William James

1. William James

2. English Psychopedagogy Class III Semester 2011 Group # 9 • Ana Raquel Ortiz 20051900255 • Sandra Tatiana Rodas 20061008329 • Vilma Alejandra Cortes 20042100313

3. Biography William James was born in New York City on January 11th1842. • James studied at Harvard’s Lawrence scientific school and the school of medicine.

4. James studied medicine , physiology and biology and began to teach those subjects, but was drown to scientific study of the human mind at a time when psychology constituted itself as a science. He was subject to variety of psychological symptoms which were diagnosed at the time as neurasthenia, and which included periods of depression during which he contemplated suicide for months to end.

5. Career • He spent most of his academic career at Harvard: • He was a physiology instructor, • an anatomy instructor, • an assistant psychology professor, • an assistant philosophy professor, • A full professor. • All that between the spring of 1873 to 1907.

6. He was one of the strongest proponents of the school of “Functionalism” in psychology and “Pragmatism” in philosophy. He was a founder of the American Society for psychical research as well as a champion of alternative approaches to healing.

7. William James wrote voluminously throughout his life, in 1878 he agreed to write a psychology textbook for the American publisher Henry Holt. James made some of his most important philosophical contributions in the last decade of his life

8. Among his works are: • The Principles of Psychology. • The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. • The Varieties of Religious Experience. • The Sentiment of Rationality.

9. Theory of Emotions

10. What is an emotion?

11. James conceived an emotion in terms of a sequence of events that starts with the occurrence of an arousing stimulus, that ends with a passionate feeling, is a conscious emotional experience.

12. James is one of the two namesakes of the James-Lange theory of emotion, which he formulated independently of Carl Lange in the 1880s. The theory holds that emotion is the mind’s perception of physiological conditions that result from some stimulus.

13. This theory is used to describe a phenomenon where the physiological response to a stimulus creates the psychological (emotional) reaction. The main idea James had was that emotion did not begin with the conscious experience of an affect. They both proposed that bodily and behavioral responses in emotion were prior events. James focused on emotion as the subsequent effect of a physiological change.

14. The James-Lange Theory of Emotion was one of the first theories to attempt to describe the process of emotional reactions. Up until the creation of this theory, relatively few studies and theories existed that related to the science of emotion. That is why experimental evidence to support the James-Lange theory was hard to come by; there was limited information about the actual chemicals and signals that created a physical response to an external stimulus.

16. However, James offered a piece of evidence that he used to support his theory: He stated that if an emotionless person were used as a subject, it would be possible to use this person’s feedback during an experimental situation to determine whether or not an emotion happens immediately after a stimulus is introduced and then induces a physical reaction.

17. James and Lange would argue against this sequence of events. In James’ theory, he stated that “emotion-inspiring objects” will cause one to feel physical changes and emotional effects, unless that person is “absolutely anesthetic inside and out”. James believed that this type of person could respond to a stimulus without feeling the accompanying emotion, proving that emotions do not precede the physical reaction, and emotions do not cause people to physically react.

18. For example: It is not that we see a bear, fear it and then run. We see a bear and run, consequently we fear the bear. Our mind’s perception of the higher adrenaline level, heartbeat, etc, is an emotion.

19. Another example is: When confronted with a frightening situation such as a loud crash, one’s body responds to the sudden noise by triggering the “fight or flight” response. Adrenaline is pumped into the body, the heart rate rises, and muscles tense up. According to the James theory, the brain will recognize these physiological changes as ones that happen in response to a frightening event, and it will then activate the “frightened” emotion in the person .

20. How can we, as teachers, relate this theory with education?

21. Two things are important in this: whether we interpret the event as good or bad for us, and what we believe is the cause of the event. • The sequence thus is as follows: • Event ==> thinking ==> Simultaneous arousal and emotion • This challenges the two-factors of the thinking step: • In primary appraisal, we consider how the situation affects our personal well-being. • In secondary appraisal we consider how we might cope with the situation.

22. Example: When a classmate gets better grades than us, we might feel resentful if we think we deserve those grades more than he/she does. So what? Using it Demonstrate the teacher how hard you are going to get the grades you deserve.

23. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. -William James

24. Theory of emotions

25. Bibliography • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Website at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/by Russell Goodman on September 7th 2011. • William James Biography, About. Com Guide website at http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/jamesbio.htm by Kendra Cherryon September 7th 2011. • Youtube Broadcast Yourself Website at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozQN3jVUHGM on september 7th 2011.

26. Thank You For Your Attention