THE ANTECEDENTS OF FUNCTIONALISM

Functionalism: focused on how the mind functions

The Functionalist Protest

            Structuralism was too limiting

            What does the mind do?

            Works on stuff we can actually do (all about applying knowledge)

Evolution before Darwin (you should know these in order for the exam)

            Plato and Aristotle: didn’t believe in evolution but believed in evolutionary ideas (things change over time)

            Christian thought added divine creation

            Erasmus Darwin: Charles Darwin’s grandfather; said that God put life on earth and then let it proceed “set it and forget it”

            Jean Lemark: environmental changes result in structural changes. Discovered that a giraffe’s neck would grow over time so that it could reach the leaves at the top of the tree.

            Charles Lyell: gave Darwin the idea of geological theory or that things happen in order.

            Humans and Ape-Like Creatures

                        Raised Chimp and a child together

                        The child started acting too chimp-like and the chimp tried to talk, but couldn’t pronounce correctly. They were separated.

                        Chimp skeleton looks like human skeleton

                        Fossils of species that no longer existed were found

CHARLES DARWIN

A party boy from a rich family

A slacker (felt college life was a waste of his time)

When he was in college, one of his professors sent him on a trip to HMS Beagle (a ship)

HMS Beagle (1831-1836)

            Captain Fitzroy was a deeply religious man who wanted to find someone to go on his trip with him that would help him find evidence of creationism-he picked the wrong guy!

            Captain Fitzroy tried to read people by their facial features: he said that Darwin’s nose features make him a lazy person.

Darwin developed an illness whenever he had to do something he didn’t want to do or if he was under stress. He usually felt stress when he was around other people.

Married is cousin

In 1859 he wrote a book, “Origin of Species”. It took a while to get published because he was afraid of how criticized he would be.

The constant battle between creationism and evolutionary perspectives still exists today.

Wallace wrote a paper on evolution.

Darwin’s 18 month old son died of scarlet fever.

Darwin presented information with Wallace’s paper.

Survival of the Fittest (or good enough): All species have variation in them and these characteristics make you better for survival in certain parts of the world.

            Can you survive long enough to reproduce?

Darwin wrote a second book, “Descent of Man” stating that men come from apes.

The beaks of finches (Galapagos Island): After a generation or 2, the only birds who could eat were the ones with larger, pointer beaks. Those with smaller beaks died. Then, the seeds were smaller and those with pointy beaks died off and the birds with smaller beaks survived. *Your body changes to fit your environment so you can survive. (Natural Selection).

Darwin hated being in the spot light.

Huxley: good friend of Darwin’s; he did all the talking for Darwin

British Society wanted to have a debate about Creationism vs. Evolutionary Ideas. Darwin didn’t want to go. Huxley went and spoke for him. Fitzroy showed up, stood up in the audience, and said that he was sorry for having Darwin on his ship and felt responsible for the findings of Natural Selection. No one cared about his regrets. Fitzroy then studied meteorology. He was distraught about Darwin and slit his own throat. Darwin gave Fitzroy’s widow a large sum of money.

Darwin’s Contribution:

A focus on animal psychology, which formed the basis of comparative psychology (animals are similar to humans).

An emphasis on the functions rather than the structure of the functions

The acceptance of methodology and data from Mary Fields (ex. Geology)

A focus on the description and measurement of individual differences.

SIR FRANCIS GALTON (1822-1911)

Darwin’s cousin

Read by the age of 2

At 16 trained to be a doctor to please his father

Tried a little bit of each medicine in a pharmacy to see what the effects would be. He started with the first letter of the alphabet and wanted to proceed through ‘z’. He stopped at ‘c’ because he took a laxative

As soon as his father died, Galton quit practicing medicine and wanted to travel. He picked up a few prostitutes in the meantime and got STI’s. This prevented him from doing too much of anything…

Received many rewards for publishing his findings from around the world

Became intrigued by Darwin’s book and then proposed a book called “Hereditary Genius”

There are certain types of hereditary geniuses (ex. Parents good at math, you will be. Parents suck at physics, you might).

Proposed Eugenics (aka “Good Genes”): you can improve the human race by having good genes

Said you should choose your spouse to better reproduce offspring

Wanted those who were “mentally fit” to breed

Collected Statistical Data about smart people’s children; Smart peoples children are eminent and normal people’s children are not.

Intelligence tests were given to immigrants to see which ones were allowed into the US. Those who were not smart were sterilized so they could not reproduce their mental incompetencies. In all actuality, there were translation barriers.

Known for noticing the bell curve in his statistical analysis

Karl Pearson: Galton’s student; came up with Galton that a correlation should be symbolized by the letter ‘r’.

Galton noticed that there was a regression towards the mean.

Devised mental tests to see what your skills were

Founder of the Anthropometric Lab where he studied and collected data from 900 people. He hoped to figure out what the British were like.

Conducted the first word association test

            How many words can you generate by starting with just one word? Then he timed to see how long you name off words.

Mental Imagery

            Has a hereditary basis

            Ran some of the first twin studies

Counted EVERYTHING- OCD?

Arithmetic by Smell

Given credit for:

            Nature vs. Nurture

            The use of Questionnaires in research

            Word Association Tasks

            Studies of Twins

            The use of imagery

            Correlation

GEORGE JOHN ROMANES (1849-1894)

Anecdotal Method: the use of observational reports about animal behavior

Introspection by Analogy: a technique for studying animal behavior by assuming that the same mental processes that occur in the observer’s mind also occur in the animals mind.

Darwin shared his animal notes with Romanes

Tried to develop the intelligence of animals through evolution

Apply animal behaviors to human behaviors; Animals think like humans (Anthrapomorphical thought)

Cats were the most intelligent of all creatures

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny (human development is similar to animal development)

C. LLOYD MORGAN

Lloyd Morgan’s Cannon: the notion that animal behavior must not be attributed to a higher mental process when it can be explained by a lower mental process.

Wanted to get away from the idea of anthropomorphism

Animals do things by accident and by operant conditioning.

The Antecedents of Functionalism