Revolution In Psychology Research Articles

Conversations with the Keepers of the Internal Order: A Review of B. J. Baars’ The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology

Conversations with the Keepers of the Internal Order: A Review of B. J. Baars’ The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology

Family in Transition: Rethinking Marriage, Sexuality, Childrearing, and Family Organization

America has undergone a psychological revolution in the past 2 decades. 20 years ago people defined their satisfactions and problems in terms of how well they lived up to traditional work and family roles; today people have become more introspective more attentive to inner experience. Because of the continuing stream of new family scholarship as well as shifts in public attitudes toward the family each edition of this book is different from the previous one. Part of the confusion surrounding the current status of the family arises from the fact that the family is an inherently problematic area of study; there are few if any self-evident facts even statistical ones. Although anthropologists have tried to come up with a single definition of family that would hold across time and place they generally have concluded that doing so is not useful. Through reproduction and socialization the family presumably guarantees the continuation of society through time. Traditionally theories of socialization have taken either of 2 perspectives: 1) social molding--the child is likened to a blank slate or lump of clay waiting to be shaped by the environment; and 2) animal taming--the infant is a wild beast whose antisocial instincts need to be tamed by parents. Although the belief that early family experience is the most powerful influence in a childs life is widely shared by social scientists and the public it is not well supported by evidence and theory. Many of the difficulties besetting family life today are the consequences of some very positive changes: the decline of infant mortality and death rates in general the fact that people are living longer the use of birth control the spread of mass education and the increasing control of the individual over basic life decisions. Family life is bound up with the social economic and ideological circumstances of particular times and places.

Social psychology and the wrong revolution

AbstractMany social psychologists take increasing comfort in cognitive explanations of human action. This paper first attempts to demonstrate that cognitively based formulations not only delimit the possibilities for social understanding, but create a range of intractable conceptual problems. If real world events are reduced to cognitive representations of the world, then social events cease to exist for the discipline as legitimate foci of concern. Further, once the reality of cognition is granted, there is no conceptual means of viably explaining either the origins or acquisition of cognitive categories (schemas, representations, etc.), or the relationship between cognition and action. The paper then goes on to argue that the cognitive revolution in psychology blinds the discipline to the far more pervasive revolution occurring elsewhere in the intellectual world, that of social epistemology. When cognition is replaced by language as the major means for representing the world, then the individual is replaced by the social relationship as the central focus of concern. Theory and research within the framework of social epistemology are reviewed and their implications discussed.

Historical problems: A review essay of Baars'sthe cognitive revolution in psychology

Abstract In this review essay, numerous historical errors in The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology by Bernard J. Baars are discussed. Approximately one‐half of the book is devoted to interviews of people who have been important in the cognitive revolution, but several of the interviews are less informative than they might have been. Many of the interviews involved a minimum of interaction between Baars and the interviewees. Additionally, interesting topics, the nature of representation for example, are introduced but not considered in sufficient detail to make a contribution to either cognitive science or the history of psychology.

Bernard J. Baars. The cognitive revolution in psychology. New York and London: The Guilford Press, 1986. 443 pp. $49.50 (cloth) (Reviewed by Clarence J. Karier)

Bernard J. Baars. The cognitive revolution in psychology. New York and London: The Guilford Press, 1986. 443 pp. $49.50 (cloth) (Reviewed by Clarence J. Karier)

A Revolution Can Also Mean Returning to the Starting Point: Will School Psychology Help Special Education Complete the Circuit?

The assumption that radical reform of special education is imminent may be premature. Questions are raised about what is proposed, whose reform agenda is represented, and what evidence and analyses support reform proposals. The assumption that a revolution in school psychology will significantly affect the success of special education reform may not be warranted. Questions are raised about the sufficiency of school psychology resources and the roles of school psychologists if school psychology is revolutionized. If the proposed radical reform of special education is realized, then both special education and school psychology may have completed a circuit and need to be rediscovered.

Functions and management of affect: Applications to economic behavior

A conclusion from a review of the literature is that the cognitive revolution in psychology and consumer behavior research is followed, in the eighties, by more attention to affective factors. In this review the affective-cognitive interface and four functions of affect are described. Mood affects the recall and the estimation of probabilities of events and thus decision making; affect affects task interruption and task maintenance. Affect directs the release and inhibition of human resources. People strive for a certain level of arousal through sensation seeking and avoidance. The review is concluded by a description of the personal management of affect experience and expression.

The image of man in psychology

Gretarsson, S.J. (1988). The image of man in psychology. Theoretical and methodological issues. Nordisk Psykologi, 40, 279–288. An image of man is contrasted with models of man, and a distinction is made between methodological techniques and methodological procedures. It is pointed out that recent so-called revolutions in psychology and corresponding attacks on classical methodology have successfully changed the methodological techniques but left the procedures intact. It is argued that classical methodology is an important determiner of the structure of modern psychology, which has definite implications for the ability and the interest of psychologists in putting forth images of man.

The Origins of Behaviourism. By J. M. O'Donnell. (Pp. 300; illustrated; $40.00.) New York University Press: New York. 1985. - The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology. By B. J. Baars. (Pp. 450; £39.95.) The Guildford Press: New York. 1986.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

James J. Gibson's revolution in perceptual psychology: A case study of the transformation of scientific ideas

Recently, Hou et al. introduced a novel (2, n) privilege-based visual cryptography scheme (PVCS) with various privilege levels of shadow images. In this scheme, a shadow with a higher privilege contributes more recovered information, while a lower privileged shadow has the less recovery capability. Moreover, the visual quality of stacked result depends on the total sum of privilege levels for all involved shadows in reconstruction. Unfortunately, the PVC scheme has the inconsistency of the contrast of recovered image and the sum of privilege levels. Accordingly, an enhanced Hou et al.’s (2, n)-PVC scheme (EPVCS) is proposed to solve this inconsistency problem. However, the EPVCS is not a general solution to implement all PVCSs with arbitrary privilege levels, and it also has the unequal whiteness of shadows. In this paper, we first extend Hou et al.’s (2, n)-EPVCS with a correct privilege levels achieving the consistency of the contrast and the sum of privilege levels. Then we construct a (2, n)-PVCS to allow arbitrary privilege levels and provide the equal whiteness for each shadow.

Evading conceptual self-annihilation: Some implications of Albert Bandura's theory of the self-system for the status of psychology

There are two cognitive revolutions occuring in psychology. The first in the fields of perception, memory, language and thought uses information processing and computer models of cognition. The second in learning theory and behavioral therapy uses folk psychological concepts of cognition. To test the philosophical compatibility of these cognitive revolutions I examine the implications of Albert Bandura's theory of the self-system for the disputed question of the status of folk psychology. I argue that if the theory of the self-system is correct, then strong eliminative materialist claims about the falsity of folk psychology are disconfirmed, functionalist homunculi hypotheses need modification, and certain constraints are imposed on neurophysiological accounts of the self. Thus I conclude that the cognitive revolution in learning theory and behavior therapy is making its own distinctive contribution to the new philosophical psychology emerging from the cognitive revolution in psychology as a whole.

The Self-Concept

The self-concept is undergoing something of a renaissance in contemporary social psychology. It has, of course, been a central concept within symbolic interactionism since the seminal writings of Mead ( 1934), Cooley (1902), and James ( 1890). However, even within this sociological tradition there has been a revitalization of interest in the self-concept: with developments in role theory (Turner 1978; Gordon 1976), with the increasing focus on the concept of identity (McCall & Simmons 1978; Stryker 1980; Gordon 1968; Guiot 1977; Burke 1980), with the reemergence of interest in social structure and person­ ality (House 198 1 ; Turner 1976; Kohn 1969, 198 1 ; Rosenberg 1979), and with the reconceptualization of small group experimental situations (Alexander and colleagues 197 1 , 1 98 1 ; Webster & Sobieszek 1974). The reemergence of the self-concept is even more dramatic within psycho­ logical social psychology. Much of this revitalization of interest in self­ phenomena (e.g. self-awareness, self-esteem, self-image, self-evaluation) is due to the revolution in psychology (Dember 1974; Manis 1977), generally at the expense of behaviorism. As a result, the self-concept has become conspicuous in areas and traditions that were previously considered alien terrain: within behaviorism via Bern's ( 1972) theory of self-attribution; within social learning theory via Bandura's ( 1977) focus on self-efficacy; and within cognitive dissonance theory via Aronson's ( 1968) and Bramel's ( 1968) reformulations. It is also increasingly evident in theories of attitude and value formation and change (Rokeach 1973, 1979), in attribution theory (Epstein. 1973; Bowerman 1978), and in various other recent theories of cognitive

Models of Thought

Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon has in the past quarter century been in the front line of the information-processing revolution; in fact, to a remarkable extent his and his colleagues' contributions have written the history of that revolution in cognitive psychology. This book brings together papers dating from the start of Simon's career to the present. Its focus is on modeling the chief components of human cognition and on testing these models experimentally.

Review of The psychological society. A critical analysis of psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and the psychological revolution.

Review of The psychological society. A critical analysis of psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and the psychological revolution.

James Gibson's Ecological Revolution in Psychology

James Gibson's Ecological Revolution in Psychology

Behaviorism, Behavior Analysis, and the Career of Psychology

Although behaviorism constitutes a veritable revolution in psychology, as the renunciation of animism in favor of a concern with directly observable events, it continually faces misunderstandings, both within and without the movement. Within the movement, it is confused with the technique of conditioning in various forms, while nonbehaviorists misinterpret the disapproval of animistic interpretations as a rejection of such important forms of behavior as perceiving, thinking, feeling, and so on. It is proposed that the interbehavioral version of antianimism shows the way toward a valid, comprehensive, system of scientific psychology.

Communists, Socialists, and Christian Democrats

If certain observable trends in Latin America continue, Christian Democracy could well become the political dimension that Latin America at its present stage of development requires. Although a great social, economic, political, and psychological revolution has been sweeping Latin America, no political ideology has arisen with it. Most political parties have been convenient umbrellas for various, shifting small interest groups. Aside from a few strong parties in individual countries, political parties have lacked purpose and have shown ideological weaknesses. Although communism and socialism have been influential on occasion and in different countries, neither has managed to become the party of the masses. The two clashing influences of the present age in Latin America— the Cuban revolution and the Alliance for Progress—created the need for a solution of their conflict. Christian Democracy, especially as it has emerged in Chile, with the resounding success of President Eduardo Frei Montalva, offers hope of a synthesis. Its ideas appeal to youthful intellectuals and to middle-class women, and it has the support of the Roman Catholic Church and the labor unions. If Christian Democracy prevails in the other Latin-American countries, they may, like Chile, show an inclination to "third world" policies in international relations. Although political predictions are risky, we cannot ignore the significance of the new trend toward Christian Democracy in Latin America.—Ed.

Pirandello's Mirror

IN A TIME WHEN GREAT QUESTIONS HAD TO BE ASKED in the drama, Pirandello seemed to be ready to ask the right ones, brilliantly. He was the proper child of a questioning age, nourished on two great revolutionary movements: a revolt of the arts against all conventional forms that obscured experience, and a parallel revolution in psychology that stripped away conventional ideas of behavior to get at the nuclear process. Pirandello seemed ideally to combine the means of the new art with the probe of the new psychology, in that exploration of the self that has always been one of the chief provinces of drama. Unlike contemporaries following the same paths who were pasting the insights of Freud and Jung upon their drama, he seemed to have made his own many secrets of the psyche: he understood, with the first psychoanalysts and Gestaltists, that each man perceives life in a context determined by his needs and wants, that men seldom break out of this narrow personal world in which, instead of "seeing," they project on the screen of life the meanings they want to find there. So his drama asked the crucial questions: What is the self, if indeed there is one? What is its morality? Its conscience? Its goal? What is the responsibility of the artist who deals with it, of his audience?