chapter 11 - american psychology and functionalism

Question 1

how do structuralism and functionalism differ as paradigms?

Answer 1

• function over structure; functionalism said everything about us is evolved due to natural selection, need to survive (Darwinian influence)
• functionalism was non-reductionistic, active mind; structuralism said mind is a machine, passive)
• functionalism had a broader scope and methodology; structuralism is narrower
• functionalism has biological tradition (evolutionary theory), rationalism, pragmatisim (practical, applied)

Question 2

what were the major influences on William James as he created functionalism?

Answer 2

• the work of Charles Darwin
• rationalism
• non-reductionistic
• active mind
• was a really depressed dude

Question 3

how does James’s description of consciousness compare to other approaches we have discussed?

Answer 3

• consciousness is personal and reflects the experiences of the individual, subjective experience of existentialism, relates to Wundt’s apperception (active and voluntary, under the individual’s control)
• it is constantly changing, can never have the same idea twice, relates to Heraclitus’s idea that things never “are” but are always “becoming”
• it is selective, some of the many mental events entering consciousness are selected for further consideration and others are inhibited
• it is functional and ensures our survival, relates to Darwinism (we have evolved to be conscious beings because we would otherwise cease to exist)

Question 4

how does James describe the self?

Answer 4

• partly known, partly knowing; partly object, partly subject
• empirical self (me): material self, social self, spiritual self
• self as knower (I), the pure ego that accounts for a person’s awareness of their empirical self

Question 5

how does James’ view of emotions relate to modern theories of emotions?

Answer 5

• modern theorists have built on its ideas by proposing that the experience of emotion is modulated by both physiological feedback and other information
• James suggested that the experience of emotion consists solely of bodily changes

Question 6

how do James’s theories incorporate notions of free will or voluntary action? how would James describe the causes of human thought and behavior?

Answer 6

free will:
- ideo-motor theory of behavior
- relates solely to the amount of effort of attention or consent which we can at any time put forth. chance is the free element, and chance comes before choice
- voluntary action and mental effort are inseparable
causes:
- all function, and internal states have a casual relationship with external behavior
- instincts drive behavior
- ideas of actions flow immediately and automatically (habitually or reflexively) into behavior
- behavior is both instinctive and learned. we first react behaviorally and then emotionally

Question 7

how does British empiricism connect to the German physiology zeitgeist, then functionalism, and ultimately behaviorism?

Answer 7

British Empiricism: emphasizing the knowledge we get from our experiences (sensation and perception), causal things with anatomy, functions of things, then behavior only
German physiology: physiology zeitgeist influence by empiricist emphasis on causality and no mind
Functionalism: heavily inspired by Darwin, who believed that studying behavior was at least as important as studying the mind, what we have is useful
Behaviorism: influenced by functionalism because of the internal states and surrounding environment relationship