Behaviorism & Gestalt Psychology in America
The
Rise of Behaviorism
Inroads from
Functionalism and Neo-realism (MTC)
Inroads from Comparative
psychology:
Neo-Darwinism
|
|
Edward
Lee Thorndike (1874-1949): Connectionism |
1911 - Animal
Intelligence: Escape
Puzzle boxes for food
Learning
by "trial and error" not by "reason"
Statistical
measures of behavior are useful
Russian
Physiology and biological psychology
Ivan
Michailovich Sechenov (1829-1905)
Objectivism
 |
Ivan P. Pavlov
(1849-1936): Classical Conditioning Ps |
UCS
-> UCR
(CS)
-> (CR)
Tower of
Silence: Ultimate control over vibration,
noise, temperature & odors
Vladimir
Michailovitch Bechterev (1867-1927)
Studied under
Wundt
Reflexology:
Extended Pavlov's conditioning to striated muscles (motor responses) including speech
| John Broadus
Watson (1878-1958): Behaviorist Manifesto! Didn't
understand Dewey and was not skilled at introspection |
 |
1913 - Psychology
as a Behaviorist views it
Criticized
introspection: Empirically, philosophically,
practically
Natural Science techniques require reproducible results
Cannot define
and answer clear questions
Introspection has no "practical
applications"
Proposed a psychology build upon animal
studies
which never uses "mentalistic" terms
Peripheralism
: Thinking is "implicit behavior" or "sub-vocal
speech"
Scandal: - Replaced and
copied J.M.Baldwin at John Hopkins 1908-1920 1921
- Joined J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and worked his way up from Mail Room. Also observed salemen to learn their methods. Later joined other advertising firms and used classical conditioning to connect emotions to various products into the 1950s.
1924
- Mary Cover Jones pioneered
the reconditioning
of emotional responses, a precursor to systematic desensitization
1929
- Watson debated with William McDougall over instincts Karl Lashley
(1890-1958): No localization! Law of
Mass Action:The efficiency of learning
is a function of the total mass of brain.
Discovered through extirpation studies. Equipotentiality:A principle that suggests all parts
of the cortex are involved in any type of learning Radical
(Strict) behaviorism: Consciousness
does not exist,
there is only behavior Critical history:
Politics and social action ? Gestalt
Psychology: The Challenge of Holism Kant,
Ehrenfels, & Meinong: Unity and holism of perception
From toy stroboscope to tachistoscope Gestalt
qualitaten:
Form qualities of melodic transposition,
and shape constancy; figure and ground Principles of perceptual organization: Holism 1921 - Psychologische Forschung:
Journal for gestalt until 1938 1945 - Productive thinking: "Top-Down" understanding (E=MC2)
Studied in Edinburgh then under Stumpf at
Berlin WWI worked with brain damaged aphasics
1921 - The growth of the mind:
Developmental psychology 1922 - Psychological Bulletin:
Perception: An introduction to gestalt theory 1935 - Principles of Gestalt
psychology: What is psychology? Science, Critique of the behavioral
environment Thinking, Philosophy, Learning Developed Wertheimer's
concept of A Molar
approach to the brain and physiology, using field theory from physics
Studied physics under Max Plank WWI - Tenerife, Canary Islands: Studied
chimpanzees 1917 - Mentality of Apes 1935 - Fled from Nazi's to USA:
Swarthmore college 1938 - The place of value in a
world of facts Kurt
Lewin (1890-1947): Field theory Studied at Berlin with Stumpf then fled to
USA in 1932 Life Space: Entire field of personal experience;
including past, present & future self and objects Hodological
Space: Representation of life space using vectors and valences
Sensitivity
training: T-groups later became encounter groups Many big names
in 1960's social psychology: Festinger, Likert, Schacter
Resolving Social Conflcits: Selected Papers (1948)
Action
Research - not just collect data but contribute to social change Gestalts
of Group involve: persons ---whole groups--individual change
Mach: Sensationism of space-forms and time-forms
Stumpf: phenomenology of tones
Max Wertheimer
(1880-1943)
The phi phenomenon(1912): Perception of apparent motion
Apprehension of relations -
Meaningful insight & understanding VS. "senseless" conditioning
Kurt
Koffka (1886-1941)
Isomorphism:
The principle of similarity in functional
or structural relationships. Brain involves isomorphic
representations of external reality - Physical Gestalten - .... 'neural nets'
Wolfgang
Kohler (1887-1967)
New Insights into Gestalt 
Insight:
Spontaneous apprehension of relationships into a whole situation
Problem solving is a matter of reorganizing the perceptual field (paradigm)
-impact if conscious awareness or not (unconscious)
- contains regions & barriers, has a 'permeable membrane
is the totality of life (B=f(p,e)
