Keene State College Psychology Department History and Systems of Psychology, Spring 2001
Pragmatism and Functionalism
Charles Sanders Peirce: ``Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object''
William James: ``The pragmatic method ... is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences.''
In general, pragmatism meant abandoning philosophical certainty for actual results in the world of everyday experience - supposedly a typically American approach
Functionalism
Zeitgeist 1900:
Darwinism + Pragmatism = Functionalism- The Chicago School
John Dewey (Education majors take note) Also, click to see Dewey's article "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology"
John Broadus Watson
Edward Lee Thorndike, student of William James and then a self-motivated student at Columbia University initially under J.McK. Cattell - after his animal intelligence research he was active in the psychology of education at Columbia's Teachers' College
First Generation American Women Psychologists
Historical themes, 1880 - 1920
The end of Reconstruction
Industrial expansion and increasing concentration of wealth
Increasing immigration to fulfill the employment needs of the growing industries
Growth of mass society - mass communication, mass production, mass transportation, mass distribution of goods of the expanding industries
US becomes a player in world affairs - TR and the Great White Fleet's cruise around the world, TR mediates the peace in the Russo-Japanese War
New institutions of higher education are founded, including colleges for women and co-educational universities
The movement for equal rights for women including the right to vote (woman suffrage)
Last modified: March 21, 2001 Tony Stavely tstavely@keene.edu