Contemporary Psychology

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Contemporary Psychology
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Scientific reasons for the decline of behaviorism

• Findings began to occur that were inconsistent
  with learning theories
• Behaviorist began to argue among themselves about
  the need to develop learning theories

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The Zeitgeist

• Psychologist became involved in WWII
• Behaviorist psychology could not address
  important questions being asked
• Psychologists were working with other
  professionals who contributed new tools for
  looking at human behavior

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1950s The beginning of the cognitive movement

• 1954 P. W. Bridgman, who gave psychology the
  concept of operational definitions renounced
  strict behaviorism
• Jean Piaget most of his studies done in 1920s
  and 30s, but not translated until 1950s

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1950s The beginning of the cognitive movement

• Two people instrumental in the resurgence of
  cognitive psychology
• George Miller and Ulric Neisser

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George Miller

• Introduction to psychology mostly self-taught
• 1950s all textbooks were purely behaviorist
• Latter part of the 1950s he became interested in
  computers and computer simulations of the mind
• Also encouraged to abandon behaviorism when he
  developed allergies to animal hair

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Miller at Harvard

• 1960 Hr and Jerome Bruner given William James old
  house to set up a lab to study the human mind
• Miller chose the name cognition as the name for
  their subject

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Center for Cognitive Studies

• Developed to be against behaviorism
• Behaviorism the ruling authority, they were
  anti-establishment (1960s)
• Topics studied language, memory, perception,
  thinking, development, etc.
• All basic parts of cognitive psychology and
  forbidden topics for behaviorists

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Ulric Neisser

• Physics undergraduate who took a psychology
  course from Miller
• M.A. degree from Kohler and in 1956 received his
  PhD from Harvard
• Found behaviorism to be very peculiar if not
  crazy

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Ulric Neisser

• 1st academic position was at Brandeis University
  Abraham Maslow was chair of the dept.
• 1967 he published Cognitive Psychology in which
  he defined what it was
• He was proposing a new way of studying human
  behavior not trying to start a new school of
  psychology
• In 1976, he published a new book Cognition and
  Reality in which he criticized cognitive
  psychology for too much reliance on laboratory
  studies

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Cognitive psychology today

• The information processing and computer model of
  Miller and others has been abandoned for a brain
  model
• The basic topics have remained the same although
  the immense increase in knowledge has created
  more specialized areas of study
• Cognitive psychology like behaviorism has
  impacted all disciplines in psychology

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Humanistic psychology

• Basic ideas of Humanistic psychology were not new
• Humanistic supporters developed the ideas at a
  time it when it could be accepted
• Greatly effected by the unrest and
  dissatisfaction of young people in the 1960s

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Humanistic criticism of Behaviorism

• 1. too narrow, sterile, and artificial approach
• Emphasis on overt behavior was dehumanizing
• Rejected the concept of humans functioning in a
  deterministic manner
• Behaviorism did not address human characteristics
  that made us different than nonhumans

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Humanistic criticism of Psychoanalytic theory

• Too deterministic and ignored the role of
  consciousness
• It only studied disturbed individuals
• It ignored positive human qualities

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Basic concepts of Humanistic psychology

• Study all aspects of the human experience
• Study normal healthy humans
• Help normal people grow

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Abraham Maslow

• A staunch behaviorist who became influenced by
  Wertheimer and Ruth Benedict, an American
  anthropologist
• Developed his hierarchy of need with
  self-actualization at the pinnacle of the pyramid
• Humans seen in a very positive light always
  striving to improve

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Criticisms of Maslow

• Subjective criteria for a person to be
  self-actualized
• Very little empirical support for his theory
• Based on very few subjects
• Limited research failed to support his theory
• Theory found to have a low degree of scientific
  validity and a very limited application to
  business and industry

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Carl Rogers

• Person-centered or client centered therapy
• Personality was the result of a motivation
  similar to self-actualization
• Studied people with mental disorders because he
  was treating people
• People can rationally change their thoughts and
  behaviors from undesirable to desirable

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Influence of Humanistic psychology

• Rogers person centered therapy still popular and
  frequently used
• Never replaced behaviorism and psychoanalysis and
  never developed into a school of psychology
• Most humanist were in clinical practice not
  academic positions
• Continued to attack behaviorism and Freudian
  psychology long after their influence was gone
• They never truly defined what it was, just what
  it wasnt

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Growth of Professional psychology in the U. S.

• 1930s almost all people calling themselves
  psychologists worked in universities and colleges
• 1950s only half were in academic positions

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Influence of WWII

• Need to treat war large number of war casualties
  and others created a large need for psychologists
  working outside academia
• 1950s APA set up the Board of Professional
  Psychologist to test and license professional
  psychologists
• 1950s and 1960s demand for clinical
  psychologist much greater than the demand now
  supply has caught up with demand

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Changes in the nature of professional psychology

• The result of other professions recognizing that
  knowledge of human behavior can be applied to
  many situations
• Industrial settings
• Management consulting
• Quantitative applications surveys, opinion
  polls etc.

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Outside influences on psychology

• Computers that revolutionized statistical
  analysis Multi-variant statistics
• Combining psychology with biological sciences
  Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology and medicine behavioral medicine and
  health psychology

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Has parapsychology (ESP) earned a place in
psychological science?

• Attempts of scientific study of psychic
  phenomenon date back to 1882 the Society for
  Psychical Research in London
• Proponents argue that parapsychology was once
  tangles up with astrology, numerology, magic and
  the occult, but it no longer is associated with
  these forms of mysticism. It now only includes
• Precognition
• Clairvoyance
• Psychokinetics
• Mental telepathy

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Advocates of ESP

• There are now experimental techniques that
  conform to strict scientific methodology
• History is full of examples of phenomenon which
  at one time were caused by unknown factors
• Their science is being held up to standards
  that no science could pass

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Criticisms of ESP as a science

• Gullibility of humans we easily fooled
• Inaccuracy of our sensory systems
• Inaccurate perception of probability of events
• Illusion of control
• No acceptable theory of what ESP is and how it
  works only what it isnt

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Examples of criticism

• Probability there are 22 people in a room. What
  is the probability that 2 of them have the same
  birthday?
• What we perceive as a rare event isnt always
• Deja vue
• Dreams and other premonitions of things that will
  happen

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Bottom line

• The study of ESP will probably not be considered
  as a science by most until they can describe what
  it is and the system that underlies it.
• Does this mean that it does not exist?
• No, only that current evidence does not seem to
  support it now. It is necessary to be highly
  critical of their existence until the mechanisms
  have been identified.