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Summary
One of the consequences of Darwin's theory that made it especially attractive to Americans was Spencer's social Darwinism. The latter's tenet of survival of the fittest was congruent with Americans' doctrine of manifest destiny. The notion also provides an explanation (rationalizes) of the failure of minorities to succeed, has justified the rejection of non-European immigrants, and allowed successful pioneers to believe in their self-efficacy and to develop an internal locus of control. An equivalent notion is expressed in the contemporary phrase about having "the right stuff. Spencer foresaw a utopia in which only the best would survive, but only if the natural course of evolutionary change were allowed to proceed unfettered. In particular, he was critical of interventions by government or other agencies or institutions that insisted on assisting the less able. Spencer argued that the environment naturally provides equal opportunity; the government doesn't have to substitute artificial "equal opportunity" programs. Spencer's ideas were delivered in a system he called synthetic philosophy. His books on this theory were The Principles of Psychology (1855) and were used by William James as the textbook for a psychology course at Harvard. Spencer's basic theses in this work were that mind has evolved as it has adapted to changing environmental demands and that evolutionary processes result in increasingly complex experiences and behavior. Harvard University was the site of the first course in experimental psychology in the United States. When William James taught that course in the 1875-1876 academic year, he simultaneously attended his first lecture in psychology (i.e., his own!). Despite not being an experimentalist in any sense of the word, James sought funding for equipment and established a laboratory in experimental psychology at Harvard and spent 12 years writing the classic The Principles of Psychology (1890) for the new science (same title as Spencer's book -- don't get them confused!). Always a conundrum, he then disavowed interest in psychology and disputed the value of experimental work, and he eventually came to be viewed as an embarrassment to psychology and even an impediment to its growth (ya gotta love it). James's contributions to functionalism are due to the quality of his writing, his espousal of pragmatic philosophy, and his delineation of psychology's subject matter and goals in The Principles. He identified the goal of psychology as the study of people as they adapt to the environment. In addition, he argued that the function of consciousness is to permit and facilitate that adaptation. James's psychology was biological and he argued that intellect is influenced by physiology and that human wants and needs affect reason and not the reverse (pretty cool… and rebellious for an intellectual). James coined the term stream of consciousness and described other characteristics of consciousness as always changing, cumulative, selective, and having a purpose. His novel theory of emotions continues to be cited in chapters on emotion in introductory psychology textbooks; thus one might speculate that every psychology student in America has been exposed to James's work. While James may have been the first to articulate basic principles of functionalism, the movement received its name from Titchener and garnered attention because he so strongly protested it! The tenets of the movement were organized, elaborated, and refined by the Chicago school. Cattell, who coined the term mental tests and Watson, for whom psychology had "no mind", were early participants in the functionalist school. While at Chicago, Dewey published "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" ( 1896). He argued against the molecularism and reductionism of the reflex arc (S-R or Stimulus-Response) and argued for the study of the organism as it functions in adapting to its environment. Both consciousness and behavior are essential if the organism is to survive. Dewey espoused the position that to separate the structure and the function of mind or consciousness was neither useful nor fruitful. His colleague at Chicago, Angell, felt otherwise. Angell's 1904 book, Psychology (that's original), epitomized functionalism, but publication of his paper, "The Province of Functional Psychology" (1907) was the defining moment for functionalism. He argued that psychology has always been functional, and it was structuralism that was the aberration. His theses identified three themes that characterized functionalism: mental operations, utilities of consciousness, and psychophysical relations. The completed form of functionalism was considered to be synonymous with American psychology by 1925. More accurately perhaps, functionalism had been absorbed into the mainstream. The research at Chicago used introspection as little as possible, emphasized objectivity in all the methods used, and included both human subjects and animal subjects of all ages. In these subtle but significant ways, the Chicago school served to shift psychology away from consciousness (and the elements thereof) and toward behaviorism. The major contributions of functionalism to modern psychology were to enlarge its scope of study, to expand the subject pool beyond "normal" adult humans trained in introspection, to include other methods than pure experimentation, and to provide enthusiastic support for a very pragmatic, applied psychology.Behaviorism frames the founding of a new school of psychology. Founder, John Watson, supported psychology as a science of behavior, purely objective, experimental natural science unlike the introspective study of consciousness proposed by Wundt. Watson, identified as lazy and defiant in his youth, was born into a family where his mother was intensely religious and his father had intense desires for strong drink and wild women. During his school years, Watson never made passing grades. At the age of 16, Watson enrolled at Furman University. Improving academically, he was determined to become a minister to fulfill his poor mother's wishes. At Furman, Watson studied philosophy, mathematics, Latin, Greek, receiving his masters degree in 1899. After the death of his mother (releasing him from the commitment he made to her), Watson traveled to the University of Chicago to begin work on a Ph.D. At Chicago, Watson studied under distinguished professors such as Dewey and Loeb. However, the professor who had the most influence on Watson was none other than the aforementioned functionalist-- James Rowland Angell, which prompted him to begin a rigorous career in psychology. In 1903, Watson received his Ph.D. at the age of 25. In 1908, Watson was offered a professorship at Johns Hopkins, where for 12 years his work in psychology was most productive. In his 1913 article "Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It" behaviorism was initiated as a formal movement. It was the desire of Watson that psychology be of practical value. "Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist", published in 1919, presented a more complete state of behavioral psychology. Watson argued that methods and principles applicable to the study of animals were also appropriate for humans as well. After being forced to resign from his academic career at Johns Hopkins (because of a scandal involving a love affair with one of his graduate students-- discovered by his wife with the help of private detectives, etc.), Watson began a second professional career from the ground up (his wife took him to the cleaners so to speak) as an applied psychologist in the field of advertising. Watson believed that the behavior of the human consumer was like that of laboratory ratspredicted and controlled , proposing the use of laboratory conditions to study such behavior. Emphasizing that advertising should focus on style and consumer satisfaction, he was credited with pioneering the use of celebrity endorsementsmanipulate motives and emotions. His contributions were obviously highly effective and his methods are still used today (they work especially well with teenagers and college students). Watson insisted that psychology restrict itself to the objective study of behavior, applying only the most stringently objective methods in the laboratory. These methods of research were to include:
observation with and without instruments
testing
verbal report
conditioned reflex
The law of mass action
the law of equipotentiality.
Summary
B.F. Skinner, the most famous of the neobehaviorists was the major embodiment of American behavioral psychology. He was praised by the editor of the American Psychologist as "one of the giants of the discipline" who "made a permanent mark on psychology." Advocating an empirical system within which to conduct research, Skinner’s behaviorism was devoted to the study of the relationships between the S and R of an organism. Skinner and his research dealt only with observable behavior. Skinner believed the operant-behavior paradigm represents the typical learning situation. Skinner advocated a system with no theoretical framework (very clever… there is nothing to attack). His focus was to concentrate on the responses of organisms, being very careful to describe behavior rather than fall into the trap of explaining behavior. Skinner felt that using large numbers of subjects and analyzing data with complex inferential statistics was wrong because it obscured individual differences. He openly rebelled using single-subject designs in which extraneous variables were rigorously controlled for. In contrast to Pavlov’s (and Watson’s ) respondent behavior, Skinner focused on Operant Behavior. That is the behavior comes before any stimulus is presented, the organism is spontaneously operating on its environment… these "operations" will have specific consequences and it is these consequences which determine the direction that that behavior will take in the future. Consequences can be either reinforcing or punishing. Again Skinner proposed no theory… he simply stated that if: the consequences of a behavior increase the probability of that behavior occurring in the future, then: the consequence was a reinforcing one. If, on the other hand the consequences of a behavior decrease the probability (or rate) of that behavior, then it the consequences were punishing. Skinner’s research focus was on schedules of reinforcement (the relationship in time or number of response units between BEHAVIOR AND REINFORCEMENT: FI, VI, FR, VR, … etc. Skinner felt that language was simply verbal behavior that was reinforced like any other behavior speakers are operating on their environments and listeners are either reinforcing or punishing those operants… thus to Skinner you don’t need a mind to be articulate. Skinner wrote a novel: WALDEN TWO in which operant behavior principles were used to form a utopian society which was governed strictly by the laws of reinforcement. Skinner is ultimately responsible for the field of behavior modification (B-Mod). In a sense Skinner is mainstream experimental and behavioral psychology as we know it today.Criticisms of Skinner’s behaviorism:
It was (is) too extreme in its positivism: (people were mad that were no theories to attack).
He tended to extrapolate beyond the data… (although his motives were good—the improvement of society).
His position on verbal behavior is too simple to account for the richness of human symbolic communication.
Social Learning Theorists:
I only want you to know Albert Bandura… basically organisms can learn by observing the consequences of other organism’s behavior. (You can watch your brother get punished for "misbehaving" and thereby get an idea of how much "misbehavior you, yourself can get away with").