SIGN-283 Lecture 21:
27 Jul 2020
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Chapter 5 – Strengthening the scientific standing of psychology
Introduction
- Although Germany granted the earliest degrees in Psych., it was in America that
psych. became a profession.
- USA began to rule the discipline in the 20th century.
- While Europe was crippled by two devastating wars, the USA became an economic
superpower that invested heavily in all types of science. → Research (1)
- US dominance was also due to the high quality of the textbooks (2) produced.
- Particularly successful author: Robert S. Woodworth → “ Experimental psychology”
review of the complete literature of lab. Research on topics ranging from
psychophysics to the psychology of thinking
5.1 The perception of psychology in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century
The expansion of psychology around the start of the 20th century
- The number of laboratories in America increased
- USA turned from a land of isolated groups of rural settlers into a nation-state
dominated by large cities with extensive communications and exchanges. → Psych.
Profited from these developments.
- In 1892 the American Psychological Association (APA) was founded, giving
psychology researcher a forum to meet and discuss their findings and 2 journals were
established that would dominate the field and that still exist today. (American
Journal of Psychology & Psychological review)
The first American psychology: functionalism
- Strong interest in Darwin`s evolutionary theory → the USA was one of the first
countries where eugenics had a strong impact. Started with Galton (positive eugenics
= encouraging people with desirable features to have more children) and others after
him diverged towards negative eugenics (preventing people with undesirable
features from entering the country and/or having children)
- Being a country of immigrants, they were convinced that human characteristics and
achievements were not solely due to inheritance but depended on the environment
as well.
- There was also a mistrust of intellectualism, knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
- Psychology changed to address concerns prevalent in American society (adaptation
to the environment, practical usefulness). → led to functionalism
Psychology and its position within universities
- Very self-centered view seen from within psychology → from an the outside,
psychology’s fate looked less glamorous.
- Most psychology laboratories were set up within philosophical and theological
institutes. (rather than science faculties)
- The other members of staff have not always greeted the newcomers with
enthusiasm and generosity.
- Experimental psychologists were often told not to stray too far from good old
psychology as developed in philosophical writings to the level of a mere science.
Trying to win over the public
The public at large did not associate psychology with science but with:
- Phrenology: view that mental functions are localized in the brain and that the
capacity of a function corresponds to the size of the brain part devoted to it; gave
rise to personality assessment by means of analyzing bumps on the skull; initiated by
Gall and Spurzheim at the bgeinning of the nineteenth century.
- Mesmerism: Mesmer claimed he could cure patients by restoring their “animal
magnetism”.
- Spiritualism: the belief that the spirit of the dead could be contacted by mediums.
Informing the public about the new psychology
- The new psychologists published hundreds of articles about the new, scientific psych.
In popular magazines and held thousands of speeches.
- Impact was limited because the topics they talked about failed to capture the
public`s imagination to the same degree as phrenology, mesmerism and spiritualism
did.
5.2 Making a science of behavior
Inspiration from animal research
◼ Researching the preservation of races in the struggle for life: the evolutionary theory
led to an increased interest in animal behavior. Survival in a context of natural
selection primarily depends on how the animal acts, not on what it thinks.
◼ Early research, trying to understand the animal’s mind: Initially animal behavior was
studied by focusing on anecdotes of intelligent behavior, these were explained by
assuming the same reasoning processes in animals as in humans → anthropomorphic
interpretation = interpreting behavior of non-human living creatures by attributing
human motives and human-like intelligence to them.
◼ Thorndike’s puzzle box: Thorndike introduced a different approach, he did not rely
on anecdotal evidence. Animals were put into a controlled environment (a puzzle
box) and conclusions were drawn on the basis of the animal’s behavior (instrumental
conditioning resulting in the law of effect = behavioral law to refer to the fact that
behaviors followed by positive consequences are strengthened and more likely to be
repeated). Has been proven wrong; imitative learning happens in all kinds of species.
1898, the year in which he published his PhD thesis on animal learning, is celebrated
as the birthday of comparative psychology.
◼ Pavlov’s research on classical conditioning: the focus on the animal`s behavior (rather
than its mind) was further strengthened by Pavlov`s work on classical conditioning.
Together the changes resulted in a research method that much more resembled the
methods used in the natural sciences. Watson started to make the claim that the
method would also be good for the study of human functioning.
The 1913 behaviorist manifesto
- In 1907 Watson was poached by Baldwin (one of the founders of Psychological
review) to become professor at the Johns Hopkins University. Baldwin was forced
from his chair because of a scandal, which left Watson in charge of both the
department and the journal.
- He used his position as editor of Psychological Review to promote the case for animal
research / to launch the behaviourist manifesto
- Psychology was defined as a purely objective experimental branch of natural science,
based on the prediction and control of behavior.
- In the manifesto he argued that previous research on introspection into
consciousness had failed significantly.
- In the manifesto he also left an opening for later study of more complex behavior
(such as imagination and reasoning). In his later writings he came to deny the
importance of such behavior.
Document Summary
Chapter 5 strengthening the scientific standing of psychology. Although germany granted the earliest degrees in psych. , it was in america that psych. became a profession. Usa began to rule the discipline in the 20th century. While europe was crippled by two devastating wars, the usa became an economic superpower that invested heavily in all types of science. Us dominance was also due to the high quality of the textbooks (2) produced. Particularly successful author: robert s. woodworth experimental psychology review of the complete literature of lab. Research on topics ranging from psychophysics to the psychology of thinking. 5. 1 the perception of psychology in the usa at the beginning of the 20th century. The expansion of psychology around the start of the 20th century. The number of laboratories in america increased. Usa turned from a land of isolated groups of rural settlers into a nation-state dominated by large cities with extensive communications and exchanges.
