Poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)
based the following poem on a fable that
was told in India many years ago.
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth
and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his
hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”
Psychological
Perspectives
or Theories
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
Psychology’s blind men are the theorists who
seem to devalue opposing theoretical explanations
for the phenomena they have tried to explain.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
What is a scientific theory?
Scientific theories are explanations of phenomena that account for
much of the relevant empirical research findings and are created for
this purpose. These explanations are presented in the form of
propositions and postulates from which additional hypotheses can be
derived and tested in order to further confirm or disconfirm the
theories. They are then modified if research results show a need.
Theories emerge from the research of many, and are verified by
detached groups of researchers. They are not opinions or beliefs and
are never “believed-in” by true scientists who are skeptical and always
looking for ways to improve upon current theoretical explanations.
Gordon Vessels, 2005.
How do philosophical theories differ?
Philosophical theories also explain phenomena but are the product of
logical thinking, not scientific research, and are viewed as doctrines,
dogmas, tenets, isms, or belief systems. Their deep-thinking creators
and followers want others to accept these theories as truth.
Written and arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004 ©
UNAVOIDABLE PHILOSOPHICAL ASSUMPTIONS THAT VARY
From Theory to Theory
1.
Free will vs. Determinism or Active Agent vs. Passive Organism: Is the free will
to make choices an illusion? Are we completely shaped by genetic and
environmental events? Are we active agents who direct, shape, and control our own
development and destiny?
2.
Nature vs. Nurture or Stability vs. Placticity: To what extent are we a product of
our genetic inheritance ("nature") or a product of our experiences ("nurture")?
Are people essentially programmed by their heredity and evolutionary past or can
they be effectively shaped by others through intentional acts?
3.
Unconscious vs. Conscious Motivation: Is much or all of our behavior and
determined by unconscious factors? Or is little or none so determined? How much of
our behavior is determined by conscious forces?
4.
Uniqueness vs. Universality: Are we each unique, or will psychology eventually
discover laws that explain all our behavior and our seemingly unique combinations of
personal traits?
5.
Physiological vs. Purposive Motivation: Are we more "pushed" by physiological
needs? Are we more "pulled" by our perceptions, knowledge, virtues, higher-level
needs, and personal goals, values, and principles?
6.
Cultural Determinism vs. Cultural Transcendence: Do our cultures shape and
control? Can we rise above or transcend cultural influences? This repeats the freewill question with specific reference to environmental as culture.
Source: Boeree, George (1997). Personality theories: an introduction, philosophical assumptions. Retrieved from http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/persintro.html
Paraphrased and arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Active Person versus Passive;
Free Will vs. Determinism
What is person’s role and control?
Passive = shaped by
genetic & environmental
influences
or
Active = agents
who shape, control, and direct their own development
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Relative Influence of Heredity/Biology
& Environment/Learning
Nature versus Nurture
Each major perspective on psychology, or theoretical approach to psychology, can
be placed on the nature-versus-nurture continuum with most placing more
emphasis on nurture or environment and how it affects human characteristics.
Written and arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004. Pictures from Clip Art.
Nature versus Nurture
• Nature refers to the biological make-up or
genetic structure that pre-determines (to a
limited degree) each person’s attitudes,
behavior, temperament, health, intellectual
potential, etc. Innate genetic influences are
inherited from our biological parents.
• Nurture refers to behaviors, attitudes,
knowledge, values, etc. learned while being
raised in a specific environment. These are
environmental and life experiences that
shape us through the socialization process.
Written and arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Philosophy
1
Roots in
Philosophy
1724 -1804
Rousseau
Kant
1712 - 1778
1711 - 1776
1806-1873
Modern
Foundations
John Stewart Mill
Associationism
Utilitarianism
Empiricism
Mental Chemistry
3
1821-1894
C. Pierce
J. Charcot
Functionalism
1839 -1914
S. Freud
Dewey
1844
1924
1859 -1952
Pragmatism
Zone of
Proximal
Development;
Mediated
Learning
1860 Psycho1944 physical
1869 -1949
Heredity;
Eugenics
1850-1909
Ebbinghaus
Anthropometric Lab
Sociology
Durkheim
1867-1927
1874 -1949
1858-1917
Gestalt
Psych:
Wertheimer,
Koffka,
Kohler
McDougall
C. Burt
1870 -1937 1875 -1961
1902-1994
Schema; Memory
E. Erikson
Accommodation
Assimilation
Adaptation
G. Miller
F. Bartlett
B. Skinner
1896 -1980
M. Bentley
1904 1990
L. Kohlberg
1925-Present
W. Damon
1921 - Pres
Feuerstein
1969
Cortical Spec.
K. Lashley
J. Bruner
1890-1958
Gardner
= Student of;
Developmental
G. Miller
N. Chomsky
Information
Processing
Psychologists
Developmental
1886
1915 Present
1920
Pres.
M. Hoffman
Sternberg
1870
1955
A. Bandura
J. Kagan
Modern
Explorations
Psychoanalytic
Cognition Memory
Experimental
Psychology
1832 -1920
J. Piaget
Cognitive
P. Broca
1822 -1911
Francis Galton
C. Jung
1896 -1934
4
1806 -1873
Intelligence
Hereditary
A. Adler
L. Vygotsky
1920 - Pres.
Psychophysics
Bell, Muller
Flourens
(nerves)
John S.
Mill
D. Titchener
E. Thorndike
1870 1937
Fechner
J.M. Cattell
J. Angell
J. Watson
The “Great
Schools’”
Influence
Click Here
Click Here
G. Hall
1809 -1882
Wilhelm Wundt
1842 -1910
Cognition;
Memory;
Experimental
Psychology
3
Structuralism
William James
I. Pavlov
1849 -1936
Ebbinghaus
The “Great
Schools”
Helmholtz
1801-1887
Gall
C. Darwin
Nerve Impulse Speed
Pragmatism
1758
1828
Evolutionary
Biology
H. Spencer
Mind as Adaptive
Function
Pragmatism
1850-1909
Social Darwinism
Man explained by
examining sensation
Free Will
Renouvier
G. Mendel
1789
1857
A. Comte
1822 -1884
1820
1903
Sensationalism
Eclectic
treatment
of the
Insane
Anti-Rationalism
Associationism Principle of Heredity
P. Pinel
2
Empiricism
David Hume
Empricism
Associationism, Free Will
(Reason)
Idealism
1632-1677
John Locke
Physiology
Mechanistic View
Man; Rationalism
Spinoza
1632-1704
Idealism
(Reason/Emotion)
1596
1650
Descartes
Mind-Body Dualism
Behavioral
Please Use Inserted Links to Websites: Click Underlined Words and Rectangles
Biological
1928 Pres.
McClelland
Eysenck
1948 - present
= Influenced by
Evolutionary
Philosophy
Sociology
Psychometric
Arranged by Dr. Gordon Vessels 2004; modeled after R. Plucker, 2001.
THE NEXT 10 SLIDES ARE OPTIONAL STUDY FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN
THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Created by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
David Hume (science unpromising and based on faulty concepts)
Francis Bacon (science essential for the betterment of humanity)
• Hume saw science as an amusing pastime that revealed habits of the mind and had no chance
of producing useful explanations. He saw philosophy similarly. Bacon saw science as
something that needed to be done in order to replace doctrine and tradition with scientific facts
that could improve the human condition.
• Hume did, however, endorse Francis Bacon’s inductive method. For Bacon inductive
reasoning and experimentation were parts of the “constructive” part of his scientific method
and were the only two methods by which facts should be determined ─ “deconstruction” was
the other part of his scientific method.
• Hume’s phenomenalism distinguished between sense impressions and ideas.
• Hume’s types of ideas are . . .
– Simple: directly from simple perceptions;
cannot be false
– Complex: combination of simple ideas;
may not match reality (skepticism)
• Hume viewed inferences about causality as
unfounded based on the fact that two events
BACON
HUME
have occurred together or in succession and
have caused in people an expectation from which cause should not be inferred.
• He rejected the concept of “self” and saw nothing in his study of the inner workings of the
mind to justify it.
• He tried to portray causality as non-existent and a matter of conjunction and our personal
expectations.
Primary source: (Ballantyne, 2003). Retrieved from http://www.comnet.ca/%7Epballan/section3(210).htm
Paraphrased here with the author’s written permission. Paraphrasing and arrangement by Gordon Vessels.
Hume’s Laws of Association
Association of Ideas Only:
– Law of resemblance
• Thoughts run naturally from
one idea to similar ideas
– Law of contiguity
• One object causes other objects
encountered at the same time
to be remembered
– Law of Cause and effect
• Effects bring up events that
come before
“Hume locates ‘three principles
of connexion’ or association:
resemblance, contiguity, and
cause and effect. Of the three,
causation is the only principle
that takes us ‘beyond the
evidence of our memory and
senses.’ It establishes a link or
connection between past and
present experiences
with events that we predict or
explain, so that ‘all reasonings
concerning matters of fact seem
to be founded on the relation of
cause and effect.’”
Hume, David (1748). Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
In Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning
the Principles of Morals (1975). Edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge, 3rd
edition revised by P. H. Nidditch, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
“There is a secret tie or union among particular ideas, which causes the mind to conjoin
them more frequently together, and makes the one, upon its appearance, introduce the
other.” Hume, David (1739). Treatise of Human Nature. Edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge, 2nd Ed.by P.H. Nidditch, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
James Mill (1773-1836)
• Mental Physics or Mechanics of Mind
– All mental experience (ideas) are
sensations
– Simple ideas combine in a simple additive’
way to create complex ideas
– Complex ideas combine additively to create
more complex ideas
• Associations
– Frequency
– Vividness
James Mill limited the number of possible “laws of
association” to two but also described the process of
transition among associations as passive rather than active.
According to Ballantyne (2003) some of the deficiencies of
James Mill's account were overcome by John Stuart Mill
who put forth a distinction between “mental physics” and
“mental chemistry.”
Ballantyne (2003). Retrieved from http://www.comnet.ca/%7Epballan/section3(210).htm
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
John Stewart Mill, British Associationist
• Associationism
– Frequency
– Vividness
– Similarity –
similar ideas
trigger each other
• Mental chemistry
– Complex ideas have
different properties
than simple ideas.
“Mill drew on a direct analogy to . . .
chemistry to argue that: (1) mind plays
an activecreative role in
the formation
of simple ideas
and; (2)
complex ideas
are more than
the sum of their
parts because
they contain
properties not
found in simple
ideas. He . . .
[Distinguished] between mental physics
and mental chemistry. . . the formation
of complex ideas from simple . . . is an
active and transformative (rather than
merely interactive) process that contains
its own internal motion . . .” (Ballantyne,
2003): Retrieved from http://www.
comnet.ca/%7Epballan/section3(210).htm
"The general law of [mental] association is that if sensations have often been experienced together, the
corresponding ideas will tend to occur together; if A has been associated with B, C, and D in sensory
experience, the sensory experience A, occurring alone, will tend to arouse the ideas of b, c, and d, which
accompanied it. Association may be either successive or simultaneous. The former determines the course of
thought, in time; the latter accounts for the formation of complex ideas“ (Heidbreder, 1933, p. 54). Edna
Heidbreder (Chapter 2) "Prescientific Psychology" (pp. 18-70). In Heidbreder, E. (1933). Seven Psychologies.
New York: D. Appleton-Century Co.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Philosophical Ideas About the Relationship of Mind & Body As Psychology Began
Position
Causal Relation
Proponents
The mind and body are totally different with mind equivalent to
soul. Plato and the Greek philosophers also saw them as totally
separate with mind predating and surviving body. Most religions
are strictly dualistic as well.
Descartes, “I think,
therefore I am.”
Mind (consciousness) and body are viewed as separate irrespective
of why; proponents describe or measure each.
Associationism; Wundt
and Structuralists; Gestalt
and Humanistic psychology
The view that: (1) the mind and the body comprise different classes
and; (2) they have a two-way causal relationship; mind influences
body and vice versa.
Descartes; James and the
Functionalists
Both mind or 'soul' and body are distinct and independent but
interact and have a two-way causal relationship.
Descartes, La Mettrie
Body and mind are parts of one entity, God; they are coordinated or
in harmony yet independent; mental events only determine other
mental events; physical events only determine other physical
events; there is no interaction between.
Spinoza, Fechner and the
Psychophysicists
Mind and body run parallel due to a “winding of two clocks” that
operate harmoniously; events between are correlated but not
causally related; there is no interaction between the two.
Leibniz, Spinoza, Wundt,
Hartley (Agnostic version)
Mind is real but unimportant and not causal; body acts on mind but
not vice versa; study bodily mechanisms or behavioral operants.
Hobbes, Skinner
All we can know is our consciousness or personal experience.
Kant, Carl Jung
Phenomenalism
Matter including the body does not exist (immaterialism), only
perceptions; reality is independent of thinking; mind is impossible
Berkeley, Hume
Reductive Materialism
Mind doesn't exist; study bodily mechanisms, the nervous system,
and behavior.
Hobbes; Materialists;
Physiologists; Watson
Dualism (general term)
(mind and body separate and may or
may not interact – neither implied)
Parallelism (general term)
(mind and body don’t interact)
Interactionism (general term)
(can co-exist with dualism)
Cartesian Interactionism
Cartesian Dualism
Double-Aspect Theory
(mind and body are in harmony
but do not interact)
Psychophysical Parallelism
(mind and body do not interact)
Epiphenomenalism
(dualism and body-to-mind influence)
Epistemological Dualism
Vitalism
Emergentism
(compatible with interactionism)
No soul but the mind and body, and a life principle or force exist;
mind depends on but cannot be reduced to a nervous system.
Non-reductive functional relationship between body and mind as a
transformative process; they study the evolutionary development
of the process.
Müller; other Physiologists
William James and the
Functionalists; Dewey
Primary Source: Ballantyne, Paul (2003). Retrieved from http://www.comnet.ca/%7Epballan/mind-body.htm Paraphrased here with the author’s permission.
PRAGMATISM: ANOTHER PHILOSOPHICAL
CORNERSTONE FOR PSYCHOLOGY
Charles Sanders Peirce first used the term pragmatism. The
principle means that the meaning
and truth of ideas or concept are
determined by the effect they
have (consequences, outcomes,
real-world value). Basic to the
idea of pragmatism is what can
be described as an “antiabsolutism,” or a belief that
all principles, concepts, ideas, and propositions formed in the
mind must be viewed as working hypotheses. This rule or
concept was ignored for twenty years until it was picked up by
William James. It was developed by his student, John Dewey.
Primary Source: Ballantyne, Paul (2003). Retrieved from http://www.comnet.ca/%7Epballan/mind-body.htm Paraphrased here with the author’s permission.
Slide arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Empiricists Locke & Bacon
“The empiricist doctrine was first
expounded by the English philosopher
. . . Francis Bacon early in the 17th
century, but John Locke gave it . . .
expression in his Essay Concerning
Human Understanding (1690)”
Microsoft® Encarta® Online
Encyclopedia, http://encarta.msn.com.
“Locke's empiricism emphasizes the
importance of the experience of the senses
in pursuit of knowledge rather than intuitive
speculation or deduction. . . He regarded the
mind . . . at birth as a tabula rasa [or] a blank slate upon which
experience imprinted knowledge, and [he] did not believe in intuition
or . . . innate conceptions.” Microsoft® Encarta® Online
Encyclopedia, http://encarta.msn.com.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Johannes Müller was one of the first to shift away from purely
philosophical explanations of mind-body relations and toward
conducting empirical research into these relations. This meant
focusing on the human beings and their “vitalism” (life force),
a concept he used to account for the otherwise hard-to-explain
organization and functioning of complex life. Darwin’s theory
later eliminated the need for this concept.
Locke
The three physiological stages of Müller's theory about
perception (making sense of sensory input) are an active version
of philosopher Locke's three-stage “outside-to-inside” account:
1= External nature; 2 = Senses (including the energy
of nerves); 3 = the Sensorium (his word for the perceiving mind).
Müller
Kant attempted to account for the orderly mind-to-world
connection by proposing that perceptual order is imposed on
sensory experiences by a priori categories of understanding
inside the mind ― what we now call top-down perception.
Müller's account of the structural aspects of perception fits
Kant’s. His 'order and necessity' comes from inside being
“given by the nerves.” Müller's doctrine of the “specific energy
Kant of nerves” can be seen as a physiological version of Kant’s
“philosophical” explanation.
Paraphrasing and Arrangement by Gordon Vessels, 2005. Primary Source: Ballantyne, Paul (2003). Retrieved from http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/section3(210).htm
Fechner was among the first to shift away from purely philosophical
explanations of mind-body relations and toward conducting
empirical research into these relations. For him it was
"psycho-physical" relations, or “psychophysics.”
Kant (1781), our epistemological dualist,
claimed that psychology could not become
a science because mind could not be
investigated using math and
experimentation.
Fechner's (1860) contended that
psychological events are tied
to physical events and
could be measured.
The Weber-Fechner Law was a math bridge
between the stimulus on one side of the formula,
and the sensation of it on the other. He thought he
had effectively countered Kant’s epistemologicaldualistic assertion that the mind could not be
scientifically studied. In actuality, he had replaced
it with a formula that operationalized it or
translated it into numbers reflecting the strength
of sensory-perceptual events. Now we know
that his formula just defined the sensation
side in terms of the stimulus side. It did not
explain the actual relations between the two.
So he gave us a correct explanation of what
nerves do situated within an incorrect theory
of perception (Ballantyne, 2003).
Source: http://www.comnet.ca/%7Epballan/section3(210).htm
Paraphrasing and arrangement by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Finally Helmholtz was
among the first to
shift away from
philosophical
explanations
of mind-body
relations
and toward
conducting
empirical
research
into these
relations.
For him it
was a search
for the
“elements”
of sensation.
http://www.comnet.ca/%7Epballan/section3(210).htm
Helmholtz adopted a practical Lockean
approach that
got into the work of
investigating the
senses without
getting involved
in the metaphysical
debates of German
philosophy. He
accounted both
experimentally and
physiologically for
the rate of nerve
impulses and defined
sensory transduction
without appealing
to a mysterious
“vital force.”
Ballantyne, Paul (2003). Retrieved from
http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/section3(210).htm
Helmholtz’s questions
were empirical: “How fast is the
neural impulse
of motor nerves versus that of the sensory
nerves?";
“How is physical energy from stimuli
transduced for the senses of vision and hearing?”; and "Is the perception of
space learned or innate?“ (Ballantyne, 2003).
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
All Theoretical Perspectives in Psychology Emerged from the Early
Functionalism and Structuralism of Wundt and James.
Structuralism
Analyzed consciousness
into basic elements such
as images, sensations,
and feelings and studied
William James
how they are related
Wilhelm Wundt
Click on pictures, names, and this text
Functionalism
Investigated the
function, or purpose, of
consciousness rather
than its structure
Leaned toward applied work (natural surroundings)
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Three Tasks of Titchener’s
Structuralism
• Discover basic elements of sensation to
which all complex processes can be
reduced;
• Determine how simple sensations are
connected to form more complex
perceptions, ideas, and images;
– Involving his Law of Association
• Explain how the mind works.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Functionalism
• Its goal was to understand how the mind and
behavior work to help an organism adjust to
its environment.
• William James launched Functionalism.
• It developed at two universities simultaneously:
– The University of Chicago
•
•
•
John Dewey
James Angell
Harvey Carr
– Columbia University in New York
•
•
•
James M. Cattell
Robert Woodworth
Edward Thorndike
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Biological Psychology
Behavioral Psychology
Humanistic Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Social-Cultural Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Psychoanalytic Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology
Gestalt Psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
Created by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004 ©
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Flagship Articles with Key Words %
20
18
The relative prominence of three major schools of thought in psychology
Weiten, Wayne (2002). Psychology, Themes and Variations. Pacific Grove, Calif. ; London : Wadsworth.
.
Graph recreated from this source by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Assumptions of Behavioral Theories
• Nurture (the environment), not nature
• Principles of “learning” determine
behavior change and development
• Learning (passive responses to incoming
stimuli)
• Plasticity, not stability: development is
gradual and continuous.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
BEHAVIORISM
• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
– Unconditioned stimulus unconditioned response
– Conditioned stimulus conditioned response
• OPERANT CONDITINING
– Positive & negative reinforcers
– Positive & negative punishment
– Schedules of reinforcement
• SOCIAL LEARNING
– Modeling
– Vicarious reinforcement
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Pavlov’s
Stimulus
Response
Psychology
Classical
Conditioning
Behaviorism
Mental processes cannot
be studied directly; so
psychology should focus
on observable behavior.
Ivan Pavlov
John Watson
B.F. Skinner
Role of conditioning
in the development
of emotional
responses to
stimuli
Albert Bandura
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning:
consequences of behavior
increase or decrease behavior
Social learning
via observation
and modeling
The behaviorists’
view is that nurture
is more important
than nature; that
problem behaviors
can be decreased;
and that good
behaviors and
emotions can be
shaped and
strengthened.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Ivan Pavlov
1849-1936
• He was a trained as
a medical doctor and
was interested in
blood circulation
and digestion.
• The work that made
Pavlov famous in
psychology began as
a study in digestion.
• He was looking at
digestion in dogs: the
relationship between salivation
and reactions in the stomach.
• He realized they were closely linked by
reflexes in the autonomic nervous system.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
BEHAVIOR CHANGE
METHODS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE through OPERANT CONDITIONING
Mechanism
Definition
Examples
Positive
Reinforcement
Encouraging a behavior by
giving a desired reward or
reinforcer thereafter
Giving a child candy when he
brings in a homework assignment;
Saying “good girl” to a baby who
swallows a spoonful of food.
Negative
Reinforcement
Encouraging a behavior by
removing an aversive
stimulus thereafter
Ceasing to scold a child when he
hangs up his clothes; Giving in to a
roommate or spouse in order to
bring an argument to an end
Punishment
Giving an aversive stimulus
in response to an undesired
behavior to suppress it
Slapping a child for swearing at his
parent; making a child do chores
after getting into a fight with a
classmate
Negative
Punishment
Removing a desired reward
or activity in response to
undesirable behavior
Sending a child to her room
without toys because she refused
to share her toys; refusing to
speak to a spouse who was rude.
Extinction
Gradually eliminating a
behavior by removing the
reinforcers that follow it
Ignoring a child when he has a
temper tantrum; drastically cutting
the possible winnings in a state
lottery
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Stimulus and response (behavior) in
classical and operant conditioning
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Result: Siren
Eye Blink
Key Relationship
Stimulus
Siren
Stimulus
Behavior
Air Puff
Eye Blink
CS
UCS
UCR
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Result: Clap
The whistle is an antecedent discriminative
stimulus. Behavior occurring in its
presence will continue if reinforced.
Stimulus
Clap
CS
CR
Stimulus
Siren
Behavior
Eye Blink
Sit Up
Key Relationship
Behavior
Stand Up
Reinforcer
Candy
A
B
C
Antecedents
Behavior
Consequences
TIME
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Types of
Reinforcement
and
Type of Operant Event
Pleasant
Unpleasant
Presented
Removed
After a Behavior, a Reinforcer is:
Punishment
Positive
Reinforcement
positive
reinforcer
received
positive
reinforcer
removed
Negative
Punishment
negative
reinforcer
received
Punishment
Negative
Reinforcement
negative
reinforcer
avoided
Positive Reinforcers: (Primary) (Secondary) food & water; money & praise
Negative Reinforcers: (Primary) (Secondary) shock & headache; rejection & criticism
Assumptions of Cognitive Theories
• People construct their own
understanding.
• People form mental representations of
their world (images, schemas, etc.)
• People are active in their environment
• Nature and Nurture interact as
causes.
• Plasticity, not stability.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Origins of Cognitive Psychology
• 1950’s – 1970’s ─ No agreed upon date
• Ulric Neisser’s book Cognitive Psychology
was published in 1967.
• Why did Cognitive Psychology begin?
– Two important factors:
• Dissatisfaction with behaviorism’s account
of complex behaviors (e.g., Chomsky’s
model of language challenged this)
• Convergence of several fields during WWII
such as Linguistics, Human Performance,
Artificial Intelligence, etc.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
George Miller
Noam Chomsky
Cognitive Psychology
Interested in cognition: the mental
processes involved in acquiring,
processing, storing, and using
information and investigates learning,
attention, memory, perception, language
development, and problem solving, etc.
Howard Gardner
Clich Here for Website
Advent of computers (late 1950s)
provided a new model for thinking
about the mind (AI)
Hermann
Ebbinghaus
John Anderson
Cognitive psychology is different
from other psychological
perspectives. It adopts the
scientific method and rejects
introspection. Unlike behavioral
psychology, it posits the existenceof, and importance-of, internal
mental states such as beliefs,
desires, thoughts, and motivations
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Noam Chomsky
“Language”
Jerome Bruner
Kurt Lewin
Wolfgang Kohler
Kurt Koffka
Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt Psychology
Max Wertheimer
Experience is more than simply
sensations; seeing is an effect of
the whole event and the sum of the
parts. We are built to experience
A reaction against the analytical
the structured whole as well as the
“breaking down of the whole”
individual sensations. The Law of
Pragnanz says that we are innately
by Structuralists; an attempt to
driven to experience things in as
focus attention back on
good a gestalt as possible. “Good”
conscious experience, that is,
can mean regular, symmetry,
the mind, so it links with
orderly, simplicity. Other gestalt
functionalism in this way.
Laws include Closure and
Similarity. Gestalt psychologists
The whole is different
were interested in Learning and
than the sum of its parts. For every undesirable known for the concept of insight
learning. Gestalt counseling
characteristic there is
stresses that for every
the opposite that can
Phi Phenomenon,
characteristic we also
be strengthened and
Illusion of movement.
have its opposite.
made dominant.
The word Gestalt means a
unified or meaningful whole.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Assumptions of Psychodynamic Theories
•
Nature and Nurture, as interactive
causes
•
Stability over plasticity: invariant,
expected stages of development
•
Active, not passive: children strive
to resolve developmental crises
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Psychoanalytic Theories Propose the idea of
the Unconscious and Subconscious
Thoughts, memories and desires
exist below conscious awareness
and exert an influence on behavior.
Sigmund Freud
Unconscious expressed in
dreams & “slips of the tongue”
Karl Jung
Unconscious
determinants of
behavior: contents
in the depth of the
psyche must be
integrated with the
conscious mind to
produce a healthy
human personality.
Attempt to explain personality,
mental disorders, motivation, and
behavior in terms of unconscious
Psychoanalysis;
id, ego, superego;
human nature bad
Alfred Adler
Erik Erickson
Early developmental crises must be
solved, and related needs met in
order to develop normally;
psychosocial theory brought the
social to psychoanalytic theory
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Alfred Adler 1870 - 1937
• Adler originally worked with Freud
but left over the issue of sexuality
determining personality;
• Adler concluded that the need
for power motivates people
and shapes their personalities
and not unconscious
sexual drives;
• He developed what he called
“individual psychology,” which was
based on the idea that people can
be made aware of the many goals
and values that guide them;
• He introduced the well-known
concept of “inferiority complex.” He
believed that all people at some time
feel inferior (e.g. as children) and try
to compensate by seeking
experiences that give
them power.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
• Jung worked with Freud and Alder
at the turn of the century, and, like
Adler, he split with Freud over the
personality-sexuality connection.
• Adler originated the concepts of
“extroversion” and “introversion”
as personality types or
characteristics. The extrovert is
characteristically the active person
who is most happy when around
other people; the introvert is
typically a deliberate and
contemplative person who enjoys
self-isolation and the inner world
of their own ideas and feelings.
• Jung originated the scheme of
four psychological functions:
sensation, intuition, thinking and
feeling.
Carl Jung
1875 - 1961
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Erik Erikson 1902 - 1994
• Erikson was interested in “human
development” and “personality
development”;
• He proposed the way individuals
resolve or fail to resolve
“epigenetically” determined
developmental crises determines
their traits and virtues and how
they will relate to others
throughout life;
• He coined the terms “identity
crisis” to describe the conflict
within adolescents as they
consolidate social roles and
values to form
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Assumptions of Humanistic Theories
• Nurture, not Nature with focus on
needs and interpersonal support
• Plasticity, not Stability: no predictable
stages of development
• Active, not passive: children take
action based on inherent growth need
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Carl Rogers
With interpersonalenvironmental
support, people
can and will grow
and solve their
own problems
Dissatisfaction with both the behavioral
and the psychodynamic perspectives
led psychologists Abraham Maslow and
Carl Rogers to develop the humanistic
perspective.
Humanists believe that other
perspectives pay too little attention to
uniquely human characteristics such as
free will and individual control.
Humanistic
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Hierarchy
of needs:
you must
satisfy
lower-level
needs
before
higherlevel
Abraham Maslow
Philosophical Assumptions of SocialContextual Theories
• Children actively seek out and
interact with social and physical
environments and situations.
• Nature and Nurture are causal
• Plasticity (people changeable)
• Social and cultural contexts are key
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Social Psychology
Erving Goffman
August Comte
Herbert Spencer
Kurt Lewin
Sample Issues
• How are we, as members of
different races and
nationalities, alike as members
of one human family?
• How do we differ, as products
of different social contexts?
• Why do people sometimes act
differently in groups than
when alone?
“From its origin in the works of Auguste Comte
and Herbert Spencer, social psychology has
struggled with the fact that human beings are both
social and biological in nature. For Comte, the
course of mental development was one in which
social conditions came to modify the operation of
biological laws. Spencer, on the other hand, gave
a distinctly individualistic and biological cast to
his social theory. For Spencer, mental and social
evolution were continuous with the biological
evolution of the species” (Wozniak, 1999) .
Group
Dynamics;
Field Theory
How behavior and
thinking vary
across situations
and cultures.
Emile Durkheim
Socialization &
Social
Transmission of
Moral Standards
Zone of
Proximal
Development;
Cognitive/
Socio-cultural
Theory
Lev Vygotsky
Symbolic
Interactionism;
the social
emergence of
the self
George
Herbert Mead
William McDougall (1908). Historical Essays: An Introduction to Social Psychology. In Wozniak, Robert (1999). Classics in Psychology 1855–1914.
Developmental Psychology
Lawrence Kohlberg
Moral-Cognitive
Developmental psychologists focus on all
aspects of development including
cognitive, affective or emotional, moral,
social, artistic, linguistic, physical, and
academic.
Jerome Kagan
Moral-Affective
Some focus on the types of adult-child
relationships that best promote
development (Erikson, Damon) using
terms such as “respectful engagement”
and “authoritative parenting.”
Erik Erikson
Developmental Crises
They are interested in all things that
influence development including biology
and heredity (“natural development” or
nature) and social/environmental
influences (nurture).
Lev Vygotsky
Cognitive
Many have identified levels or stages of
development including the three pictured to
the left.
Jean Piaget Cognitive
& Moral Development
Most have recommendations for both
teachers and parents.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
William Damon
Moral-Affective-Social
Sample Developmental Stages Chart: Erikson
Erik H. Erikson was a developmental psychologist known for his theory of
psychosocial development and for coining the phrase 'identity crisis.' The theory
describes eight stages through which developing humans invariably pass during
the lifespan. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new
challenges. Each stage builds on the successful completion of earlier stages.
Psychosocial
crisis
Significant
relations
Psychosocial
modalities
Psychosocial
virtues
Maladaptations
& malignancies
(0-1)
Infant
trust vs
mistrust
mother
to get,
to give in
return
hope,
faith
sensory
distortion
withdrawal
(2-3)
Toddler
autonomy vs
shame and
doubt
parents
to hold on,
to let go
will,
determination
impulsivity
compulsion
(3-6)
Preschooler
initiative vs
guilt
family
to go after,
to play
purpose,
courage
ruthlessness
inhibition
(7-12)
School-age
child
industry vs
inferiority
neighborhood
and school
to complete,
to make things
together
competence
narrow
virtuosity
inertia
(12-18)
Adolescent
ego-identity vs
role-confusion
peer groups,
role models
to be oneself,
to share oneself
fidelity,
loyalty
fanaticism
repudiation
(20-45)
Young adult
intimacy vs
isolation
partners,
friends
to lose and find
oneself in a
another
love
promiscuity
exclusivity
(30-65)
Middle aged
adult
generativity vs
self-absorption
household,
co-workers
to make be,
to take care of
care
overextension
rejectivity
(50+)
Old adult
integrity vs
despair
mankind or my
kind?
to be,
through having
been, to face
not being
wisdom
presumption
despair
(Approx. ages)
Stage
Created by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004 ©
Sample Developmental Stages Chart: Kohlberg
KOHLBERG'S BEHAVIORAL-SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY
View of
"Right"
That Which
Gains
Approval
From
Others
That Which
Adheres
to
Rules or
Principles
Primary Levels
PreConventional
(self-serving)
Conventional
(otherserving)
Motivation
Perspective
Punishment
Avoiding
Egocentric
Pleasure/
Reward Seeking
Individualistic
Acceptance/
Approval Seeking
Interpersonal
Rule Following/
Status Seeking
Organizational
Law Abiding/
PostConventional Rights Respecting
(principleJustice Seeking/
serving)
Conscience Driven
Age/Grade
Preschool
Early Childhood
Grades K-2
Middle Childhood
Grades 3-5
Late Childhood
Grades 6-8
Early Adolescence
Grades 9-12
Societal
Late Adolescence
Universal
Adulthood
Developed by Gordon Vessels 2000
©
Affective Development
Infants
Havighurst
Erikson
no information
need to become
Trusting, open, and
Hopeful or will be
fearful through life
Age 0-1
Toddlers
no information
Age 2-3
Preschool
Early Childhood 4-5
Early
Elementary
Middle
Childhood
Late
Elementary
Late
Childhood
Middle School
Early
Adolescence
High
School
Late
Adolescence
Rational
Conscience:
through cooperation
with peers and an
understanding
of rules
Complete Set
of Moral
Principles
no information
discomfort at
another's distress
Self-Regulatory
Empathy
Willful
feelings of concern
that limit aggression
beginning of moral need to take Initiative
responsibility; the and Imagine or may
Dawn of
be cruel and critical
Conscience
throughout life
voice of parent taken
in as a moral guide
via love & discipline
Global Empathy
need to become
Independent, and
or be self-doubting
Authoritarian
Conscience:
Hoffman
Kagan
move from a need
for initiative to need
for Industry, Skill,
and competence
moral emotion of
guilt presumably
experienced when
aggression is not
controlled
Hay
natural
nonselective
prosocial
tendency
emotions
of shame
and guilt
Perspective Taking
need to be Competent
or do things well or
will feel inferior and
be unable to work well
with others thereafter
the cognitive
component
of empathy combines
with affective component that is present
at birth; guilt and
self-scorn related to
irresponsibility and
over-indulgence are
presumably
experienced here
need to form an
Identity or consolidate
roles, identifications,
and characteristics or
will be insecure,
compulsive, or even
deviant; tend to be
clannish and preoccupied with how they are
perceived by peers
moral emotion of
Anxiety related to
inconsistency
between beliefs and
actions presumably
emerges sometime
after late childhood
or during
adolescence
Sample Developmental stages chart.
Prepared by Gordon Vessels 1999 ©
prosocial
behavior
more
selective
and
declining
no
information
no
information
Selman
Damon
no information
no information
can’t distinguish their
perspective from that
of others; know self in
terms of unrelated
surface characteristics
know people have
different viewpoints
but take one at a time
and favor their own;
understand self in
terms of comparisons
better understanding
of different viewpoints and know they
can have more than
one & mixed feelings;
same as above for self
step outside situation
and see as complex;
have third-party view
of self, others, and
relationships; know
self in terms of effects
on other people
understand self in
terms of personal
philosophy & plans
for the future
Assumptions of Biological Theories
•
Nature, not nurture
•
Stability, not plasticity: invariant,
predictable stages of development
•
Passive, not active: children
passively respond and adjust
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Biological Perspective
Studied intelligence and the role of the
frontal lobes of the brain. He espoused
the theory of cortical specialization for
both senses and motor operations and
challenged the idea of localization in
the brain. He studied memory and
learning by looking at the affects of
brain damage in lab animals. Lashley
brought to light the controversy
between localization and those
proposing holistic brain function.
K.S. LASHLEY
Pierre Paul Broca
The collection of data for his first important
book, Hereditary Genius, marks the beginning of
his psychological work. The thesis of the book
is that "genius" or "talent" is genetically rather
than environmentally determined (Forrest, 1995).
Gustav Theodor Fechner
Focus
How the body and
brain create
emotions,
memories, and
sensory
experiences.
Fechner’s greatest achievement was in his
study of exact relationships in psychology
and aesthetics. He formulated Fechner's
law, which says that, within limits, the
intensity of a sensation increases as the
logarithm of the stimulus.
William James
Mind Body Duality
Francis Galton
Sample Issues
• How do evolution and heredity influence behavior?
• How are messages transmitted within the body & brain?
• How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?
• What emotional and mental traits are we born with?
• To what degree are mental disorders determined by
heredity?
Created by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
THE BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
• GENETIC FACTORS
• THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
• THE BRAIN
• THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
• THE NEUROSCIENCE REVOLUTION
• NEUROPHARMACOLOGY
• PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY
• INTEGRATION OF BIOLOGICAL
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
1.0
BEHAVIOR GENETICS
Monozygotic
Dizygotic
Twin Concordance Rates
0.0
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Alcoholism Alcoholism
(Female)
(Male)
Alzheimer’s Autism
Disease
Affective
Disorder
Reading
Disability
Schizophrenia
Reproduced by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Evolutionary Psychology
Click Picture
Charles Darwin
Natural selection preserves
and gathers minor
advantageous genetic
mutations. If a member of a
species developed a
“functional advantage” such
as growing wings, its
offspring would inherit this
and pass it along their
offspring. Natural selection
involves preserving a
functional advantage that
allows a species to function
better in the wild.
Evolutionary psychology is an
approach wherein knowledge
and principles from biological
evolution are used to guide
research on the human mind and
its structure. It is a way of
analyzing ant topic in
psychology.
Francis Galton
Click Picture
Herbert Spencer
Among other things he was a
EUGENICIST: Eugenics is the
“pseudoscience” which deals with
improving the inborn qualities of a
race through selective breeding.
This movement and its misuse of
evolutionary theory supported
racist ideas in the 1800s.
Heinroth Lorenz discovered imprinting, a fast
and irreversible learning process that occurs
early in life. His claim that aggressive impulses
are innate, and the analogies he drew between
human and animal behavior have caused much
controversy over the years.
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
Konrad Lorenz