Developmental psychology.pdf

18 Background and Methods
Figure 1.10
B. F. Skinner. His approach to
psychology has resulted in manypractical
applications, especially in
education, business, child rearing,
and therapy.
Figure 1.11
Sigmund Freud. He is shown here a
few years after his trip to the United
States in 1909, which gave
international recognition to his work.
their skulls," and to study human beings as an object in nature. A behavioristic psychologist
thus was restricted to observing a stimulus, which is any event that arouses
behavior, and a response, which is the organism's reaction to a stimulus. This psychology
is referred to as stimulus-response psychology and also as S-R psychology.
After Watson, behaviorism acquired another controversial spokesman, B. F.
Skinner, known for research on rats and pigeons and misunderstood for ideas in his
Utopian novel Walden Two. Skinner has continued the behavioristic emphasis on objectivity
and has stressed the ways in which behavior is developed and sustained by
external events, such as a smile, food, freedom, and other environmental circumstances.
These events are called reinforcement because they reinforce or support the
behavior that precedes them, increasing the likelihood that it will reappear (Figure
1.10).
In studying the three Christs, a behaviorist would concentrate on their overt
reactions, such as Leon's habit of "shaking off," designed to dispel electronic interferences
that he believed disrupted him. He did so by sitting stiffly in his chair, holding
his breath, and vigorously massaging his head at the temples. When his quarrels with
the others were most intense, he "shook off" almost every twenty minutes. The behaviorist
would speculate that this habitual response was supported by the environment,
perhaps through cessation of the quarrels, extra attention from the staff,
relaxation induced by the massage, or some combination of these events. Later Leon
found another method for "shaking off," introducing his head into the toilet bowl. Again,
the behaviorist would look for reinforcing events in the environment that supported
this response; if they ceased, this behavior presumably would disappear as well.
The details of the behavioristic outlook are considered throughout this book,
especially in connection with an approach to learning called conditioning. For now, it
is sufficient to note that there are many behavioristic psychologists today and many
opponents of this view, both within and outside the field. Behaviorism is one of the
most systematic developments in the field of psychology, and applications are found in
virtually all of the social sciences.
Model of Psychoanalysis Unlike behaviorism, psychoanalysis did not arise as a
protest against any other system, unless we can say that Sigmund Freud's theory was
a grand intellectual protest against the rigid social code of his society. A remark by
his father illustrates the attitudes of the day and his son's capacities: "My Sigmund's
little toe is cleverer than my head, but he would never dare to contradict me!" (Wittels,
in Jones, 1957).
Freud's basic premise was that behavior can be influenced by past events which
seemingly have been forgotten. Wundt claimed that psychology should study conscious
experience, but Freud described an unconscious realm, one that could be understood
only by careful examination of childhood experiences. He introduced a new method
for this purpose, in which the person reclined on a couch and expressed whatever
thoughts came to mind. Today the term psychoanalysis refers to Freud's theory of
personality and also to this method of therapy (Figure 1.11).
This revolutionary doctrine soon developed into a whole system of psychological
thought, including many distinct psychological concepts. The most fundamental
principle is unconscious motivation, which states that behavior is significantly influenced
by past events of which the individual is no longer aware. In speculating on the
origin of behavioral disorders, the psychoanalyst is concerned with thoughts and feelings,
which are internal events, inside the individual. In Leon's case, for example, the
emphasis would be upon long-forgotten childhood conflicts.
In the calmer atmosphere of the new rotating chairmanship, Leon changed
his name from Leon to Rex, then to Dung, and then to Dr. Righteous Idealed Dung,
all the while still claiming an identity as Jesus Christ. What did these names mean to
him? Why did he choose them? As might be speculated in psychoanalysis, perhaps he
was reenacting the classical drama of Oedipus Rex, in which a son struggles against
his father over relationships with his mother. Perhaps Leon is ashamed of himself for
this rivalry, referring to himself in the most derogatory terms. The name Dr. Righteous