Chapter 6: William James A History of Psychology (3rd Edition) John G. Benjafield

William James (1842–1910) Family wealth; liberal, democratic values Childhood: family visited Europe often 1861-1869: studied at Harvard First atudied chemistry; later medicine 1872: taught physiology at Harvard

The Principles of Psychology 1878: began writing; took 12 years to complete Each of its two volumes is almost 700 pages long Principles is a central work in the history of psychology

Habit People are largely creatures of habit Formation of habits depends on plasticity Plasticity: the ability of an organism to alter its behaviour as circumstances change Habit = ‘the great flywheel of society’

Habit: Practical Suggestions Important to ‘make automatic and habitual, as early as possibly, as many useful actions as we can’ When first acquiring a habit, be consistent Form useful habits

James’ Approach Consider every issue in an open-minded fashion Introspection: ‘looking into our own minds and reporting what we there discover’ Not perfect, readily prone to error Indispensable source of data

Phenomenology James as a precursor to phenomenology? Method that follows from Brentano and Husserl James did not impose a prior set of categories on experience Psychologist’s fallacy: to confuse one’s standpoint with that of the mental fact about which one is make a report Psychology = a natural science Not an experimentalist but acknowledged experimental and comparative methods

Use of Metaphor Characteristic feature of James’ method Not just a literary device Convey overall complexity without necessarily specifying precision Ex. The stream of thought

The Stream of Thought ≠ only intellectual events ‘Thought’ = all of our experiences Later renamed ‘the stream of consciousness’ Vs. ‘train of thought’ or ‘chain of thought’

The Stream of Consciousness Characteristics: ‘Every thought tends to be part of a personal consciousness’ ‘With each personal consciousness thought is always changing’ ‘Within each personal consciousness thought is sensibly continuous’ ‘Consciousness always appears to deal with objects independent of itself’ ‘It is interested in some parts of these objects to the exclusion of others, and welcomes or rejects all the while’

Consciousness is like a bird’s life… ‘alternation of flights and perchings’ Places where the stream flows at different rates Substantive parts: places were the stream flows slowly Transitive parts: places where the stream flows quickly Language better suited to describing substantive parts

Fringe of Consciousness Stream of consciousness does not have a well-defined edge Difficulty to say where it ends and begins James discussed events beyond the fringe of consciousness Ex. Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

The Consciousness of Self Self divided into two parts: 1. I: knows things, including oneself = Pure ego 2. Me: what I know about myself = Empirical self

The Pure Ego Can we say anything about a self that exists over and above our experiences? James’ conclusion: Nothing of the pure ego we can observe If it exists, pure ego cannot observe itself

The Empirical Self Divided into three parts: The Material Self = All those things you would call yours The Social Self = Tied to those occasions when other people recognize us The Spiritual Self = A person’s inner or subjective being (≠ Soul)

Attention Descriptions of attention still cited by theorists 100 years after the publication of Principles Appreciated the complexity of attention Inattention: the process by which we do not pay attention to what we are doing Very common Automatic Writing

Memory Primary memory: of the present moment = Immediate memory Tends to be quickly forgotten without rehearsal Permits us to recall recent experiences immediately and accurately Secondary memory: of the past

The Emotions James-Lange Theory of Emotions Called Lange because similar viewpoint advanced independently by C.G. Lange The theory appears to have been systematically misinterpreted for decades Critic: Walter B. Cannon

Will 1870: James resolved bout of depression partly by choosing to believe in free will We cannot freely choose to do anything whatsoever But our will can make a difference when we are in conflict situation Preoccupaton with will power Supported self-help movements

Other Topics in Principles Parapsychology Religious experience

Distinctions between People Tough-mindedness: tends to place great store in facts and is materialistic, pessimistic, and skeptical Tender-mindedness: tends to believe in principles and is idealistic, optimistic, and religious

James on Freud James met Freud in America in 1909: ‘…I have always wished that I might be as fearless as he was in the face of approaching death’ ‘The future of psychology belongs to your work’