Review positivism and its history.
Positivism: The belief that science should study only those objects or events that can be experienced directly.
That is, all speculation about abstract entities should be avoided. Introduced Comte.
What is logical positivism? How is it different from positivism?
Logical Positivism: the philosophy of science according to which theoretical concepts are admissible if they are tied to the observable world through operational definitions. Divided science into the empirical (observational) and the theoretical. The ultimate authority for the logical positivist was empirical observation, and theories were considered useful only if they helped explain what was observed. Allowed theorizing without sacrificing objectivity.
Explain the concept of operationism and give an example to illustrate your explanation. What effect has operationism had on modern psychology?
Operational Definition: A definition that relates an abstract concept to the procedures used to measure it Operationism: The belief that all abstract scientific concepts should be operationally defined. Operational definitions could be used to convert theoretical terms like drive, learning, anxiety, and intelligence into empirical events and thus strip them of their metaphysical connotations. Such an approach was clearly in accordance with psychology's new emphasis on behavior.
How is neobehaviorism different from behaviorism as Watson founded it?
Neobehaviorism: Agreed with older forms of behaviorism that overt behavior should be psychology's subject matter but disagreed that theoretical speculation concerning abstract entities must be avoided. Such speculation was accepted provided that the theoretical terms employed are operationally defined and lead to testable predictions about overt behavior.
Discuss Edward Tolman's educational background. In what way did his trip to Germany influence his later theories of psychology?
-Pursued graduated work in philosophy and psychology at Harvard. Studied in Germany and received his doctorate back at Harvard.
Teacher at Northwestern University. While in Germany, Tolman studied with the young Gestalt psychology Kurt Koffka, and Gestalt psychology greatly influenced his later theorizing.
Why is Tolman's psychology called purposive psychology? What is the difference between molar and molecular psychology?
-Molecular Behavior: a small segment of behavior such as a reflex or a habit that is isolated for study -Purposive/Molar Behavior: Behavior that is directed toward some goal and that terminates when the goal is attained-Purposive Behaviorism: The type of behaviorism Tolman pursued, which emphasizes molar (purposive) rather than molecular behavior
Why did Tolman call Watson's psychology twitchism?
-He felt it concentrated on isolated responses to specific stimuli
Tolman was a strong supporter of using rats as laboratory animals. Why?
-He saw the use of rats as a way of guarding against event he possibility of indirect introspection that could occur if humans were used as experimental subjects
Explain the idea of intervening variables. How does the acceptance of intervening variables fit better with logical positivism than with positivism?
-Intervening Variables: Events believed to occur between environmental and behavioral events. Although intervening variables cannot be observed directly, they are thought to be causally related to behavior.
Hull's habit strength and Tolman's cognitive map are examples of intervening variables.-Because he operationally defined all of his theoretical terms
Describe Tolman's experiment on latent learning with the three groups of rats. Why are his findings significant?
Latent Learning: According to Tolman, learning that has occurred but is not translated into behavior-They are significant because his more cognitively oriented results showed the complexity of learning as as well as the viability of other explanations
Tolman would argue that learning is not dependent on being reinforced. Why?
-He believed that learning occurs constantly, with or without reinforcement or motivation. Through the confirmation of a hypothesis, expectancy, or belief, a cognitive map develops or is maintained.
That animal learns what leads to what in the environment.
Tolman also set up an experiment with rats that explained their behaviors based upon their expectancies of what would be in the food box of the maze. Describe this experiment and its results.
-"An organism learns constantly as it observes its environment. But whether the organism uses what it learned and how is determined by the organism's motivational state.
For example, a food-satiated rat might not leave the start box of a maze or might wander casually through it even though it had previously learned what had to be done to obtain food. So for Tolman, motivation influences performance but not learning. He defined performance as the translation of learning into behavior." Learning appeared to remain latent until the organism had a reason to use it.
What is a cognitive map?
According to Tolman, the mental representation of the environment
Summarize Tolman's influence on psychology.
-Viewed organisms as active processors of information, and such a view is very much in accordance with contemporary cognitive psychology -Pioneer in behavior genetics-First to publish a study on selective breeding for maze-learning ability in rats-His student Tryon became most associated with selective breeding because of his longitudinal study of maze-bright and maze-dull rats
Diagram of Tolman's approach:
Independent variables (environmental events) -> Intervening variables (theoretical concepts) -> Dependent variables (behavior)
