Returned to the USA Boston and in 1870 suffered a deep depression. He writes:

1

• Returned to the USA- Boston- and in 1870 suffered
  a deep depression. He writes
• Lost in a state of philosophical pessimism and
  general depression about my prospects
• I went into a dressing room in the twilight to
  procure some article that was there, when
  suddenly just as if it came out of darkness, the
  horrible fear of my existence fell upon me
  without any warning
• How did he emerge from this depressive episode?
  By developing and using the concepts of Habit and
  Free Will. made these concepts functional for
  himself in curing him
• On free will he writesI will assume for the
  present that it is no illusion that there I have
  free will my first act of free will, will be to
  believe in free will
• By this James tell us that people can control
  their world by exercising free will. Regardless
  of whether or not free will really exists, we can
  will it to exist and thereby use it for our
  better coping.

2

• The second concept is Habit (borrowed from
  Baines philosophy)
• The road to change passes through the adoption of
  new behaviors. If you want to change your
  psychology- Change your habits/behavior first.
  Force upon yourself new habits and your
  psychology will change. Only after a period of
  forceful compliance to a new habit, it becomes
  ingrained and you can loosen your guard. Then
  the danger looms. Any slight relapse threatens
  the whole achievement. (e.g., smoking losing
  weight)
• Every gain on the wrong side undoes the effect
  of many conquests on the right.
• This is a model of a person who controls her
  fate. Consciousness can force itself on the world
  we live in. The model returned after 60-70 years
  of absence (during the hay day of behaviorism).

3

• Another important concept is pragmatism. (this
  was also a philosophical school that James
  developed with his friend Pierce).
• Psychology is not the ultimate and single truth
  about human behavior. When its pragmatic to use
  it- then it is what we should do. But Art,
  literature, theatre are other no less valid
  sources of knowledge about the human experience.
  This reflects James basic modesty and humanity.
• Wundt on the other hand saw Psychology as the
  Ultimate Knowledge. To him psychology,
  experimentation and introspection was the only
  source of knowledge.

4

• In 1872 after the resolution of his depressive
  crisis he began to teach in Harvard Introduction
  to Psychology, and in 1878 began writing a
  textbook that appeared in 1890 (1400 pp.) titled
  Principles of Psychology. It is brilliant and
  makes an illuminating reading even today. BUT,
  James writes about it
• no one could be more disgusted than I at the
  sight of the book
• No subject is worth being treated in 1400 pp.,
  Had I 10 years more I could re-write it in 500
  pp. but as it stands it is either this bloated
  mess or nothing testifies to two facts. First
  that there in no such thing as the science of
  psychologysecond that William James is
  incapable.
• A very unique teacher The story with Gertrude
  Stein.

5

• Disliked Wundtian Psychology, and Wundt himself.
• WUndt aims at being the Napoleon of the
  intellectual world, unfortunately he will never
  for he is a Naploeon without a genius and with
  no central idea. Cut him up like a worm and each
  fragment crawls, there is no vital center in his
  system. You cant kill it because there is no
  vital center.
• To James structuralism is a fragmented psychology
  that does not add up to a unified statement.
• James psychology is more lively and holistic. He
  developed the concept of Self as the constant
  thing within us that makes us humans.

6

• Main contributions
• The stream of consciousness The structuralists
  emphasized the division of consciousness into
  atoms and then focused on them. TItchner
  Consciousness is the sum of the elements.
• Jamess emphasis on the flow of cosciounsness,
  its dynamics. He writes
• Let anyone try to cut a thought through the
  middle and get a look at its section and he will
  see how difficult the introspective observation
  is.
• He says that the structuralists are like a person
  who wants to study darkness, and he therefore put
  the light on very briefly in order to look at the
  darkness.
• Consciousness is like a flowing river. You cant
  stop it. You never put your foot at the same
  place twice.

7

• The concepts of habit and will.
• Habit allows a continuity in personal life, and
  is the essence of social life.
• Habit is the more enormous instrument of
  society. Its most precious conservative agent
• It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds
  of ordinance and save the children from the
  envious uprising of the poor.
• Habits pave the way for the rest of our lives.
  Once at an early age we made a choice, by
  ourselves/our parents, we solidify the choice
  through the force of habit, and can not escape
  it.

8

• Already at the age of 25 you see the
  professional mannerism settling down on the young
  commercial traveler, on the young minister, the
  young counselor at law, you see the little lines
  of cleavage through the character from which the
  man can not escape. That his coat sleeve suddenly
  falls into a new set of holes.
• Free will is an instrumental and functional
  concept. He asked his students to choose one or
  two habits, try to reform them by exercising free
  will and observe how out of the new habit a new
  experience is formed.
• This encapsulates the idea (1) people are free
  agents in their world, and that (2) behavior
  changes consciousness (e.g., change in behavior
  produces change in attitudes). We can create the
  meaning of ourselves.

9

• The idea of the self The continuous knowledge
  of who we are. Even if we lose our consciousness
  we wake up feeling the same, not aware of the
  gaps in consciousness. This unity of self is very
  functional.
• James understood and appreciated the importance
  of unconscious processes. Met Freud in 1909 (the
  Clark visit).
• Dealt with the mind-body (dualistic question) in
  a pragmatic manner. Until we know enough to
  understand everything in terms of bio-chemical
  entities , its not pragmatic to deal with the
  issue.
• Towards the end of his life- does not see himself
  as a psychologist, but as a philosopher. Dealt
  with para-normal phenomena (Psychic research-
  his bet with a friend who was on his death bed).
• Wundt began the process of separating psychology
  from philosophy, Titchner made it into an
  experimental science in N America, James made it
  into a relevant and important body of knowledge.
  BUT There is no Jamesian school. There is a
  structuralist school, but only a brilliant set of
  functionalist ideas. WHY? Maybe because
  structuralism had a shared exemplar (i.e.,
  introspection) and functionalism did not.

10
Grenwil, Stanley Hall (1856-1942)

• Hall contributed to making functionalism a major
  thriving force
• Life
• Began by studying to be a priest. Was taken by
  Darwins theories (the incident with his lecture
  at the college of divinity and the president of
  the college who fell to his knees to pray for
  him).
• Later visited Helmholz lab and returned to the US
  to be James first Ph.D. student.
• Returned to Germany, studied with WUndt, and
  returned to the USA where he did not find a job
• Began giving lectures on Saturday mornings to
  parents and teachers on developmental processes.
  In 1880 published a book with the results of a
  study on pre-schoolers know (on nature, god,
  etc., ). Used modern research methods
  (questionnaires, etc. ).
• In 1904 published a second book with the first
  theoretical statement about adolescence.

11

• Halls major contributions
• Institutionalizing of Psychology (APA- 30
  members, today over 100,000) Journal of American
  Psychology IN this he is like Wundt and
  Titchner.
• His approach to Psychology very similar to
  James. His outlook his a fucntionalist one, and
  the major question is How does this or the other
  behavior contribute to coping.
• Was influenced by Darwin, and had respect for
  Freuds theorizing. He was the one who invited
  him to Clark. Understood the applicability of
  Freud for understanding adolscence.
• In all we owe him the institutionalization of
  Psychology as an important science and profession
  and the development of developmental psychology

12

• Harvey Carr states the characteristics of
  functionalism (1925)
• Psychology needs to study mental processes (e.g.,
  decision making, emotion, thought)
• Psychology needs to explore the links between
  these processes and behavior
• Psychology needs to explain how these behaviors
  contribute to the individual's adjustment to
  his/her environment.

13
Darwins theory

• Wundt, James, Hall, Freud read him and were
  deeply affected by his theory
• The person and his life
• Erasmus Darwin a distinguished scientist- on
  his fathers side and Wedgwood family on his
  mothers.
• Began with medicine, moved to life sciences,
  Hanslow suggested that he joins the voyage of the
  Beagel The captain, Fitzroy, who was a devout
  believer in Phrenology wanted to turn him down
  because of his nose.
• During the voyage, especially in Galapagos, saw
  many strange animals who exhibited strange
  behavior.
• He was interested in the functionality of their
  behavior (.e.,g a kind of Iguana)
• I threw one into a deep pool invariably it
  returned in a direct line to where I stood this
  singular piece of stupidity can be accounted for
  by the circumstances that this reptile has no
  enemy whatever on shore whereas at sea it must
  fall prey to numerous sharks.

14

• The geographical dispersion of animals. What
  explains it?
• Argument from design (the religious argument)
• Evolution They develop from simpler life forms.
  The idea was around
• Erasmus Darwins carriage had E MANCHIS AMNIA
  (all begins with shells).
• Jean Baptiste Lemarck The development is
  accounted for by over or under use of different
  body parts. But he talked about very rapid
  changes, and did not explain non-functional
  elements (e.g., tail).

15

• Darwin as an English gentleman who bred horses
  and dogs saw the logic of evolution, but did not
  find the principle that explains its direction in
  nature. The mechanism of evolution was missing.
• Came across Malthos idea of natural mechanisms
  that control population growth
• This caused him to adopt the simple idea of
  natural processes of selection as the key
  element.
• He stated the principle of the survival of the
  fittest (not the survival of the strongest).
• Same bird On Island A long beak, on island B
  broad and hard beak. WHY?
• On Island A Food is worms. Through processes of
  natural selection those birds with longer beaks
  fed better and transmitted this quality to the
  next generations. On island B- Nuts was the food,
  and the same process of natural selection
  applied.

16

• The Beagle findings supported this thinking. Sat
  on his theory for 10 years for fear of alienating
  the church.
• In 1858 received a letter from Alfred Russel
  Wallace with the exact same theory. Approached
  the royal society and they proposed that they
  both present.
• At the end of this year the secretary writes
• this year did not produce any of those striking
  discoveries which had once, so to speak,
  revolutionized the department of science on which
  they build.
• In 1859 On the origins of the species by means
  of natural selection on the preservation of
  favored races in the struggle for life Was
  published.

17

• The theory was immediately very influential and
  attacked vehemently by the church
• The prediction that birds developed from reptiles
  was supported by the discovery of ancient birds
  with reptile type nails at the tip of their
  wings.
• The discovery of the great apes (the Gorilla in
  1860s) lent credence to the idea that we
  descended from them.
• In the Descent of Man he claims that people are
  different from animals in degree not in kind
  (people and dogs have emotions, dreams, learning
  ability etc.,). How different this is from
  Descartes rational soul
• The difference in mind men and the higher
  animals, great as it is, is certainly one of
  degree and not kind
• In this we can see Freuds beginnings on the
  animal nature of man.
• In the earlier ideas of evolution we see the
  beginnings of functionalism
• 1877 a short biographical sketch of an infant
  in which he discusses physical and psychological
  development (e.g., language) on the basis of his
  observations of his son. The principle of
  Ontogeny Recapitulates Philogeny
• The dangers of social darwinism
• Ready of our 4th gate to modern psychology
  Psychoanalysis.