Functionalism

Forerunners of Functionalism

• Franz Brentano

• William James

• G. Stanley Hall + Francis Summer

• John Dewey + James Angell

• Rober Woodworth, Edward Thorndike, + Inez Prosser

Franz Brentano (1838)

• Disagreed with Tichener

  • Brentano thought what did the mind do

  • Titchener thought about what makes up the mind

• Study of the mind emphasized processes rather than units

• Laid groundwork for functionalism

• Act Psychology

  • Goal of mental process → Perform function

    • Judging

    • Loving

• Intentionality

  • Each mental act includes something outside of the mind

    • Problems → Judged

    • People → Loved

    • Flower → Perceived

Functionalism

• What does the mind do?

  • How consciousness adapts to different environments

  • Influenced by evolution

• How does mind contribute to human change and survival?

• Stressed individual differences

• 1st Major American School of Psych

William James (1842)

• America’s foremost psychologist

  • Harvard school

• 3 contributions

  • Principles of Psych

    • Successful!

    • Standard psych text

    • Influenced many students

  • Views on consciousness

  • James-Lange Theory of Emotion

• Psychology is the description and explanation of states of consciousness

• Views of Consciousness…

  • It’s personal

  • It’s ever-changing

  • It’s continuous

  • It’s selective

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

• Emotion is a result from physiological response

G. Stanley Hall (1844)

• 3 Important contributions

  • Started APA

    • 1st meeting in Hall’s Office

    • Important for Psych

      • Symbolized coming-of-age for discipline

      • Researchers share work with others

      • Admitted female members

  • Forerunner of Developmental psych

  • Clark Conference

• Wrote Adolescense

  • Start of developmental psych

• First to describe adolescence as distinct life stage

• Hall and Clark Conference

  • Celebrated Clark University’s 20th anniversary

Francis Sumner (1895)

• First African-American to earn PhD in psych

  • Studied under Hall

• Department Chair of Howard University

• Advisor to many black students

John Dewey (1859)

• Many roles…

  • Social Critic that established the ACLU

  • Psychology whos writings were a basis for functionalism

  • Educational reformer

• Chicago School

• Educational opportunities for everyone

• Old views → Teachers impart knowledge on students

• Dewey’s Views → Problem solving and teachers facilitating problem solving tasks

James Angell (1869)

• Wrote about functionalism and structuralism

  • Functionalism…

    • Psych of mental functions

    • What is mind used for?

  • Structuralism…

    • Psychology of mental elements

    • What is mind?

• Psychology studies thinking, not thoughts

Robert Woodworth (1869)

• Columbia School

• Effects of transfer of training

• Positive Transfer…

  • Learn one task → increased performance on second task

• Negative transfer…

  • Learn one task → Decreased performance on second task

• Theories of Motivation

  • Studied how motivation affects behavior

  • Dynamic Psychology is that behavior is explained if they understand an organism’s motivation

  • S-O-R

    • Stimulus → Organism → Response

    • Same stimulus result in different responses due to organism needs

    • As organism learns, it adapts to environment

Edward Thorndike (1874)

• Bridge between functionalism and behaviorism

• Notable experience with puzzle boxes

  • Placed cats in puzzle boxes where they need to do a certain action to escape

  • Cats first showed random behavior, but then it led to their freedom

  • The more they did the trials, the faster the cat escaped

• Law of Effect

  • Most behaviors → lead to annoyers

  • Certain behaviors → satisfiers

  • Behavior occurs more or less often based on outcomes

Inez Prosser (1895)

• First black woman to earn doctorate in psych

• Researched effects of segregation

  • Black students in segregated schools had higher self-esteem and better relations with teachers

  • Black students in integrated schools wanted to leave school and had worse relations with teachers

• Helped black students get money for college