Republic of the Philippines

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

College of Accountancy
Sta. Mesa, Manila



DEVELOPMENTAL
AND LEARNING
THEORIES
(Assignment in Psychology prepared by Group VII)

Reyno, Robinson C.
Santiago, Manuelito T.
Tolentino, Laila M.
Tud, Sheilla Jean A.
Ungsod, Ayesha Erika L.
Valenzuela, Judith O.
Valeros, Joanna Lyn P.

DEVELOPMENTAL and LEARNING THEORIES

1. Developmental Theories

Sigmund Freud
Jean Piaget
Lawrence Kohlberg
Erik Erikson
Robert Havighurst
Morgan Scott Peck
James Fowler
Carol Gilligan
Roger Gould
John Westerhoff
Vygotsky

2. Theories of Learning

Ivan Pavlov
Herman Ebbinghaus
Burrhus Skinner
John Watson
Edward Tolman
Wolfgang Kohler
Robert Gagne
Albert Bandura
Benjamin Bloom
Neal Miller
Edwin Guthrie
Clark Leonard Hull


DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES



SIGMUND FREUD

Historical Sketch
In 1856, Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born to his Jewish fathers third wife in Moravia (now
part of Czechoslovakia). He moved to Vienna, shortened his name to Sigmund and later entered
medical school at the University of Vienna where he specialized in neurobiology.
Until the turn of century, Freud complained for widespread anti-Semitism that excluded him
from learned societies throughout Europe. In 1909, he visited America and delivered a series of lectures
at Clark University that propelled him to international fame and later prompted his appointment by the
King of Austria to the rank of full professor at the University of Vienna. In 1930, Freud published
Civilization and Its Discontents , one of the most widely read of his book.
When his daughter arrested by the Gestapo and barely escaped with her life, Freud decided to
leave Vienna. He continued his writing and clinical work.
About this time, Freud developed a cancer of the jaw because of cigar smoking for which he
underwent numerous operations. To control the pain, he began experimenting with cocaine and some
historians believe that he became a cocaine addict. Nevertheless, by this time in his life, he had already
published his most important theoretical ideas. Freud died in London during the Blitzkrieg of 1939.
Psychoanalysis developed out of Freuds unique synthesis of two historically independent lines
of work- the search for neurological structures and the practice of psychic curing. This synthesis
combined Freuds deterministic training in neurology with his clinical treatment of mental disorders.
Systematic attempts to isolate discrete brain functions marked the zeitgeist (historical spirit of the
times) of Freuds medical training. About the same time, humanitarian movements in America, England,
and France where underway to reform treatment of the insane by invoking a new concept- mental
disease- that assumed mental rather than physical causes of insanity. We think Freuds contribution to
our understanding of human development cannot be fully appreciated without some attention to how
these two historical trends were unified in his work.

Assumptions of Psychoanalysis
Scientific thinking in the late 1800s assumed the correctness of Newtons elegantly physical
laws of the conservation of mass and energy. This scientific zeitgeist influenced Freud by directing his
attention to the dynamic, energetic qualities of human nature, in particular the psychic energy Freud
called libido.
Freud assumed that infants are born with a fixed pool of instinctual or psychic energy, the
libido, which energizes all human activity. While individuals may vary from one to another in amount,
each person maintains the same amount of libido throughout life; thus, in the spirit of Newton, libido is
conserved. Psychic energy may be transformed (changed in form), but its total value remains constant.
Instinctual energy is of two types. Eros is the positive energy of life, activity, hope and sexual
desire. Thanatos is a counterbalancing negative energy of death, destruction, despair and aggression.
Eros initiates motion and goal seeking; Thanatos balances Eros by curtailing, revising or redirecting
activity.
Freud also believed that infants were born with a separate primitive mind, the id, whose
functions were governed entirely by libido. The infants id is irrational because it has yet to be socialized
by any experience. Freud believed libido had evolved in the Darwinian sense in just the same way that
other physical traits had evolved.
Finally, Freud recognized that infants display instinctual reflexes inherited from their species. In
particular, the infants sucking reflex occupied Freuds attention. Of course, this reflex provides the only
mechanism for acquiring nourishment. But in this reflex Freud saw two important aspects of
psychological functioning: (1) a primitive instinctual urge to incorporate worldly objects and (2) an equal
primitive tendency to seek pleasure though sucking and incorporation.
In sum, Freud posited three basic assumptions about the infant. First, it possessed a primitive
and irrational mind. Second, this mind was possessed of libido or psychic energy. Third, the inborn
sucking reflex was driven by powerful urge to seek pleasure.

Contributions and Criticisms of Psychoanalysis
Contributions
Focus on Infancy and Childhood. It was Freud more than anyone else who focused attention on
the importance of development during early years. He attempted to show how an individuals
personality had its roots in the maturation psychosexual stages. By showing how the infants
primitive instinct gradually unfolded to produce socialization, Freud irreversibly altered the
course of developmental psychology.
Unconscious. One of Freuds most enduring contributions is his concept of the unconscious mind.
Freud argued that unconscious drives and impulses underlie anthropological phenomena, art, religion,
literature, sociology, and both personal aggression and acts of war.
Defense Mechanism. Freuds analysis of the egos defense mechanisms represents another landmark in
our understanding of human nature. The role these mechanisms play in the psychopathologies of
everyday life (e.g., sexual humor, Freudian slips, tip of the tongue experiences), as well as their role in
the more extreme forms of pathology has gained widespread reconition.
Recovering an Individuals History. Psychoanalysis is the only developmental theory whose
methodology is specifically designed to recover the individuals memories of childhood experiences.
While questions can be raised about the validity of the techniques and accuracy of our memories, these
methods represent original and important contributions for both theoretical and clinical applications.
Pedagogy. His insights fostered a new sensitivity to childrens emotional needs. In large part due to
Freud, contemporary parents and teachers are generally more sympathetic than critical of the
frustrations children experience in such events as the birth of sibling, toilet training, parental divorce,
sexual curiosity, and school learning.
Psychotherapy. Freuds solution on psychic cures to mental illness was the development of a
therapeutic technique he called psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic therapy was the forerunner of
contemporary psychotherapy, and it is the framework by which many variations have been spawned. In
addition, Freuds approach to psychopathology established abnormal psychology as a legitimate subfield
within psychology.

Criticisms
Freud clearly believed that his theory was not subject to criticism unless the critic had
first undergone psychoanalysis. Such a stance notwithstanding, the following problems with the
theory have been identified.
Unscientific Concepts. many of Freuds most significant theoretical constructs are extremely difficult
to measure, and for this reason his work is often dismissed as unscientific. In fact, the relative absence
of empirical science has led some psychoanalysis to question the place for Freuds work in psychology.
For example, it is difficult to imagine how one might directly or even indirectly measure such constructs
as unconscious, libido, id or superego.
The difficulty of establishing reliable and valid measures for psychoanalytic concepts is a major
reason many judged Freuds theory to have little scientific merit (Schultz, 1975).
Phallocentrism. It refers to Freuds emphasis on the males penis and his belief in female inferiority.
Some writers have criticized this view of woman and derided such ideas as penis envy, castration
anxiety, and weak superegos. Such views, argue the critics, reflects unexamined cultural stereotypes,
social attitudes and biases rather than a scientific appraisal of facts.
Massive Errors. In recent account of Freuds life and work, Webster(1975) takes a unique and
extremely pessimistic approach to his analysis of psychoanalysis. This analysis traces Freuds religious
personality to his childhood and shows how his own dreams influenced the shaped of psychoanalytic
was to take. Webster speculates that Freuds sexual theories were actually religious doctrines in
disguise. Given the difficulty of reinterpreting history, we may never know if Webster is on to something
here or if he is merely projecting his own motives onto Freud




JEAN PIAGET
Historical Sketch
Jean Piaget was born August 9, 1896, in Switzerland, and from his own accounts, he devoted
considerable study to biology and philosophy. At the age of 10 he published his first scientific paper, a
one- page observation of an albino sparrow. Shortly thereafter Piaget was introduced to philosophy and
Kants constructivism by his godfather, Samuel Cornut, thereby sparking a lifelong interest. His mothers
psychological ailments and psychoanalytic treatment prompted young Piagets first interest in
psychology. But his passion for biology dominated, and he continued publishing at a pace that brought
him early recognition and an invitation for the position of the curator of the mollusc collection at the
Museum of Natural History in Geneva. Young Piaget declined the invitation, informing his interviewers
that he thought it better to finish high school first. By his twenty- first birthday he had already published
over twenty articles. He completed both a bachelors degree and a doctorate at the University of
Geneva, where he studied natural science. Ironically, his dissertation was a comparative study of fresh
water mollusks.
After receiving his doctorate, Piaget spent several years working in France for Alfred Binet, who
was himself constructing the first intelligence tests. Piagets job is to help administer reasoning tests to
Parisian school children. In that work, he became intrigued by childrens wrong answers, and he began
to use diagnostic interviews to better understand their reasoning errors.
In 1921, Piaget became the director of research at the Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute in
Geneva, where he proceeded to launch a series of investigations on the development of childrens
thought. This work made him famous throughout Europe before he was 30 yrs. old. In the ensuing years
he held many prestigious positions and wrote extensively about psychology, epistemology, and
education. Piaget, together with Skinner and Freud, is widely considered to be one of the big three
shapers of developmental psychology.
Assumptions of cognitive-developmental theory
Piagets theory makes two important assumptions. First, he assumed that we are born with a
species-specific set of biological reflexes that, in typical Piagetian fashion, he terms hereditary organic
reactions. These reflexes are biologically programmed behaviors that produce consequences. Second,
Piaget assumes that infants are naturally proactive; they spontaneously initiate encounters with the
environment.
Important equally here is what Piaget does not assume. Where Freud assumed the presence of
an irrational mind (the id), and where Skinner assumed a tabula rasa mind ready-made to begin
accumulating associations, Piaget assumes no mind at all. The irony of this situation should not be
overlooked. Piagets position poses an interesting problem whose solution reflects some philosophical
sophistication. On the other hand, Piaget knew that if he assumed some primitive mental capacity at
birth, he was relieved of the problem of explaining the origin of mind. But since that was precisely what
he wanted to do, he recognized that he could not assume its presence at birth. Rather, his task was to
explain how the mind evolves as a natural consequence of his two prior assumptions.
Contributions and Criticisms of Cognitive-developmental Theory
Contributions
Scientist- philosophers. Children organize their knowledge to make sense and adapt their sense making
to reality. They do this by constructing knowledge that is logically consistent. Piagets portrait of youth
challenges exogenous views of children as recipients of learning (tabula rasa minds to be filled with
factual information) and endogenous views of children as slaves to their own genes.
Stages. Piagets cognitive-developmental stages have concentrated psychologists attention on how
children understand their experiences rather than on how many facts they know. What makes Piagetian
stages different from those of other theories is that they represent transformations of earlier modes of
understanding into qualitatively different organizations of knowledge. These stages have provided
educators with many insights into childrens readiness for certain kind of instructional content and have
lied to innovations in curriculum design.
Methodology. Piaget revolutionized child study. His methods, incorporating tasks and clinical interviews
that assess scientific and mathematical concepts, challenged the assumption that experimental control
and quantifiable measurement where the pinnacle of psychology. The numerous Piagetian-style studies
published in the 1960s and 1970s have left in their wake a heightened appreciation among
developmental psychologists for the kind of discoveries Piagets methodology can lead to.
Criticisms
Operation. One of the most important concepts of Piagetian theory is the cognitive operation. But
because operations are a mentalist construct, they tend to be difficult to verify empirically. Tests of the
mental operations hypothesized for concrete and formal operational stages have reported that some
but not all operations are present at a given operation. Such findings call into question Piagets
contention that cognitive stages are holistic structures whereby the presence of one mental operation
implies the presence of many others.
Formal operations. A minor controversy has arisen around the contention that the formal operational
stage is the terminus of the cognitive development. Some researchers have noted that a significant
portion of the adolescent and adults population fails to achieve formal reasoning (Kuhn , Langer,
Kohlberg and Haan; Nadel and Schoeppe; Schwebel, Tomlinson-Keasey). In additions, other researchers
have argued that cognitive development continues beyond the formal operational stage ( Commons,
Richards and Kuhn)
The Concept of Stage. Piagets concept of a stage has been criticized on three counts by Brainerd (1973,
1977, 1978a, 1978b), a well-known critic of Piaget. He contends (1) that developmental changes Piaget
attributes to equilibration can be explained by simpler principles of learning; (2) the qualitative changes
from one stage to the next can be reduced to quantitative accumulations of learning; and that Piagets
developmental stages can be explained by an endogenous, maturational account of development.


LAWRENCE KOHLBERG

Historical Sketch
Lawrence Kohlbergs affinity for Piagets theory of cognitive development is evident in
his philosophically grounded theory of moral development. In fact, in describing children as
natural moral philosophers, Kohlberg parallels Piagets contention that children are natural
scientists and mathematicians. It is no surprise, then, that we find Kohlberg relying extensively
on Piagets constructivism to explain moral development.
Lawrence Kohlberg, born in 1927, grew up in suburb of New York City and later
attended an elite prep school. Before going to college, however, he worked on a freighter that
ran the British blockage in transporting Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe to Israel. In 1948
he enrolled at the University of Chicago. His admission test scores were so high that a number
of courses were waived, allowing him to complete his undergraduate degree in only one year
(the authors know of no one else who has ever than this). He continued his graduate work
there and focused on moral thinking in adolescent males. He had the good fortune to be
trained by outstanding academicians- Charles Morris in philosophy, Bruno Bettleheim and Carl
Rogers in clinical psychology, and Bernice Neugarten and Robert Havigshurst in developmental
psychology.
Following the completion of is dissertation, Kohlberg continued a longitudinal study of
the moral development of his dissertation subjects as they grew into adulthood and middle
age. In 1968, he moved to Harvard University as a professor of education and social psychology
where he founded the Central for Moral Education. The Center was a world- renowned hotbed
of research and educational intervention activity for two decades until it closed after Kohlbergs
death. Together with the number of colleagues, he began to investigate the universality of
moral development in different cultures. During the 1970s, he worked with a group of
Cambridge teachers to found the Cluster School, an alternative school that incorporated his
philosophy of the just community. At the Cluster school, students are challenged to
participate with their teachers in defining their own educational goals and values. In later years,
Kohlberg was involved in refining his theory, working on practical applications for education
and penal form, and teaching his classes on moral development. He died in 1987.
Assumptions of Moral Development Theory
Most developmental psychologists view birth as the beginning of psychological
development. Kohlberg makes a radical departure from such a traditional starting point. He
makes no attempt to roots his theory in the early years of infancy. Instead, he assumes that a
critical amount of cognitive and social development has already occurred as a necessary
condition for the later development of moral judgement.
First, Kohlberg defines morality as justice and fairness, and he believes that individuals
moral judgements reflect cognitive rather than emotional process. In this sense moral
development is viewed as the rational, cognitive construction, of ethical premises, rules, and
conclusions that motivate moral judgements. The importance of this assumption is that it leads
Kohlberg to seek the roots of moral reasoning in the intellectual constructions of youth rather
than in such other processes as reinforcement, modeling, and identification. His theory
provides a framework for understanding how moral reasoning develops from stages of less
adequate to more adequate conceptions of justice. His primary concern is with moral thinking
and justification rather than moral behaviour. The reason here is that there is nothing in the
behaviour itself that is necessarily moral or immoral; the only element of morality lies in actors
intent, not in the behaviour.
Reminiscent of Piagets distinction between figurative and operative knowledge,
Kohlberg also differentiates between content and structure in moral reasoning. This distinction
leads to search for how individuals use operations of justice involving equality, reciprocity, and
equity in their thinking rather than which social rules and values they have learned.
Second, in order for rational judgement of justice and fairness to occur, Kohlberg
requires that a sufficient degree of cognitive development in infancy and early childhood has
already occurred.
Third, Kohlberg assumes that individuals differentiate between (1) manifest behaviour,
(2) the underlying intentions that motivates behaviour, and (3) the overt consequences of
individuals actions. This assumption is reflected in his methodology where he elicits from
subjects their reasoning about how these three factors interrelate and influence moral
judgements.
Contributions and Criticisms of Moral Development Theory
Contributions
Individuals as Moral Philosophers. Analogous to Piagets portrait of children as natural
scientists, Kohlberg believes that it is the nature of individuals to be moral philosophers. The
point he makes is that children, adolescents and adults quite naturally and without the benefit
of formal training attempt to solve moral problems by inventing solutions, trying them out, and
adapting them to interpersonal situations.
Morality as Rational Intelligence. Many people intuitively believe that morality is a matter of
ones emotional state. Such concepts of morality have been soundly rocked by Kohlbergs
analysis of moral development. Kohlberg has significantly advanced the psychological
understanding of morality by demonstrating its connections to rational thought. In this way, his
constructivist theory gives us an explanation of moral development that is not susceptible to
the same theoretical and empirical problems as explanations that posit morality as a quality of
feeling states (endogenous explanation) or as culturally learned values (exogenous
explanation).
Cultural Universals. Kohlberg changed the entire theoretical map of developmental psychology
by concentrating on the structures of moral reasoning rather than its content. His claim that
individuals in very different cultures develop through the same sequence of moral stages was a
revolutionary idea. It concentrated on the increasing complexity of moral thought rather than
on the cultural content of moral values , and that theoretical contribution shifted forever the
study of moral development.
Education for Moral Development. Kohlberg had actively promoted techniques and ideas
directed at improving education. Some of his early publications are related to enhancing
cognitive development in general, but many of his later publications report educational
strategies designed to improve moral reasoning. For him, moral education is designed for the
purpose of improving students moral reasoning and thus does not constitute indoctrination of
learning socially sanctioned virtues and conventions. What makes this work so important is its
radically different, constructivist approach to moral development without invoking more
traditional strategies such as imitation and factual learning.
Criticisms
Reliability and Validity. Among most cited criticisms are those outlined by Kurtines and Graif
(1794), who have systematically evaluated Kohlbergs work from a psychometric
(measurement) point of view. They argue that his methodology has both low reliability
(consistency) and low validity (accurately measure moral thinking). They also notes that
individuals may often behave in ways different from the motivations and justifications they
describe in hypothetical, moral reasoning interviews (a possible problem with validity).
Thought and Action. A recurring criticism of Kohlbergs early work was that little effort had
been made to determine how moral reasoning actually translated into behaviour. That is, if
stages of moral development reflect qualitative differences in rational judgements, then they
should affect the behaviours exhibited by individuals in different moral stages. This
fundamental issue, the relationship between thought and action, is ultimately faced by all
constructivists.
Why be Moral? A theory of moral development should answer the most fundamental question
of all: Why be moral? Kohlberg would probably attempt to answer the query by stating
because it is the right thing to do. However, such a retort will not do because it does not fully
answer the question. Such question is bothersome because if morality cannot derived from a
logical justification, then some other kind of justification not found in Kohlbergs theory must
be provided.



ERICKSON AND PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY

Historical Sketch
Erik Erikson was born June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. "The common story was that his
mother and father had separated before his birth, but the closely guarded fact was that he was his
mother's child from an extramarital union. He never saw his birth father or his mother's first husband,"
reported Erikson's obituary that appeared in The New York Times in 1994.
His young Jewish mother raised Erik by herself for a time before marrying a physician, Dr.
Theodor Homberger. The fact that Homberger was not in fact his biological father was concealed from
him for many years. When he finally did learn the truth, he was left with a feeling of confusion about
who he really was. This early experience helped spark his interest in the formation of identity.
His interest in identity was further developed based upon his own experiences in school. At his
temple school, the other children teased him for being Nordic because he was tall, blonde, and blue-
eyed. At grammar school, he was rejected because of his Jewish background. These early experiences
helped fuel his interest in identity formation and continued to influence his work throughout his life.
When he finished high school, Erikson dabbled in art and spent some time traveling throughout
Europe. At the suggestion of a friend, Erikson studied psychoanalysis and earned a certificate from the
Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.
He also took a teaching position at a school created by Dorothy Burlingham, a friend of Anna Freud's. He
continued to work with Burlingham and Freud at the school for several years, met Sigmund Freud at a
party, and even became Anna Freud's patient. "Psychoanalysis was not so formal then," he recalled. "I
paid Miss Freud $7 a month and we met almost every day. My analysis, which gave me self-awareness,
led me not to fear being myself. We didn't use all those pseudoscientific terms then -- defense
mechanism and the like -- so the process of self-awareness, painful at times, emerged in a liberating
atmosphere."
He met a Canadian dance instructor named Joan Serson who was also teaching at the school
where he worked. The couple married in 1930 and went on to have three children.
Erikson moved to the United States in 1933 and was offered a teaching position at Harvard
Medical School. He also changed his name from Erik Homberger to Erik H. Erikson, perhaps as a way to
forge is own identity. In addition to his position at Harvard, he also had a private practice in child
psychoanalysis. Later, he held teaching positions at the University of California at Berkeley, Yale, the San
Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, Austen Riggs Center, and the Center for Advanced Studies of the
Behavioral Sciences.
He published a number of books on his theories and research, including Childhood and
Societyand The Life Cycle Completed. His book Gandhi's Truth was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and a
national Book Award.
Erik Erikson spent time studying the cultural life of the Sioux of South Dakota and the
Yurok of northern California. He utilized the knowledge he gained of cultural, environmental, and social
influences to further develop his psychoanalytic theory.
While Freuds theory had focused on the psychosexual aspects of development, Eriksons
addition of other influences helped to broaden and expand psychoanalytic theory. He also contributed
to our understanding of personality as it is developed and shaped over the course of the lifespan.
His observations of children also helped set the stage for further research. "You see a child
play," he was quoted in his New York Times obituary, "and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in
play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also
see what's wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to
the surface in free play.
Assumption of Psychosocial theory
Ericksons most important assumption concerns the autonomous source of the ego. Where
Freud posited only the ids existence at birth, with the ego deriving from the ids structure and energy,
Erickson assumes that the ego already exists as a functioning organ at birth. This assumption has several
important implications. First, since the ego exists independently, there is no need to assume it derives
its energy from the id. Second, since the ego does not depend on the ids energy, there is no need to
posit intrapsychic conflict. Third, and most important, because there is no antagonism between id and
ego, Erickson describes an ego that is conflict-free. This is not to say that individuals experience no
conflict. Rather arises between the individual and society, not, as Freud has maintained, between the
antagonistic internal forces of id and superego. In this respect, Ericksons theory postulates an ego free
of internal conflict, but susceptible in its development to psychosocial rather than psychosexual conflict.
As mentioned earlier, Freud viewed the ego as the personality organ that becomes differentiate
through experience from the original id. In contrast, Erickson believes that the ego is the primary
organizer of personality and that it functions independently and autonomously from birth. For this
reason, Erickson views infancy as far more complex than Freud had. Where Freuds infant is
unconsciously driven toward pleasure, Ericksons is to establish interpersonal, and therefore adaptive,
relationships. An emphasis on social relationships means an ego that is more sensitive to the cultural
context of development than the one posited by Freud.
Contributions and Criticism of Psychosocial
Contributions
Healthy Personality. His theory views the ego as healthy and conflict-free. This means that individuals
are not doomed to a life of anxiety and impulse-ridden compulsions. People may, depending on their
resolutions to the various psychosocial crises, leads lives that are relatively satisfying and happy.
Stages that Span the Life Cycle. Ericksons psychosocial theory, with its theoretical constructs and
unifying lifelong theme (ego identity) allows the developmental psychologist to link elements of adult or
old age functioning with earlier patterns of psychosocial adjustment.
Identity Crisis. Much of the literature on adolescence acknowledges the importance of Ericksons
contribution here. Identity functioning is generally considered to be a vital element of the adolescent
experience, and many believe that the ego identity statuses associated with Marcias work reflect
meaningful patterns of identity formation. These in turn have contributed to our understanding of the
impact that adolescence has on an individuals functioning later in life.
Psychohistory. Erickson overcame two of the criticisms levelled against Freud, namely that the latter
relied too heavily on neurotic personalities and failed to adequately account for the role of society in
personality development. He did not only sampled more widely than Freud, but many of his
observations were drawn from different cultures. In that light, the psychohistory method served his
purpose well. Reprints of two of his most famous psychohistories, Martin Luther (Erickson, 1958) and
Mahatma Gandhi (1969), can be still obtained in Bookstore.
Criticisms
Measurability. Ericksons theoretical constructs have also been criticized because they are extremely
difficult to measure. Marcias analysis of the adolescent identity crisis notwithstanding, only limited
empirical studies have been done on infant, childhood and adulthood psychosocial crises. In large part,
this shortcoming is due to the difficulty of measuring psychosocial crises. How does one, for example,
actually measure whether the infant is experiencing trust, distrust or a problem between the two. The
problem with being unable to measure psychosocial constructs is that researchers cannot establish
either the external validity or predictive validity of the theory.
Stage Sequence. Only limited research supports Ericksons contention ego identity is prerequisite to
being able to form genuinely intimate adult relationships. Moreover, relatively cross-cultural or
longitudinal studies have been conducted to support the claim that psychosocial crises occur in fixed,
universal sequence. Given the importance of this claim for psychosocial theory, the absence of
appropriate empirical support cannot easily be overlooked.



ROBERT HAVIGHURST


Robert Havighurst was a professor, physicist, educator, and aging expert. From 1948 to
1953 he developed his highly influential theory of human development and education. The
crown jewel of his research was on developmental task. And he tried to define the
developmental stages on many levels.
The idea of "developmental task" is generally credited to the work of Robert Havighurst
who indicates that the concept was developed through the work in the 1930s and 40s of Frank,
Zachary, Prescott, and Tyron. Others elaborated and were influenced by the work of Erik
Erikson in the theory of psychosocial development. Havighurst states:
"The developmental-task concept occupies middle ground between two opposed
theories of education: the theory of freedomthat the child will develop best if left as free as
possible, and the theory of constraintthat the child must learn to become a worthy,
responsible adult through restraints imposed by his society. A developmental task is midway
between an individual need and societal demand. It assumes an active learner interacting with
an active social environment"



The Developmental Task Concept

From examining the changes in your own life span you can see that critical tasks arise at
certain times in our lives. Mastery of these tasks is satisfying and encourages us to go on to new
challenges. Difficulty with them slows progress toward future accomplishments and goals. As a
mechanism for understanding the changes that occur during the life span. Robert
Havighurst(1952, 1972, 1982) has identified critical developmental tasks that occur throughout
the life span. Although our interpretations of these tasks naturally change over the years and
with new research findings. Havighurst's developmental tasks offer lasting testimony to the
belief that we continue to develop throughout our lives.
Havinghurst (1972) defines a developmental task as one that arises at a certain period in our
lives, the successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success with later tasks;
while leads to unhappiness, social disapproval, and difficulty with later tasks.
Havighurst uses lightly different age groupings, but the basic divisions are quite similar to
those used in this book. He identifies three sources of developmental tasks.

Tasks that arise from physical maturation. For example, learning to walk, talk, and
behave acceptably with the opposite sex during adolescence; adjusting to menopause
during middle age
Tasks that from personal sources. For example, those emerge from the maturing
personality and take the form of personal values and aspirations, such as learning the
necessary skills for job success.
Tasks that have their source in the pressures of society. For example, learning to read
or learning the role of a responsible citizen.
According to our biopsychosocial model, the first source corresponds to the "bio" part of
the model, the second to the "psycho," and the third to the "social" aspect. Havighurst has
identified six major age periods:

infancy and early childhood (0-5 years),
adolescence (13-18 years),
early adulthood (19-29 years),
middle adulthood (30-60 years), and
Later maturity (61+).

The developmental tasks concept has a long and rich tradition. Its acceptance has been
partly due to recognition of sensitive periods in our lives and partly due to the practical nature
of Havighurst's tasks. Knowing that a youngster of a certain age is encountering one of the tasks
of that period (learning an appropriate sex role) helps adults to understand a child's behavior
and establish an environment that helps the child to master the tasks.

Developmental Tasks of Infancy and Early Childhood:

1. Learning to walk.
2. Learning to take solid foods
3. Learning to talk
4. Learning to control the elimination of body wastes
5. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
6. Forming concepts and learning language to describe social and physical reality.
7. Getting ready to read.

Ages birth to 6-12:

1. Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games.
2. Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a growing organism
3. Learning to get along with age-mates
4. Learning an appropriate masculine or feminine social role
5. Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating
6. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living.
7. Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values
8. Achieving personal independence
9. Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions
Developmental Tasks of Adolescence:

Ages birth to 12-18

1. Achieving new and more mature relations with age-mates of both sexes
2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
3. Accepting one's physique and using the body effectively
4. Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults
5. Preparing for marriage and family life Preparing for an economic career
6. Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior; developing an ideology
7. Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior


Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood

1. Selecting a mate
2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
3. Learning to live with a marriage partner
4. Starting a family
5. Rearing children
6. Managing a home
7. Getting started in an occupation
8. Taking on civic responsibility
9. Finding a congenial social group



MORGAN SCOTT PECK


Morgan Scott Peck was an American psychiatrist and best-selling author, best known
for his first book, The Road Less Traveled, published in 1978.
The Road Less Traveled

published in 1978, is Peck's best-known work, and the one that
made his reputation. It is, in short, a description of the attributes that make for a fulfilled
human being, based largely on his experiences as a psychiatrist and a person.
In the first section of the work Peck talks about discipline, which he considers essential
for emotional, spiritual and psychological health, and which he describes as "the means of
spiritual evolution". The elements of discipline that make for such health include the ability to
delay gratification, accepting responsibility for oneself and one's actions, a dedication
to truth and balancing.
In the second section, Peck considers the nature of love, which he considers the driving
force behind spiritual growth. The section mainly attacks a number of misconceptions about
love: that romantic love exists (he considers it a very destructive myth), that it is
about dependency, that true love is the feeling of "falling in love". Instead, Peck argues that
"true" love is about the extending of one's ego boundaries to include another, and about the
spiritual nurturing of another.
The final section describes Grace, the powerful force originating outside human
consciousness that nurtures spiritual growth in human beings. To do so he describes the
miracles of health, the unconscious, and serendipityphenomena which Peck says:

nurture human life and spiritual growth
are incompletely understood by scientific thinking
are commonplace among humanity
originate outside conscious human will

He concludes that "the miracles described indicate that our growth as human beings is
being assisted by a force other than our conscious will".


Discipline
In The Road Less Traveled, Peck talked of the importance of discipline. He described four
aspects of discipline:

Delaying gratification: Sacrificing present comfort for future gains.
Acceptance of responsibility: Accepting responsibility for one's own decisions.
Dedication to truth: Honesty, both in word and deed.
Balancing: Handling conflicting requirements. Scott Peck talks of an important skill to
prioritize between different requirements --bracketing.

Pecks book begins with the profound truth that "Life is difficult" We must attest to the fact
that life was never meant to be easy, and that it is nothing but a battlefield of problems. We
can either moan about them or solve them. It is here that the vital role of discipline assumes
significance.
Peck defines discipline as the basic set of tools we require to solve lifes problems. These
tools are delaying gratification, assuming responsibility, dedication to the truth, and balancing.
These are techniques of suffering, means by which we experience the pain of problems in such
a way as to work through them and solve them successfully, learning and growing in the
process. Most of us do not want to wrestle with our problems because of the pain involved.
Yet, it is only in grappling with our problems that life has its meaning.
Delaying gratification is the process by which we learn to meet and experience pain first,
and then enjoy pleasure. By doing so, we enhance the joy of pleasure. Most of us learn this
activity by the age of five. For example, a six-year-old child will prefer eating the cake first and
the frosting last. Children will rather finish their homework first, so that they can play later on.
However, a sizable number of adolescents seem to lack this capacity. These problematic
students are totally controlled by their impulses. Such youngsters indulge in drugs, get into
frequent fights, and often find themselves in confrontation with authority.
Taking responsibility for our problems is perhaps the most difficult. Only by accepting
the fact that we have problems can we solve them? An attitude of Its not my problem! will
not take us anywhere. Neurosis and character-disorder are the two disorders of responsibility.
Neurotics assume too much responsibility and feel culpable for everything that goes wrong in
their life. The latter instead, shirk responsibility, and blame others for their problems. "It is said
neurotics make themselves miserable; those with character disorders make everyone else
miserable" (Peck, 1978/1992, p38). All of us are neurotics or character-disordered at some
time or the other. Neurotics must realize that they need not be excessively guilt-ridden, while
character-disordered ones must learn to take things in stride, instead of becoming a yoke to the
society. The words of Eldridge Cleaver, If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of
the problem, hold good for all of us.
Dedication to the truth comes next. We all have a certain worldview that must be
constantly updated and revised as we find ourselves exposed to new data. If our viewpoint is
narrow, misleading and out-dated, then we will be lost. The same applies to our life
experiences. A bitter childhood can leave a person with the false idea that the world is a hostile
and inhuman place. Yet, if the person is to grow, he must set aside this prejudice and revise his
worldview. Being true also implies a life of genuine self-examination, a willingness to be
personally challenged by others, and total honesty to oneself and others.
We finally come to balancing-the technique of flexibility. Many a time we function with
rigid, set patterns of behavior. Extraordinary flexibility is a must for successful living. Part of this
technique is also learning to give up something that is dear and familiar to us. In refusing to
suffer the pain of sacrifice, we fail to truly grow. It is in giving that we gain more.
These interrelated techniques of discipline are paramount if we are to cope with the
tribulations of life. A person may employ two, three or even all the strategies at the same time.
The strength, willingness, and energy to apply these techniques is provided by love. There are
no short cuts to happiness. Only by learning to discipline ourselves can we set foot upon the
path to contentment and wholeness.

Love
His perspective on love (in The Road Less Traveled) is that love is not a feeling, it is
an activity and an investment. He defines love as, "The will to extend one's self for the purpose
of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth" (Peck, 1978/1992, p85). Love is primarily
actions towards nurturing the spiritual growth of another.
Peck seeks to differentiate between love and cathexis. Cathexis is what explains sexual
attraction, the instinct for cuddling pets and pinching babies cheeks. However, cathexis is not
love. All the same, true love cannot begin in isolation, a certain amount of cathexis is necessary
to get sufficiently close to be able to truly love.
Once through the cathexis stage, the work of love begins. It is not a feeling. It consists of
what you do for another person. As Peck says in The Road Less Traveled, "Love is as love does."
It is about giving yourself and the other person what they need to grow. It is about truly
knowing and understanding them.

The Four Stages of Spiritual Development
Peck postulates that there are four stages of human spiritual development:


Stage I is chaotic, disordered, and reckless. Very young children are in Stage I. They tend to
defy and disobey, and are unwilling to accept a will greater than their own. They are
extremely egoistic and lack empathy for others. Many criminals are people who have never
grown out of Stage I.
Stage II is the stage at which a person has blind faith in authority figures and sees the world
as divided simply into good and evil, right and wrong, us and them. Once children learn to
obey their parents and other authority figures, often out of fear or shame, they reach Stage
II. Many so-called religious people are essentially Stage II people, in the sense that they
have blind faith in God, and do not question His existence. With blind faith
comes humility and a willingness to obey and serve. The majority of good, law-abiding
citizens never move out of Stage II.
Stage III is the stage of scientific skepticism and questioning. A Stage III person does not
accept things on faith but only accepts them if convinced logically. Many people working in
scientific and technological research are in Stage III. They often reject the existence of
spiritual or supernatural forces since these are difficult to measure or prove scientifically.
Those who do retain their spiritual beliefs move away from the simple, official doctrines of
fundamentalism.
Stage IV is the stage where an individual starts enjoying the mystery
and beauty of nature and existence. While retaining skepticism, he starts perceiving grand
patterns in nature and develops a deeper understanding of good and evil, forgiveness and
mercy, compassion and love. His religiousness and spirituality differ significantly from that
of a Stage II person, in the sense that he does not accept things through blind faith or out of
fear, but does so because of genuine belief, and he does not judge people harshly or seek to
inflict punishment on them for their transgressions. This is the stage of loving others as
yourself, losing your attachment to your ego, and forgiving your enemies. Stage IV people
are labeled as Mystics.

Peck argues that while transitions from Stage I to Stage II are sharp, transitions from Stage
III to Stage IV are gradual. Nonetheless, these changes are very noticeable and mark a
significant difference in the personality of the individual.
The four stages provide foundational material for Dave Schmelzer's 2008 book Not The
Religious Type.

Community Building
In his book The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, Peck says
that community has three essential ingredients:

Inclusivity
Commitment
Consensus

Based on his experience with community building workshops, Peck says that community
building typically goes through four stages:

Pseudocommunity: In the first stage, well-intentioned people try to demonstrate their
ability to be friendly and sociable, but they do not really delve beneath the surface of each
other's ideas or emotions. They use obvious generalities and mutually-established
stereotypes in speech. Instead of conflict resolution, pseudocommunity involves
conflict avoidance, which maintains the appearance or facade of true community. It also
serves only to maintain positive emotions, instead of creating safe space for honesty and
love through bad emotions as well. While they still remain in this phase, members will
never really obtain evolution or change, as individuals or as a bunch.
Chaos: The first step towards real positivity is, paradoxically, a period of negativity. Once
the mutually-sustained facade of bonhomie is shed, negative emotions flood through:
Members start to vent their mutual frustrations, annoyances, and differences. It is a chaotic
stage but Peck describes it as a "beautiful chaos" because it is a sign of healthy growth.
(This relates closely to Dabrowski's concept of disintegration).
Emptiness: In order to transcend the stage of "Chaos", members are forced to shed that
which prevents real communication. Biases and prejudice, need for power and control, self-
superiority, and other similar motives which are only mechanisms of self-validation
and/or ego-protection, must yield to empathy, openness to vulnerability, attention, and
trust. Hence this stage does not mean people should be "empty" of thoughts, desires, ideas
or opinions. Rather, it refers to emptiness of all mental and emotional
distortions which reduce one's ability to really share, listen to, and build on those thoughts,
ideas, etc. It is often the hardest step in the four-level process, as it necessitates the release
of patterns which people develop over time in a subconscious attempt to maintain self-
worth and positive emotion. While this is therefore a stage of "Fana (Sufism)" in a certain
sense, it should be viewed not merely as a "death" but as a rebirthof one's true self at the
individual level, and at the social level of the genuine and true Community.
True community: Having worked through emptiness, the people in the community enter a
place of complete empathy with one another. There is a great level of tacit understanding.
People are able to relate to each other's feelings. Discussions, even when heated, never get
sour, and motives are not questioned. A deeper and more sustainable level of happiness
obtains between the members, which does not have to be forced. Even and perhaps
especially when conflicts arise, it is understood that they are part of positive change.

The four stages of community formation are somewhat related to a model in organization
theory for the five stages that a team goes through during development. These five stages are:

Forming where the team members have some initial discomfort with each other but
nothing comes out in the open. They are insecure about their role and position with respect
to the team. This corresponds to the initial stage of pseudocommunity.
Storming where the team members start arguing heatedly and differences and insecurities
come out in the open. This corresponds to the second stage given by Scott Peck, namely
chaos.
Norming where the team members lay out rules and guidelines for interaction that help
define the roles and responsibilities of each person. This corresponds to emptiness, where
the community members think within and empty themselves of their obsessions to be able
to accept and listen to others.
Performing where the team finally starts working as a cohesive whole, and effectively
achieve the tasks set of themselves. In this stage individuals are aided by the group as a
whole where necessary, in order to move further collectively than they could achieve as a
group of separated individuals.
Transforming This corresponds to the stage of true community. This represents the stage of
celebration, and when individuals leave, as they must, there is a genuine feeling of grief,
and a desire to meet again. Traditionally this stage was often called "Mourning".

It is in this third stage that Peck's community-building methods differ in principle from team
development. While teams in business organizations need to develop explicit rules, guidelines
and protocols during the norming stage, the emptiness' stage of community building is
characterized, not by laying down the rules explicitly, but by shedding the resistance within the
minds of the individuals.
Peck started the Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE) to promote the
formation of communities, which, he argues, are a first step towards uniting humanity and
saving us from self-destruction.
The Blue Heron Farm is an intentional community in central North Carolina whose founders
stated that they were inspired by Peck's writings on community, although Peck himself had no
involvement with this project.





JAMES FOWLER


Dr. James W. Fowler III (1940)) Professor of Theology and Human Development
at Emory University, was director of both the Center for Research on Faith and Moral
Development and the Center for Ethics until he retired in 2005. He is a minister in the United
Methodist Church.
He is best known for his book Stages of Faith published in 1981 in which he sought to
develop the idea of a developmental process in "human faith".
These stages of faith development were along the lines of Jean Piaget's theory of
cognitive development and Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development. And in his book,
Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (1981)
contains the following:

Stage I Intuitive-Projective faith is the fantasy-filled, imitative phase in which the child can be
powerfully and permanently influenced by examples, moods, actions and stories of the visible
faith of primally related adults.
The stage most typical of the child of three to seven, it is marked by a relative fluidity of
thought patterns. The child is continually encountering novelties for which no stable operations
of knowing have been formed. The imaginative processes underlying fantasy are unrestrained
and uninhibited by logical thought. In league with forms of knowing dominated by perception,
imagination in this stage is extremely productive of long-lasting images and feelings (positive
and negative) that later, more stable and self-reflective valuing and thinking will have to order
and sort out. This is the stage of first self-awareness. The "self-aware" child is egocentric as
regards the perspectives of others. Here we find first awarenesses of death and sex and of the
strong taboos by which cultures and families insulate those powerful areas.
The gift or emergent strength of this stage is the birth of imagination, the ability to unify
and grasp the experience-world in powerful images and as presented in stories that register the
child's intuitive understandings and feelings toward the ultimate conditions of existence.
The dangers in this stage arise from the possible "possession" of the child's imagination
by unrestrained images of terror and destructiveness, or from the witting or unwitting
exploitation of her or his imagination in the reinforcement of taboos and moral or doctrinal
expectations.
The main factor precipitating transition to the next stage is the emergence of concrete
operational thinking. Affectively, the resolution of Oedipal issues or their submersion in latency
are important accompanying factors. At the heart of the transition is the child's growing
concern to know how things are and to clarify for him- or herself the bases of distinctions
between what is real and what only seems to be.

Stage 2 Mythic-Literal faith is the stage in which the person begins to take on for him- or
herself the stories, beliefs and observances that symbolize belonging to his or her community.
Beliefs are appropriated with literal interpretations, as are moral rules and attitudes. Symbols
are taken as one-dimensional and literal in meaning. In this stage the rise of concrete
operations leads to the curbing and ordering of the previous stage's imaginative composing of
the world. The episodic quality of Intuitive-Projective faith gives way to a more linear, narrative
construction of coherence and meaning. Story becomes the major way of giving unity and value
to experience. This is the faith stage of the school child (though we sometimes find the
structures dominant in adolescents and in adults). Marked by increased accuracy in taking the
perspective of other persons, those in Stage 2 compose a world based on reciprocal fairness
and an imminent justice based on reciprocity.
The actors in their cosmic stories are anthropomorphic. They can be affected deeply and
powerfully by symbolic and dramatic materials and can describe in endlessly detailed narrative
what has occurred. They do not, however, step back from the flow of stories to formulate
reflective, conceptual meanings. For this stage the meaning is both carried and "trapped" in the
narrative.
The new capacity or strength in this stage is the rise of narrative and the emergence of
story, drama and myth as ways of finding and giving coherence to experience.
The limitations of literalness and an excessive reliance upon reciprocity as a principle for
constructing an ultimate environment can result either in an overcontrolling, stilted
perfectionism or "works righteousness" or in their opposite, an abasing sense of badness
embraced because of mistreatment, neglect or the apparent disfavor of significant others.
A factor initiating transition to Stage 3 is the implicit clash or contradictions in stories
that leads to reflection on meanings. The transition to formal operational thought makes such
reflection possible and necessary. Previous literalism breaks down; new "cognitive conceit"
(Elkind) leads to disillusionment with previous teachers and teachings. Conflicts between
authoritative stories (Genesis on creation versus evolutionary theory) must be faced. The
emergence of mutual interpersonal perspective taking ("I see you seeing me; I see me as you
see me; I see you seeing me seeing you.") creates the need for a more personal relationship
with the unifying power of the ultimate environment.

In Stage 3 Synthetic-Conventional faith, a person's experience of the world now extends
beyond the family. A number of spheres demand attention: family, school or work, peers, street
society and media, and perhaps religion. Faith must provide a coherent orientation in the midst
of that more complex and diverse range of involvements. Faith must synthesize values and
information; it must provide a basis for identity and outlook.
Stage 3 typically has its rise and ascendancy in adolescence, but for many adults it
becomes a permanent place of equilibrium. It structures the ultimate environment in
interpersonal terms. Its images of unifying value and power derive from the extension of
qualities experienced in personal relationships. It is a "conformist" stage in the sense that it is
acutely tuned to the expectations and judgments of significant others and as yet does not have
a sure enough grasp on its own identity and autonomous judgment to construct and maintain
an independent perspective. While beliefs and values are deeply felt, they typically are tacitly
held-the person "dwells" in them and in the meaning world they mediate. But there has not
been occasion to step outside them to reflect on or examine them explicitly or systematically.
At Stage 3 a person has an "ideology," a more or less consistent clustering of values and beliefs,
but he or she has not objectified it for examination and in a sense is unaware of having it.
Differences of outlook with others are experienced as differences in "kind" of person. Authority
is located in the incumbents of traditional authority roles (if perceived as personally worthy) or
in the consensus of a valued, face-to-face group.
The emergent capacity of this stage is the forming of a personal myth-the myth of one's
own becoming in identity and faith, incorporating one's past and anticipated future in an image
of the ultimate environment unified by characteristics of personality.
The dangers or deficiencies in this stage are twofold. The expectations and evaluations
of others can be so compellingly internalized (and sacralized) that later autonomy of judgment
and action can be jeopardized; or interpersonal betrayals can give rise either to nihilistic despair
about a personal principle of ultimate being or to a compensatory intimacy with God unrelated
to mundane relations
Factors contributing to the breakdown of Stage 3 and to readiness for transition may
include: serious clashes or contradictions between valued authority sources; marked changes,
by officially sanctioned leaders, or policies or practices previously deemed sacred and
unbreachable (for example, in the Catholic church changing the mass from Latin to the
vernacular, or no longer requiring abstinence from meat on Friday); the encounter with
experiences or perspectives that lead to critical reflection on how one's beliefs and values have
formed and changed, and on how "relative" they are to one's particular group or background.
Frequently the experience of "leaving home"--emotionally or physically, or both--precipitates
the kind of examination of self, background, and life guiding values that gives rise to stage
transition at this point.

The movement from Stage 3 to Stage 4 Individuative-Reflective faith is particularly
critical for it is in this transition that the late adolescent or adult must begin to take seriously
the burden of responsibility for his or her own commitments, lifestyle, beliefs and attitudes.
Where genuine movement toward stage 4 is underway the person must face certain
unavoidable tensions: individuality versus being defined by a group or group membership;
subjectivity and the power of one's strongly felt but unexamined feelings versus objectivity and
the requirement of critical reflection; self-fulfillment or self-actualization as a primary concern
versus service to and being for others; the question of being committed to the relative versus
struggle with the possibility of an absolute.
Stage 4 most appropriately takes form in young adulthood (but let us remember that
many adults do not construct it and that for a significant group it emerges only in the mid-
thirties or forties). This stage is marked by a double development. The self, previously sustained
in its identity and faith compositions by an interpersonal circle of significant others, now claims
an identity no longer defined by the composite of one's roles or meanings to others. To sustain
that new identity it composes a meaning frame conscious of its own boundaries and inner
connections and aware of itself as a "world view." Self (identity) and outlook (world view) are
differentiated from those of others and become acknowledged factors in the reactions,
interpretations and judgments one makes on the actions of the self and others. It expresses its
intuitions of coherence in an ultimate environment in terms of an explicit system of meanings.
Stage 4 typically translates symbols into conceptual meanings. This is a "demythologizing"
stage. It is likely to attend minimally to unconscious factors influencing its judgments and
behavior.
Stage 4's ascendant strength has to do with its capacity for critical reflection on identity
(self) and outlook (ideology). Its dangers in here in its strengths: an excessive confidence in the
conscious mind and in critical thought and a kind of second narcissism in which the now clearly
bounded, reflective self over assimilates "reality" and the perspectives of others into its own
world view.
Restless with the self-images and outlook maintained by Stage 4, the person ready for
transition finds him- or herself attending to what may feel like anarchic and disturbing inner
voices. Elements from a childish past, images and energies from a deeper self, a gnawing sense
of the sterility and flatness of the meanings one serves any or all of these may signal readiness
for something new. Stories, symbols, myths and paradoxes from one's own or other traditions
may insist on breaking in upon the neatness of the previous faith. Disillusionment with one's
compromises and recognition that life is more complex than Stage 4's logic of clear distinctions
and abstract concepts can comprehend, press one toward a more dialectical and multileveled
approach to life truth.

Stage 5 Conjunctive faith involves the integration into self and outlook of much that was
suppressed or unrecognized in the interest of Stage 4's self-certainty and conscious cognitive
and affective adaptation to reality. This stage develops a "second naivete'' (Ricoeur) in which
symbolic power is reunited with conceptual meanings. Here there must also be a new
reclaiming and reworking of one's past. There must be an opening to the voices of one's
"deeper self." Importantly, this involves a critical recognition of one's social unconscious-the
myths, ideal images and prejudices built deeply into the self-system by virtue of one's nurture
within a particular social class, religious tradition, ethnic group or the like.
Unusual before mid-life, Stage 5 knows the sacrament of defeat and the reality of
irrevocable commitments and acts. What the previous stage struggled to clarify, in terms of the
boundaries of self and outlook, this stage now makes porous and permeable. Alive to paradox
and the truth in apparent contradictions, this stage strives to unify opposites in mind and
experience. It generates and maintains vulnerability to the strange truths of those who are
"other." Ready for closeness to that which is different and threatening to self and outlook
(including new depths of experience in spirituality and religious revelation), this stage's
commitment to justice is freed from the confines of tribe, class, religious community or nation.
And with the seriousness that can arise when life is more than half over, this stage is ready to
spend and be spent for the cause of conserving and cultivating the possibility of others'
generating identity and meaning.
The new strength of this stage comes in the rise of the ironic imagination-a capacity to
see and be in one's or one's group's most powerful meanings, while simultaneously recognizing
that they are relative, partial and inevitably distorting apprehensions of transcendent reality. Its
danger lies in the direction of a paralyzing passivity or inaction, giving rise to complacency or
cynical withdrawal, due to its paradoxical understanding of truth.
Stage 5 can appreciate symbols, myths and rituals (its own and others') because it has
been grasped, in some measure, by the depth of reality to which they refer. It also sees the
divisions of the human family vividly because it has been apprehended by the possibility (and
imperative) of an inclusive community of being. But this stage remains divided. It lives and acts
between an untransformed world and a transforming vision and loyalties. In some few cases
this division yields to the call of the radical actualization that we call Stage 6.

Stage 6 is exceedingly rare. The persons best described by it have generated faith compositions
in which their felt sense of an ultimate environment is inclusive of all being. They have become
incarnators and actualizers of the spirit of an inclusive and fulfilled human community.
They are "contagious" in the sense that they create zones of liberation from the social,
political, economic and ideological shackles we place and endure on human futurity. Living with
felt participation in a power that unifies and transforms the world, Universalizes are often
experienced as subversive of the structures (including religious structures) by which we sustain
our individual and corporate survival, security and significance. Many persons in this stage die
at the hands of those whom they hope to change. Universalizes are often more honored and
revered after death than during their lives. The rare persons who may be described by this
stage have a special grace that makes them seem more lucid, more simple, and yet somehow
more fully human than the rest of us. Their community is universal in extent. Particularities are
cherished because they are vessels of the universal, and thereby valuable apart from any
utilitarian considerations. Life is both loved and held to loosely. Such persons are ready for
fellowship with persons at any of the other stages and from any other faith tradition.




CAROL GILLIGAN


Gilligan (1977, 1982) has challenged the very basis of Kohlbergs theory. She has argued
that his focus on the development of concepts of justice is based on male ways of viewing life
and therefore his measures of moral reasoning are based against females. So, she created a
brief account on theory of moral orientations.

Gilligans argument includes the following:

There are two distinct moral orientations: justice and care. Each has its own inbuilt
assumption not to behave unfairly towards others (justice) and not to ignore someone
in need (caring). Males and females learn both of these principles, Gilligan hypothesizes,
but boys are more likely to operate from an orientation of justice, while girls are more
likely to operate from an orientation of caring.
Boys are brought up to be independent and achievement-oriented and are therefore
concerned with issues such as equality of treatment and applying abstract principles to
resolve conflicts of interest. In contrast, girls are encouraged to be caring and concerned
for the well-being of others.
The gender differences described, Gilligan argues, may result in boys and girls using
different criteria when judging moral dilemmas.

Gilligans model generated a lot of debate and stimulated a number of research
studies designed to examine possible gender differences in reasoning about moral
dilemmas. Some studies of adults have found that there is a tendency for males to use
justice reasoning and females care reasoning (Lyons, 1983). However, this pattern has
not been replicated in studies of children. For example, Walker et al. (1987) applied
Kohlbergs justice scheme and Gilligans criteria for a care orientation to participants
responses to moral dilemmas. He found no gender differences among children and only
adults produced the pattern that would be expected by Gilligan.
Gilligans proposals are by no means proved. However the value of her work lies
in the fact that a new debate has been opened up about possible gender differences.
There is no conclusive evidence that makes take a justice orientation in moral reasoning
and females a caring orientation. However, this does not mean that there are no
differences in the assumptions that males and females bring to moral judgments.






JOHN WESTERHOFF

Our lives as people of faith can best be understood as a pilgrimage that moves slowly
and gradually through ever-expanding expressions.

1. Affiliative Faith

The beginning, typical of children through the high-school years, I have characterized
as affiliative faith . . .it comes through feelings or sensory experiences in the form of
interactions with others and our world. The foundations of faith are found in experiences in
which we learn to trust other people, ourselves, and our world, not because we are told we are
of worth and the world is trustworthy, but because we experience it as such . . .our actions with
our children influence their perceptions and hence their faith much more than the words we
speak. Our actions frame what our children will experience . . .Affiliative faith looks to the
community and its tradition as its source for authority. We depend on significant others for the
stories that explain our lives and how our people live. Belonging to a community is very
important in order to fulfill our need to be wanted and accepted.

2. Searching Faith

Begins during high-school years and extends through early adulthood. It is characterized
by questioning, critical judgement, and experimentation. It comes in the form of doubt and the
struggle to frame philosophical formulations. Through a personal search for truth, we move
from dependence on others' understandings to autonomy and independence. To find a faith of
our own, we need to doubt, question, and test what has been handled down to us.

3. Mature Faith

. . .which integrates the seeming contradiction of affiliative and searching faith. Possible
for adults who have passed through the earlier stages, mature faith begins in middle adulthood
and develops until death. In this final stage we are governed by neither the authority of the
community nor our own intellectual authority, but by personal union with God through free
acts of the will. Interdependence integrates the dependence of affiliative faith and the
independence of searching faith. Belonging is still important, but people with mature faith are
secure enough in their convictions to challenge the community when conscience dictates . . .We
all grow by being with others, who affirm where we are and share with us lives of more
expanded faith. So it is that we adults need to concerned first of all about our own growth, and
we need always to remember that even mature faith has at its core a childlike faith.







ROGER GOULD


Roger Gould's (1978) theory charts inner stages of consciousness in which the adult
gives up various illusions and myths held over from childhood. Gould sees this process as
freeing oneself from childhood restraints and establishing a sense of personal identity. To
Gould (1978), adulthood is a time of "dismantling the protective devices that gave us an illusion
of safety as children (p. 39)." Confronting the myths of childhood results in transformations
that lead to increasingly higher levels of consciousness (Dean, 2007).

Gould's transformations (1978) occur in a series of sequential, age related stages, as follows:
o Leaving the Parents' World (16-22)
o Getting into the Adult World (22-28)
o Questioning and Reexamination (28-34)
o Midlife Decade (35-45)
o Reconciliation and Mellowing (43-50)
o Stability and Acceptance (50 and over)

The four major false assumptions adults must resolve during their lifetimes (Gould, 1978, p. 39-
40) are:
1. "We'll always live with our parents and be their child."
2. "They'll always be there to help when we can't do something on our own."
3. "Life is simple and controllable."
4. "There is no real death or evil in the world."

In Gould's theory, identity formation begins between the ages of 16 and 22, when people
are challenging the false assumption I will always belong to my parents and believe in their
world" (Gould, 1978. p. 6). The false assumption to be overcome between 22 and 28 is: "Doing
things my parents' way with willpower and perseverance will bring results. But if I become too
frustrated, confused or tired or am simply unable to cope, they will step in and show me the
right way" (Gould, 1978. p. 71).

A closer examination of the first stage shows the young adult is:
Developing independence
Challenging their parents assumptions of the world
Finding safety beyond the parents
Developing a sense of family beyond their core family, and
Dealing with issues related to physical development




VYGOTSKY


Developmental Theory: Vygotskian Theory

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born 1896 in Orsha (in what is now Belarus), and grew up
in Gomel in a prosperous Jewish family in the western provinces of the Russian Empire. His
higher education was at Moscow University, despite the fact that in Russia under Czar Nicholas
II there were strict laws limiting how many Jewish people could receive advanced degrees. His
university studies focused on medicine, and later law. In addition, he studied in an independent
university majoring in philosophy and history. After working as a schoolteacher and then as an
instructor in a teacher training college, Vygotsky turned to psychology. His career as
a psychologist spanned just ten years, ending with his death in 1934. In that time Lev Vygotsky
produced about one hundred books and papers, many of which have only recently been
published and translated into English. At the time of his death, Lev Vygotsky's work included
numerous powerful ideas, however, many were not fully developed and some were even
speculative. His students, including most notably Alexander Luria, Alexei Leontiev, Daniel
Elkonin, and Alexander Zapororzhets, and others (in Russia and throughout the world) have
been responsible for further elaborating many of the ideas of his initial papers.In the last
decade, the intellectual climate of educational theory in the United States has had been
dramatically influenced by the work of Lev Vygotsky. His work was first introduced to the West
in 1962 through the translation of Thought and Language. Many Westerners learned about the
basic ideas of cultural-historical theory from Mind in Society, edited by James Wertsch and
published in 1978. This brief entry presents the major ideas pioneered by Vygotsky and
successors, along with an overview of contemporary Vygotskian educational efforts taking place
in Russia and the United States.Vygotsky's theory is known in the West as sociocultural,
although Vygotsky himself and his close colleagues preferred to describe it
as culturalhistorical, emphasizing the dual focus of this theory: the history of human
development and the cultural tools that shape this development. At the core of this theory is
Vygotsky's belief that human development - child development as well as the development of
all humankind - is the result of interactions between people and their social environment.
These interactions are not limited to actual people but also involve cultural artifacts, mainly
language-based (written languages, number systems, various signs, and symbols). Many of
these cultural artifacts serve a dual purpose: not only do they make possible the integration of
a growing child into the culture but they also transform the very way the child's mind is being
formed. Vygotsky refers to these as special cultural tools, acquisition of which extends one's
mental capacities, making individuals the master of their own behavior. In the course of child
development, a child typically learns how to use these cultural tools through interactions with
parents, teachers, or more experienced peers. As a result of using these tools - first in
cooperation with others and later independently - the child develops higher mental functions:
complex mental processes that are intentional, self-regulated, and mediated by language and
other sign systems. Examples of these higher mental functions include focused attention,
deliberate memory, and verbal thinking. According to Vygotsky, although all human beings are
capable of developing these functions, the particular structure and content of higher mental
functions depend on specific social interactions, as determined by culture in general and by
each person's unique social situation of development.Of all the processes involved in
acquisition of mental tools, Vygotsky focused primarily on the use of language (it was through
the work of his colleagues and students that acquisition of non-verbal mental tools was
studied). For him, language is both the most important mental tool and a medium facilitating
the acquisition of other mental tools. One of the best-known concepts that illustrates
Vygotsky's view of language is the concept of private speech. Private speech, or self-talk,
originates in social speech, the initial form of speech that is directed to other people. Although
it retains theaudible characteristic of social speech, private speech changes its function. It now
becomes speech directed to oneself rather than speech that is regulated or directed by a more
capable person. Noticing that children tend to increase the amount of self-talk when facing
more challenging tasks, Vygotsky hypothesized that at some point, they start using private
speech to organize (plan, direct, or evaluate) their behaviors. The use of private speech peaks
during preschool years and then decreases. Vygotsky associates this decrease with private
speech turning first into inner speech and then into verbal thinking. This evolution of speech -
from social to self-directed to internalized - exemplifies the path of all higher mental functions,
which was described by Vygotsky in his "law of the development of higher mental functions."
According to this law, each higher mental function appears twice in the course of child
development: first as shared or carried out by an individual jointly with other people -
intersubjective - and then as appropriated or internalized by this individual and used
independently - intrasubjective.Vygotsky's view of child development and education is an
extension of his general approach to the development of higher mental functions. Consistent
with his definition of development as socially determined, Vygotsky introduced a new
relationship between education, learning, and development. Vygotsky argued against the
theorists who believed that child development occurs spontaneously and is driven by the
processes of maturation and cannot be affected by education. Neither did he agree with those
who claimed that instruction could alter development at any time regardless of a child's age or
capacities. Instead, he proposed a more complex and dynamic relationship between learning
and development that is determined by what he termed a child's zone of proximal
development (ZPD).Vygotsky's theory is based on the idea that learning can lead development,
and development can lead learning, and this process takes place through a
dynamic interrelationship. The ZPD is the area between a learner's level of independent
performance (often called developmental level) and the level of assisted performance - what
the child can do with support. Independent performance is the best the learner can do without
help, and assisted performance is the maximum the learner can achieve with help. By observing
assisted performance one can investigate a learner's potential for current highest level of
functioning. ZPD reveals the learner's potential and is realized in interactions with
knowledgeable others or in other supportive contexts (such as make-believe play for preschool
children). By providing assistance to learners within their ZPD we are supporting their
growth.Through identification of a learner's ZPD, teachers find out what knowledge, skills, and
understandings have not yet surfaced for the learner but are on the edge of emergence.
Teachers also study ways to engage the learner in shared or co-operative learning experience
through participation in the learner's ZPD. This involves doing more than completing a task in a
combined fashion; it involves developing the learner's higher mental functions, such as the
ability to plan, evaluate, memorize, and reason. In How Children Think and Learn (1998), David
Wood points out: "By reminding children we are helping them to bring to mind and exploit
those aspects of their past experience that we (as experts) but not they (as novices) know to
be relevant to what they are currently trying to do"


Lev Vygotskys Social Development Theory

Lev Vygotsky, born in the U.S.S.R. in 1896, is responsible for the social development
theory of learning. He proposed that social interaction profoundly influences cognitive
development. Central to Vygotsky's theory is his belief that biological and cultural development
do not occur in isolation (Driscoll, 1994).Vygotsky approached development differently from
Piaget. Piaget believed that cognitive development consists of four main periods of cognitive
growth: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations (Saettler,
331). Piaget's theory suggests that development has an endpoint in goal. Vygotsky, in contrast,
believed that development is a process that should be analyzed, instead of a product to be
obtained. According to Vygotsky, the development process that begins at birth and continues
until death is too complex to to be defined by stages (Driscoll, 1994; Hausfather,1996).
Vygotsky believed that this life long process of development was dependent on social
interaction and that social learning actually leads to cognitive development. This phenomena is
called the Zone of Proximal Development . Vygotsky describes it as "the distance between the
actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of
potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978). In other words, a student can
perform a task under adult guidance or with peer collaboration that could not be achieved
alone. The Zone of Proximal Development bridges that gap between what is known and what
can be known. Vygotsky claimed that learning occurred in this zone.Therefore, Vygotsky
focused on the connections between people and the cultural context in which they act and
interact in shared experiences (Crawford, 1996). According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that
develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments.
Initially children develop these tools to serve solely as social functions, ways to communicate
needs. Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.
When Piaget observed young children participating in egocentric speech in their preoperational
stage, he believed it was a phase that disappeared once the child reached the stage of concrete
operations. In contrast, Vygotsky viewed this egocentric speech as a transition from social
speech to internalized thoughts (Driscoll, 1994). Thus, Vygotsky believed that thought and
language could not exist without each other.












THEORIES OF LEARNING


IVAN PAVLOV
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist whose
research on the physiology of digestion led to the
development of the first experimental model of learning,
Classical Conditioning. Most of his research was
gathered studying salivating dogs.
Eventually, Pavlov's research on the physiology
of digestion would earn him the Nobel Prize. As a skilled
surgeon, he was able to implant small stomach pouches in
dogs to measure the secretion of gastric juices produced when
the dogs began to eat. With the help of his assistants, he was able to condition
the dogs to salivate at the click of a metronome. As his work progressed, Pavlov established the
basis for conditioned reflexes and the field of classical conditioning.
Theory
Pavlov concluded that he was able to pair a neutral stimulus with an excitatory one and
have the neutral stimulus eventually elicit the response the was associated with the original,
unlearned reflex. In Classical Conditioning terminology, an unconditioned stimulus (US) is an
event that causes a response to occur, which is referred to as the unconditioned response (UR).
And, in Pavlov's study with dogs, the food within the dog's mouth is the US, and the salivation
that results is the UR. Pavlov took a step further and added an element known as the
nonexcitatory, conditioned stimulus (CS), which is paired with the US.

HERMAN EBBINGHAUS

Hermann Ebbinghaus was born on Jan. 24, 1850,
near Bonn. In 1867 he went to the University of Bonn
and somewhat later attended the universities of Berlin
and Halle. After the Franco-Prussian War he continued
his philosophical studies at Bonn, completing
a dissertation on Eduard von Hartmann'sPhilosophy of
the Unconscious, and received his doctorate in 1873.

HERMAN EBBINGHAUS THEORY
From forgetting where you left your keys to forgetting to return a phone call, memory
failures are an almost daily occurrence. Forgetting is so common that we typically rely on
numerous methods to help us remember important information such as jotting down notes in a
daily planner or scheduling important events on your phone's calendar.
As you are frantically searching for your missing car keys, it may seem that that the
information about where you left them is permanently gone from your memory. However,
forgetting is generally not about actually losing or erasing this information from your long-term
memory. Forgetting typically involves a failure in memory retrieval. While the information is
somewhere in your long-term memory, you are not able to actually retrieve and remember it.

Burrhus F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in a small
Pennsylvania town. His father was an attorney and his
mother a housewife. His family life was described as old-
fashioned and hard working.

Skinner received his Bachelor's degree in English in
hopes of becoming a writer. He wrote for the school paper
but saw himself as an outsider, being an atheist in a religious
school, and often criticized the school and its beliefs. After graduation, he continued with his
hopes of being a writer and worked for a newspaper, eventually moving to Greenwich Village in
New York City.

He later returned to his life as a student and completed his Master's degree in 1931 from
Harvard, and his Doctorate a year later, both in the field of psychology. He married that same
year and had two children, one of whom became famous, or perhaps infamous, as the baby raised
in an artificial environment known as an 'air crib.'

In 1945, he became the chairman of the psychology department at Indiana University and
left to teach at Harvard three years later, where he spent the remainder of his career. Although
he never became the writer he had dreamt of, he did write several books and hundreds of articles
on behavior theory, reinforcement, and Learning Theory. Today he is known as one of the most
published psychologists.

His biggest criticism of psychological thought was against the growing following of
Sigmund Freud. Skinner believed that examining the unconscious or hidden motives of human
beings was a waste of time, for the only thing worth researching was outward behaviors. It was
this core belief that led him to reject most of the theories prominent in the field of psychology.

Concepts such as self-actualization and striving to reach one's potential, such as the belief
held by humanists was rejected due to the inability to research such an abstract idea. The idea of
inner drives such as Freud's Id, Ego, and Superego were seen as preposterous. And the defense
mechanisms, archetypes, and drives merely gave theoretical names to ideas that are poorly
understood and likely nonexistent.

Instead, Skinner focused on observable behaviors and spent the majority of his
professional career refining his theories of reinforcement. He believed that personality develops,
that our behavior responds only because of external events. In other words, we are the way we
are because we were rewarded for being that way. It is this belief that discounts emotions,
thoughts, and even human freedom of choice.

Skinner got most of his criticism due to his belief that through rewards and punishments,
we could design the perfect Utopia. His most famous and most controversial books, Walden
II and Beyond Freedom and Dignity,described his theory of behavioral determinism despite the
protests and criticism from religious leaders and others. In 1990, Skinner died from leukemia
but is known world wide, with the likes of Sigmund Freud, as a forefather in modern day
psychology.


Theory
B. F. Skinners entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the
process of operating on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around
its world, doing what it does. During this operating, the organism encounters a special kind of
stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the
effect of increasing the operant -- that is, the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This
is operant conditioning: the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the
consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future.

John B. Watson
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed,
and my own specified world to bring them up in and
I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I might select--
doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even
beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of
his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit
it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they
have been doing it for many thousands of years."
John B. Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
In 1878 John Broadus Watson was born to Emma
and Pickens Watson. A poor family in Greenville, South Carolina, his mother was very religious.
John's father, with whom he was closer, did not follow the same rules of living as his mother. He
drank, had extra-marital affairs, and left in 1891. Eventually John married Mary Ikes whom he
met at the University of Chicago. Together they had two children, Mary and John. And, like his
father, had affairs with a number of women. John and Mary finally divorced and he married one
of his graduate students, Rosalie Rayner. They had two more children, James and William. John
focused much of his study of behaviorism on his children. After Rosalie's death, his already poor
relationships with his children grew worse and he became a recluse. He lived on a farm in
Connecticut until his death in 1958.

Theory
In The Ways of Behaviorism, Watson states that behaviorism is the scientific study of
human behavior. It is simply the study of what people do. Behaviorism is intended to take
psychology up to the same level as other sciences. The first task is to observe behavior and make
predictions, then to take determine causal relationships. Behavior can be reduced to relationships
between stimuli and responses, the S --- R Model. A stimulus can be shown to cause a response
or a response can be traced back to a stimulus. All behavior can be reduced to this basic
component. According to Watson, "life's most complicated acts are but combinations of these
simple stimulus- response patterns of behavior."
Conditioning is the process of learning to react to the environment. Many behaviors have
been previously conditioned in the human species by the environment. To gain control of a
subject of study the behaviorist must know difference between what behaviors have been
preconditioned and what was inherited from past generations. Gardner Murphy wrote in his
book, An Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology, that some "believe that all learning is
simply conditioning, and that the conditioned response is the true unit of learned behavior."
Time Line
1878 ~ John Broadus Watson was born in Greenville, South Carolina.
1891 ~ John's father, Pickens Watson, left his family.
1899 ~ John graduated from Furman University.
1901 ~ John majored in psychology and minored in philosophy and neurology at the University
of Chicago. He married Mary Ikes.
1903 ~ John B. Watson received his doctorate from the University of Chicago.
1905 ~ Dr. Watson's first child, Mary, was born. He enrolled at John Hopkins University
1906 ~ Watson was hired as an instructor at the University of Chicago
1907 ~ Watson was hired as an associate professor of psychology at John Hopkins University. It
was at JHU that he became known as the Founder of Behaviorism.
1913 ~ Watson gave the lecture and published the article entitled "Psychology as the Behaviorist
Views It." 1914 ~ He published Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology.
1915 ~ Watson became the President of the American Psychological Association.
1916 ~ Dr. Watson began his study on mental illnesses. He began working in advertising at the J
Walter Thompson Agency.
1919 ~ Watson published Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorists.
1920 ~ Watson was dismissed from John Hopkins University. He published the "Little Albert"
Experiment. He turned his focus to advertising.
1924 ~ Watson became Vice President of J Walter Thompson Agency. He published
Behaviorism.
1928 ~ Watson published the Psychological Care of Infant and Child.
1945 ~ He retired as Vice President of William Esty Agency.
1958 ~ Dr. John Broadus Watson burnt all of his unpublished works and died a short time later.

Edward C. Tolman (1886-1959)
Biography
Tolman was an influential early learning theorist who introduced a number of new concepts
and vocabulary to the field of learning psychology. Tolman studied engineering at MIT. In 1912 he
studied with Gestaltist Koffka. He spent most of his career at the University of California (Berkeley)
after earning his Ph.D.at Harvard in 1915. He worked closely with his research students in a dynamic
interactive environment and confessed that he got many of his ideas from his students.

Theory
Tolman termed his system of psychology "purposive behaviorism" as it captured one of his
fundamental notions that organism produce behavior for some adaptive purpose. He started out as a
behaviorist but acquired an interest in Gestalt theories from Kurt Lewin, and adapted some Gestalt
concepts into his work. He developed a distaste for Watson's behaviorism because he disliked
"mechanistic behaviorism's reductionistic perspectives. He believed individuals do more than merely
respond to stimuli; they act on beliefs, attitudes, changing conditions, and they strive toward goals.
Tolman is virtually the only behaviorist who found the Stimulus-Response theory unacceptable,
because reinforcement was not necessary for learning to occur. He felt behavior was holistic,
purposive, and cognitive. Tolman's views can be summarized by saying that behavior is not a
response to a stimulus but is cognitive coping with a pattern of stimuli.
In his Sign Gestalt Theory, he put forth the notion that there are three parts to learning which
work together as a gestalt. These are the "significant" or goal of behavior, the "sign" or signal for
action, and "means-end relations" which were internal processes and relationships. He believed
learning is an accumulation of these sign gestalts, and that they are then configured into cognitive
maps. Input about the environment, which is ongoing, also influences behavior in that it causes
certain gestalts to be selected or not, in relation to the individuals purpose or goals, and other factors.
In this sense, learning is unique to each individual. (see later discussions of schemas and
constructivism).
Tolman coined the term "cognitive map", which was an internal perceptual representation of
external environmental features and landmarks. He thought that individuals acquire large numbers of
cues from the environment and build up expectancies about their permanence or changeable
characteristics. By using this internal representation of a physical space they could get to the goal by
knowing where it is in a complex of environmental features. Short cuts and variable routes are
possible with this model. Whereas behaviorists viewed training as a way to build up a certain set of
sequenced responses, Tolman thought that training would lead to a tendency to go to a certain place.
The subjects would learn where to go, not just how to go.
Tolman was a "centralist". He felt that learning was dominantly a function of the central
nervous system, as opposed to "peripheralism", the view of behaviorism.
Tolman also worked on "Latent Learning", defined as learning which is not apparent in the
learner's behavior at the time of learning, but which manifests later when a suitable motivation and
circumstances appear. The idea of latent learning was not original to Tolman, but he developed it
further.

Tolman also introduced intervening variables into the nomenclature of learning psychology. (This
was very influential to Hull, who adopted the concept and terminology). In Tolman's system there
were three classes of variables.
1. Dependent (behaviors or responses being observed and measured)
2. Independent (2 types were Environmental and Individual variation)
3. Intervening these are hypothetical constructs rather than physical parameters. They are
definable and measurable but not observable. They have functional relationships with both
independent and dependent variables. They are internal cognitive processes.
Expectancy Theory In animal experiments Tolman and his associates trained subjects to
learn a maze with a preferred food as a reward. They observed that if they switched to a less
preferred reward, the rats displayed disgust. Tolman attributed this to acquisition of expectancies in
response to the signs or stimuli of a particular situation. The problem was, he never defined
expectancy even though it was a powerful element in his system.
Tolman identified at least six types of learning.
1. Learning by cathexes connecting or associating basic drives with desired goals with the
end result of developing preferences for certain types of food, drink, sex-objects, etc.
2. Equivalence beliefs sub-goals leading to major ones acquire similar attractiveness as the
end goals.
3. Field expectancies Acquisitions of sets of gestalts (internal maps) enable the individual
to route himself based on these internal maps.
4. Field cognition modes learning is influenced by the ways that perceptions, memories,
and inferences function.
5. Drive discrimination learning to discriminate between competing or more refined
drives
6. Motor patterns- learning and refinement of sensory motor skills.

Tolman wanted to disprove Thorndike's Law of Effect and replace it with his own set of 3
laws.
1. Law of Motivation learning is propelled by gaining final successes or avoiding final
failures. It is these that give purpose to the learning activity.
2. Law of Emphasis Learning consists of building up patterns and gestalts and then
selecting or emphasizing particular responses which emerge that tend to favor getting to the ultimate
final success. The organism emphasizes certain behaviors over others because they grant better
pleasure or survival value.
3. Law of Disruption violent stimuli either physical (such as electrical shock) or emotional
coming in sequence with the right or wrong responses will tend to disrupt learning.


Wolfgang Kohler (1887 - 1967)
Kohler was born on January 21, 1887 in Revel,
Estonia. His family moved to Germany and settled in
Wolfenbuttell when he was six years old. Between 1905
and 1907, he attended the universities of Tubingen,
Bonn, and Berlin. In 1909, Kohler received his Ph.D.
under Carl Stumpf (Hothersall, 1995). During the same
year, he began to work at the Psychological Institute in
Frankfort-am-Main where he met Wertheimer and
Koffka. Kohler was a subject in Wertheimer's
experiment along with Koffka. He was appointed director of the Anthropoid Research Station on
Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Remaining on the island during W.W.I, Kohler began to study
problem solving and general intelligence of a group of African chimpanzees (Hothersall, 1995).
In 1917, he published The Mentality of Apes which summarized the results of his insight studies.
Upon his return to Germany, Kohler took the position as director of the Psychological Institute at
the University of Berlin. During 1925-1926, he served as a visiting professor at Clark University
in the United States.

In 1934-1935, Kohler was invited to give the William James Memorial lecture at
Harvard. He immigrated to the United States in 1935 because of Nazi interference with his work.
From 1935 to 1955, he was a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College. Kohler was
appointed president of the American Psychological Association in 1959. In 1958, he became a
research professor at Dartmouth University until his death on June 11, 1967, in Enfield, NH.

Khler is best known for the influence of his writings in the founding of the school of
Gestalt psychology.

Insight Theory

Kohler was one of the original Gestalt theorists, along with Wertheimer andKoffka. All
of these "fathers of Gestalt" were Germans, but ended their careers in the US. Gestalt theory
emerged as a reaction to the behaviorist theories ofPavlov and Watson which focused on
mechanical stimulus-response behavior. The term "Gestalt" refers to any pattern or organized
whole. The key concept in Gestalt theory is that
the nature of the parts is determined by the whole -
parts are secondary to the whole. When we process
sensory stimuli, we are aware directly of a
configuration or overall pattern which is grasped
as a whole. For example, when listening to music,
we perceive a melody rather than individual notes,
or when looking at a painting, we see the overall
image rather than individual brush strokes. Khler
emphasized that one must examine the whole to
discover what its natural parts are, and not proceed
from smaller elements into wholes.

Kohler proposed the view that insight follows from the characteristics of objects under
consideration. His theory suggested that learning could occur by "sudden comprehension" as
opposed to gradual understanding. This could occur without reinforcement, and once it occurs,
no review, training, or investigation are necessary. Significantly, insight is not necessarily
observable by another person.

ROBERT GAGNE (1916 - 2002)
Robert Gagne is an education psychologist best known
for his "Conditions of Learning" which identified the mental
conditions of learning and was published in 1965. He was
born in North Andover, Maine in 1916 and died in 2002. He
earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University in
1940. He went on to work as a professor for Connecticut
College, Penn State University and Florida State University.
He also served as Director of the U.S. Air Force Perceptual
and Motor Skill Laboratory where he began developing his
principles of his learning theory.
He was considered to be a major contributor of the systematic approach of instructional
design. His learning theory is summarized as The Gagne Assumption and consists of five types
of learning (each requires a different type of instruction) and nine events of instruction. I've also
identified a hierarchy of eight conditions to learning.
Five Types of Learning - learning is similar to processing it is sequential and builds on prior
knowledge.
1. Verbal Information
2. Intellectual Skills
3. Cognitive Strategies
4. Motor Skills
5. Attitude
Nine Events of Instruction - these events apply to each of the 5 types of learning but not
necessarily in the same order for each type.
1. Gaining attention - pique the learners interest
2. Informing learners of objectives - discuss what will be taught
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning - ask questions to call upon what they already know
4. Presenting the stimulus - teach the lesson
5. Providing learning guidance - allow teacher facilitated student practice
6. Eliciting performance - have learner complete a task on what was taught
7. Providing feedback - let learner know how they did on the task
8. Assessing performance - evaluate learner on their knowledge of what was taught
9. Enhancing retention and transfer - provide activity to help learners remember what was
taught
Eight Conditions of Learning - the hierarchal structure is listed lowest to highest; you must
master each step before reaching the next.
1. Signal learning: the learner makes a general response to a signal
2. Stimulus-response learning: the learner makes a precise response to a signal
3. Chaining: the connection of a set of individual stimulus & responses in a sequence.
4. Verbal association: the learner makes associations using verbal connections
5. Discrimination learning: the learner makes different responses to different stimuli that are
somewhat alike
6. Concept learning: the learner develops the ability to make a generalized response based
on a class of stimuli
7. Rule learning: a rule is a chain of concepts linked to a demonstrated behavior
8. Problem solving: the learner discovers a combination of previously learned rules and
applies them to solve a novel situation


Albert Bandura (1925 - )
"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to
mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the
effects of their own actions to inform them what to do.
Fortunately, most human behavior is learned
observationally through modeling: from observing others
one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded
information serves as a guide for action."
-Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977

Biography
Albert Bandura was born in Alberta, Canada in 1925. He earned a bachelor's degree from
the University of British Columbia in 1949. From there he went to the University of Iowa where
he earned his Ph.D. During these years he was influenced by Behaviorist perspectives and
became interested in learning theory. He conducted research and taught at Stanford University
from 1953 to the present.
Social Learning Theory
The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become perhaps the most
influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of
traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all
types of learning.
His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information and
behaviors by watching other peopleand that human thought processes are central to
understanding personality. This theory provides a framework for understanding, predicting and
changing human behavior.

The main tenets of Banduras theory are that:
people learn by observing others
the same set of stimuli may provoke different responses from different people, or from the
same people at different times
the world and a persons behavior are interlinked
personality is an interaction between three factors: the environment, behavior, and a persons
psychological processes.
Social Cognitive Theory revolves around the notion that learning correlates to the observation of
role models. In education, for example, teachers play the role of a model in a childs learning
acquisition. In everyday life, the model could be media sources or those with whom you interact.
Effective modeling teaches general rules and strategies for dealing with different situations.
Basic Social Learning Concepts
There are three core concepts at the heart of social learning theory. First is the idea that
people can learn through observation. Next is the idea that internal mental states are an essential
part of this process. Finally, this theory recognizes that just because something has been learned,
it does not mean that it will result in a change in behavior.

Let's explore each of these concepts in greater depth.
1. People can learn through observation.
Observational Learning
In his famous Bobo doll experiment, Bandura demonstrated that children learn and
imitate behaviors they have observed in other people. The children in Banduras studies observed
an adult acting violently toward a Bobo doll. When the children were later allowed to play in a
room with the Bobo doll, they began to imitate the aggressive actions they had previously
observed.
Bandura identified three basic models of observational learning:
1. A live model, which involves an actual individual demonstrating or acting out a behavior.
2. A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions and explanations of a behavior.
3. A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviors in books,
films, television programs, or online media.
2. Mental states are important to learning.

Intrinsic Reinforcement
Bandura noted that external, environmental reinforcement was not the only factor to
influence learning and behavior. He described intrinsic reinforcement as a form of internal
reward, such as pride, satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment. This emphasis on internal
thoughts and cognitions helps connect learning theories to cognitive developmental theories.
While many textbooks place social learning theory with behavioral theories, Bandura himself
describes his approach as a 'social cognitive theory.'
4. Learning does not necessarily lead to a change in behavior.
While behaviorists believed that learning led to a permanent change in behavior,
observational learning demonstrates that people can learn new information without
demonstrating new behaviors.
The Modeling Process
Not all observed behaviors are effectively learned. Factors involving both the model and
the learner can play a role in whether social learning is successful. Certain requirements and
steps must also be followed. The following steps are involved in the observational learning and
modeling process:
Attention
You need to pay attention to learn something new. The more striking or different
something is (due to color or drama, for example) the more likely it is to gain our attention.
Likewise, if we regard something as prestigious, attractive or like ourselves, we will take more
notice.
Retention
The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process.
Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and
act on it is vital to observational learning.You must be able to retain (remember) what you have
paid attention to. Imagery and language pay a role in retention: you store what you have seen the
model doing in the form of verbal descriptions or mental images, and bring these triggers up later
to help you reproduce the model with your own behavior.

Reproduction
Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, it is time to
actually perform the behavior you observed. Further practice of the learned behavior leads to
improvement and skill advancement. At this point you have to translate the images or
descriptions into actual behavior. You must have the ability to reproduce the behavior in the first
place. For instance, if you are watching Olympic ice skating you may not be able to reproduce
their jumps if you cant ice skate at all! Our abilities improve even when we just imagine
ourselves performing.

Motivation
Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be motivated to
imitate the behavior that has been modeled. Reinforcement and punishment play an important
role in motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so can observing
other experience some type of reinforcement or punishment. For example, if you see another
student rewarded with extra credit for being to class on time, you might start to show up a few
minutes early each day.
Unless you are motivated, or have a reason, you will not try to imitate the model. Bandura states
a number of motives, including:
past reinforcement
promised reinforcement
Vicarious reinforcement.

Albert Bandura has had a large impact on personality theory and therapy. His action-
oriented, problem-solving approach appeals to those who want to make changes, rather than
simply philosophies.

Benjamin Bloom
Benjamin Bloom, born in Pennsylvania in 1913,
became one of the most influential theorists to promote
mastery learning and higher level thinking. The epitome of
Blooms work was intentionally focused on organizing
educational objectives according to their cognitive
complexity. Bloom was interested in providing a useful
practical tool that was congruent with what was understood
about the features of the higher mental processes. Thus, he
created Blooms Taxonomy. He discovered that the higher
order thinking was dependent on the level that preceded it. In other words, students needed to be
able to recall information to then comprehend, to analyze, then to apply it, and so on. Bloom
discovered that the goal of teaching needed to be geared toward the designing of tasks so
students were led to the realization of the objectives vs. given the objectives for recall. Recently,
Bloom's Taxonomy has been revisited and revised after determining that Synthesis was a higher
thinking process than evaluation. It was also revised to show "verbs" instead of "nouns."


Cognitive Learning Theory
The Distance Learning Technology Resource Guide, (2000), provides an informative
description of Blooms theories. (2) Cognitive learning is demonstrated by knowledge recall and
the intellectual skills: comprehending information, organizing ideas, analyzing and synthesizing
data, applying knowledge, choosing among alternatives in problem-solving, and evaluating ideas
or actions. (ibid.)Law enforcement officers need cognitive intellectual skills to make ethical
decisions.

Bloom theorized six levels within the cognitive domain.(ibid.) The levels range from
simple recall or recognition of facts, the lowest level, through increasingly complex and abstract
mental levels, to the highest order, classified as evaluation. Examples representing each level
follow:
Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize,
relate, recall, repeat.

Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate,
recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate.

Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate,
practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.

Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate,
discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.

Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop,
formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.

Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict,
rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.


Affective Learning
Affective learning is demonstrated by behaviors indicating attitudes of awareness,
interest, attention, concern, and responsibility. The ability to listen and respond in interactions
with others, and ability to demonstrate those attitudinal characteristics or values appropriate to
the test situation and the field of study. This domain relates to emotions, attitudes, appreciations,
and values, such as enjoying, conserving, respecting, and supporting. Verbs applicable to the
affective domain include accepts, attempts, challenges, defends, disputes, joins, judges, praises,
questions, shares, supports, and volunteers. (ibid.) Empathy is an important trait for law
enforcement officers. Lack of empathy can lead to ethicsviolations when,
for example, someone's rights are violated by an uncaring or inattentive officer.

Psychomotor Learning
Psychomotor learning is demonstrated by physical skills; coordination, dexterity,
manipulation, grace, strength, speed; actions demonstrating fine motor skills such as using
precision instruments or tools,or actions evidencing gross motor skills such as dancing or athletic
performance. Verbs applicable to the psychomotor domain include bend, grasp, handle, operate,
reach, relax, shorten, stretch, write, differentiate (by touch), express (facially), and perform
(skillfully). (ibid.)


Cognitive

Affective

Psychomotor
knowledge attitude skills
1. Recall data
1. Receive
(awareness)
1. Imitation (copy)
2. Understand 2. Respond (react)
2. Manipulation
(follow instructions)
3. Apply (use)
3. Value (understand
and act)
3. Develop Precision
4. Analyse
(structure/elements)
4. Organise personal
value system
4. Articulation
(combine, integrate
related skills)
5. Synthesize
(create/build)
5. Internalize value
system (adopt
behaviour)
5. Naturalization
(automate, become
expert)
6. Evaluate (assess,
judge in relational
terms)

cognitive domain
level category or 'level'
behaviour
descriptions
examples of
activity to be
trained, or
demonstration
and evidence to be
measured
'key words'
(verbs which
describe the
activity to be
trained or
measured at
each level)
1 Knowledge
recall or
recognise
information
multiple-choice
test, recount facts
or statistics, recall
a process, rules,
definitions; quote
law or procedure
arrange,
define,
describe,
label, list,
memorise,
recognise,
relate,
reproduce,
select, state
2 Comprehension
understand
meaning, re-
state data in
one's own
words,
interpret,
explain or interpret
meaning from a
given scenario or
statement, suggest
treatment, reaction
or solution to given
explain,
reiterate,
reword,
critique,
classify,
summarise,
extrapolate,
translate
problem, create
examples or
metaphors
illustrate,
translate,
review,
report,
discuss, re-
write,
estimate,
interpret,
theorise,
paraphrase,
reference,
example
3 Application
use or apply
knowledge, put
theory into
practice, use
knowledge in
response to real
circumstances
put a theory into
practical effect,
demonstrate, solve
a problem, manage
an activity
use, apply,
discover,
manage,
execute,
solve,
produce,
implement,
construct,
change,
prepare,
conduct,
perform,
react,
respond, role-
play
4 Analysis
interpret
elements,
organizational
principles,
structure,
construction,
internal
relationships;
quality,
reliability of
individual
components
identify constituent
parts and functions
of a process or
concept, or de-
construct a
methodology or
process, making
qualitative
assessment of
elements,
relationships,
values and effects;
measure
requirements or
analyse,
break down,
catalogue,
compare,
quantify,
measure, test,
examine,
experiment,
relate, graph,
diagram, plot,
extrapolate,
value, divide
needs
5
Synthesis
(create/build)
develop new
unique
structures,
systems,
models,
approaches,
ideas; creative
thinking,
operations
develop plans or
procedures, design
solutions, integrate
methods,
resources, ideas,
parts; create teams
or new approaches,
write protocols or
contingencies
develop, plan,
build, create,
design,
organise,
revise,
formulate,
propose,
establish,
assemble,
integrate, re-
arrange,
modify
6 Evaluation
assess
effectiveness of
whole
concepts, in
relation to
values, outputs,
efficacy,
viability;
critical
thinking,
strategic
comparison
and review;
judgement
relating to
external criteria
review strategic
options or plans in
terms of efficacy,
return on
investment or cost-
effectiveness,
practicability;
assess
sustainability;
perform
a SWOT analysis
in relation to
alternatives;
produce a financial
justification for a
proposition or
venture, calculate
the effects of a
plan or strategy;
perform a detailed
and costed risk
analysis with
recommendations
and justifications
review,
justify,
assess,
present a case
for, defend,
report on,
investigate,
direct,
appraise,
argue,
project-
manage


affective domain
level
category or
'level'
behaviour
descriptions
examples of
experience, or
demonstration
and evidence to
be measured
'key words'
(verbs which
describe the
activity to be
trained or
measured at
each level)
1 Receive
open to
experience,
willing to hear
listen to teacher or
trainer, take
interest in session
or learning
experience, take
notes, turn up,
make time for
learning
experience,
participate
passively
ask, listen,
focus, attend,
take part,
discuss,
acknowledge,
hear, be open
to, retain,
follow,
concentrate,
read, do, feel
2 Respond
react and
participate
actively
participate
actively in group
discussion, active
participation in
activity, interest in
outcomes,
enthusiasm for
action, question
and probe ideas,
suggest
interpretation
react, respond,
seek
clarification,
interpret,
clarify, provide
other references
and examples,
contribute,
question,
present, cite,
become
animated or
excited, help
team, write,
perform
3 Value
attach values
and express
personal
opinions
decide worth and
relevance of ideas,
experiences;
accept or commit
argue,
challenge,
debate, refute,
confront,
to particular
stance or action
justify,
persuade,
criticise,
4
Organise or
Conceptualize
values
reconcile
internal
conflicts;
develop value
system
qualify and
quantify personal
views, state
personal position
and reasons, state
beliefs
build, develop,
formulate,
defend, modify,
relate, prioritise,
reconcile,
contrast,
arrange,
compare
5
Internalize or
characterise
values
adopt belief
system and
philosophy
self-reliant;
behave
consistently with
personal value set
act, display,
influence, solve,
practice,
psychomotor domain
level
category or
'level'
behaviour
descriptions
examples of
activity or
demonstration
and evidence to
be measured
'key words'
(verbs which
describe the
activity to be
trained or
measured at each
level)
1 Imitation
copy action of
another;
observe and
replicate
watch teacher or
trainer and repeat
action, process or
activity
copy, follow,
replicate, repeat,
adhere
2 Manipulation
reproduce
activity from
instruction or
memory
carry out task
from written or
verbal instruction
re-create, build,
perform, execute,
implement
3 Precision execute skill perform a task or demonstrate,
reliably,
independent of
help
activity with
expertise and to
high quality
without assistance
or instruction; able
to demonstrate an
activity to other
learners
complete, show,
perfect, calibrate,
control,
4 Articulation
adapt and
integrate
expertise to
satisfy a non-
standard
objective
relate and combine
associated
activities to
develop methods
to meet varying,
novel
requirements
construct, solve,
combine,
coordinate,
integrate, adapt,
develop,
formulate,
modify, master
5 Naturalization
automated,
unconscious
mastery of
activity and
related skills at
strategic level
define aim,
approach and
strategy for use of
activities to meet
strategic need
design, specify,
manage, invent,
project-manage


NEAL ELGAR MILLER
Neal E. Miller (August 3, 1909 March 23, 2002)
was an American psychologist, instrumental in the
development of biofeedback. His productive career involved
important studies of a variety of psychological issues.
Together with John Dollard, he
combined psychoanalytical theory with behaviorism, trying to
scientifically explain Freudian ideas of inner drives that
motivate and influence human behavior. Miller was one
of Clark L. Hull's students. His early work (Dollard and Miller
1950), attempted to apply a Hullian analysis to behavioral issues derived from psychoanalytic
literature.
Dollard and Miller's research on frustration and psychological conflict has become
classic, lending direct support to behavior modification techniques of altering an individual's
behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive an d negative reinforcement such that
adaptive behavior is increased and maladaptive behavior extinguished. Turning to physiological
substrates, Neal Miller made significant findings concerning the relationship between
reinforcement mechanisms and the control of autonomic behavior, pioneering the field of
biofeedback which today is used successfully to treat a variety of medical problems.

Millers Biofeedback Theory of Learning
Miller was among the first scientists who conducted research on rats in which he
stimulated rats' brains by using electricity or chemicals to produce such sensations as hunger or
anxiety.
After his work on anxiety, Miller started to investigate other autonomic behaviors, trying
to find out if they could also be modified through instrumental conditioning. He investigated
hunger and thirst, using behavioral methodologies and neurophysiologic techniques. He
concluded that the autonomic nervous system could be as susceptible to classical conditioning as
the voluntary nervous system. This led to his work on biofeedback.
In the 1950s and 1960s, as Miller started to work on his theories of biofeedback, he also
started to face significant criticism in academic community. He claimed that people could
directly influence their bodily mechanisms, such as blood pressure, and that everybody could be
taught to do so. The idea was so radical and novel that it bordered on scientific heresy. In his
obituary in the New York Times, a 1997 statement by James S. Gordon, founder of the Center
for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, was quoted to remind readers of the atmosphere
surrounding Millers work:
In 1961, when Neal Miller first suggested that the autonomic nervous system could be as
susceptible to training as the voluntary nervous system, that people might learn to control their
heart rate and bowel contractions just as they learned to walk or play tennis, his audiences were
aghast. He was a respected researcher, director of a laboratory at Yale, but this was a kind of
scientific heresy. Everyone 'knew' that the autonomic nervous system was precisely that:
automatic, beyond our control.
Miller was eventually able to prove his point, and biofeedback became gradually
accepted in scientific circles as a method to help treat high blood pressure, migraines, and other
medical conditions.


Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: Miller and Dollards Theory of Learning
During his early career Miller focused on research of Freudian psychoanalytical theories
and the combination of psychoanalysis and behaviorism. He wanted to translate psychological
analytic concepts into behavioral terms that would be more easily understood and that would be
based in scientific facts. He particularly focused on studying unconscious drives, which
according to Freud greatly influenced human behavior.
Along with John Dollard, Miller combined Freuds ideas with learning theory. The two
scientists recognized Freud's concept of anxiety and fear as secondary drives (in contrast to
primary drives which are directly related to survival). As a secondary drive fear is learned,
claimed Miller, it could be modified through instrumental conditioning.
Miller and Dollard coined the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis. In its original form it
stated that frustration always causes aggression and aggression is always a consequence of
frustration. However it was modified later into: frustration can lead to aggression, and
aggression can be caused by things other than frustration. Miller proposed psychotherapy for
aggression, frustration, or anxiety, in which people would learn more adaptive behaviors and
unlearn maladaptive behaviors. Teaching relaxation techniques, coping skills, or effective
discrimination of cues would be part of such therapy.


EDWIN RAY GUTHRIE
Edwin Ray Guthrie (18861959) was
a philosopher, mathematician, and later became a behavior
psychologist. Guthrie is best known for his one trial
theory, nonreinforcement, and contiguity learning. One word
that could describe Guthrie is simple." His approach to
learning and theories was simple. His simplistic nature was
carried into his teachings where he took great pride in
working with and teaching students, especially undergraduate
students (Clark, 2005)

Guthries Law of Contiguity Theory of Learning
Guthrie's law of contiguity states that a combination of stimuli which has accompanied a
movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement (Guthrie, 1952). He said
that all learning is based on a stimulus-response association. Movements are small stimulus-
response combinations. These movements make up an act. A learned behavior is a series of
movements. It takes time for the movements to develop into an act. He believed that learning is
incremental. Some behavior involves repetition of movements and what is learned are
movements, not behaviors (Internet, 1999).
Guthrie stated that each movement produces stimuli and the stimuli then become
conditioned. Every motion serves as a stimulus to many sense organs in muscles, tendons and
joints. Stimuli which are acting at the time of a response become conditioners of that response.
Movement-produced stimuli have become conditioners of the succession of movements. The
movements form a series often referred to as a habit. Our movements are often classified as
forms of conditioning or association. Some behavior involves the repetition of movements, so
that conditioning can occur long after the original stimulus.
Guthrie rejected the law of frequency. He believed in one-trial learning. One-trial
learning states that a stimulus pattern gains its full associative strength on the occasion of its first
pairing with a response. He did not believe that learning is dependent on reinforcement. He
defined reinforcement as anything that alters the stimulus situation for the learner (Thorne and
Henley, 1997). He rejected reinforcement because it occurs after the association between the
stimulus and the response has occurred. He believed that learning is the process of establishing
new stimuli as cues for some specified response (Sills, 1968).
Guthrie believed that the recency principle plays an integral role in the learning process.
This principle states that which was done last in the presence of a set of stimuli will be that
which is done when the stimulus combination occurs again. He believed that it is the time
relation between the substitute stimulus and the response that count. Associative strength is
greater when the association is novel. When two associations are present with the same cue, the
more recent will prevail. The stimulus-response connections tend to grow weaker with elapsed
time.
Contiguity theory implies that forgetting is a form of retroactive or associative inhibition.
Associative inhibition occurs when one habit prevents another due to some stronger stimuli.
Guthrie stated that forgetting is due to interference because the stimuli become associated with
new responses (Internet, 1999). He believed that you can use sidetracking to change previous
conditioning. This involves discovering the initial cues for the habit and associating other
behavior with those cues. Sidetracking causes the internal associations to break up. It is easier to
sidetrack than to break a habit. Other methods used to break habits include threshold, fatigue,
and the incompatible response method. Fatigue is a change in behavior-altered chemical states in
the muscle and blood stream. It has the effect of decreasing the conditioned response. The
stimulus conditions the other responses thus inhibiting the response. The threshold method
involves presenting cues at such low levels that the response does not occur. The stimulus is then
increased thus raising the response threshold. The incompatible stimulus method involves
presenting the stimulus for the behavior we want to remove when other aspects of the situation
will prevent the response from occurring (Thorne and Henley, 1997). Excitement facilitates
learning and also the stereotyping of a habit. It is the conflict responsible for the excitement that
breaks up the old habit. Breaking up a habit involves finding the cues that initiate the action and
practicing another response to such cues.
E f f e c t s o f Ma k i n g E r r o r s

Guthrie argued that people "learn what they do", and suggested that it makes sense to
minimize the occurrence of errors during learning. This issue is of practical importance
because much research shows that active retrieval of information enhances learning and slows
forgetting relative to other activities. When learning with retrieval and feedback, should the
learner avoid guessing in cases where he or she cannot produce an answer that is likely to be
correct--to avoid harmful learning of errors? In a series of experiments, we are uncovering the
answers to this question.

F o r g e t t i n g o f S k i l l s v e r s u s I n f o r ma t i o n
It has been shown that people often seem to forget facts and
other pieces of information more quickly than they forget skills. We are
asking why this is the case, and developing new methods of comparing
how forgetting affects different kinds of performance measures.



R e t r i e v a l P r a c t i c e a n d V i s u a l - S p a t i a l I n f o r ma t i o n

Active retrieval of information enhances learning and slows
forgetting. It is easy to use retrieval practice for learning of verbal
materials (e.g.,vocabulary flashcards), but not so easy to use it for
learning visual and spatial information. We are developing and refining
new techniques to provide the advantages of retrieval practice for these
kinds of learning (e.g., here).



R e t r i e v a l P r a c t i c e a n d F u n c t i o n L e a r n i n g

People often learn complex and sometimes nonlinear functions relating one variable to
another. In collaboration with Mark McDaniel, we are studying whether this kind of learning can
be enhanced by using retrieval practice.



R e t r i e v a l P r a c t i c e a n d L e a r n i n g f r o m T e x t s

Flashcards are effective ways to learn simple connections between concepts, but much
information that people need to learn cannot be reduced to simple pairwise associations. We are
developing new ways of teaching people hierarchical networks of concepts, providing the
retrieval-practice benefits of flashcards without "dumbing down" the contents into simple
associations.

CLARK LEONARD HULL
Clark L. Hull (May 24, 1884 May 10, 1952) was
an influential American psychologist who sought to
explain learning and motivation by scientific laws
of behavior. Hull is known for his debates with Edward C.
Tolman. He is also known for his work in drive theory.
Hull spent the mature part of his c areer at Yale
University, where he was recruited by the president and
former-psychologist, James Rowland Angell. He performed
research demonstrating that his theories could predict
behavior. His most significant works were the Mathematico-
Deductive Theory of Rote Learning (1940), and Principles
of Behavior (1943), which established his analysis of animal
learning and conditioning as the dominant learning theory of its time. Hulls model is expressed
in biological terms: Organisms suffer deprivation; deprivation creates needs; needs activate
drives; drives activate behavior; behavior is goal directed; achieving the goal has survival value.

Drive Reduction Theory
Drive reduction is a major cause of learning and behavior. Primary drives are innate
drives (e.g. thirst, hunger, and sex), whereas secondary drives are learned by conditioning (e.g.
money). Doris Kraeling and Byron Campbell experimented to determine if reduction would be
more effective as a reinforcer if the initial drive were low than if the initial drive were high
(Campbell, Kraeling, 1953). Their findings are quite surprising; Changes in stimuli are more
discriminable at low levels of stimulus intensity than at higher levels of stimulus intensity
(Campbell, Kraeling, 1953).
Multiple drives are what happen when an organism is faced with more than one need at
the same time. Research has shown that this condition has an impact on learning. In
psychological vernacular generalized conditioned reinforce has greater learned reward value
than a simple conditioned reinforce (Wike, Barrientos, 1957). These findings mean that
multiple drives lead to quicker learning than a singular drive.
There are several problems that leave the validity of drive theory open for debate. The
first problem is that it does not explain how secondary reinforcers reduce drive. For example,
money does not itself satisfy any biological or psychological need, but it reduces drive on a
regular basis by a pay check. Secondly, drive reduction theory has trouble explaining why
humans and other animals voluntarily increase tension by exploring their environments, even
when they are not hungry or thirsty.
There are also the complications to drive reduction theory caused by so-called pleasure-
seeking behaviors, which seem to be contradictory to the theorys precepts. Why would an
individual actively seek out more stimulation if it is already in a state of relaxation and
fulfillment? A good example is when an individual leaves home to go to a potentially dangerous
carnival. There is no base physiological drive to go to the carnival but the individual exhausts
resources to go there. Judson Brown attempts to explain this phenomenon the sensory
consequences of most responses are practically never intense enough to provide increments to
the drive level (Brown, 1955). So the base physiological drive is vastly more powerful than
other stimuli encountered. This makes sense because an organism will first learn to obtain food
and water before it tries other more frivolous pursuits.
Drive is essential in order for responses to occur (i.e., the student must want to learn).
Stimuli and responses must be detected by the organism in order for conditioning to occur ( i.e.,
the student must be attentive). Response must be made in order for conditioning to occur (i.e.,
the student must be active). Conditioning only occurs if the reinforcement satisfied a need (i.e.,
the learning must satisfy the learner's wants).










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