G

Gall, Franz (1758-1828).

One of the first comparative anatomists, Franz Gall made 3 major findings and one theoretical extension.

First, he made thorough anatomical observations of several species and concluded that brain size and mental capacity were correlated; larger brained animals were capable of performing more complex and more varied tasks. Second, emphasized brain localization. He believed that the mind’s faculties (skills, abilities, personality traits) were assigned to local, specialized regions of the brain. In contrast to the view that the brain operates as a single entity (like the heart), Gall maintained that the brain controlled multiple faculties at the same time, each in their respective parts of the brain. Third, Gall differentiated between gray and white matter, correctly identifying gray matter with active neural tissue and white matter as conducting tissue (ganglia).

Gall’s theoretical extension of his research findings is both better known and less scientific. Using a small sample, Gall studied human skulls. He combined his belief in brain localization with the concept of exercise and concluded that the shape of a skull can serve as an index of mental ability. Gall assumed that mental functioning could be determined by observing the variation in skull structure. He assumed that any given skill was correlated with a particular part of the brain. And the better one became at that skill, the more that brain portion would enlarge (eventually forcing the skull to expand as well). Expanded portions (bumps) of the skull, then, were used to diagnosis skills and abilities. Gall called it “cranioscopy.” It is more popularly known as phrenology (coined by Thomas Foster and used by Johann Spurzheim).

In phrenology, the contour of the skull and face also was thought to reflect one’s honesty, integrity and future potential. It assumed that the brain is like a muscle, and that increased use of an a skill or function would build up the area. This flex-your-mental-muscles approach fitted well with the educational approach of “training the mind.” According to this view, the mind could be improved by general education. Reading good literature would help one in every area of life.

The problem with phrenology was that the predictions were vague and self-fulfilling. People were identified as being “friendly,” which too vague to be of much predictive value. Friendly is a difficult behavioral description, since people tend to be friendly in some situations and not in others. The predictions were also self-fulfilling. Not only did people who were characterized as being “careful” tend to act more careful, observers who were told expect “careful” behavior reported seeing it.

Gall identified 26 regions (his followers expanded it to 35). Not only did each region cause a particular behavior, the pattern of regional influence was critical. if a person was diagnosed on the basis of skull shape as being dishonest but in fact was honest in behavior, the explanation was that his dishonesty was being suppressed by one of the other regions. Every variation from prediction was explained by reinterpreting the data.

One of the problems was that Gall used a very small sample. He observed one and generalized to many. Another was that the sample was primarily composed of criminals and mental patients. “Normal” skull shapes were often inferred rather than observed; if most criminals had prominent noses, a small nose was assumed to be characteristic of normal behavior. But the real problem with phrenology was the type of evidence it accepted. Phrenology did not rely on controlled experiments but accepted spurious correlations are prove of cause-effect relationships.

Despite resistance, phrenology was very popular. In 1802 it was banned in Austria as religious heresy. And yet it was so popular that a journal on phrenology was published from 1823-1911.

 

Galton, Francis (1822-1911).

In contrast to the view of his day, Francis Galton believed that intelligence was inherited. Although most people thought everyone had the same amount of intelligence but that they differed in will and effort, Galton contended that heredity not only played a large role in determining intelligence, it held the primary role.

In his book (Hereditary Genius, 1869), Galton attempted to show that greatness (in law, medicine, etc.) was a function of family heredity, not environment. It was survival of the intellectually fittest. He believed that a highly intelligent race of people could be established if individuals didn’t select their own mates. Galton wasn’t favoring the old fashioned idea of parents selecting mates for their children; he was promoted the value of science as a matchmaker. Couples should be selected scientifically. The government should pay for the marriages of “desirable” matches and for the education of their offspring. He coined this plan for selective breeding “eugenics.”

Ironically, Galton didn’t need create an aristocracy of intelligence, wealth and influence, he was already part of it. Born in Birmingham, England, his father was a banker, his mother the half-sister to Robert Darwin (Charles Darwin’s father). His family wanted him (the youngest of 7) to become a doctor but Galton wanted adventure. He did attend medical school but took time off to travel through Austria, Turkey and Greece. When he father died, Galton inherited enough money to be financially independent and set off for a two year expedition through Africa.

It was in Africa that Galton mapped uncharted lands, learned survival skills, and came to the conclusion that the native population was not capable of acting “civilized.” He didn’t blame their poverty or lack of education; they had inherited survival and hunting abilities, not cultural and intellectual abilities. Unfortunately, the arrogance of his racist views were an expression of the culture of the time, not an isolated opinion of one person. Although his views are abhorrent, Galton reminds us that the misapplication of science to prove preconceived notions remains a danger today.

Although Galton’s conclusions have been rejected, his contributions to methodology are remarkable. It was Galton who devised the first weather charts and the use of “high”, “low” and “front.” He pioneered the use survey questionnaires, fingerprints for identification, the study of twins and word association. He also developed scatterplots and the “co-relation” (correlation), and discovered “regression toward the mean.”

Galton developed a number of tests to measure intellectual giftedness. For him, intelligence was a single factor that could be measured by sensory capacities (allowing the best adaptation to the environment). Intelligence would be evident in any task, so Galton put together a collection of disparate tasks, including standing height, sitting height, weight, arm span and strength (pulling, squeezing, etc.). In 1884, Galton had a booth at London’s International Health Exhibition where he measured nearly 10,000 people. Later, at his lab in the South Kensington Museum, people paid to have their reflexes tested and reaction time recorded (return customers received a discount). To analyze his large collection of data, Galton created methods to rank order, group and graph his findings. His findings (e.g., that arm length and leg length are correlated) are less important than his emaphsis on quantification and the analytical methods he developed.

 

Galvani, Luigi (1737-1798).

Born and educated in Bolgna, Italy, Galvani is less known as a professor of anatomy than for his conclusion that animal tissue is capable of generating electricity. Using an electrically-charged scalpel, he accidentally touched the probe to the leg of a frog, causing it to twitch. Galvani did not conclude that tissue conducts electricity but that animals actually generate it themselves.

 

Gassendi, Pierre (1592-1655).

Priest, philosopher and amateur astronomer, Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) revitalized Epicureanism and combined it with Catholic doctrine.

Noting that the concept of mind is not necessary to explain the behavior of lower animals, he extended the argument to include humans. According to Gassendi, there are no functions of the mind that cannot be attributed to the human brain. Yet he held that humans have an immortal soul. Although his views seemed contradictory to both his Christian and secular critics, Gassendi held that his materialistic and theological explanations were compatible.

It was a time of change and diverse accomplishments. In Gassendi’s lifetime, James the VI ruled Scotland, the Ming dynasty was ending, and Don Quixote and the King James version of the Bible were published. Gassendi’s contemporaries included Milton, Shakespeare and Hobbes. He attended mass with Mersenne, corresponded with Galileo and Christina of Sweden, and argued with Descartes.

Gassendi opposed the deductive dualism of Decartes, rejected innate ideas and replaced rationalism with materialism. Preferring an inductive approach, Gassendi noted that the behavior of lower animals could be described without reference to a “mind.” Consequently, there was no need to ascribe the presence of a mind to humans.

Like Bacon, Gassendi was the leading intellectual of his country. He is best known for his opposition to Aristotelean philosophy, his monistic materialism, and his integration of Epicurean and Christian ideals. Gassendi held that humans have immortal souls and the harmony of nature proves the existence of God. He also maintained that the senses are a primary source of knowledge and the brain is the center of human thinking.

Gassendi was born in the foothills of the Alps, and except for a trip to the Netherlands in 1628, he never ventured outside of France. He was born in Champtercier, 9km southwest of Digne-les-Bains. Although 2200 ft above sea level, Champtercier is still in the lavender region of Provence. It doesn’t have the hot springs of Digne-les-Bains but they share a similar history. The area was conquered by Augustine in 14 BC and ransacked several times during the Wars of Religion. In 1629, 85% of the population died from the Plague.

Gassendi studied Latin at Digne, philosophy at Aix, and theology at Aix and Avignon. In 1625, he was appointed the provost of the cathedral of Digne. In 1645, Gassendi was appointed to the College Royal of France in Paris. Although he returned to his country living to recover from inflammation in his lungs, he returned to Paris in 1653. When his fever grew worse, the doctors performed over a dozen blood letting operations to alleviate the problem; Gassendi never recovered. He died in Paris at the age of 63.

 

Gorgius (385-380 BC).

Born in Sicily, Gorgias is credited with introducing cadence in prose and using everyday examples and locations in arguments. Best known as the title character of a dialogue by Plato, Gorgias answers “what is reality?” by suggesting that nothing exits. Or if it exists it can’t be known or communicated. Ironically, Gorgias made a living by teaching rhetoric (how to communicate effectively).

 

Guthrie, Edwin (1886-1969).

For almost 45 years, Edwin R. Guthrie was a major force in learning theory. Like Watson, Guthrie focused on observable behavior. Unlike Watson, Guthrie held that learning was a one-shot process of association.

In contrast to classical conditioning , Guthrie’s associationism followed Aristotle’s concept of contiguity. Basically, Guthrie held that people tend to do what they did in a similar situation in the past. That is, the situation provides cues about how to behave. Unlike Thorndike, Guthrie did not hypothesize a law of effect. It was simply a matter of contiguity. When a stimulus situation reoccurs, it tends to be followed by the same movement which followed it before.

Guthrie’s one-shot learning did not preclude improvement. He maintained that practice doesn’t improve performance because of repetition but because new S-R associations are being made. Although any single movement is learned in one trial, there is an infinite number of stimulus combinations possible. Each minute “movement” is learned one at a time but there are so many combinations to learn that one gets better at basketball.

A movement is a collection or pattern of motor responses. Movement produces stimuli (proprioceptive stimuli) in the muscles and tendons which help produce the next movement. An “act” is a collection of movements. Well-established movements and acts are called habits.

For Guthrie, each S-R connection is created at full strength and remains in full force until it is replaced by new learning. Habit strength is determined by the number of stimuli which can produce a response.

To increase the strength of a habit (hanging up a coat), the proper cues must be associated with that response. According to Guthrie’s theory, the best way to teach children to hang up their coats when coming in from play is not to make them do it after they forget. Instead, they should practice the whole sequence by going back outside, coming in, and hanging up their coats. For Guthrie, the more stimuli which can be associated with a response the stronger the habit becomes. A director should not add more rehearsals to improve performance but more dress rehearsals.

There are four ways to break connections: sidetracking, fatigue, threshold, and incompatible response. In sidetracking, the person avoids the cues which produce the unwanted response (give up smoking while on vacation). The fatigue method presents a stimulus so often that response is impossible (ride a horse until it can’t buck). The threshold method presents the stimulus in increasing increments (don’t throw into the pool; get use to the water gradually). In the third method, an incompatible response is substituted (can’t chew gum and smoke at the same time).

 

 

H

Hall, Marshall (1790-1857)

The Scottish physician, Marshall Hall, differentiated between reflexes and learned behavior. He showed that voluntary, conscious movements were controlled by the higher brain stem and that involuntary, unconscious movements were controlled by the lower brain stem.

 

Hans, Clever (1895- 1914)

 

Haraguchi, Tsuruko (1886-1915)

 

Hartley, David (1705-1757).

Hartley studied at Cambridge and was prepared to follow his father’s footsteps (minister) but his interest in biology led him to seek a medical degree. He is considered to be one of the first physiological psychologists. In 1749, Hartley published a combination of psychological and theological insights entitled Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty and His Expectations. Like Newton, Hartley dismissed Descartes’ contention that nerves are hollow. He maintained that sensations cause vibrations in the nerves which in turn cause vibrations in the brain. These vibratuncles result in ideas (faint vibrations) and memory(reactivating the original vibrations).

 

Heidegger, Martin (1889-1976)

Born in Messkirch, Germany, Martin Heidegger stressed existential phenomenology. He maintained that people must accept that death in inevitable and that it is followed by nothingness. For Heidegger the contemplation of death was worse than the real thing.

Heidegger was an active supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. In light of the horrors of the Holocaust, Heidegger’s questioning of what it is to be and his warnings of the dangers of nihilism (being deprived of meaning) seem extremely odd.

 

Helmholtz, Hermann (1821-1894)

The leading scientist of his time, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz measured the speed of a nerve impulse (a task previously thought to be impossible), revived Thomas Young’s theory of color vision, and showed that the ear’s basilar membrane vibrates sympathetically to stimulation. A student of Johannes Muller, Helmholtz also invented the ophthalmoscope (an instrument used to look into the eye and examine the retina).

 

Herbart, Johann (1776-1841)

Frail and precocious as a child, Herbart received his early training from his mother. Although initially impressed with Kant’s writings, Herbart’s views more closely aligned with Leibnitz. Not a nativist, Herbart maintained that psychology could never be an experimental science, but the mind could be described in mathematical and quantified terms. Herbart didn’t propose laws of association because he believed that ideas have energy of their own. This internal psychic energy of ideas attracted similar ideas and repelled opposing ideas. Consequently, Herbart’s psychology is referred to as “psychic mechanics.” Herbart emphasized the interaction of ideas. His psychic dynamics followed Leibnitz’s monads. In addition, Herbart held that compatible ideas formed a cluster in consciousness. This apperceptive mass is the result of similar ideas being drawn toward each other into the conscious mind. For him, ideas could be at varying levels of consciousness, but they are attracted toward each other into a conscious mass.

 

Hering, Ewald (1834-1918)

A student of Weber and Fechner, Ewald Hering achieved early fame for discovering the Hering-Breuer reflex. Hering and Breuer showed that there are receptors in the lungs which help cause respiration. His studies on space perception were also exceedingly thorough.

About mid-career, Hering challenged the dominant theory of color vision and the authority of its author, Hermann von Helmholtz. Hering maintained that the Young-Helmholtz model didn’t account well for color blindness or for afterimages of opposite colors. He proposed three retinal receptors, each using both catabolic and anabolic processes. Hering explanation was reasonable and his research well done, but the immense prestige of Helmholtz and the force of personalities allowed the discussion to degenerate into personal confrontation, not scientific debate. Similarly, when Hering challenged Fechner’s law by proposing an alternative explanation, Fechner’s response was very personal. Although Hering wasn’t afraid to take on the intellectual giants of his time, he was no match for their popularity.

 

Hippocrates (460-370 BC)

One of the great doctors of his time, Hippocrates prescribed remedies for illnesses which were thought to be caused by an unbalance of four basic elements (earth, air, water, and fire). The goal of medicine was to keep the body’s corresponding humors in balance. For Hippocrates and his followers, life is reducible to 4 elements: earth, air, fire and water. In the body, each of these elements is associated with a bodily fluid (humor). When applied to temperaments, each element has a corresponding personality type. Earth can be seen as phlegm in the body and corresponds to a phlegmatic temperament, which is slow as earth. Air (blood) produces a sanguine (cheerful) temperament. Fire causes yellow bile and a choletic, fiery temperament, but water gives the melancholic sadness of black bile. Although Hippocrates wrote little of the works which bear his name, he emphasized the importance of clinical observation, and the physical (not spiritual) causes of diseases.

 

Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Although he was skilled at both Latin and Greek at age 15, as a philosopher Hobbes was a late bloomer. He was 40 when he read Euclid’s Elements and turned his attention to philosophy. Hobbes was 63 when he published his greatest work (Leviathan), and 88 when he translated the Iliad into English. 

He was born in Malmesburg, England, where his father was a vicar. Malmesburg, built in 640, is in western England, along the Avon river. It’s closer to Bristol than to London, and the surrounding region of Wiltshire is best known for the Stonehenge megalith. When Hobbes was quite young, his father deserted the family, leaving them to fend for themselves. Fortunately, Hobbes was supported by his uncle, a wealthy glover, who paid for the boy’s education in private school and at Oxford. After graduation, a wealthy family hired Hobbes as a private tutor and he traveled widely with them.

In 1636, at the age of 47, Hobbes visits Galileo in Florence and comes away convinced that the universe is composed only of matter and motion. For him, man is a machine whose mental activity was reducible to the motion of atoms in the brain, and free will, spirit and mind are illusions.

Although Hobbes was friends with Francis Bacon (and served as his secretary for a short time), he rejected Bacon’s inductive reasoning in favor of the deductive methods of his other friends (Galileo and Descartes). He builds his case as a chain of deductive proofs.

Thomas Hobbes is best known for his “trains of thought,” his Laws of Nature, and his emphasis on social contracts. According to Hobbes, ideas tend to follow each other, like cars of a train. These “trains of thought” are often unguided and rambling but they become orderly when two ideas are similar. One association leads to another, like train cars all coupled end to end, forming trains of thought. Although the metaphor was new, the concept of association dates back to ancient Athens. Hobbes reintroduced Plato’s and Aristotle’s explanation of learning by wrapping it in an undated package.

Hobbes proposed that there are Laws of Nature that govern human interaction. These laws are society’s way of countering the essential selfishness of people. Although these laws coincide with God’s commands, they can be discovered by reason alone and should be obeyed for purely secular reasons. For Hobbes, people are motivated by selfishness. Even good behavior is the result of personal selfishness. Good behavior leads to good internal feeling. Consequently, we do good things because we derive some internal benefit. Nature’s laws, which include the laws of peace, duty, and gratitude, are to be followed because it is in our best interest to be at peace. Moral laws are social contracts we make with other people for our mutual benefit.

For Hobbes, one thing leads to another. Just as one idea is linked to another to form a train of associations, one principle leads to another, like proofs of mathematics. Laws of Nature are connected to social contracts. Hobbes maintains that because people are basically selfish, they enter into social contracts with others out of self-preservation. Morality is a matter of convenience and survival. Nature is in a constant state of war and quarrelsomeness, so people form contracts (I won’t steal from you if you don’t steal from me) in order to survive. It is these social contracts that form the basis of civilization.

Hobbes’ ideas were quite radical. He combined the British empiricism of Bacon and the continental rationalism of Descartes. He emphasized the importance of sensory perception and experience but used the deductive reasoning and mathematical forms of geometry more characteristic of the continental thinkers. Because of his ideas, Hobbes was often at odds with those in power. From 1640-1651, he fled to France, fearful for his life. In 1667, the British House of Commons was readying a bill outlawing blasphemous literature. Hobbes had the dubious distinction of having his work Levianthan cited as an example of what should be banned.

 

Holt, Edwin B (1873-1946)

In contrast to Watson sequencing of conditioned bonds, Edwin B. Holt proposed learning is a “specific response relationship.” For Watson, each step is tied to the previous one; for Holt, walking was a molar event. Indeed, he held that most behavior is purposive and meaningful.

 

Horney, Karen  (1885-1952)

She was born in Hamburg, Germany on September 18, 1885. She did not study directly with Freud but was greatly influenced by his work. She received her MD from the University of Berlin in 1913, and moved to the US in 1932.

Horney’s writings do not form a systematic theory of psychology but show how Freud’s concepts were manipulated and expanded by his followers. Horney’s concept of basic anxiety embraces Freudian thought but extends its interpretive usefulness. For Horney, basic anxiety is feeling helpless and is a product of culturalization. Basic anxiety produces a drive for safety (security).

Horney emphasized needs, including the need for affection, approval, power, ambition and perfection. She divided these needs into 3 types of personality: toward people, against people, and away from people.

 

Hull, Clark (1884-1954)

Clark Leonard Hull had a tough childhood. In his late teens, an outbreak of typhoid fever took the lives of several of his classmates. Then, at the age of 24, Hull contracted polio, which precipitated his change from mining engineer to psychologist.

Hull was skilled at inventing equipment his needed to perform an experiment. For a study on the effect of tobacco on performance, he designed a system for delivering heated air (tobacco and tobacco filled) to the subjects so they would not know which experimental treatment they were receiving. Similarly, Hull constructed a machine to calculate inter-item correlations for a series of studies he performed on aptitude testing.

Not surprisingly, Hull believed that people are basically machines. His complex theory of learning is a combination of Newton’s deductive method, Pavlov’s classical conditioning, and Euclidean geometry. For Hull, experimental observations were validity checks on the internal postulates he had previously deduced.

Hull’s Hypothetico-Deductive Theory includes habit strength (the tendency to respond), evenly spaced trials, and reinforcement. Using inferred state and intervening variables, Hull described learning as an interactive system of probabilities.

Too complex for many and too theoretical for others, Hull was a pioneer in using animal research to generalize to human behavior. Despite his poor eyesight and poor health, Hull set a standard of experimental excellent and theoretical integrity which still serves as a model today.

 

Humbolt, Alexander (1769-1859)

The issue of animal electricity was resolved by German naturalist Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich von Humboldt. He concluded that Galvani’s animal electricity and Volta’s bimetallic electricity were related phenomenon. Animals do produce electricity (e.g., nerve conduction) but that does not rule out the production of electricity using metallic materials. Humbolt is also known for his exploration of Latin America, including Venezuela, Columbia, the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, and the Orinoco and Amazon river systems.

 

Hume, David (1711-1776)

Born and educated in Eddinburgh, Scotland, Hume studied law and business but never received a degree. As was true of his life, Hume maintained that all knowledge comes from experience. Like Berkeley, Hume noted that we cannot experience the physical world directly. You can’t prove that a table exists after you leave a room. However, for Hume, not all perceptions are equal. He distinguished between impressions (strong perceptions) and ideas (caused by weak perceptions. Hume also proposed 3 laws of association: contiguity, resemblance, and causality. Like Locke and Berkeley, Hume noted that events which happen together in time and space associated together. Another factor impacting association is resemblance (similarity). To these, Hume added a third factor: causality (the ability to associate a wound with the pain that follows).

 

Hunter, Walter S (1889-1953)

)He designed an apparatus with allowed the study of memory in animals. Hunter’s delayed reaction device restrained the animal from immediately responding. Later, the animal’s memory is allowed to show what it has learned by making a choice.

 

I

Isocrates (436 BC)

J

James, William (1842-1910)

Best known for his philosophy of pragmatism, William James helped redirect psychology into greater concern with higher mental functioning.

Educated as was befitting of a rich young man (private schools, extended periods in Europe), William and his younger brother Henry (who became a famed novelist) had all of the advantages of wealth and all of the disadvantages of a tyrannical father.

Although trained as a medical doctor, James taught philosophy at Harvard (1872). Similarly, he was not an experimentalist, and yet began what could arguably be called the first laboratory devoted to the study of psychology. In 1875 (four years before Wundt), Harvard gave him $300 to buy experimental equipment, but James did not have an overriding theoretical perspective to make his efforts a laboratory. Essentially, James was always a philosophy and occasionally a psychologist.

A predecessor of functionalism , James was less concerned with the mental structures of the mind than with the functions it performs. His book (Principles of Psychology, 1890) had a tremendous impact of the philosophy and direction of psychology. James shorter version of Principles, popularly known as “Jimmy,” was a great commercial success.

James proposed that there are 3 types of religious experience: shallow (superficial but healthy-minded), denial of anguish (able to wrestle with evil and anguish over it), and mystical. James was in the latter category, being a firm believer is psychic experience and extrasensory phenomena.

Chronologically between Wundt and Titchener, James was more of a mind-body dualist (Wundt was a parallel-ist, and Titchener a physical monist). Influenced by Darwin, James maintained that behavior is adaptable, and that in order to survive psychologically people must be conscious of and adjust to their psychological and emotional environment.

For James, consciousness is not a static picture but more like a flow of a river or stream. It is personal, ever changing, and has no breaks or cracks in it. James also held that consciousness is selective (we don’t attend to everything) and that it is object oriented (does not deal with itself).

Although not a systematic theory, James envisioned a personal self. He distinguished between “self as known” and “self as knower.” In the former, he put the “me hierarchy” (e.g., the spiritual self, the social self, and the material self). It is self as other people experience it. There also is a pure self, a soul, known only to oneself; it is the “self as knower.”

Although James discussed habit, instinct, memory, and reason, his theory of emotion has endured the longest. Before James, emotion was described as being the cause of action (I see the bear, I feel fear, I run). James maintained that emotion was a result of action (I see the bear, I run, I feel fear). Formally known as the James-Lange theory of emotion (after Danish physiologist C.G. Lange), it represented a major shift in thinking about emotion.

 

Jesus (4 BC-AD 33)

The birth of a new religion is always a major event in world history. Jesus was a Jew, as were most of his followers, but Christianity soon spread to surrounding cultures. Persecuted by Roman Emperors (including Nero, Domitian, Hadrian, etc.,), it was never very large until Diocletian (AD 303) endorsed it. Then it grew so rapidly that by 395 AD, its was Rome’s state religion, and now is the most widely distributed religion in the world. Although there no agreement on all theological issues, Christians in general belief that people possess an eternal spirit which operates independently of the laws of nature. They believe that Jesus Christ is of central importance, and that he is God (or at least closely associated with God). Jesus’ teachings on love, brotherhood, and helping others are so key concepts.

 

Janet, Pierre Marie Felix (1859-1947)

 

Jung,Carl (1875-1961)

Jung was born and raised in Switzerland, along the shore of Lake Constance, where his father pastored a small Swiss Reformed Church. Jung received his MD from the University of Basel in 1900, and spent the next nine years working in a psychiatric clinic associated with the University of Zurich.

Freud wanted Jung to succeed him, and so in 1911, over the protests of many others, Freud managed to get Jung elected as the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association. By 1912, however, their relationship had cooled, and was finally severed in 1914.

Jung accepted Freud’s insistence on a dynamic psychology of psychic energy and internal motivation. Like Freud, he was deterministic but unlike Freud, Jung incorporated aims, goals, and decisions into his model. Although he distinguished between the conscious and the unconscious, Jung’s unconscious included instincts, cultural knowledge and a basic life urge.

Like Freud, Jung believed in the importance of the unconscious mind, but he subdivided it into the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. According to Jung, emotionally charged collections of private attitudes are called complexes. In contrast, archetypes are universal thought forms (e.g., hero, mother, wise old man, etc.) are called archetypes. The most important of these archetypes are formed into systems (i.e., self). For Jung, the self involved striving for unity and wholeness, and was symbolized by a mandala, pearl, diamond, circle, or any object with central point.

Jung proposed 8 personality types, a combination of two personality orientations (extroversion and introversion) and four psychological functions (thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting). Since the self is multifaceted, it shows different sides at different times. Sometimes the self presents its public personality (persona). At other times it reveals its ability to understand the opposite sex (anima and anius), or its darker (shadow) self.

 

Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)

Born on April 22, 1724, Kant never traveled more than 40 miles from Konigsberg, Prussia. He didn’t need to; students from all over Europe came to him. His nativistic approach combined Leibnitz rationalism with Hume’s skepticism. Kant was a student at the University of Konigsberg, and then taught there until he was 73 years old. He resigned, not because he was too old, but because he would not change. Kant was asked not include his views on religion in his class lectures; he refused. His refusal may have been a matter of principle, but Kant resisted change of any kind. So punctual was he on his daily walk that people set their watches to him. Kant had followed the work of Leibnitz, but became known for his reaction against Hume. Hume held that causation is the habit of the mind; it does not come from experience. Kant countered that causation must come from somewhere, and suggested the mind has a priori categories of thought. While Hume maintained that nothing can be known entirely, Kant held that some things are certain. Kant believed these categories to be innate and universal. He believed that people come prepackaged with free will. We have an innate understanding of right and wrong. We know what we should do, but we choose whether or not we follow that rule. When in doubt about how to act, Kant recommends that we act as if our action was an example of a universal truth. Moral judgment for Kant is a categorical imperative.

 

Kierkegaard, Soren (1813-1855)

Born in Copenhagen, Soren Aabye Kierkegaard was raised in a restrictive religious environment. His father was a Lutheran who interpreted his religion through guilt and gloom. Reacting to his father’s narrow-mindedness, Kierkegaard rebelled during his college years but returned to studying theology after his father died.

Two years after his father died, Kierkegaard made a major shift in his life. He decided not to become a minister, and abruptly called off his year-long engagement to a local girl. Living off his father’s inheritance, he devoted himself to the ministry of writing. He wrote 20 books in the next 14 years.

In contrast to Hegel’s systematic and rational view of life, Kierkegaard focused on the ambiguity and sheer excitement of an unpredictable existence. He saw that philosophy can be used as an excuse for not taking personal responsibility.

According to Kierkegaard, life is full of riddles. Although people desire the infinite truths of life, they are occupied with its trivialities. We are fragile finite beings but we want to live forever. It is only when we submit to the will of God that we find ultimate freedom. For Kierkegaard, we find our meaning because of these mysteries, not in spite of them.

 

Klein, Melanie (1882-1960)

Melanie Klein (1892-1960) was one of the founders of object relations theory. Although she believed aggression is an important and common force in children, Klein modified Freud’s drive theory. She maintained that drives are psychological forces (not biological) that seek people as their objects. That is, we are driven to interact with people, and to use those interactions to fulfill our needs.

According to this view, children construct an internal representation of people. These representations are rough estimates of reality. A young child doesn’t have to capacity to understand complex relationships, so they create simple images of the people in their world. Then, they apply these rules to real people (she’s like Mom; he’s like Uncle Fred).

This approach works well when you’re young but these early stereotypes make it hard to relate to people as they actually are. Because of these images, children are slow development realistic relationships with the world. They find it difficult to give up their unconscious fantasies; they prefer the fantasy that Mom is all good and Dad is a superhero. The truth is more difficult to accept. It’s harder to understand that Mom is good and sometimes mean, or that Dad can be dependable and strong yet not able to jump over tall buildings in a single bound.

Klein also believed that the superego developed before the Oedipal complex. Consequently, even young children can experience guilt, shame and complex emotions. To avoid the anxiety over mixed feelings (or aggressive impulses), children learn to separate their emotions from the target person (object). Objects tend to be good and feelings bad. This disconnect causes problems in later life.

In addition to traditional techniques (free association, analysis of defenses, etc.), she introduced innovative therapeutic interventions that are now considered standard practices. For example, Klein was the first to use play therapy. She had children play with toys, and used those sessions to get a better understanding of their drives and emotions.

Klein was strongly opinionated and a forceful advocate for her point of view. She was part of an on-going battle of words that threatened to destroy the British Psychoanalytical Society. Some of the conflict was over how to discover and interpret a child’s ego defenses. But much of the drama was not about the use of fantasy, projection and regression. It was a battle of personalities. It was the battle of giants: Melanie Klein vs. Anna Freud.

In this corner, was Melanie Klein: the first to apply psychoanalysis to children (beating out Anna Freud by four years). Klein was a radical, daring to challenge the ideas of Sigmund Freud. And in this corner, there was Anna Freud: youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud and heir to the Freud legacy and upholder of classical psychoanalysis. Joining Anna Freud group was Melitta Schmideberg, Melanie Klein’s daughter (with whom she never reconciled).

Each camp offered a training program, and held that their approach alone should be the official training program of the organization. More than that, each wanted the other expelled from the society.

The winner? Actually, the winner was a third group: the independents, whose primary concern was compromise. In the end, the Society did what all organization do: they solved the issue politically. Each side was asked to make formal presentations of their theories. A panel listened to all concerned and decided the Society would offer both training programs. A simple solution that only took 5 years to reach

 

Koffka, Kurt (1886-1941)

A student of Stumpf, Kurt Koffka assisted Wertheimer with his experiments, and advocated Gestalt psychology. Born and educated in Berlin, Koffka escaped the Nazi regime, moved to America, and taught at Smith College (Kohler taught at Swathmore).

 

Kohler, Wolfgang (1887-1967)

Born in Estonia and educated in Berlin, Wolfgang Kohler is best known for his insight experiments with apes. During WWI, Kohler was director of an anthropoid station on Tenerife (in the Cannery Islands). He was either there to study chimpanzees or as a spy to study Allied shipping; both interpretations are possible.

Although his children report he had a secret radio they were not to talk about, Kohler preferred to discuss his observations of Sultan (an ape). According to Kohler’s observations, many animals are able to solve problems by insight. Chimpanzees could solve a string problem (how to get a banana tied to the end of a string), and Sultan was able to join two sticks together to get his food.

In Kohler’s later work, he trained chickens to peck at the darker of two discs. After acquiring the skill, they were able to select the darker disk even when the amount of grayness changed. When the original dark disc was paired with an even darker disc, the chickens were still able to choose the darker one.

 

Kulpe, Oswald (1862-1915)

A student of Wundt, Oswald Kulpe is best known for “imageless thought.” In contrast to many of Wundt’s students (who believed that thought without sensations or images was impossible), Kulpe maintained that thinking need not have images present. Emphasizing higher mental processes, Kulpe and his colleagues at Wurzburg (sometimes they are called the Wurzburg School) looked less at sensations and more at thinking.

 

Here’s where to find more information on each theorist:

• A-C
• D-F
• G-K
• L-P
• Q-S
• T-Z