The genetic psychology of James Mark Baldwin.

Emerging from the American tradition of mental philosophy, Baldwin developed one of the earliest evolutionist and genetic psychologies. His instrumental view of the mind was based on the model of intentional action, and he accounted for knowledge in terms of the triangle of "habit," "assimilation," and "accommodation." He proposed a comprehensive genetic epistemology embracing various modes of experience organized into sequential stages of logical, scientific, social, moral, religious, and aesthetic consciousness. Developmental progress through these stages was conceived as a necessarily interpersonal process, a conceptualization related to turn-of-the-century American social history. Despite the broad and innovative nature of such theoretical notions, and their implications for symbolic interactionist and cognitive–developmental approaches, the significance of Baldwin's thought remains unexamined and unappreciated. (94 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Hiring of James Mark Baldwin and James Gibson Hume at the University of Toronto in 1889.

In 1889, George Paxton Young, the University of Toronto's philosophy professor, passed away suddenly while in the midst of a public debate over the merits of hiring Canadians in preference to American and British applicants for faculty positions. As a result, the process of replacing Young turned into a continuation of that argument, becoming quite vociferous and involving the popular press and the Ontario government. This article examines the intellectual, political, and personal dynamics at work in the battle over Young's replacement and its eventual resolution. The outcome would have an impact on both the Canadian intellectual scene and the development of experimental psychology in North America. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The making of a developmental science: The contributions and intellectual heritage of James Mark Baldwin.

A direct line may be drawn between the developmental ideas and concepts described by J. M. Baldwin and the contemporary models of L. Kohlberg, Piaget, and Vygotsky. The further Baldwin moved beyond the study of infancy, the more speculative became his ideas and less vulnerable to empirical assessment and modification. Baldwin had proposed a perspective that could not be accommodated by the methods of the "new psychology." Given this dilemma, Baldwin abandoned scientific issues and addressed philosophical ones. Many of the obstacles that precluded the adoption of Baldwin's "genetic science" appear to remain in place today. Despite shortcomings in theory, Baldwin had insight and vision to explore developmental ideas that continue to inspire and challenge 100 yrs later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consciousness, social heredity, and development: The evolutionary thought of James Mark Baldwin.

James Mark Baldwin is one of the most important and least known early American scientific psychologists. Drawing inspiration from Charles Darwin and other evolutionists of the period, Baldwin developed a biosocial theory of psychological development that influenced both Jean Piaget and Lev S. Vygotsky; and he proposed a mechanism relating learned adaptations in the individual to phylogenesis (frequently termed the "Baldwin effect") that is of considerable interest to those currently modeling processes of learning and evolution. After a brief introduction to Baldwin's career, this article describes the intellectual context within which his evolutionary thinking developed. Three of his most important contributions are then discussed: his theory of individual adaptation or learning, his concept of "social heredity," and his articulation of the "Baldwin effect." The article concludes with a brief evaluation of the contemporary importance of Baldwin's ideas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Jean Piaget and the world of the child.

Piaget has made major contributions to biology, psychology, philosophy, and logic. This report traces his career, and discusses his cognitive theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology in Canada one hundred years ago: James Mark Baldwin at the University of Toronto.

Modern academic psychology began in Canada once J. M. Baldwin accepted a professorship at the University of Toronto in the fall of 1889, more than 100 yrs ago. After the death of the professor of metaphysics at the University of Toronto, G. P. Young, a lengthy controversy arose over who would be his replacement. In the end, both J. G. Hume (1892) and Baldwin obtained appointments. Baldwin managed to establish a laboratory in which he supervised a small amount of psychophysical research beginning in 1891. His own academic interests, however, shifted increasingly to mental development. In 1893, Baldwin resigned primarily because the university failed to provide him with a laboratory instructor. He arranged to have the university hire A. Kirschmann (1892) who continued the psychophysical laboratory. Also through Baldwin's influence, another successor, F. Tracy (1893), became interested in child psychology and taught the subject for many years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Contribution Awards: 1969: Citation for Jean Piaget.

Gives a citation to Jean Piaget "for his revolutionary perspective on the nature of human knowledge and biological intelligence. Starting as a biologist interested in the history of scientific thinking, he has approached heretofore exclusive philosophical questions in a resolutely empirical fashion and created epistemology as a science, separate from philosophy, but interrelated with all human sciences. Almost as a by-product of this his chief work he has amassed during half a century ingenious observations and controlled data on human thinking which represent a unique and lasting monument in the psychological literature. Having been known and honored all over the world since his early writings, he becomes the first European to receive the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. Our organization thereby recognizes the seminal influence which this Swiss scientist exerts on all scholars concerned with human knowing and its development." The citation is followed by a biography of Piaget and a list of his scientific publications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Hawthorne experiments and the introduction of Jean Piaget in American industrial psychology, 1929-1932.

The Hawthorne interview program between 1929 and 1932 was one of the most significant industrial studies in the United States. The Hawthorne researchers applied Jean Piaget's clinical method in their extensive interviews with tens of thousands of workers. Chiefly responsible for the program's methodology was Elton Mayo, an Australian who saw interviewing as a means to promote social cooperation. Previous discussions of the Hawthorne experiments have ignored the influence of Piaget in the social sciences. This article provides an account of Mayo's and the Hawthorne researchers' efforts to fuse Piaget's innovation with burgeoning American industrial psychology. The endeavor was not an isolated event but rather drew on the theories and practice of Janet-Piaget psychology, on the support of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation, and on a discourse among social scientists about Piaget's work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychologies of structure, function, and development.

Reviews E. B. Titchner's 1898 analogy between the anatomical, physiological, and morphogenetic aspects of biological research and the structural, functional, and developmental aspects of psychological research. This analogy is applied to contemporary divisions within psychology. In psychology, structural research tends to be described in the cognitive or mentalist vocabulary, and functional research in the behaviorist vocabulary. However, this correlation is accidental. Structural and functional dimensions of psychological problems and their relation to developmental research are examined. It is concluded that much psychological controversy is caused by concern with different problems, and not by different paradigms for studying the same problems. (45 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Piaget and Lévy-Bruhl.

Lévy-Bruhl exerted a powerful influence, seldom considered, on Piaget. The Lévy-Bruhlian thesis of a "pre-logical mentality" characterized by "mystical participation" is outlined, together with its initial reception. The first evidence of Piaget's interest in it dates from 1920, and when he began his studies of children's thinking he compared it with that of "primitives," also adopting Lévy-Bruhl's concept of "participation." By 1928 Piaget had elaborated a theory of the social foundations of different types of thought, which he regarded as also explaining the alleged similarity between the thinking of primitives and children: Both are subject to constraint, primitives by elders and children by parents and teachers. Logical as opposed to pre-logical thought was said to depend on cooperation in free social interaction. Piaget continued to maintain essentially the same views long after Lévy-Bruhl himself had renounced the notion of pre-logicality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

One person and two person psychologies and the method of psychoanalysis.

The distinction between a monadic theory of mind (a one-person psychology) and a relational theory of mind (a two-person psychology) is crucial in understanding psychoanalytic concepts. However, some psychoanalytic theorists see these two models as essentially complementary whereas others see them as contradictory and irreconcilable. I argue that the artificial distinction between clinical theory and metapsychology obscures the recognition that the most fundamental psychoanalytic clinical concepts and procedures were formulated and historically understood as one-person phenomena. Transference was not conceptualized as an interpersonal event occurring between two people but was rather understood as a process occurring within the mind of the analysand. The article attempts to extricate fundamental clinical concepts from the quasibiological drive theory that has dominated both our metapsychology and our clinical theory, and to reexamine the value of these clinical concepts within a relational, contextual, and intersubjective framework. The article examines the method of free association in order to illustrate the different implications of one-person and two-person psychologies. I propose that a two-person or relational field theory does not need to neglect or minimize the... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The early evolution of Jean Piaget's clinical method.

This article analyzes the early evolution of Jean Piaget's renowned "clinical method" in order to investigate the method's strikingly original and generative character. Throughout his 1st decade in the field, Piaget frequently discussed and justified the many different approaches to data collection he used. Analysis of his methodological progression during this period reveals that Piaget's determination to access the genuine convictions of children eventually led him to combine 3 distinct traditions in which he had been trained--naturalistic observation, psychometrics, and the psychiatric clinical examination. It was in this amalgam, first evident in his 4th text, that Piaget discovered the clinical dynamic that would drive the classic experiments for which he is most well known. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception and conservation of length: Piaget and Taponier revisited.

Reports a developmental comparison of judgments of length made by 40 5-yr-olds, 40 8-yr-olds, and 40 adults (mean age, 27 yrs). Ss judged relative lengths of lines presented in pairs via animated films both in static views and under several transformation conditions. The secondary illusion found by Piaget was not replicated, but children were superior to adults in judging static unequal-length line pairs. In the transformation conditions, most 8-yr-olds and adults conserved length, whereas most 5-yr-olds did not. For lines that lengthened during displacement, no age differences were found. Results indicate greater interdependence of judging accuracy in the 2 conditions than suggested by Piaget's hypothesis and cast doubt on typical explanations of failure to conserve. Fine-grain analyses of accuracy data suggest that several stimulus factors and age shifts in guessing strategies are involved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The debate on individualism: Indigenous psychologies of the individual and their role in personal and societal functioning.

Two sides have emerged in the debate over the merits of American individualism. This article enters that debate first by differentiating between 2 indigenous psychologies of individualism, varying by the nature of the self–nonself boundary, the understanding of control as personal or field, and the conceptualization of persons as defined by their exclusiveness or their inclusiveness. Self-contained individualism (firm boundaries, personal control, and an exclusionary concept of the person) is the familiar cultural type, addressed both by proponents and opponents of individualism. An alternate indigenous psychology, which I term ensembled individualism, is supported by cross-cultural, historical, and intracultural evidence and defines a contrasting framework for understanding individualism. Three core cultural values—freedom, responsibility, and achievement—are examined under each type. Contrary to the proponents of self-contained individualism, who state that only this type of individualism can realize these 3 values, I suggest not only that ensembled individualism can achieve these cultural ideals in a more lasting manner, but also that the self-contained form may actually thwart their realization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Beyond Piaget: A philosophical psychology.

Reviews the book, Beyond Piaget: A philosophical psychology by Jean-Claude Brief (1983). Dr. Brief's book is a serious attempt by a philosopher to draw epistemological and general psychological implications from Piaget's life work. In substance the book offers Dr. Brief's own neo-Piagetian model of cognitive development and genetic epistemology. Dr. Brief's is a purely theoretical reformulation of Piaget's enterprise. Its interest for psychologists lies in the fact that this is a philosophically more explicit reformulation, quite similar to other currently popular neo-Piagetian views. The book is well written, but psychologists may find, particularly in the second half, that the notions and considerations discussed are not explicit enough, or familiar enough, to add clarity to their understanding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The radical empiricism of William James and philosophy of history.

William James's philosophy of history is explored in his classic psychological and philosophical works and in 2 articles he devoted specifically to the topic. Historical issues are set forth in terms of James's individualism, pragmatism, and radical empiricism. It is argued that a Jamesian philosophy of history provides a reasoned and believable middle way between the extremes of realism and constructionism. James believed that historical change is brought about both by the contributions of individuals and by forces in cultures and the environment that help shape the direction of things. Finally, the author explores implications of James's pluralism for history and his quarrel with absolutistic conceptual schemes that attempt to reduce all things to 1 thing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)