The drama unfolds

1
The drama unfolds

• America takes Command of the Arena of
  Psychology
• Revolutions begin not with guns but with ideas

2
The Cast (in order of appearance)

• Charles Darwin 1859
• Thomas Malthus 1789
• Erasmus Darwin 1800
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1809
• Charles Lyell 1840
• Alfred Russell Wallace 1858

3
The Cast, continued

• Thomas Henry Huxley 1859
• Sir Francis Galton 1869 1901
• Herbert Spencer 1860-1897
• Samuel Butler 1872

4
The Scene

• England, America
• Industrial Revolution
• Science
• Intellectual climate

5
Functionalism

• Antecedent Influences, Pioneers, Founders, and
  Developers

6
Act I.Antecedent Influences

• My work is now nearly finished but as it will
  take me two or three more years to complete it,
  and as my health is far from strong, I have been
  urged to publish this Abstract. I have more
  especially been induced to do this, as Mr.
  Wallacehas arrived at almost exactly the same
  general conclusions that I have on the origin of
  species Charles Darwin
• I finished your book yesterdayno work on
  natural history science I have met with has made
  so great an impression on meAs for your
  doctrines I am prepared to go to the stake if
  requisiteand as to the curs which will bark and
  yelpI am sharpening up my claws and beak in
  readiness. letter from Thomas Henry Huxley
• to Darwin, November 23, 1859

7
More seriously, the Influence of Charles Darwin
on Psychology

• Influences on Charles Darwin
• Essay on the Principle of Population (1789)
• Thomas Malthus
• HMS Beagle (1831-1836)
• Life evolves from a filament
• (Erasmus Darwin1800))
• The inheritance of acquired traits
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1809)
• Evolution of the geology of the earth
• Charles Lyell (1840)
• Alfred Russel Wallace (1858)

8
Darwins Influence on Psychology

• Comparative psychology
• the continuity of animals
• Purpose of conscious activity
• functionalism
• Broadened the base and methods of psychology
• E.g., the study of emotions (James theory later)
• E.g., child psychology
• Individual differencesvariation among members of
  the same species

9
Antecedent Influences

• Influence of Francis Galton
• Hereditary Genius (1869)
• Measuring intelligence
• Statistics Biometrika J. (1901)
• Eugenics
• Mental tests

10
Antecedent Influences

• Influence of Herbert Spencer
• Social Darwinism
• Synthetic philosophy (1860-1897)
• Influence on William James (Principles of
  Psychology, 1855)
• Influence of Samuel Butler
• The evolution of machines
• (mechanism)
• Erewhon (1872)

11
Achievements of Functionalism

• Liberated psychology
• Expanded applications of psychology
• Made psychology useful
• What happened to Functionalism?
• What is psychology today?
• Learning
• Testing
• Perception
• Psychotherapy