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Psychology I

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by sojourner, Jun 26, 2011.

  1. sojourner

    sojourner Silver IL'ite

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    As I have written here before multiple times, one of my lifelong interests has been in psychology.

    Talking about psychology is often quite problematic. If I say "I am interested in quantum chromodynamics", most people's reaction will be nothing more than "I hope that this doesn't give him too big a headache". This is because they have no preconceived notion about what quantum chromodynamics is.

    Unlike this, just about everybody has preconceived notions of what psychology is (or should be).

    There is an approach to psychology which is nothing like what any of these preconceived notions are like. And this is the approach I am interested in. This was first proposed around 1930s (though, like everything else, it also had predecessors). So it has been about 80 years now.

    Unfortunately, it simply has not taken off, even in the US, which is generally receptive to new ideas if they work. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”] Something like this happened to the theory of evolution. It lay dormant for several decades. This has been called as The eclipse of Darwinism

    Fortunately, a few thousand people in multiple countries are followers of this approach.

    Its power and range is extremely sweeping. It is the first approach to give a decent explanation for verbal behavior (commonly known as talking, writing, keyboarding, and thinking). Understanding this has been one of the high points of my life. Here is how I described this experience, in a blog I wrote in 2002:

    ****
    I got out of this stifling environment by finding a job. The new environment was infinitely more supportive. I no longer had to live my thesis and my evenings and weekends were my own. I also had more money which meant I could buy all the books I wanted. The 'demolishing Skinner' project continued except that over a period of three years or so, I found that I had less and less to demolish. I started liking and agreeing more and more with The Analysis of Behavior, Science and Human Behavior, The Technology of Teaching, Contingencies of Reinforcement, Cumulative Record, and Operant Conditioning - A Handbook. By this time, I had well understood the three term contingency (also called the Law of Effect) in rats and pigeons.

    In all these books, I saw increasing references to a book called Verbal Behavior -- I had no idea what this was about. Finally, one day, I broke down and went to a nearby college library after work, borrowed this book, and started reading it at a burger restaurant, where I was having my usual salad bar dinner. Five or ten pages into the book, I began to realize that Skinner was seriously suggesting that the three term contingency may be used to explain language behavior (i.e., speech and writing) in humans, without invoking traditional concepts such as 'expression of ideas, putting thoughts into words, etc.'. In other words, speech and thought are nothing more than (physical) reactions to external and internal physical things. My first thought was that Skinner was out of his mind and must be locked up, for his own good. However, within a few minutes, my reaction changed to 'why not' to 'absolutely'. My whole body started shaking uncontrollably -- this is the only true intellectual excitement and epiphany I have had in my life.
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    The following is what my older son wrote about this interest of mine, in an article he wrote in 2005, in his college student newspaper:

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    Recently for class I was required to read "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" by psychologist Sigmund Freud, and I have to say I found the experience distasteful. Full disclosure: I have been raised by a disciple of the behaviorist B.F. Skinner, and therefore taught to believe that all conventional psychology is inherently worthless.
    *****
     
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  2. sreemanavaneeth

    sreemanavaneeth Gold IL'ite

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    Hai SOJO,

    Very nice. pls continue.
     

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