The History of
Psychological Concepts
Dr. Geoff Bunn
Learning Outcomes
To understand
…the difference between a natural
kind of thing and a psychological
kind of thing.
…why psychological objects have to
be understood historically and
culturally.
Natural objects (the things studied
by the natural and biological
sciences, e.g. ‘Sodium Chloride’)
are not the same as
Psychological objects – things
studied by psychology, e.g.
‘Intelligence’.
Let’s try to illustrate the difference
between a natural kind of thing and
a psychological kind of thing.
Consider this question:
“What’s the difference between a
broken bone and a broken heart?”
Write down as many differences as you can think of.
Broken Bones, Broken Hearts
• Broken bone: a natural object,
appropriately studied by anatomy,
physiology, medicine and
physiotherapy.
• Broken heart: a psychological object
that can only be understood in terms of
experience (“One of the worst things
that happened to me.”; “I know what
you’re going through”) and meaning
(“It turns your world upside down.”)
Broken Bones, Broken Hearts
• A broken bone is real!
• A broken heart is also real…but not in
the sense that a broken bone is real.
• A lot of Psychology has laboured under
the mistaken impression that it is
studying natural objects (‘broken
bones’) when in fact it is in fact
studying psychological objects (‘broken
hearts’). This is a ‘category error’!
“Whereas in orthodox sciences there
is always some external object of
enquiry – rocks, electrons, DNA,
stars, - existing as essentially
unchanging in the non-human world
…this is not so for Psychology.”
(Richards, 2002, p.7)
[picture of A natural
object: Adenosine
triphosphate]
[diagram of Krebs Cycle]
There are no theories of equivalent
complexity in psychology!
…because psychology has no natural
objects.
Natural objects have stable, predictable
and controllable properties.
Psychology possesses no objects with these
properties.
Draw up a list of…
Natural objects:
Psychological objects:
Natural Objects,
Psychological Objects
Natural objects: rocks, atoms, electrons,
chemicals, cells, stars, genes, electricity,
weather, hormones, viruses, bones, trees,
dinosaurs, gravity.
Psychological objects: depression, love,
melancholy, intelligence, schizophrenia, selfesteem, autism, attitudes, motivation, emotion,
dyslexia, cognition, behaviour, nostalgia, mind,
soul, ADHD, shell shock, sexuality, race,
personality, development, introversion,
feeblemindedness, hysteria, temperament.
The Tragic Case of Clark Hull
• American
behaviourist
psychologist (18841952).
• Devoted his life to
finding a ‘Global
Theory of Behavior’
to explain all human
action.
[photograph of
Clark Hull]
Stimulus – Response chains
account for all behaviour
[Pictures of Skinner box and behaviorist mazes]
sEr = (sHr x D x K x V) - (sIr + Ir) +/- sOr
Where:
 sEr, Reaction potential
 sHr, Habit strength, is determined by the
number of reinforces.
 D, Drive strength, is measured by the hours of
deprivation of a need.
 K is the incentive value of a stimulus
 V is a measure of the connectiveness.
 sIr, Inhibitory strength, is the number of non
reinforcers.
 Ir, Reactive inhibition, is when the organism
has to work hard for a reward and becomes
fatigued.
 sOr accounts for random error
The Strange Case of
William McDougall (1871-1938)
[photograph of
McDougall]
• “..the most celebrated
British psychologist of the
first half of the century.”
(Thomson, 2006, p.55)
• Hugely influential ‘hormic
psychology’, 1910-1950s.
• His Introduction to Social
Psychology (1908)
“…marked an epoch in the
history of psychology.”
(Hearnshaw, 1964, p.188)
The Strange Case of
William McDougall (1871-1938)
But McDougall is
studied by no-one
today and he left no
intellectual or
practical legacy.
Hull and McDougall’s
psychological objects
have vanished.
Psychological Objects…
…are not mythical: they do exist (if
temporarily!)
…exist within networks of other linguistic
categories (‘discourses’).
…make possible human experiences,
identities, capacities, feelings and
qualities.
It does matter which word you choose to
describe the experience in question: it
does change the nature of the
experience!
Unlike natural objects…
…which can exist in an isolated pure state
(e.g. pure Oxygen, Sodium Chloride, DNA)
outside of human culture and society,
psychological objects are made possible
by a network of related discursive terms which is itself a reflection of a particular
human society and culture.
Psychological Objects…
• Are not reducible to more fundamental or
basic units (unlike e.g. molecules).
• Cannot be described in mathematical
terms (unlike e.g. electricity).
• Do not produce stable phenomena across
time and place (unlike e.g. gravitation).
• Do not have predictable qualities (unlike
e.g. light).
• Cannot be integrated into complex
theories (e.g. genes into evolutionary
theory, or ATP into the Krebs Cycle).
Questioning the Historical Continuity
of Psychological Objects
Much of contemporary psychology believes
“that the objects of current psychological
discourse are the real, natural objects and
that past discourse necessarily referred to
the same objects in its own quaint and
subscientific way…
(Danziger, 1990, p.336, emphasis added.)
Questioning the Historical Continuity
of Psychological Objects
Much of contemporary psychology believes
“that the objects of current psychological
discourse are the real, natural objects and
that past discourse necessarily referred to
the same objects in its own quaint and
subscientific way. What this organization
of historical material overlooks is the
possibility that the very objects of
psychological discourse, and not just
opinions about them, have changed
radically in the course of history.”
(Danziger, 1990, p.336, emphasis added.)
Natural Objects,
Psychological Objects
Natural objects: rocks, atoms, electrons,
chemicals, cells, stars, genes, electricity,
weather, hormones, viruses, bones, trees,
dinosaurs, gravity.
Psychological objects: depression, love,
melancholy, intelligence, schizophrenia, selfesteem, autism, attitudes, motivation, emotion,
dyslexia, cognition, behaviour, nostalgia, mind,
soul, ADHD, shell shock, sexuality, race,
personality, development, introversion,
feeblemindedness, hysteria, temperament.
Natural Objects…
1. have always existed (they have no history).
2. retain their properties in different historical and
geographical contexts.
3. are universal.
4. can be purified.
5. can be isolated and studied in the laboratory
without altering the object.
6. exist independently of our descriptions of them.
7. exist outside of human culture; they are not
embedded in particular forms of human life.
8. are uncontested and not controversial.
Psychological Objects…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
have not always existed (they have a history).
change between historical and geographical
contexts.
are not universal.
cannot be purified.
can be isolated and studied in the laboratory only if
violence is done to the object (i.e if the object is
changed in the process).
do not exist independently of our descriptions of
them.
do not exist outside of human culture; they are
embedded in different forms of human life.
are contested and controversial.
Natural Objects, Psychological
Objects
• The proper way to study natural objects
is in the laboratory, using the tried and
tested methods of science.
• The proper way to study psychological
objects is through an analysis of the
meanings and descriptions of human
experiences in their particular contexts.
• The proper way to study
psychological objects is through
historical and conceptual analysis.