Meta-Theoretical Considerations
Organismic Views
At the core of Organismic philosophy is the view that there are certain Properties unique to animate life (living things differ from non living things) Negentropy- (root is entropy- molecular disorders) the amount of molecular disorder that is exported from a system in order to keep the amount of entropy low. Living things want to remove disorder and doing so the organism is sustained Emergent phenomena- we constantly develop new structures (physical, cognitive, psychological) life can be defined in part by the development of new structures Hierarchical systems- the nature of life itself is to move towards greater complexity and organization Downward causation - higher level systems can effect change in lower level systems. Ex. Budda Monks can control the Alpha Waves in their brains through meditation Self-organization (autopoiesis)- process of self creation
Paradigm shifts
According to Kuhn, the way science advances is through Paradigm shifts Periodic revolution in the nature of scientific inquiry. Sometimes anomalous results build up within a field and those results challenge the dominant paradigm. Once this happens it is likely that a new paradigm will form and subsumes the old paradigm and disassociated facts.
phenomenon
(A phenomenon is an association between two or more variables, How things relate to each other )
On the Causes of Behavior (Some Vignettes)
"A 22-year-old man shot and killed a store owner in a failed robbery attempt. The shooter is reported to have a severe drug addiction and criminal record. The shooting occurred when the store owner refused to turn over the money in his cash drawer. The shooter fled the scene, but was later captured by police." What caused this behavior?? There are a variety of potential different causes for this behavior ranging in poverty and destitution to drug addiction or to biological and chemical imbalance that gives rise to a drug addiction As flood waters rose in her New Orleans apartment, a 42 year old woman, who many considered to be quirky and eccentric, refused to leave even as her neighbors beckoned from a small boat outside. She continued to call for her cat "Midnight", who unbeknownst to her had escaped to the rooftop of the building. After their pleas went unheeded, the rescuers finally decided they had to leave her behind." What caused this behavior? At the heart of scientific inquiry is the desire to learn the cause of a phenomenon, the cause of an event or occurrence What causes of behavior are important to study theoretically or imperially
B.F. Skinner's View
"A person's behavior is completely controlled by genetics and environmental history, rather than the person himself as an initiating factor or agent." (Skinner, 1953) "No place for intentions or purpose..." (Skinner, 1974) Reductionist and Mechanistic views have been pervasive for explaining human behavior across the life sciences These mechanistic and reductionist views that focused exclusively on material and efficient causality have dominated psychological thought as well For example, staring in the mid 1900s Operant Psychology became very popular The forerunner, founder of operant psychology was B. F. Skinner - not shy in expressing mechanistic and reductionist views His first statement leaves no room for intentions, purpose, will, choice, etc (aka inner determinants of behavior) Our behavior is completely determined by our genetics and by our environmental history
Theories of Personality
"Grand" theories (macro theories) of personality in psychology- comprehensive theories that attempt to explain a wide range of human behavior while remaining parsimonious (minimal set of explanatory concepts) These Grand Theories (macro theories) stand in contrast to mini theories Mini theories (very based on social psychology) - Cognitive dissonance mini theories describe a very specific aspect of psychological experience Emergent theories - recently formed, formed by systematically combining several mini theories together Ex. Positive psychology movement (going on for 12-13 years) Grand theories play Practical role as frameworks for understanding and intervention a) Differ in the facts in which they take interest. ex. Behaviorism focuses only on observable behavior. psychodynamic theory focus mainly on unconscious forces that affect our behavior b) Differ in the methods used to collect those facts. Behaviorism focuses on empirical inquiry. Psychodynamic approaches use clinical techniques to gather up theoretical propositions. c) Differ in the level of analysis at which they operate. Some theories focus at the level of behavior only, some only thoughts and feelings as well as behavior, some only on conscious processes etc. d) Differ in what they view as causes/explanations of behavior e) Differ in prescriptions for how to intervene. There are many different techniques doctors use for people suffering from psychopathology
Quotes from Kuhn
"Research is a strenuous and devoted attempt to force nature into the conceptual boxes supplied by professional education...whatever the arbitrariness in their historic origins..." "One of the things a scientific community acquires with a paradigm is a criteria for choosing problems that...can be assumed to have solutions..." "A paradigm can, for that matter, even insulate a community from those socially important problems that...cannot be stated in terms of the conceptual and instrumental tools the paradigm supplies." These Describe the promise of paradigms. What he is saying in these quotes is that paradigms set criteria for choosing problems that have solutions, those problems can be meaningless and as a result paradigms may insulate a scientific community from problems that have real importance to them
Bruno's Heresy
"This entire globe, this star, not being subject to death and dissolution and annihilation being impossible anywhere in Nature, from time to time renews itself by changing and altering all its parts. There is no absolute up or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space; but the position of a body is relative to that of other bodies. Everywhere there is incessant relative change in position throughout the universe, and the observer is always at the center of things. "Perhaps you, my judges, pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it." These challenges were met with very strong resistance
A Scientific Approach to Personality
-Can we have a scientific approach to personality? Many things that happen in personality psychology are out of the realm of scientific observation -Thomas Kuhn - The major theorist on the philosophy of science - wrote The structure of scientific Revolutions -In his book wrote that Science does not progress through a linear accumulation of new knowledge (it is not the case that new evidence is simply added onto pre existing evidence) But rather science progresses by establishing paradigms through which people view the world and conduct research - When scientists are dealing with the same paradigms, they are sort of speaking the same language -Science is not a mere accumulation of facts, but rather includes competing ways of organizing facts into knowledge (science progresses most through competition of paradigms)
Aristotelian View of Causality (from Physics)
-First philosopher to address this question of what causes/explanations of behavior are important to study theoretically or empirically was Aristotle -In his work Physics he outlined his view of causality that centered on the notion of Aitia -Aitia - The reason why something occurs (or cause of a phenomenon) -Aitia is the root word in English Etiology (study of causation) -Aitia bear responsibility for an event's occurrence He outlined Four causes/Aitia 1. Material cause: explanation with Reference to the physical substance that makes up a person, thing, or event. (material make-up) Example: Criminal robed the store because of a dopamine imbalance in his brain. Physical aspect that gives rise to the behavior Material cause for explanation has really dominated as an approach to personality and psychology Hippocrates posed what came to be known as the Humor Theory of personality - assumed that each of our personalities is a function of how much of different types of bile we possess in our bodies. Some people have an over abundance of "black" bile - these people are predisposed to depression. Others have over abundance of yellow bile- easily angered and bad tempered Over abundance of Flem - calm and unemotional Over abundance of Blood - warm and loving According to Aristotle to fully explain a persons behavior all four causes need to be used 2. Efficient cause: an Explanation with reference to a preceding sequence of events (chain of events that led up to behavior) 3. Formal Cause: Explanation with Reference to pattern of events over time 4. Final cause: Reference to the end goal. goal towards which the behavior intends "That for the sake of which" something occurs
What is Meta-Psychology?
-Within psychology, Meta-psychology Concerns the organization of theoretical frameworks -Meta psychology accepts that theories have different foci, assumptions, and rules of evidence -Ex. What is a relevant cause/explanation of behavior? Within psychology there are many different views on this question. Two views - macro theories A) the operant view (BF Skinner) - the cause of the behavior is located solely in the environment B) The psychodynamic view (Freud)- the cause of behavior is located within the unconscious -Meta Psychology concerns the nature and structure of psychological theories, and the relation of fact to theory
What is a Theory?
A framework for explaining some phenomenon 1. Provides testable models of some observation (Theories are by there very nature must be able to generate predictions or hypothesis about how two or more variables are related ) 2. Must be Falsifiable - data can be easily collected to contradict the theory a) Example of a falsifiable theory - is that all humans live forever, the presentation of one dead human would prove the theory to be false. b) Example of a Non falsifiable theory - No human lives forever - you would have to track a person forever to find out if that is the case 3. Must be Parsimonious - it relies on a minimal number of assumptions/explanatory constructs to explain as much of a phenomenon as possible (simpler is better - we prefer the parsimonious theory) If you had two theoretical accounts of the same phenomenon and one relied on 3 constructs and another on four constructs but they both did an equally good job of explaining that phenomenon we would prefer the theory with 3 construct one 4. Theories are founded on certain assumptions - these theoretical assumptions may be implicit to the theory and in this case they are typically a part of a Meta - Theory 5. Theories are modifiable - In order to have a good theory it must be able to be modified. If evidence comes in that contradicts the theory that you currently have, you have to be able to change it (otherwise theory will fall apart)
Advent of the Scientific Revolution
After 12-1300 years of focus on Deity Teleology the scientific revolution began to get wrapped up in Ernest One of the forerunners of the Scientific Revolution - Roger Bacon (1214-1294), English empiricist He performed experiments that showed that God need not be the final cause, phenomena need not be explained with reference to Gods plan or intention. Placed considerable emphasis on imperialism Knowledge by observation- we can deduce truth through observation Controlled experimentation. Manipulating one variable and keeping all others constant Nicholas Copernicus Prussian (1473-1543) - Sun not Earth is center of Solar system. Scientific Revolution began with this!! Galileo (1564-1642)- Italian astronomer, made improvements to telescope that helped prove Copernicus' finding. The catholic church forbid his presentation of Hilo centrism as empirical fact b/c it contradicted the literal meaning of scripture, spent last years of life in house arrest Bruno (1548-1603) - Italian Gilbert (1544-1603) - English, Magnetism and electricity Brahe (1546-1601)-Danish astronomer Kepler (1571-1630)-German astronomer who proposed that heavenly bodies orbit not in perfect circles but rather in elliptic ordinance Deity Teleology was Challenged!!!!
Modern Constructivist Theories
All of the constuctivist theories rely on Abstract concepts as "organizers"/ organized knowledge Some examples Mendel's "gene"- when Mendel was doing his theorizing he didn't possess the tools necessary to recognize a gene. So he invented a concept called "the gene" which acted as an organizing concept (way of understanding evidence he accumulated Quarks- building blocks of protons and neutrons Most important organizing concept in psychology is Unconscious complexes - no one can see the unconscious and directly study it Organizing concepts are at the heart of reductionist views and essential to make sense of the scientific observations that are accumulated
Constructivism
Constructivism - Primary scientific opposition to reductionism Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) - began theory of Constructivism He Argued against empiricist view of knowledge. Knowledge is not solely a function of observation. It is something more Rather than being an object of scientific scrutiny the subject (you) is at the center of your knowledge He also discussed how we develop knowledge No knowledge/understanding based on senses alone. Rather we develop knowledge through what he referred to as Organizing constructs. We must use Organizing constructs that promote understanding (knowledge is more than power and control) In contrast to reductionist philosophy "Cause" itself is an organizing construct. Knowledge involves a synthetic understanding- in formulating knowledge we encounter the world in myriad ways, assemble pieces of knowledge, break them up, integrate them, into bigger sense of knowledge With the rise of constructivism you now become an active agent in your behavior
Mechanistic Views of Human Behavior
Descartes (1596-1650) - All animals are nothing but machines, he started the mechanistic tradition -One of the major models of Decardian theory was known as Reflex-arc model of behavior- What is the cause of animal behavior? Animals are stimulated by outside environmental forces which shunt fluids throughout the body, responses then occur (little room for free choice) -Hobbes (1588-1679) Focused on Materialism and determinism. Humans are machines. No need for final cause/ explanation of behavior -La Mettrie (1748) Man is a machine -von Helmholtz (1821-1895) Mechanist and die-hard reductionist -Sechenov and Pavlov (important figures in theories in personality in PSY) -Reductionist views of behavior Sechenov - science must be experimental and focused on human reflexes. Switch model of behavior - we have preprogrammed movements or reflexes that can be switched on by the environment and off by the brain (inhibitory mechanism) only job is to inhibit preprogrammed reflexes switched on by environment - conditional responses in animals - animals have a set of unconditional responses, natural responses that occur in response to environmental stimuli Dog Experiment -Watson (important figures in theories in personality in PSY). took the ideas of Pavlov and applied them to humans - all emotional responses are conditioned and elicited by environmental stimuli
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
English philosopher asserted that humans can liberate themselves through science Scientific Knowledge = allows us Power and control over nature And to really develop knowledge In a scientific sense Bacon stressed Material and efficient causality -on material and efficient causes Equivalent to modern-day reductionists "Knowledge and power are synonymous, since ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect." Knowledge will result in..."a line and race of inventions that may subdue and overcome the necessity of toil and the miseries of humanity."
Procrusties
Greek mythology, He had a bed and he would take note of the size of a traveler passing by him. He would shrink his bed and then chop of the lower and the upper half of the traveler. Or he would lengthen his bed and stretch the traveler Idea is that paradigms can become arbitrary standards to which exact compliance is enforced. If findings don't fit within the paradigm the findings are dismissed.
The 1st Millennium of Western Science
Large # of Scholastics (from Christianity and Islam's) that adopted Aristotelian views on causality. They argue that Aristotelian causality is important to explain behavior (thomas Equenus?) Something interesting occurred- The vast majority of truth during the first millennium of western science was introduced from scripture Truth was viewed as deduction from scripture Led to - Deity teleology - all phenomena can and should be explained with respect to Gods design and ultimate intentions Based on God's design and intentions - led to corruption - Scientists needed to make sure their info was in line with Scripture Responsible for geocentric theory (view) of universe - the earth is center of the solar system and of the universe and all heavenly bodies orbit around the earth in perfect circles directly in line with gods plan
A Classic Example
Many examples in psy how paradigms can insulate scientific communities from real problems, psychological experiences. A classic example comes from behaviorism, an approach within PSY that dominated for 50 years Behaviorism - John Watson's (1924) dictum: "The time has come for psychology to ban all references to consciousness" Radical statement. In 1924 when psychology was only about 40 years old as a science, Watson is saying to ban all references to consciousness. How is this? It is b/c The dominant paradigm in 1924 was that of behaviorism which was adamant about the fact that PSY should study only what can be observed All inner phenomenon (feelings, personality, etc) were simply banned from the scientific study of psychology In this way according to Kuhn and other philosophers Theory can become a "Procrustean Bed"
Two main Forms of Explanation in Science
Mechanism (often called Reductionism) *Central premises in Reductionist theories is that there is an exclusive reliance on material and efficient causality. All behavior and mental life can and ought to be explained with reference to the material makeup of the organism and with reference to the chain of events that preceded the behavior Teleology * Stress on final causality- ultimate goal to which behavior intends Entailment - relation between two things We see this in Behaviorism - there is an environmental stimulus that prompts a behavior (this is efficient causality) or we can explain behavior with reference to genetics (material causality)
Developments in the Life Sciences
Mechanistic view Major proponents throughout the centuries Helmholtz (19th), Crick (20th), Pinker (21st) Vitalist view- 150 years ago opposition which rose against reductionist views The vitalist view proposes that functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from physiochemical forces You cannot reduce the behavior and mental life of living things to biology, chemistry and physics Why the vitalists "lost" "It is now generally considered that biology had to rid itself of vitalism to enable significant progress to occur. It is suggested that psychology will develop as a science only after it rids itself of anti-reductionistic, 'emergentism'." (Thomas, 2001) in the history of science, Organismic views emerged from these debates Vitalists lost the debate bc physics, chemistry and biology study phenomenon that are directly observable Imperative that they dismiss the vitalist view
Modern Reductionism
Personality and self are simply outcomes of "non-conscious bits of organic machinery, as utterly lacking in point of view or inner life as a kidney or a kneecap." (Hofstader & Dennett, 1981) "Cognitive neuroscientists have not only exorcised the ghost, but have shown that the brain does not even have a part that does exactly what the ghost is supposed to do: review all the facts and make a decision..." (Pinker, 2002) These views towards behavior still exist These are mechanistic reductionist views of behavior of animals and humans
Constructivist and Organismic Theories of Personality
Psychodynamic models - Freud Existential-phenomenological theories- Client-centered approach/ Therapy -Carl Rogers Self-determination theory
What is a Meta-Theory?
Refers to a set of philosophical assumptions about the nature of behavior and mental life Includes a whole series of theories, aka macro-theories. Meta theories provide a basis for all the macro-theories Used to account for, synthesize, and reduce a set of theories into a simpler, more useful framework. Idea is that If you have four theories of personality, 2 related to Mechanistic and 2 related to Organismic, just by knowing those theories you have an idea of how they approach behavior Meta theories play a dominant role in all science, not just in psychology. Some examples of Meta Theories within Psychology: mechanistic theories and organismic theories
Non-Reductionist Views
René Descartes- First critic and proponent of Reductionism - he argued that animal behavior in general can be explained by reductionist principles but he noted that there are important differences between animals and humans The difference was in the type of soul we possess. Animals possess a sensitive soul which allow them to motility and rudimentary emotional experiences (anger, companionship, rage) Humans possess a rational soul which allows for reason, reflection, and symbolization. The rational soul is immortal. What distinguishes the two is the soul as well as the function the soul can perform. As humans we have the capacity for volition, to make choices particularly bc volition is exercised by the soul (we can reflect and think about what we do) In addition humans can act from knowledge (unlike animals) Mechanistic Reductionist views dominated scientific thought for the past 400 years but there have been a number of critics of reductionists
Modern Organismic Views
The "autonomy" of the biological and life sciences (see Jacob, 1973; Mayr, 1997) "The denial of free will comes from viewing a brain as being embedded in a linear causal chain." (Freeman, 1999) "Attempts at reduction...to laws of physical sciences have rarely, if ever, led to any advance of our understanding." (Mayr, 1997) "Free will is entirely compatible with a brain." (Ridley, 2003) BIG DEBATE on free will
Paradigms (or Disciplinary Matrices)
The term paradigm (or disciplinary matrix) was first brought into the philosophy of science by Kuhn. What is a paradigm (or disciplinary matrix)? Generally accepted set of assumptions agreed upon by the scientific community Allows for organization and simplification ( of facts) Paradigms - By establishing paradigms scientists can start to think about problems using a common language. They can conduct research on important problems using a similar language. Some examples of paradigms within psychology: Non conscious processes are real. This is important from a historical perspective within psychology (psychodynamic theory is founded on this paradigm) Unconscious thought theory (contemporary psychology)- examines the decision making that occurs when we think about problems consciously vs. unconsciously) 2. Feelings are epiphenomenal to the cause of behavior, feelings or personality do not play a causal role in our behavior. This paradigm is important from a historical as well as contemporary perspective in psychology - Behavioral theories (Skinner)- is founded on the paradigm that feelings and other internal processes play no role in causing our behavior. Also cognitive behavioral theories is founded on this paradigm Sometimes paradigms can stand in conflict Without paradigms we would have volumes of simple observations of what was going on and no interpretation of the facts
Mechanistic Meta theory -
This theory relies on four basic assumptions. 1. Humans (and all animals) are by nature passive organs, 2. Our behavior is energized by internal processes in the organism physiological drives, needs (such as hunger, thirst, sex). 3. Our behavior is directed by stimulus response bonds (Some aspect of the environment pulls our behavior from us, forces it out of us 4. Learning occurs through a process known as accretion (accretion - new behaviors/stimulus response bonds are added on to previous pieces of existing information This meta-theory dominates a lot of theories of personality and psychotherapy
testable theory/Un-testable theory
Two varieties of theories: testable theory - rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation (a phenomenon in psychology) is when one engages in an activity for the apparent satisfaction and enjoyment of the behavior, behavior is motivated by its own properties. This can easily be put to scientific test. You find an intrinsically motivated activity, you provide rewards to one group of participants and not to the other and you examine subsequent behavior after the experimental induction. b) Un-testable theory - Does life exist after death? we cannot address this scientifically
Organismic Meta theory
also relies on four basic assumptions 1. Rather than being passive all organisms are active and proactive. There is a basic energy (of pro-activity in all living things) 2. Our Behavior can be energized by three different sources: psychological drives, psychological needs and emotions. 3. Are behavior is directed by choice and goals rather than stimulus response bonds. We have the capacity to make choices that meaningfully affect our lives and those choices give direction to our behavior 4. Learning is a process of organization, synthesis, integration and unity NOT of accretion
