhD from Harvard University  ○ later Professor of Psychology at Wellesley ■ starting program of research on memory ■ Harvard offered her a degree from Radcliffe College (their undergrad college for women) ■ she refused ■ was discriminated against solely because she was a woman ■ made repeated requests for her earned degree ■ awarded honorary degree from Columbia University  ○ Calkin’s experience = example of discrimination of women in higher ed continuing into the 20th century ○ Generations previous to Calkins: not admitted to universities at all at any level ○ No women accepted by any colleges until 1830s  ○ Widespread belief in the so-called natural intellectual superiority of men ○ Currently: women = majority of psychology undergrad and grad students ○ History of psychology dominated by men  ○ Myth of male superiority ■ derivative of variability hypothesis based on Darwinian ideas ■ hypothesis: “The notion that men show a wider range and variation of physical and mental development than women; the abilities of women are seen as more average.”  ○ therefore, it was argued, women

■ are less likely to benefit from education ■ are less likely to achieve intellectually ■ had less evolved brains than men ■ showed a smaller range of talents than men ■ are inferior to men physically and mentally ○ common acceptance of inequality between sexes  ○ Belief that exposure to education would damage women physically and emotionally ○ Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley and Leta Stetter Hollingworth: empirically demonstrated women not inferior  ● Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley (1874-1947) ○ parental support for educating women ○ University of Chicago ■ 1897: undergraduate degree ■ 1900: Ph.D. ■ major profs = Angell and Dewey ■ Dewey: she was one of his most brilliant students  ○ married Paul Woolley, a physician ○ research on child labor ○ studied child development and mental abilities at Merrill-Palmer ○ Director of Institute of Child Welfare Research, Columbia University  ○ doctoral dissertation: 1st experimental test of male superiority ■ administered battery of motor, sensory, intellectual, and personality tests to males and females ■ found no sex difference in emotional functioning; nonsignificant differences in intellectual functioning ■ attributed any differences to social and environmental factors ■ wrote results in a book ■ accused by male psychologists of feminist bias  ● Leta Stetter Hollingworth (1886-1939) ○ University of Nebraska: graduated in 1906, Phi Beta Kappa ○ taught high school for 2 years ○ married psychologist Harry Hollingworth in 1908 ○ Harry taught at Barnard College in New York; law prohibited women to teach in public schools  ■ ■ ■ ■

wrote fiction; unable to publish she and husband saved money for her to pursue graduate education 1916: PhD. from Columbia University studied with Edward Thorndike

■ civil service psychology for New York City ■ cited in American Men of Science for contributions to the psychology of women  ■ conducted extensive research on variability hypothesis ● 1913-16: focused on physical, sensorimotor and intellectual functioning of wide range of subjects ● data refuted variability hypothesis and so-called female inferiority ■ challenged notion of innate motherhood instinct  ■ supported women’s work outside of marriage and family as healthy ■ social and cultural attitudes, not biology, responsible for keeping women behind men in contributions ■ women should not be restrict aspirations to socially acceptable fields  ■ significant contributions to clinical, educational and school psychology ■ noted for work with “gifted children” (coined term) ■ never able to receive grant support for her research ■ active in woman’s suffrage and rights movements  ● Granville Stanley Hall (1844-1924)  Growth of Psychology 1875-1900 Due to Hall as well as James ○ Large number of firsts ○ received first American doctoral degree in psychology ○ started first psychology lab in U.S. ○ started first American psychology journal ○ first president of Clark University ○ organized and was first president of APA ○ one of the first applied psychologists  ● His Life  ○ born on Massachusetts farm ○ mother pious and kind, father stern and demanding ○ father hit Hall sometimes ○ intensely ambitious boy ○ ashamed when, at 17, father purchased draft exemption from civil war  ○ 1863 enters Williams College ■ Graduated with honors ■ Voted smartest man ■ Developed enthusiasm for evolutionary theory  ○ after graduation, enrolls in seminary ■ no strong commitment to the ministry

■ interest in evolution probably not helpful ■ Hall gives a trial sermon, seminary president prays for his soul  ○ leaves seminary, goes to Germany ■ studies philosophy and theology ■ later adds physiology and physics ■ also goes to beer gardens and theaters, very daring for him ■ he reports having romantic interludes ■ passionate affairs “made life seem richer”  ○ returns to U.S. in 1871 (parents revoke support) ■ has no degree ■ is heavily in debt  ○ completes seminary studies ■ Is not ordained ■ Preaches in a country church ■ Leaves after 10 weeks  ○ Gets teaching job at Antioch College in Ohio ○ reads Wundt’s book Physiological Psychology (1874) ■ Becomes interested in psychology ■ Becomes uncertain of his career  ○ Goes to Harvard, acts as tutor of English and takes graduate classes ○ Gets first doctoral degree in psychology in the U.S. (1878)  ○ Leaves for Europe ■ Studies physiology in Berlin ■ Becomes Wundt’s student ■ Lives next door to Fechner ■ He dutifully attends Wundt’s lectures and serves as research subject ■ Conducts his own physiological research ■ Wundt has little influence on his later work  ○ Hall returns to U.S. ■ No job ■ Within 10 years becomes nationally important figure  ○ Decides to apply psychology to education ■ 1882 Gives talk to National Educational Association, urging psychological study of children ■ Repeats this message whenever/wherever he can ■ President of Harvard invites him for lecture series ● Speeches brought him publicity

● Speeches bring him invitation to teach part time at Johns Hopkins  ○ Eventually offered a professorship at Johns Hopkins ■ 1883 establishes first American lab there, his “laboratory of psychophysiology” ■ Teaches students who later become famous ● John Dewey ● James McKeen Cattell  ○ 1887 Hall founds American Journal of Psychology ■ first American psych. journal ■ still considered important today ■ provides a platform for theory and experiment ■ Hall printed too many copies of first issue, takes him 5 years to pay back costs  ○ 1888 Hall becomes first president of Clark University ■ before takes job, takes a tour of Europe to study and hire faculty ■ one historian calls it a “paid vacation” ■ Hall hopes to model Clark on Johns Hopkins and German universities ■ Emphasis on research, not teaching ■ Hall is both president and faculty member  ○ Hall establishes journal: Pedagogical Seminary (now Journal of Genetic Psychology) ■ Outlet for child study ■ Outlet for educational psychology ○ 1915 establishes Journal of Applied Psychology (the 16th American journal)  ○ APA ■ Organized by Hall 1892 ■ About 12 psychologists meet in his home ■ Elect Hall first president ■ By 1900 had 127 member  ○ Hall’s interest in religion ■ Creates Clark’s school of Religious Psychology ■ Establishes journal of Religious Psychology (1904) ■ Book: Jesus, the Christ, in the Light of Psychology ● Not well received: Jesus as “adolescent superman”  ○ one of first American psychologists interested in Freud ■ largely responsible for early U.S. interest in Freud ■ 1909 20th anniversary of Clark

● Hall invites Freud and Jung ● Courageous because psychoanalysis viewed with suspicion ■ Had initially invited Wundt, who declined ● Too old ● Scheduled to speak at Leipzig’s 500th anniversary  ○ psychology prospers at Clark under Hall (36 years there) ■ 81 doctorates in psychology ■ Students recall exhausting but exhilarating seminars in Hall’s home ■ After meetings, all shared in tub of ice cream ■ Terman recalls that Hall’s comments could be devastating ■ Could nurture students well, as long as they were deferential  ■ Hall was generous and supportive ■ At one time, the majority of American psychologists had worked with him at Clark or Johns Hopkins ■ One third of his doctoral students followed him into college administration  ○ Makes Clark receptive to women and minorities, despite his opposition to coeducation ■ Admitted female graduate students and faculty ■ Encouraged Japanese students to enroll ■ Refused to restrict hiring Jewish faculty  ○ Encouraged Black graduate students ■ First African American to earn Ph.D. was Cecil Sumner at Clark ● Studied under Hall ● Later chairs psych department at Howard U. ● Creates strong psychology program at Howard ● Translates thousands of “articles from German, French, and Spanish journa...