Functionalism

1. Functionalism

2. 1st American school of psychology • Very eclectic – like Americans • Only real commonality was that psychology was to have a function • Two most influential functionalist psychologists: • John Dewey while at the University of Chicago • James Cattel while at Columbia

3. John Dewey • PhD at Johns Hopkins with G. Stanley Hall • Eventually chosen to be the chair of philosophy department at the new University of Chicago • 1887 – He wrote the 1st psychology textbook in U.S. Not as good as William James (1890) • 1896 – He wrote the classic paper – The reflex arc concept in psychology – cited as the 1st “functionalist” paper

4. Dewey’s purpose for psychology • Study the mind as a coordinated whole and study behaviors and ideas in a functional context • To study behaviors and ideas, you have to study how they allow organisms to adapt to their environment

5. Dewey and education • Proposed a very progressive education system • Children should learn to learn not through rote learning and memorization • Designed educational laboratory to determine the best ways to teach children • Conclusion: best way was to promote creative thought instead of the memorization of dogma

6. Dewey and education (cont.) • Dewey left Chicago in 1904 and moved to Columbia where he moved further away from psychology. Became an internationally know educational consultant • Why? • Politics

7. James Angall • Credited with formulating what functionalist psychology should be and how it differed from structuralism • Functionalism studies how consciousness works and why it works this way • Functionalism studies the mind in action because it cannot be stopped for analysis; it is continually changing and adapting • Functionalism involves the study of the interaction between the physical and psychological worlds

8. Angall’s most important contribution • Harvey Carr – took over chair when Angall left – continued the idea that psychology should never become restrictive • John B. Watson – founder of behaviorism • Both heavily involved in animal research

9. Functionalism at Columbia University • James Mckeen Cattel • PhD with Wundt • Most influenced by Galton • 1890 – published Mental Tests and Measurements while at University of Pennsylvania

10. Cattel at Columbia • “Freshman test” – given to 100 volunteers a year. • Anthropomorphic test – attempt to measure psychological abilities using physical measurements ( similar to Galton) • Unsuccessful – no correlation between scores o n the physical tests and academic performance • Demonstrated the need to design tests that measured complex mental processes

11. Other contributions of Cattel • Memory – human memory not as good as we think • Judgments of relative rank • Two important students – Edward Thorndike and Robert Woodworth

12. Cattel after Columbia • Fired from Columbia University for pacifist beliefs • Sued Columbia and won, but never got his position back • Formed the Psychological Corporation • 1st psychologist elected to the National Academy of Sciences • Bought and saved the journal Science from extinction

13. Robert S. Woodworth • Took over chair of the department at Columbia when Cattel fired • Very eclectic in his approach • Developed psychometric tests • Studied imageless thought • Stressed the importance of motivation • The most honored psychologist in U.S. history

14. Edward Thorndike • Like most functionalist came to major in psychology after reading James’ Principles of Psychology • Studied with James at Harvard until he moved to Columbia to study with Cattel • Best known for his work with cats and his puzzle boxes • Highly critical of early comparative psychologists and largely ignored their works

15. Contributions of Thorndike • Law of effect • Learning to learn • Prolific writer – over 430 publications in 43 years at Columbia • Of course most of his work was criticized by Titchner

16. Fate of Functionalism • Up until 1920’s Functionalism made psychology very important and influential • Seen as exciting • More in line with society idea about being useful • Not identified with any one person • The decline of functionalism • So diverse that it split up into many different disciplines – academic and applied • The rise of behaviorism

17. Discrimination against women in early 20th century Psychology • Inferiority of women firmly believed when it had never been scientifically investigated • Academia dominated by men and the fact was so obvious it didn’t need to be studied • Example Broca – (circular arguments) • Older people have smaller brains than young people. Young people more intelligent • “primitive” people have smaller brains than “civilized” people, and are less intelligent • Women have smaller brains than men, they are less intelligent

18. Galton and the inferiority of women • Women inferior because of poorer performance on sensory discrimination tasks • Women scored higher on tests of visual imagery. • Therefore visual imagery not an important task because women are better and they are inferior

19. Misuse of Darwin’s theory • Variability hypothesis – based upon Darwin’s data that in many species males show greater variability in traits and abilities than females • Interpretation of data: • Since women have less variability they tend to cluster around the mean – be more average and have few abilities

20. Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley • Investigated sex differences scientifically • Found little or no sex differences in emotional functioning and intelligence • Differences that were found could be attributed to environmental factors • Accused by males as “giving a feminist interpretation to the data”