What I would like you to do is to find a topic or person from this week's chapter that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find a video clip that demonstrates something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. Please use at least 3 quality resources.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, a) I would like you to say what your topic is, b) how exactly it fits into the chapter, and c) why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you read or viewed related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about the topic in a knowledgeable manner. At the end of your post, please include working URLs for the three websites. Keep in mind that it will be easier if you keep it to one topic.
Additional instructions: For each URL (internet resource) you have listed. Indicate why you chose it and the extent to which it contributed to your post.
After reading this week’s chapter I decided to do research on the topic of progressive education. This topic fits perfectly into this chapter because progressive education was a movement in the time period of this chapter. John Dewey came up with this movement making significant improvements in education. I am interested in this topic because I was to work with kids. I absolutely love working with kids and I want the best for every kid out there. That means the best education. I want to learn about how Dewey went about improving the education of children and why it was so affective. Also I would like to have kids some day and I want to know about the educational system that I send them to. I am also intrigued by the no child left behind law. In some of my classes we have discussed it but I don’t feel that I know much about it.
Progressive education is a pedagogical (art of teaching) movement that started in the late nineteenth century and hasn’t ended. John Dewey kick started the movement because of his reactions to the current practices in education. He believed that kids learn better by interacting with their environment and everyone deserved and equal opportunity to learn. With is corrections teachers and administrators embraced “the new education”
John Dewey started this process when he created a “laboratory school” in Chicago to study how children learn. He discovered many helpful things from this study. Dewey believed that we should take into account that children are social beings. Children unconsciously gain knowledge to share and partake in society and that needs to be taken into account in our educational system. The educational process has two sides: psychological and sociological with the psychological forming a basis. Children have a basis of knowledge and they build everything on it. With this Dewey made the assumption that children cannot learn without motivation. Dewey says that knowledge is a social condition and it is important to help students construct their own learning. Therefore you must focus on the child as a whole in order to teach them properly.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_education
http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html
http://www.marxists.org/archive/novack/works/1960/x03.htm
After reading the chapter assigned to us this week I decided I wanted to learn more about James Angell. He struck my interest while reading the chapter and I wanted to investigate him more.
James Angell was from a long line of scholars. His dad was the President of the University of Vermont and Michigan. His grandfather was a professor at Brown Univeersity, and his brother was a professor at the University of Michigan. Just like his family, Angell was also a professor, but he was so much more than that as well. He was an American Psychologist and Educator. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1890 with a bachelors degree. He then went on to acquire his masters degree under the superfision of John Dewey, at the University of Michigan. After being granted his masters he enrolled at Harvard University for his second masters degree, this one was in psychology. Although he never recieved a Ph.D, he did achieve over 23 honorary degrees in his lifetime. Among all these great achievements, he was also the first non-Yale graduate to become president of the University.
Among his great educational achievements, he also had a great impact on the science of psychology, and he had many achievements in that field as well. He was the fifteenth youngest president of the American Psychological Association, and he was also head of they psychology department at the University of Chicago, and evenutally was granted the honor of being the Dean. He laid the foundation for functionalism and also published a textbook that became a major statement to the functionalish approach to psychology.
James Angell was a very accomplished man. He achieved great things educationally as well as occupationally. He had a great career, and was well known, and a well educated individual. He contributed great things to the field of psychology, and will always be known for that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rowland_Angell
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/datelines_jamesangell.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/24554/James-Rowland-Angell
After reading this chapter I decided that I wanted to learn more about Thorndike’s puzzle box because I thought it was a safe way to use animals in an experimental way. I was curious what other animals he used in his study and if puzzle boxes were used by many other people. I was also going into this blog wondering what some of the results were for using the puzzle box. This relates to this chapter because it is going more in depth into Thorndike and his puzzle box research.
First I think it is important to learn about what exactly he did with this study in order to learn what has become of it today. The book did a very good job of describing his research, but I found some other information that I found informative on the subject. Thorndike created this puzzle box for the purpose of studying animal’s intelligence. He was interested in figuring out how smart they were and how easily they could catch on to something like the puzzle box. He mainly used cats in this experiment. He would place a hungry cat into the box and then observe the cat’s behavior when he locked them inside. The cat would first do a trial and error approach to getting out, but he noticed that over time the cat’s memory of the right choice was reinforced, while the levers and things that didn’t let the cat out to food would be forgotten. This experiment led Thorndike to conclude that animals learn through a process of trial and error, or by reward and punishment. This led to his theory of Law of Effect.
One of my questions was what animals did Thorndike use in his experiments, and I was able to find out that Thorndike, when studying the Law of Effect, used dogs, cats, and birds. Thorndike’s results became famous because of the cat though. He wasn’t the only person to use cats in this way. In more modern times someone with a cat named Gordon recreated Thorndike’s puzzle box experiment. Instead of making sure the cat is hungry Gordo will be rewarded with treats and catnip because that is enough of a motivation for the cat to get out of the box. In this study the cat was placed in a puzzle box three times a week for 7 weeks and each time he is timed to see how long it takes to get out. The results in this study showed that for the first 11 times cat was in the box the time in which it took him to get out varied greatly. He would do really good one day and date twenty minutes longer the next. The 12-20 times though stayed consistent with under two minutes every time. Sometimes Gordo was even able to get out in seconds.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm
I used this website because it gave a good summary of what the puzzle box experiment was and what Thorndike’s results were.
http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergrad/ptacc/elpro-palmer.pdf
I really liked this website. It was a person’s PowerPoint of their experiment with a puzzle box. I thought that it was interesting to see the data that he got and the different way in which he rewarded the cat. It showed a more modern approach to this study.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8
I watched this video of Thorndike with his puzzle box experiment so that I could visually see what he did with the cats and understand how it was that they got out of the box.
After reading chapter 7, I wanted to learn more about John Dewey and his work with educational reform. His influence on functional psychology impressed me but I was even more impressed by his influence on progressive education and social reform.He used his expertise and background in philosophy and psychology to better the society and fight for what he believed in.
John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont. He was born into a wealthy family and he attended that University of Vermont, just like his older brother. John Dewey spent his first two years after graduation as a high school teacher. Not long there after, he decided that primary and secondary education was not for him. He then went back to school in pursuit of his PhD. at John Hopkins University. Dewey taught at several universities over his life including The University of Chicago and Columbia University. Dewey resigned from a job at the University of Chicago due to disagreements with the administration. It was admirable to see how Dewey constantly and continually put others in front of himself. Along with teaching and guest speaking at lectures, Dewey also served as president of the prestigious American Psychological Association. His thorough background and experience with education makes in influence on the issue even more ground breaking and valid. In fact, as with the snow day video we just watched, Dewey did not believe that the educational system of his time was broken. Like Mitra believes today, Dewey, too, believed that it just wasn't needed anymore.
Dewey believed in democracy. Although he did campaign for women's suffrage, it was not enough, to him, to simply extend voting rights to the whole population. To him, democracy meant that everyone had a say, and an intelligent say-- common to today's phrase "education is the only way out." John Dewey believed that education should put more emphasis on "character education." As it was in Dewey's days and still today, businesses and educational settings such as schools and classrooms, along with several other dilemmas, must face problematic individuals who are egotistical, brutal, and mean. To Dewey, this was because our educational system does not focus on character forming and ethics. Dewey then came up with "ethical love." Ethics can be used interchangeably with reason, and love with emotions. Dewey believed that if everyone had strong ethical love, the world would be a better place and our society could excel in all fields.
Dewey routinely fought for the underdogs.To him, children were underdogs, or the oppressed which was a common phrase of his times-- with the women's rights movements. Until recently (in those times) the house was a place where children both worked and learned. In a time of industrial revolution, jobs were moved from the home to outside the homes and there was a shift from suburb/country towns to urban cities. The gap between the rich and the poor was growing rapidly. To give children a place to be constructive and an honest try, Dewey thought of three simple ways to counteract these dilemmas. First, schools should be free and available to all students from kindergarten to college. Secondly, children should be in charge of their education and teachers should server as leaders and aid them in time of need. Thirdly, all schools should put an emphasis on cooperation and caring. The classroom would be a welcoming and encouraging place, not a place of competition like it was (and still is today.) I think that we can still learn from Dewey's work today, as we are facing a need for educational reform and classroom evolution to nourish the technological advances of our time.
http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9593cc9f-416f-4819-aa93-0cb341e7f475%40sessionmgr112&vid=2&hid=120
This research article highlighted Dewey's accomplishments and influences on education. I learned about his belief of ethical love.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
I used this website to get more, comprehensive information about Dewey's background and earlier life.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/novack/works/1960/x03.htm
Here, I learned the specifics of Dewey's theories. This website also put Dewey's work into the context of his time, which made it easier for me to understand why he believed so strongly in what he did.
The topic that I choose from chapter seven was Titchener and his development of experimentation. I found him overall interesting and the experimental area is something I would like to learn more about. It fits into the chapter by understanding of the development of experimentation. I first learned more about Titchener. He was mainly known for his development of structuralism and his study on the mind. His focus was the differences between consciousness, and this was known as introspection. His publication of “Experimental Psychology: A Manual of Laboratory Practice,” broke down the logistics of his experimental study. He pushed his students to follow lab outlines based on introspection. Overall, Titchener was a psychologist who created a psychology based on structuralism. As a professor he developed as a professional as well as pushed his students. He began studying with Wilhelm Wundt, although, he broke away from many of his theories to create his own. I also wanted to learn more about structuralism and functionalism. Stucturalism is known has the breakdown of mental thinking and processing at a basic level. The method ised to break down consioucness was introspection. Titcher first established the name for introversion. During the time of development they were also trying to get psychology to be developed as its own area of science. His development of structuralism also helped further educational psychology. However, structuralism did not last long. Shortly after the development of structuralism passed functionalism was formed. They took the metal process of thinking to a further in-depth explanation. They were more focused on the why behind the action. The Method of Introspection was also another area I was curious about. I guess I found it interesting that it was the first step from observation to experimentation and I wanted to learn more about it. Introspection is a method to observe the consciousness based on report. The two main elements of consciousness is sensation and feelings. He also helped develop the idea of introspective habit, which consisted of highly trained individuals to report on experience. These as you can tell have their own issues within them and developed further to complete a more efficient way of research. Overall, I think the history of Titchener is interesting and I feel like he was different than the others and without him we would have not furthered this area of Psychology. He thought out side of the box, he may not have always been correct but he raised concern and that brought us to where we are today!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_B._Titchener
I used this site to get more of an understanding of Titcheners entire life and his accomplishes.
http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/structuralism.htm
This site broke down structuralism and functionalism and also talked about Titchners attributions to each area. There were also links that gave further information on each individual involved with the development.
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/480718/PSY-361%3A-Chapter-04
This site had a video of a slideshow of a chapter on experimental psychology. This included systematic experimental introspection on a more basic level.
The topic that I choose from chapter seven was Titchener and his development of experimentation. I found him overall interesting and the experimental area is something I would like to learn more about. It fits into the chapter by understanding of the development of experimentation. I first learned more about Titchener. He was mainly known for his development of structuralism and his study on the mind. His focus was the differences between consciousness, and this was known as introspection. His publication of “Experimental Psychology: A Manual of Laboratory Practice,” broke down the logistics of his experimental study. He pushed his students to follow lab outlines based on introspection. Overall, Titchener was a psychologist who created a psychology based on structuralism. As a professor he developed as a professional as well as pushed his students. He began studying with Wilhelm Wundt, although, he broke away from many of his theories to create his own. I also wanted to learn more about structuralism and functionalism. Stucturalism is known has the breakdown of mental thinking and processing at a basic level. The method ised to break down consioucness was introspection. Titcher first established the name for introversion. During the time of development they were also trying to get psychology to be developed as its own area of science. His development of structuralism also helped further educational psychology. However, structuralism did not last long. Shortly after the development of structuralism passed functionalism was formed. They took the metal process of thinking to a further in-depth explanation. They were more focused on the why behind the action. The Method of Introspection was also another area I was curious about. I guess I found it interesting that it was the first step from observation to experimentation and I wanted to learn more about it. Introspection is a method to observe the consciousness based on report. The two main elements of consciousness is sensation and feelings. He also helped develop the idea of introspective habit, which consisted of highly trained individuals to report on experience. These as you can tell have their own issues within them and developed further to complete a more efficient way of research. Overall, I think the history of Titchener is interesting and I feel like he was different than the others and without him we would have not furthered this area of Psychology. He thought out side of the box, he may not have always been correct but he raised concern and that brought us to where we are today!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_B._Titchener
I used this site to get more of an understanding of Titcheners entire life and his accomplishes.
http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/structuralism.htm
This site broke down structuralism and functionalism and also talked about Titchners attributions to each area. There were also links that gave further information on each individual involved with the development.
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/480718/PSY-361%3A-Chapter-04
This site had a video of a slideshow of a chapter on experimental psychology. This included systematic experimental introspection on a more basic level.
After reading this week’s chapter I found myself interested in Edward Titchener and his contributions to psychology around the 1900’s. Titchener’s life and contributions fit into this chapter because of all the detail throughout the chapter about Titchener. I think that I’m so interested in his ideas and contributions because it’s something I’m familiar with. Throughout high school psychology courses I learned about structural and functional psychology. However, I never knew Titchener developed structural and functional psychology, along with Wundt’s ideas toward the topic.
Titchener was born in Chichester, England in a family that was not so privileged. Fortunately, he was a very bright young man; this helped him earn plenty of scholarships to attend some of the best colleges. Through his years of college, he visited with Wundt and showed him his work. Wundt encouraged him to go back and learn more biology. Titchener was the founder and head of the structural school of psychology, structuralism, which described the elemental structures of consciousness based on introspection. Titchener developed his own version of Wundt's psychology. He stated that the main task of psychology is to discover of the elemental components of consciousness, to analyze the complex experiences of everyday life into their elements and then to understand the nature of the compounding. His primary method was introspection - the precise examination and systematic description of conscious experience, the specially trained ability to depict the phenomena of consciousness as they are. He proposed the core-context theory of meaning: a new mental process acquired its meaning from the context of other mental processes within which it occurs.
Titchener made a hug contribution for rigorous methods in psychology. He continued to translate German textbooks into English and later wrote his own textbooks and instructor’s manuals. Those works emphasized the necessity for reliable methods of introspection. Structuralism was the first school of psychology and focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Researchers tried to understand the basic elements of consciousness using a method known as introspection Wundt and Titchener each believed that introspection could be used to study the mind. However, Titchener emphasized introspection and highly-trained introspectors in his psychology to a much greater degree than Wundt did. Structuralism was a different concept in some way to Wundt, which is why Tictchener challenged other ideas towards structuralism. I think overall the reason I wanted to gain more knowledge about Ticthener beyond what the book had to offer, was because of how much he contributed to structural psychology. Throughout school I have no reelection of him or his contributions. I do recall haring about Wundt quite a bit, but Wundt was not the only one that contributed to structuralism. So I feel it’s only right to understand have knowledge of what Titchener contributed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_B._Titchener
I chose Wikipedia as a source because it’s creditable when it comes to learning the biography of one. The majority of the information about Titchener, himself, came from within
Wikipedia.
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/titchener.shtml
This webpage holds information of Titchener’s contributions, interest, and ideas. There is really no other type of information throughout this webpage and it’s not very lengthy. However, it has very rich information based on Titchener’s contributions.
http://graulab.tamu.edu/JGrau/Psyc606/Papers/Titchener.pdf
This PDF file is an article over Titchener’s structural psychology. The article holds a lot of important information about what Titchener did throughout his life, his achievements, ideas, and major contributions to psychology.
Like I stated in my blog from chapter 7, I decided to do more research on the psychologist Harvey Carr. The reason I chose to learn more on this topic was because the book only touched base briefly on him and I think that there could be a lot more to be learned. In the book they described Carr as being involved in the new psychology with its laboratory procedures. Also they talked about how he was interested in perception of space and maze learning. They also went on to describe the Carr mazes and how they improved old types. I am fascinated by Carr’s research on mazes but I wanted to learn more about his background so that was the emphasis of my research.
Carr was born in 1873 on a small farm in Indiana. His grandparents were Scottish/Irish immigrants to America, both heritages usually hold a very strong religious background, but the Carr family was an exception. They weren’t anti-religious/atheist but rather non-participants and there was no pressure for beliefs or attendance so Harvey had a clear slate with many options but this made it tough when he was trying to pick a college because many of them tried to choose applicants based off of their beliefs/attendance.
When Carr was 18 he entered DePauw University which was a three year course prep school. During these three years he had no vocational interests/opportunities, he was faintly interested in mathematics so he humored himself and decided to put an emphasis on that. He liked this subject because it was precise and definite but when it came to differential equations he started feeling otherwise. He began to explore physics and biology and then German. All was well until the beginning of his third year when he came down with a serious illness and had to quit school. IT took him nearly a year to recover and within that year he spent his time doing hard farm labor to regain his physical vitality and he also taught in small country schools so he could complete his education. After these few years he was persuaded by a friend to enter the University of Colorado in 1899 at the age of 26 and he remained there until he obtained a Master’s Degree in mathematics but he wanted to learn more on a new subject so he met with the professors from the psychology and education department. He decided to carry out a major in psychology and this took him two years. During this time there was no laboratory and many people did not believe in it, yet Carr continued to look into the field and he believed it was key even though he had some skepticisms. Before returning to Colorado for the second time he took a year to work in experimental psychology and was taught by an associate professor by the name of Angell. Eventually Angell, Watson, and Dewey created their own department and Carr was a firsthand student benefiting from what they had to offer. He also learned from Titchener’s laboratory manual. After spending time with these people learning he moved on and spent a year doing work with Donaldson in neurology although he wasn’t necessarily ecstatic about this topic, it did influence him to find out more in the problems of systematic psychology and he wanted to find solutions.
Carr eventually graduated in 1905, but failed to land any job that was appealing to him so he spent several years teaching high school students in Texas. The next summer he returned to Chicago and taught in a school in Michigan followed by two years at Pratt institute. At first he tried to teach psychology but had no success. In 1908 he took over Watson’s place in Chicago and he taught various courses in experimental psychology and did work with animals and later in space perception. He thoroughly enjoyed this work and continued on it the rest of his life.
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/datelines_harveycarr.html
http://www.igs.net/~pballan/Carr.htm
http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Carr/Carr_1961.html
After reading chapter 7 I was really interested in the idea of progressive education. The idea's of progressive education have directly effected the way we learn in schools. Progressive education is interesting because it is not an all or nothing concept. Different aspects can be incorporated into schools to make learning more up to date. It also includes, as stated in the book, the process of integrating different laws and regulation to protect the people. I am interested in this area because it drastically changed the way that the world works today.
The progressive era was a time of massive change in our society. I think it was interesting that all these ideas came around the same time. It is almost like a domino effect. We saw the good that unions did for the people and it gave us more ideas. Instead of instituting the idea of social darwinism, we aimed to protect and give even the "unfit" a fair shot at the American dream. Sure it directly effected evolution, but I believe everyone should have a fair shot. People have the ability to change and do something good for society. Who knows, maybe someone deemed "unfit" early in life, could mature and go on to find the cure for some disease. You never really know the true potential of any one individual. That is why I think it is important to protect those who are not in a position to protect themselves. I believe that if we did not implement these strategies, you would see a much greater gap in social class. This would only continue to grow as the rich have all the power and influence.
By instituting such rules, such as child labor laws, we are giving these kids a shot at education. Instead of being throw into work by their families for financial support, they have a shot at an education. Whether they take advantage of this opportunity or not is up to them. I can see how people can be against some of these ideas because some people do not use them to better themselves. Instead, they take advantage of them in a bad way. This angers certain people, but I think the good outweighs the bad. We live in a democratic society and live on the ideals of the American dream. The idea of progressive education, and the progressive era ideas, directly supports the notion that anyone can get to the top. It just takes hard work and determination.
I think the era shows the potential of the people in this country. We realized it was time for us to make changes in order to support the idea of a democratic society. Progressive education aims to make the classroom a place that students want to be part of. It is also important that we make the learning something they can motivate themselves to want to do. We should instill ideas that school is important and ever changing. I like the idea of progressive education because it aims to make our society a better place for everyone. In a way, the progressive era gave more power to all people and not just the upper class.
http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html this think gave me a great overview and understanding on the ideas and strategies involved in progressive education
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/progressive.htm this link was great at showing me different aspects of the era and it's goals
http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/s2_dewey_progr.html this link went into greater detail about what the book was talking about with Dewey and his goals also
After reading chapter 7, I wanted to do more research on Thorndike because we also just recently learned about him in my Behavior Modifications class. It fits into chapter connectionism was disgusted and his experiments with cats and a puzzle box. I was interested in learning more about Thorndike because this is the second time I’ve learned about him and I also liked that this research is the first where the animals of the experiment were not harmed.
Edward Thorndike was interested in animal intelligence. He is best known for testing cats in his puzzle box. The puzzle box started out as old wooden crates that he would find in alleys. He would then build levers and pullies that would open the door to the box. Thorndike would put a cat in the box and put a plate of food outside said box for the cat as reinforcement. The cat would have to use trial and error in order to escape the box. Thorndike hypothesized that the cat would eventually get faster at escaping the box after multiple trails. The way to measure this is called methodological construct. Eventually, this came to be known as the Law of Effect. The Law of stated that any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped. This is similar to the foundation of behavior modification—reinforcement and punishment. Thorndike also believed that behaviors were stamped in and stamped out. Behaviors that are stamped in are the ones that helped the cat escape and those that were stamped out were not effective in the escape. This experiment was used to test leaning behaviors. He concluded that animals can learn by trial and error and with reward and punishment just as humans can.
http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/book/sec3.1.pdf
I chose Dr. MacLin’s book as a source because it is where I first read about Thorndike and hi studies.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
I those this site because it was short, sweet and to the point and like Dr. MacLin’s book, it had a video which made it easy to understand.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm
I those this last site because it focused more on The Law of Effects.
The section of the chapter that really interested me the most was the part on social darwinism. It was not the longest section in the chapter, so I wanted to research more into the topic. The thing that got me wanting to do more research on this topic was the fact that Herbert Spencer found out about evolution years before Darwin and Wallace did. Thw whole time growing up teachers stressed the fact that Darwin was the father of the theory, and he coined all the terms that dealt with evolution. Turns out that those teachers were all wrong, and there was a man that came before him. I decided to research more about the man behind the theory.Just like me last topical post when I wanted to find out more about Darwin, in this one I wanted to find out more about Herbert Spencer. Not just his theory, but his upbrining that lead him to want and find out why we came about as humans. Why the theory of evolution? Also, I wanted to see if the theory is applied in today's society. Herberts theory was darwinism applied to humans, so I was just curious to see what important people felt about his theory.
I came across an article that gave me some answers to my questions. I found out more about Herberts life, and the way he was raised as a child. Turns out he was homeschooled by his parents. His father made him do a lot of schooling which include some intense work. Herbert's father always made him try to find the meanings about things, and never let questions come down to the super natural. So. Herbert grew up trying to find a solution to all of his questions, and not letting things fall back purely on the super natural(God). This in my mind is one of the main reasons why I think Herbert was the man who came up with the theory of social Darwinism, and coined the phrase survival of the fittest. Herbert would not settle for the existence of humans to be a creationist theory because a creationist theory falls back on the exsistence of the super natural. This is exactly what I wanted to find in my research because I believe that people are born to do things. This mainly from the influences of their environment. Herbert was always taught to question things, and it is only fitting that he came up with this theory. As I was researching I had the sense that Herbert was not a religious man, and for obviuos reasons. From my research I could gather that he was always set out to bring down the theory of God. Not because he did not like God, but because that theory had no data or evidence to back it up. This was one of the main reasons that he was much different form Darwin. Darwin wanted did not want to publish most of his work because he did not want to misrepresent the church. So I found out who Herbert was from this research, but I wanted to know more about his theory. I now know that he was the man who first came up with the theory, but I did not know much about it. I set out to find out more about Herberts theory of social darwinism.
The next information that I found was very helpful in the understanding of Herbert's theory of social Darwinism. Bacically it is Darwins theory of evolution applied to humans. Herbert believed that poor people were that way because they were unfit for society. He also believed that since they were considered unfit that they should not be helped by the people who are fit because the poor are suppose to fall off. The rich are the way there are because they are fit for the environment, and if they the were to help the people who were considered unfit then that nation would be washed away. The book did a decent job of explaining this theory, but was brief, so it was good to read about more examples. This information was very useful because I got to see how this theory would be applied to society. A great example that I read about was Hitler back in the 1940's. Social Darwinism was appplied during his rule because Hitler washed out all the people that he thought were unfit to society. Germans thought that if Jews were killed off then their society would thrive. This may of been a harsh example, but I could take something away from it. I took away that maybe this theory is a little extreme. I do not think that modern day society would suddenly start pulling programs to help the poor, or even help that rich that are tanking. In today's society we have plenty of programs that are just for the poor. So, I was confident that I found out what I needed to know from this article. Reading about his theory, and how it was applied through examples made it easier to understand. I have a pretty good understanding now of who Herbert was and how he was raised. I also found out from this article more about his theory, and how it may be applied. So, in my last article I just wanted to find more information on Herbert, and if I could, some more examples of how his theory his theory could be applied to really get a full understanding.
My research lead me to some information about that battle between Darwin and Herbert. Like I said earlier I grew up thining that Darwin was the father of evolution, so I could understand why Herbert was so mad that he did not get any credit. The question that I had the whole time while reading this article was why did Darwin get all the created? The only thing that I could find in my research was that Darwin just published his work faster that both Wallace and Herbert. From my understanding Herbert did not like Darwin at all. He thought that his theory was to vague, and that his was better. Herbert believed that his survival of the fittest theory was better that Darwin's natural selection theory. Herbert basically apllied Darwins theory to humans. Just like animals, if a human has an advantage it acn beat out other humans for food and space. The theory makes sense at first glance, but I do not think that something can be applied to humans. Humans do not have that animalistic urgency to fight for space and food like an animal would in the wild. Also, Herbert was a big believer in eugenics. The book talked about this a coule chapters earlier. Eugenics is a theory that states people should mate with people who have good genetics. Good looking and smart people should have kids with good looking and smart people. This did not surprise me that Herbert liked this theory because it goes hadn and hand with social darwinsim. If you want to be the most fit person in the world, than it would make sense to mate with someone that is equal or more fit than you are because that would give you the advantage against everyone else. I think that this article was useful in helping me understand the fued between Herbert and Darwin. There was some love lost between them, but I think that they helped each other. They both collected ideas about evolution and applied it to both humans and animals. Without each other the theory might have been lost. I believe that my research lead me to everything that I wanted to know about Herbert, who he was, and how the theory is applied today.
http://creation.com/herbert-spencer
This site helped me understand who Herbert was, and why he became the person who created social darwinism
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spencer/
This site helped me understand more about the theory and how it is applied in society
http://www.wtps.org/wths/imc/mla_style/Sample%20Papers/sample%20history%20paper_kirkwood.htm
This site gave me an inside look into the fued between Darwin and Herbert, and some more general knowledge about social darwinism.
I chose to learn more about Thorndike's puzzle box because I thought this was one of the most interesting things in chapter seven. I really enjoyed learning about how he developed the puzzle box to see how animals could develop the abilities to release them selves from his boxes. Edward Thorndike was an interesting psychologist and I really enjoyed learning about his puzzle box experiment.
Thorndike wanted to study if he could find any signs of intelligence from animals by seeing if they could escape from a cage that he built. The cage used a lever that the cats had to move and a string they had to pull in order to open the door which would lead to a food dish. He used hungry cats so they would be motivated to open the door. This cage would be referred to as a puzzle box. Thorndike primarily focussed this study on cats. I think cats were a good choice for his experiment because cats are believed to be quite intelligent animals.
Thorndike noticed immediately that the cats did not experience any insight of finding how to get out of the cage. He said that the process was simply trial and error. Personally I think trial and error is an important part of any learning experience. I do not understand how he would expect the cats to learn any other way. I think it is odd that he thought he would be able to have the cats immediately understand what they had to do to escape from the box and get their reward. This example of positive reinforcement played a large role in his experience because Thorndike learned that when the cats were rewarded for their action of opening the door they were immediately able to make the action a memorable one so they do it faster the next time they were in the cage. I think it is interesting how he was able to watch the cats learn.
Thorndike called this process the Law of Effect. The Law of Effect being the cats open the door and receive the positive reinforcement of food. So from the effect of receiving food the cats are able to learn how to get out and remember for the next time. I think the Law of Effect is an interesting concept.
Throughout Thorndike's experiment he also tried to learn from the behaviors on humans. While studying whether punishment or reinforcers worked more efficiently he found that the reinforcers were more effective. This makes sense because a reinforcer makes someone likely to repeat the behavior because they will want to keep receiving the reward. Obviously it would also work for punishment because the person or animal would want to avoid being punished but animals and humans have been proven to respond better to positive responses rather than negative. I also thought it was interesting that he noticed it was important to give the subject the reinforcement immediately in order to have the lesson fully sink in. If there was to big of a gap the subject would not receive the reward as being in response to the behavior.
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/Puzzle.html
This site gave background on the puzzle box
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8
This was an excellent video giving information on the experiment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike#Development_of_law_of_effect
This site gave information on the background of Thorndike and the specifics of the experiment.
After reading this chapter, I found Edward Thorndike's puzzle box experiment very interesting.
Edward Thorndike studied how cats learned to escape constructed puzzle boxes. This experiment tested the law of effect. The law of effect states that any behavior that is followed by a pleasant consequence is likely to be repeated, while any behavior that is followed by an unpleasant consequence is likely to be stopped. This experiment is also an example of instrumental conditioning, meaning that when an animal makes some response and is rewarded, the response is learned and vice versa. For the experiment, Thorndike placed a hungry cat inside a constructed box, and hung a fish outside the box. Thorndike observed the amount of time it would take the cat to escape the constructed box and obtain the fish. The cat experimented on different ways to escape the constructed box and obtain the hanging fish. Eventually the cat would stumble upon the lever and open the cage. Once the cat escaped, the cat was placed inside the box and the experiment was repeated. Thorndike learned that for the most part, the cat learned to escape by "trial-and-error". As the experiment continued, the amount of time the cat spent in the box gradually decreased. In successful trials, the cat would adopt the behavior and increasing quicken at pressing the lever. However, Thorndike believed the animal wasn't realizing what it was doing to escape but the connection between the situation and the response that gradually freed him was stamped inside the cat's mind. Thorndike also suggested that certain stimuli and responses became connected and disassociated from each other according to the law of effect. Thorndike used his findings to describe what happens when all beings learn anything. This learning involves formation of connections and these connections are strengthened according to the law of effect.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
This site gave a lot of good information and a great overview of Thorndike's experiment.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm
This site gave a lot more detail into the experiment that the first site did not.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm
This video gave a great overview and visual of Thorndike's experiment.
The topic I choice after reading this chapter this week was structuralism. This topic fits perfectly into this chapter because structuralism at the time was a big step in psychology, that later became a big part of psychology itself. Founded by Wilhelm Wundt of Germany, but mainly identified with Titchener was a way of analyzing the adult mind. I am interested in this topic because in a way it brought about the experimentalists side of psychologists (aside from the mind). Rather than just hypothesizing about events and their outcomes, students and their peers had to discuss research in progress, tinker with apparatus, and try to keep that pure laboratory psychology alive (hands on), no formal papers. Which later became known as a systematic experimental introspection. Me myself I like the experience of doing a hands on experiment, it gives a better meaning of understanding and working knowledge of what’s going on.
Structuralism is the identification of the structural elements of the human conscious experience that focused on three components: the individual elements of consciousness, how they are organized into more complex experiences, and how these mental phenomena are correlated with physical events. Titchener believed the goal to this was to study to the mind and conscious, defining them as the accumulated experience from birth to the present and the total sum of mental experience at any given moment. In understanding this we would be better able to define and categorize the components of the mind. He was able to do this education from the University of Leipzig and the influence of Wundt’s ideas of association and apperception.
The most used tool for Titchener in his structuralist psychology was introspection. A careful set of observations made under controlled conditions by trained observers, a system that used the self-observation and reporting of the conscious thoughts from the individual themselves. This could also be viewed as the human self-reflection, the focus of a lot of criticism from behaviorist. Seeing as it was a self-report from the individual, there could be no way for them to processes the mechanisms of their own mental processes. This then brought up even more conflicting results by critics, because depending on the individual and professional using introspection, the results differed in retrospect. Aside from the theoretical attacks, structuralism also was criticized for ignoring important developments, denying the theory of evolution (one of the biggest down falls), and finally Titchener himself was criticized for not using his psychology to help answer problems. But instead for the pure sake of seeking out knowledge, something that can be related to the video on Mitra and learning purely for the sake of it. Just in this case Titchener helped psychology emerge as a field separate from philosophy and people wanted him to teach and expand it to others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism_(psychology)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569652/structuralism
https://www.boundless.com/psychology/history-psychology/origin-psychology/structuralism/
I decided to explore the concept of Social Darwinism to my discussion. I was intrigued in class when we talked about how Charles Darwin actually had nothing to do with Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is a theory to state the certain people are rich and others are poor, that some people are strong and others weak, and that everyone is exactly how they are supposed to be because of a genetic predisposition. This theory should be allowed to succeed or fail on its own, but it is an example of how the theories are distorted because they are tied to someone who had nothing to do with them. People now see the term, Social Darwinism, and they think that it must be part of Darwin’s theory. I feel like many people who argue or dispute Darwin are not really aware of what actually came from Darwin and what came from other researchers who used Darwin as a stepping stone.
I was shocked to learn that the term “survival of the fittest” was not actually a saying of Darwin’s. I then began to think about how many other ways history, and any other subject, could be warped and twisted from what actually happened. How do people know that what they are learning is actually true? A better question is “does it matter?” If a concept was important enough to be remembered by history, does it matter if we get the facts 100% correct, or just the main idea? Overall, history is just a record of memories from many different people. Memory in itself is selective, and so, the recording of history would be no different.
However warped our concept of history may be, we still need to be able to interpret it and learn from it. The thing to take away from this is that Social Darwinism, for better or worse, is now connected with the theories of Charles Darwin himself. In terms of Darwin’s theories of evolution, the Social Darwinism theory makes perfect sense. Just like any other organism, people need to be able to adapt and change. Those who fail to do so will inevitably fall behind or cease to exist while those who do change and adapt will thrive. I found it interesting that this theory is really not saying anything different than what Darwin’s theories of natural selection say, but are applied to a different aspect of human nature, and thus, have vastly different consequences.
Here we now have an example of how the interpretation of a historical event can distort it. Again, we must be subjective and careful when deciding what to believe and learn from. I took much more away from the critical thinking over this subject than by any amount of reading I could have done over the subject
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism
http://www.allaboutscience.org/what-is-social-darwinism-faq.htm
http://www.conservapedia.com/Social_Darwinism
For this research assignment, I want to focus on the Titchener's stimulus error. I think this is a very interesting topic because it really emphasizes the importance of perception in our life, shaping our sensations and our experiences overall. Perception is a huge part of psychology, but it is overlooked in everyday life and most don't realize the kind of role it plays. Aside from the very topic of perception that I find interesting, this specific theory focuses on the perception of the era. This was still a very primitive part in psychology's history, and it shows in the way they used introspection as a method of scientific inquiry.
Titchener first introduced this idea when he was formulating his idea for training in introspection. The stimulus error refers to when a researcher attributes anything to his experiences, ignoring the actual stimulus and focusing on his own perceptions and preconceived notions. Titchener described this as a confusion of the physical elements of an object versus the psychological elements of an object. To hone in on the physical elements is to block out the psychological elements that are guilty of the stimulus error.
The reporter ought to focus solely on recording the quality of the sensation, including the color, shape, lines, afterimage, scent, sound, pitch, amplitude, etc. Which of these attributes they focused on depended upon the specific object the researchers aimed at measuring. This process ensured that the sensations recorded were objective.
This process differed from Wundt's theory of introspection in that Titchener and his colleagues identified and recorded thousands of sensations, versus the few Wundt identified. For example, Wundt thought that sensations could be sorted into three main categories: pleasantness vs. unpleasantness, excitation vs depression, and tension vs. relaxation. Titchener, on the other hand, identified over 44,000 of these elements, under which each sensation could be classified.
Since Edwin Boring, it has been argued whether or not the stimulus error is actually beneficial to psychology. Boring thought that we ought to cultivate the connection between psychology and physiology, as it can help us with future findings. Most modern psychologists have strayed from Titchener's interpretation of the model.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1413768
^ This was the primary article I used, by Boring. It was comprehensive, but verbose, so I used the following two sites for clarification.
http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/kardas/Courses/HP/Lectures/titchener.html
http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/evansr/EVANS19.HTM
I wanted to learn more about Edward Thorndike and his uses of his "puzzle box". I wanted to know how he thought of making a device used to study the learning curve of animals and their memorization and how exactly he built them.
After watching a reenactment of the use of Thorndike’s boxes, I can see why the book said that they were crudely created. The box looked as though it was made from scrap wood and not a whole lot of the pieces were straight. I am taking into account that the video was a reenactment, but I assume that when every source I have read comments on how poorly the boxes were made, then the video was somewhat accurate. From what I understand, the different tasks that had to be completed by an animal (a cat in most cases) similar to that of a padlock. A certain action had to be done within a certain combination in order for a door to open and a cat to receive a small treat. Thorndike theorized that the cat didn’t sit and think of ways to open the door to get the food, rather the cat accidently happened upon the correct tasks through trial and error.
I have learned that I use trial and error many times throughout my day. A good example that I thought of was rock climbing. I have been rock climbing almost every day this semester and last semester. When you go to try a new route, something that you haven’t done before, you tend to use a lot of trial and error. When I reach up for a rock, unsure of how stable it will be or how to grab it or even how to position my body, I just go with what I think will work best. When I take a fall, I make the identification that that was the wrong choice. I continue this process until I make the right choice and I succeed. When I come back to climb that route, I will remember the sequence of moves that made me successful.
My example fits very well with Thorndike’s theory of learning. His first rule states that learning is incremental and that it occurs automatically. In the example of rock climbing, every time I do something successful, I am learning without thinking to myself and I am not necessarily conscious that I have changed my behavior for the future. His experiments also fit his theory (duh). Within his theory it also says that an action will be repeated if it reaps rewards and will not be repeated if it is not useful or is self-defeating.
http://www1.appstate.edu/~beckhp/puzzlebox.htm - This website helped me understand how thorndike's boxes were used and explained the actions of a cat in order to get out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike - As always, wikipedia is useful for simple background knowledge and general information.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8 - Visual aid to show how the boxes worked and also explained his theory of trail and error.
I decided to research a little bit more on Thorndike and his puzzle box because I feel that for its time it was essential to the field of psychology. It fits into the chapter being that it was the start of experimental analysis and behavior in psychology and ultimately shaped how psychology saw and or performed experiments thereafter. The entire thought of Thorndike’s’ experiments were pretty simple from the outside, I mean he pretty much took the thought of being hungry and having the dilemma of getting food and turned it into an experiment using starved cats, and a box.
Looking at Thorndike’s puzzle box I didn’t realize that he actually build 15 different boxes, in which some of them had different or more complex routes for the cat to escape. The first cat to escape is said to have gone down in history for the first I a long line of lever pressing animals and I couldn’t help but wonder what if the cat had been lazy or simply not have cared and ended up not trying to get out of the box, would that have ended up in Thorndike not furthering his study, could we be giving credit to Thorndike when really we should be giving credit to that cat. I also couldn’t help but think about the whole concept of ‘trial and error’ and question if the way our society teaches us how to learn or how to teach is wrong, I mean if Thorndike had showed the cats how to get out would that have changed anything? Who knows, but on the same hand why don’t we teach ourselves by making mistakes and figuring out solutions, when did being wrong become a negative thing. I think Thorndike’s entire experiment or ‘theory’ makes me wonder if we overlook how simple learning can actually be if we just let it happen.
Something else I didn’t realize about Thorndike’s puzzle box was that he also did it with three dogs, I found it amusing that the only difference was the dogs weren’t deprived of food as long because of the ‘practical necessity that the dogs should be kept from howling in the evening”, like thank goodness they fed those dogs so they didn’t howl at night; who knows what would have happened had they hadn’t. Thorndike also did the same experiment as the cats and dogs with chicks, and all three animals for the most part had the same results which was pretty entertaining given that they are two totally different types of animals but yet were all able to learn and figure out an escape route- granted I think the dogs did it better.
The most interesting thing I read about was when Thorndike decided to intervene in the experiment and help the chick or other animal get out of the box given that they gave him a specific cue, that was unknown to them, first. This method seemed to work for a while but after time went on the results showed greater variability in performance and shallower time curves. Which meant that the learning rates of getting out of the box decreased, this brought me back to the thought of when a student is wrong when given a problem or certain test question why do we think we need to step in and tell them they are wrong; wouldn’t that slow down the learning process if someone is always around you whose willing to tell you what you did wrong, but never let you have the opportunity to explain your reasoning or figure out the correct answer on your own terms. Perhaps I’m taking the Thorndike’s puzzle box too far or over thinking it, but maybe I’m not, in the end I still find his experiment to have importance.
http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jeab/articles/1999/jeab-72-03-0433.pdf
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
http://genetics.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/behavior/learning/behaviorism.html
RB
After reading through this last chapter on structuralism and functionalism, the one thing that interested me the most was the movement called progressive education. As I aspire to be a teacher, whenever I really come across anything that has to with education, it automatically peaks my interest. In reading about John Dewey and his contribution, I found his initial educational reform to be the most intriguing. Thus, I decided to learn more about this movement in educational reform dubbed progressive education.
John Dewey’s contributions to education came around at the turn of the century, or during the Progressive Era. The term progressive came about as Americans began to notice the political and social effects of corporate and private power in the system of capitalism. Essentially, the Progressive Era was a reaction against social Darwinism. As an avid advocate of democracy and social reform, John Dewey felt that both schools and society needed reconstruction in order to encourage intelligence. Dewey argued that education and learning were both social processes. As one who disliked the conventional system of education, Dewey’s educational reforms helped to start a movement call progressive education. What started this whole process was Dewey’s founding of the Laboratory School in Chicago, which had the specific purpose of studying how children learn. Another contribution that kick started the progressive movement on education was his writing of the book, The School and Society.
One of the key aspects of progressive education is that democracy means active participation by all citizens in social, political and economic positions. Education should take the student into account as being an individual person. In presenting information to the students, the method of approach must focus on the student’s interests and strengths. Another aspect of progressive education is that education is the most fundamental approach to social reform and reconstruction.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
This source provided a lot of good information on Dewey and the contributions he made towards education reform
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_education
This website gave me a lot more information on the key aspects of progressive education than I could find anywhere else
http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html
This source just gave me a lot of general information on the subject of progressive education
BR
From this chapter I was interested in John Dewey and his ideas about education so that is what I decided to do more research on for this week. Dewey was born on October 20,1859 in Burlington, Vermont. He wanted to change the way education was viewed and the structure of it to better it and allow for everyone to be able to get a good education to better their lives. Dewey, in Chicago, established a laboratory school where he practiced his educational theories in 1903. He had success in finding support for his theory in the sense that children learn better in certain environments and when they can interact. He also published some important books which added to his contribution to the field of educational psychology.
John Dewey’s theories were a collaboration of the attention of children as an individual with rights and his views of the gap between an outdated and class-distorted educational setup inherited from the past and the need to change for the future of education. He believed the obsolete system of schooling needed to be molded and reshaped to make it fit the revolutionary changes in social life. He thought education was one-sided, in the sense that upper-class children or city trained children receive or were portrayed to receive education more than lower-class kids. The problem with education was that the curriculum didn’t coincide with practical everyday occupations. This was a problem in Dewey’s eyes and he wanted to change the system to make education equal and able to be applied to the children’s world and experiences to use throughout life.
Dewey believed the curriculum should be based off of what the students are interested in and they should be more involved in active experiences. The curriculum should also be integrated, instead of having the subject-matter segments divided. He also thought teachers are in charge of achieving the goals of the school, but the topics to be studied to meet those goals shouldn’t be thought of in advance, because they aren’t considering the children’s interests. John Dewey came up with a movement named progressive education. The belief behind this ideas was that education should be based on the idea that humans learn best in real-life activities with people. This idea is still integrated in many of today’s educational psychologists’ theories as well.
John had a vision of a new system and it combined education and democracy. He thought by applying the principles and practices of democracy needed to be unified throughout the educational system. There was three big ideas that Dewey wanted incorporated into the new school systems. First, the schools would be free to those from kindergarten up to college level. The second one was that children would be in control of their education and teachers would be there to guide them when needed. Last, but not least the third was that children would be taught to behave to cooperate, to share and care for one another. If we had schooling in this manner he believed our society would be a lot better off, because we would be creative, well-adjusted equalitarians from our schooling and would make over American society. His theory came down to an equation: interaction + reflection and experience + interest in community and democracy= a highly suggestive educative form-informal education. This type of curriculum could help with drop-out rates as well as help children become more involved and want to explore their curiosity more. Education is also seen as obsolete in today’s society; maybe we need to consider Dewey’s ideas, as well as current educational psychologists’, into consideration to make our society better.
Dewey was and is, “Arguably the most influential thinker on education in the twentieth century, his contribution lies along several fronts. His attention to experience, and reflection, democracy and community and to the environments for learning have been seminal.” John Dewey definitely made a statement with his theory on education and it was significant to this field, as well as it contributed to making strides in the right direction for future education. I enjoyed researching this topic more because I think our education system needs to change to keep up with the technology and the abilities of children. I also think for them to be successful we need to allow them to teach themselves and discover what information they want on topics they choose. I related a lot of Dewey's ideas to the education video by Mitra that we watched and they both have great ideas and Mitra is trying to integrate a lot of what Dewey wanted but through learning with technology.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/novack/works/1960/x03.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/lrickes/john-dewey-powerpoint
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm
From this chapter the topic that interested me was ethology, because I am an animal lover. Observing animals in their natural habitat is much more practical than in a controlled environment. The first site explains how ethology was developed in Europe around 1930, with the help from great naturalist and zoologist such as Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen, Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz, and Karl Von Frisch. Together in 1973, they won a Nobel Prize for their work in physiology. Ecologists mainly focus on specific types of animal behavior, such as aggression. Ecology has become more popular through recent years and other new fields are developing like neuroethology. Ethology is also related to comparative psychology, they both study animal behavior. However, comparative is more psychological by studying how animals learn in a controlled environment, whereas ethology studies behavior in a natural setting and leans more towards biology, anatomy, physiology, and neurobiology. Although the two fields are similar, there can sometimes be conflictions with different opinions and perspectives. Ethology focuses on function of how animals respond to the environment in order to survive. Also how animal instinct and behavior develop and change with age in which to ensure these survival traits are passed on from one generation to the next.
The second site explores the ethological attachment theory. According to the article, historically Darwin was one of the earliest in researching animal behavior in their natural habitat. However, European zoologists Lorenz and Tinbergen were the modern day ethological researches. From studying animals in their natural environment, Lorenz and Tinbergen were able to observe animal behavior that leads to survival. Ethnologist’s noticed similarities’ with their anima observations and children’s social and emotional behavior. According to the article the ethological view believes babies are “biologically prepared” to form a strong bond with their caregiver. This close bond enables the “individual genes to survive.” Ethology expresses the importance of “genetic and biological roots of development,” through learning animals including humans can change their behavior in order to adapt. The article also mentions how Bowlby was impressed with Lorenz’s baby geese study and applied it to human development. Bowlby believed human infants also have survival instincts, they communicate by crying when they need comfort or nourishment. The concept of ethology has allowed us to naturally observe the relationship between behavior and survival.
The third site discusses ethology and strange animal behavior through social interactions and communication. Studying the development of innate behavior in animals has helped human ethology researchers to develop evolutionary ideas of human’s behavior across different cultures. Though one focus of studying strange animal behavior, researchers have noticed how animals “have special sensing abilities,” and are more in-tuned with their environment. For example, animals get nervous right before an earthquake or big storm. Some scientists have suggested animals are more sensitive to their feelings, such as sensing the ground vibrates before an earthquake actually happens. Animals are more aware of their senses; they depend on their hearing and smelling ability for survival. Alan Rabinowitz who is a member of the Wildlife Conservation Society believes humans once had these same abilities, but has lost them through evolution. Today there seems to be a disconnection between humans and their natural environment, many would rather change the environment rather than to adapt to it. Unfortunately this means more and more animals are losing their own natural habitat and in order to survive they are forced to learn how to adapt to a changing environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethology
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/pendry.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/all-about-animals/pet-sixth-sense1.htm
Social Darwinism:
While reading the chapter, the thing that I enjoyed reading the most about and found the most interesting was the idea of Social Darwinism. I also had quite a few questions regarding the topic and was very interested in learning more.
Social Darwinism, although generally thought to be created by Charles Darwin, was originally the idea of philosopher Herbert Spencer in the 19th century. Basing his ideas from Darwin's theory of natural selection, Social Darwinism is the theory of natural selection to social, political, and economic issues. It also stipulates that only the "strong" are meant to survive. He began to promote his idea that the "White European" was advanced in comparison to that of other cultures. Looking at the advantages of certain European economies and military structures, Spencer even when on to say that the race more suited to survival was winning. Some of Spencer's followers soon began to argue that micro-economics needed to be re-standardized, specifically social welfare programs that helped the poor. Their reasoning was that the programs were contrary to nature itself. The writings of Herbert Spencer would even go as far as to effect the writings of Thomas Malthus and Francis Galton. Another interesting tidbit was that Herbert Spencer was a very well known contributor to charities, something that Social Darwinism would heavily frown upon.
Social Darwinism has even been used as a scientific justification for the events of the Holocaust. It claims that the Nazis murdering so many Jews in World War II was an example of the cleansing of inferior genetics. Many philosophers of the time even noted evolutionary echoes from Hitler's quest to ext ermine an entire race of people. Unfortunately, other dictators and murderers have claimed to be be using Social Darwinism while carrying out their acts. Because of this, Social Darwinism has been labeled false and dangerous in the field of Philosophy.
I think this is a very iterating thing to think about interns of the human population. When we think of Social Darwinism, I think most people think of natural selection. Although natural selection is very very different. Anyway, we think of natural selection and think of he hummingbird, the hummingbird with the short beak died out because it couldn't reach it's food and therefore couldn't reproduce. It was unfit to live in it's environment and it's genes didn't live on. Unlike that of the hummingbird with the long nose. It was the strongest in it's environment and continues to live today. That's not so hard to think about. However, it becomes difficult when it becomes applied to humans and the moral issues that come with it. Should we help our fellow people even if they are weaker? Or are we corrupting nature if we do so? It's a terrible moral dilemma and fortunately we haven't been in a bind where Social Darwinism has come into play of what our laws should be.
http://www.allaboutscience.org/what-is-social-darwinism-faq.htm
I liked this site because it really had a lot of good points in short paragraphs.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/eh4.shtml
I liked this site because it seemed reliable and knowledgeable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism#Social_Darwinists
I liked this site because it had a lot of different categories of information that i was looking for
I decided to research John Dewey and his impact on education and psychology. What I found is that he was classified as a philosopher, and although he was one of the founders of the APA he was not really regarded as a psychologist. Dewey made a positive impact on the education system, democracy, progressive education and liberalism through his writings and activism.
Dewey’s ideas about education reminded me of the research of Dr. Sugata Mitra because he believed wholeheartedly in the role that curiosity can play in the education of children. Dewey also believed that everyone was entitled to education and that each nation is richer if its citizens are well-educated and are able to think critically. Dewey thought that children should be taught the skills which would make their lives meaningful and enable them to contribute to the good of society. He also wanted students to be actively involved in their own learning process and not just a like a lump in the classroom memorizing things the teacher told them. His philosophy was that the teacher should facilitate the learning and the students should be taught in an interactive environment.
Dewey had an impact on other nations, like China and India; these were nations that some of his students were from and they may have carried some of his philosophies back to those nations. Dewey and his family also spent two years in China from 1919 to 1921 where he gave lectures to large audiences about the importance of a progressive education system for Chinese citizens. One of Dewey’s students helped to found an independent India. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was one of the architects of the Constitution for India and may have been partially influenced by ideas he learned from Dewey.
Dewey’s political activities were for progressive causes; he served as president of the teachers union and he was a big supporter of women’s suffrage. He was an activist for civil rights and racial equality, and he held the belief that democracy was not just a theory for political purposes, but should also be a characteristic of civil institutions such as marriage and family. He thought that each individual does not live successfully in isolation, but should be part of a greater society working together for a common good.
Dewey was a promoter of individual liberties and freedoms with as little constraints on those liberties as possible. He believed that a socialist society was a way to achieve democracy and to empower the disenfranchised. However, he was critical of socialist and communist societies where public discourse was stifled and resources were confiscated by the elites in power for their own personal gain. Dewey wanted equal access to resources and education because he believed that it would ultimately lead to a better and more democratic society (and a more perfect world).
Dewey and his wife are buried on the grounds of the University of Vermont campus.
This website provided me with multiple links to Dewey’s own works and words: http://www.wilderdom.com/experiential/JohnDeweyPhilosophyEducation.html
This site provided me with a more critical synopsis of his life and political ideas: http://www.iep.utm.edu/dewey/
This site provided me with a timeline about Dewey and the diversity of his works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
This site provided me with information about the accomplishments of Ambedkar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar
I decided to look further into social Darwinism after reading about it in this week's chapter. I am interested in this topic because I want to try to understand how this idea permeated society and changed, or encouraged the way people thought of the world at this time.
The term social Darwinism was coined by Herbert Spencer in the late 1800s. Social Darwinism claims that the rich and powerful people are better adapted to the times, and that those who are poor or hold no power are not fit for the times we are in. Social Darwinism is based on the idea of evolution, and says that conflict between groups allows for the most powerful and well adapted groups to continue, while wiping out the less evolved.
Social Darwinism was used to defend colonialism, social policies, capitalism, and other government policies. In extreme cases, social Darwinism was used to justify wars and the eugenics movement. Social Darwinist ideas were also part of the inspiration for the mass genocide of the Nazi regime.
Some of the wealthy people of the time used social Darwinism positively. Andrew Carnegie created several libraries, universities, and other public buildings for people to learn and better themselves. He believed that the fittest would go to these buildings and make themselves better. He did not give money to the poor in other ways, because he could not be sure that those people were all deserving of his charity.
One problem with social Darwinism is the idea that because something occurs in nature it must be the moral thing to do. Animals are left to die quite often in nature, but in our society it is considered immoral to watch someone die without even attempting to help them. This is thought of as the naturalist fallacy. Just because something happens doesn't mean that it was supposed to happen.
One offshoot of the social Darwinist theory was reform Darwinism. This said that as humans adapt to changing conditions they need new ideas and institutions as well. This was popular in the late 1800s and even applied to the interpretation of constitution.
Social Darwinism lost support quickly after the second world war. The use of eugenics and social Darwinism by the Nazi's helped people to see the error in this idea. Anthropologists were also able to show that our culture sets us apart from animals, making evolution much different for us.
These days social Darwinism is seen as a sort of joke. It is used pejoratively and not counted as actual science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism
http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/eh4.shtml
https://autocww2.colorado.edu/~toldy2/E64ContentFiles/SociologyAndReform/SocialDarwinism.html
Edward Lee Thorndike was born in Massachusetts to a Methodist minister and his wife (I thought this was interesting because I am Methodist as well). He attended four different colleges, including Harvard, where he received his master’s degree, and Colombia University, where he received his Ph.D. Thorndike was interested in both the educational and animal psychologies. His doctoral dissertation was the first where humans were not the subjects. It was called, “Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals.” This shows that he was interested in how animals thought very early in his career, and this interest developed into a very strong one later on. This is displayed through one of his most famous experiments: The Puzzle Box experiment.
Thorndike’s sketches of his puzzle boxes were very neat, while his actual boxes were not so neat. I thought this was kind of funny, and made me wonder why he did this. Maybe it was possible that he wanted other psychologists to take him seriously, but then why would he let pictures leak out then? Perhaps he did not make the decision to let pictures of these boxes out, and his original intentions were to make himself look more organized than he actually was. Just some thoughts. The most interesting thing about these experiments, I think is that trial and error learning came out of this, as well as the concept of connectionism. Was this actually the first discovery of trial and error? I was very interested in Thorndike’s puzzle box experiments. One reason was because I like cats, and the other was because Thorndike was testing other psychologists’ views who believed many animals, other than dogs, dolphins, horses, and monkeys, for example (we know these animals are intelligent), had a higher mental capacity than originally believed. He wanted to organize a system that would allow him to test these claims. By using the puzzle boxes that he designed himself, Thorndike could control the “learning history” and “environments” of the animals in these studies. I personally think that some animals are smarter than we think they are. I read that he usually studied cats. Owning a cat myself, I have seen this firsthand. My cat hates everyone who is not me or my mother, and evades people who come to the house by hiding in spots where only I would know where to look. My cat also meows and stands near her bowl when she is hungry, and also next to the door when she wants to go outside. How do we really measure “intelligence”? Merriam-Webster.com defines intelligence as, “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations,” or, “the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria.” So which definition do we go by? And who decides what attributes that make you smart combines into how intelligent one is? Who decides these objective criteria? I suppose this is the most confusing and challenging concept for me to understand. I would like to hear others’ opinions on this as well.
In behavioral psychology terms, he was actually studying operant conditioning using positive reinforcement with these animals. The food was used as a reinforcer to help the cats learn. Another interesting thing was that he used the time it took them to get out to measure their intelligence. Going back to what I stated earlier, I am not really sure how he defined intelligence. Moving on, this made me think, when did he push start on the clock? There had to be some time error in placing the cat inside the box and closing the lid. That was just a thought I had while reading. His final results were that cats are not capable of reasoning and did not really know how they were escaping; they could not associate their action of pulling the lever and escaping from the box. I am not really sure that I agree with him. He could not possibly know what was going on inside those cats’ heads. That’s just my opinion.
Terms: Edward Lee Thorndike, educational psychology, animal psychology, animal intelligence, experimental study, associative processes, puzzle box, experiments, psychologists, mental capacity, system, learning history, environments, objective criteria, connectionism, trial and error learning, behavioral psychology, operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, reinforcer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8 I watched this video for one of my behavior modification sections and I found it really interesting; it also helps make clear the process that Thorndike set up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike I chose Wikipedia because it usually has an abundance of information on people; there was a lot of good information here.
http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jeab/articles/1999/jeab-72-03-0433.pdf This seemed to be from a textbook or a journal, but it had an abundance of information on Thorndike and his experiment, much unlike most of the websites and articles I came across in my research.