The convergence of cognitive behaviorism and ego-psychology.

This article begins by detailing central ego-psychological concepts. The next section documents the convergence of cognitive behaviorism on these earlier contributions. The third section indicates likely possibilities for future developments in cognitive behaviorism that will enhance congruence with ego-psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implications of the rise of cognitive behaviorism.

The cognitive-learning trend in psychotherapy, as described by M. J. Mahoney (see record 1977-30150-001), may be better considered a reactionary throwback to the more traditional focus of psychology than a revolution. There is a possibility that cognitive theories will perpetuate the dualistic reification of human consciousness as distinct from overt behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paradigmatic behaviorism, unified theory, unified theory construction methods, and the Zeitgeist of separatism.

Describes a method and philosophy of theory construction, the aim of which is the unification of various areas and theories of psychology as well as the resolution of traditional schisms in this science. The need to encourage efforts to create unified theory generally, such that additional examples of such theory emerge, as well as standards for evaluating these theories is discussed. Psychology has had the means for creating empirical knowledge in abundance, and it must now develop the conceptual tools to organize this knowledge. (106 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional behaviorism: A plan for unity in psychology.

Functional behaviorism is an evolutionary stimulus-response psychology that applies to all behavior from reflexes to personality. It treats psychological phenomena as compounds of 3 processes--cognition, affect and reaction tendency--which are governed by 3 fundamental operating principles: (a) Behavior is an expression of potentials activated by instigation; (b) behavior is under the simultaneous control of excitation and inhibition; and (c) behavior is a blend of adaptation to events the individual cannot control and coping when control is possible. This view provides an organization that brings unity to the science of psychology. It is an offering of peace to the warring factions in the field. It holds out the hope of creating coherent programs of education in the discipline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scientific psychology and radical behaviorism: Important distinctions based in scientism and objectivism.

It is essential that a distinction be drawn between scientific psychology and radical behaviorism, if only to qualify the claims made by some orthodox behaviorists that their approach represents the only hope for or expression of psychological science. After some brief historical review, the declining popularity of radical (as contrasted with liberal) behaviorism is discussed. Although orthodox behaviorists report having changed their beliefs less often than their cognitive and cognitive–behavioral colleagues, recent longitudinal survey data suggest that they are beginning to show signs of basic ideological shifts. The intolerance of some radical behaviorists for other views (characterized as a scientistic rather than a scientific attitude) is discussed as one possible factor in the apparent decline of radical behaviorism. Also influential may have been the failure of orthodox behaviorists to recognize the impossibility of absolute objectivism in any epistemic venture, including scientific inquiry. It is concluded that traditions in science reflect a valuable legacy and that future developments in scientific psychology would be well served by open dialectical exchanges both within and among differing ideologies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing and cognitive psychology.

Evaluates 4 major approaches to understanding mental abilities: cognitive correlates, which relate test performance to tasks believed to tap basic information-processing abilities; cognitive components, which construct cognitive process models of tasks from standard psychometric tests; cognitive training, which trains individuals in a particular skill and examines subsequent performance; and cognitive contents, which examine the differences in knowledge structures between experts and novices. The major implication of these approaches is that they can relate test performances to specific mental processes. Some newer trends in cognitive research that are potentially fruitful for testing are also discussed. The author concludes that the eventual supplementing of psychometric tests with theory-guided cognitive tasks will be a viable endeavor. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cognitive behaviorism of Boneau may help to integrate the work of Skinner and Szasz.

Comments on the conceptual relationship between Skinner and T. S. Szasz in response to Skinner's (1975) article. Szasz emphasizes the individual human adult as a responsible agent while Skinner emphasizes individual human adult behavior as caused by external agents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Radical behaviorism, internal states, and the science of psychology: A reply to Skinner.

Responds to B. F. Skinner (see record 1988-00027-001) by addressing his 2 central misconceptions involving psychology's lack of empirical rigor and adverse effects of attention to variables that are not directly observable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The specialty practice of cognitive and behavioral psychology.

What makes cognitive and behavioral psychology a specialty practice when many psychologists of differing orientations may inquire about a client’s cognitions and behaviors? Distinctive and unifying aspects of the specialty practice of cognitive and behavioral psychology are discussed as they relate to psychotherapeutic practice. A brief history of the field is given, and procedures in assessment, case conceptualization, and treatment planning are reviewed. Information regarding education and training is provided. Resources are suggested for individuals who wish to develop competency in cognitive and behavioral psychology. Psychologists who use cognitive and behavioral principles in assessments, treatment planning, case conceptualizations, interventions, or all of these are encouraged to pursue specialty certification in cognitive and behavioral psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internationalizing psychology: The case of Europe.

Although American psychology continues to occupy a dominant position in most of the world, there is an increasing awareness in many countries of the need to develop psychology as a science and profession for meeting local needs and for coping with local context, both in a cultural and a political sense. In this article, the emphasis is on Europe as a region, where tensions between regional integration and the pursuit of national and sectional interests create challenges for the discipline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The evolution of behaviorism.

Observes that new data on conditioning processes favor an eclecticism between the traditional nativist and environmentalist extremes in the analysis of behavior. It is suggested that the theory of behavior based on conditioning processes can be reconciled with the new data, but only by revising certain tacit behaviorist assumptions about the parameters of the conditioning processes, particularly instrumental or operant conditioning. Operant conditioning specifies how stimuli, responses, reinforcers, and drive states are woven into relationships that change and sustain an organism's behavior. The new data undermine traditional assumptions about each of those elements rather than about the form of their interrelationship. Because some of the assumptions fall under the heading of motivation, it is concluded that behaviorism is at last reflecting motivation's subtleties, after several decades of failing to do so. Thus refined, behaviorism appears to merge with the main lines of ethology as a more complete science of behavior than either one alone has been. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining race and culture in psychology journals: The case of forensic psychology.

Scholars have argued that racial-cultural issues should be given more attention in psychological research. The American Psychological Association (APA) has instituted guidelines and policies about how to include race and culture in research, theory, and practice. Members of racial minority groups are overrepresented in populations served by forensic psychologists. This article reviews content analyses of racial-cultural issues in psychology and presents a content analysis of the treatment of race and culture in 7 forensic psychology journals between 1998 and 2003. Results indicate that less than 10% of the empirical articles addressed issues of race or culture with any depth and that the majority of the articles used a cultural deprivation paradigm. Results and recommendations for practice and future study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflicts and mixed signals in psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and Gestalt psychology.

At the turn of the 20th century, European psychologists found themselves in conflict situations with respect to the role that private mental states should play in a scientific psychology. Out of this conflict arose 3 of the best-known schools of the 20th century: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and Gestalt psychology. Each of these schools is discussed with respect to two characteristics. First, the authors discuss the attitude of each school on the meaning of the word unconscious as it was understood around 1900. Second, the authors discuss the influence of each school on the reception accorded to books written around 1900 espousing viewpoints that did not cohere with the school's beliefs. Such books may be considered "missed signals" in the history of psychology. "Hits" associated with each school are also highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the status of cognitive psychology.

Discusses the status of cognitive psychology (CP) based on previous research by the present author (see PA, Vols 69:6694 and 71:14115), R. Lachman et al (1979), and E. Tulving (1979). The present author's research confirms Tulving's point that considerable terminological confusion over concepts exists in CP literature, suggesting that CP has some way to go before it assumes the mantle of normal science. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of affect in cognitive psychology and psychoanalysis.

Neither cognitive psychology nor psychoanalysis has developed a comprehensive theory of affects. Such a theory of affect, integrating conceptions derived from Arnold, Lazarus, Tomkins, Bowlby, and Langer, is outlined. Affect is viewed as the subjective experience of feedback appraisal processes operating as part of motivational systems. Quality and intensity of affect are determined by the characteristics of the underlying motivational system and by the degree, direction, and rate of change of mismatch. Examples of motivational systems and their associated affects are given and the role of affect in cognitive development, as well as perception, are considered. By examples, the clinical application of these concepts is shown to avoid false leads and permit development of more effective clinical approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

Examines how and why memory can get us into trouble. It is suggested that memory's misdeeds can be classified into 7 basic sins: transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence. The first 3 sins involve different types of forgetting, the next 3 refer to different types of distortions, and the final sin concerns intrusive recollections that are difficult to forget. Evidence is reviewed concerning each of the 7 sins from relevant sectors of psychology (cognitive, social, and clinical) and from cognitive neuroscience studies that include patients with focal brain damage or make use of recently developed neuroimaging techniques. Although the 7 sins may appear to reflect flaws in system design, it is argued instead that they are by-products of otherwise adaptive features of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The road not taken: A false start for cognitive psychology.

"Psychology and History" was H. Münsterberg's presidential address at the 1898 American Psychological Association conference (see also PA, Vol 81:27847). After a short academic career in Germany, Münsterberg had accepted a chair at Harvard University. In his address, he presented to his American colleagues his conception of psychology as unitary science of the individual human mind. However, this conception that endeavored to import idealistic philosophy from Germany was skeptically received in America where pragmatism prevailed. Münsterberg adapted to his new environment. During the following decade, he incorporated into his theory what he had objected to before: purposive, social, and applied psychology. Yet, Münsterberg's initial conception was a sophisticated design for psychology as a cognitive science. In retrospect, it can be evaluated as a road taken much later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional psychology after communism: The case of Romania.

Outlines, historically, professional psychology after the fall of communism with a focus on Romania. Major points highlighted are (1) the work of psychologists, (2) problems facing Romanians, (3) the transition from communism, and (4) implications for professional practice in the US. A list of addresses of organizations and programs noted in the article is appended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The inadvertent emergence of a phenomenological perspective in the philosophy of cognitive psychology and psychoanalytic developmental psychology.

The phenomenological perspective described by M. Merleau-Ponty seems to be emerging in the context of contemporary developmental research, theories of communication, metaphor theory, and cognitive neuroscience. This emergence is not always accompanied by reference to Merleau-Ponty, however, or appropriate interpretation. On some cases, the emergence of the perspective seems rather inadvertent. The purpose of this essay is to ferret out some of the points which contemporary thinking has in common with Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Though it may appear that the examples chosen for this essay might be scrutinized separately, the thread that ties them together is Merleau-Ponty's work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of testing: A research agenda for cognitive psychology and psychometrics.

Discusses social and educational demands of the present and future and examines current research in cognitive and developmental psychology that can influence the development of new psychometric methodology. Research on the diagnosis of performance regularities at different levels of learning and development should contribute to assessment measures that provide information useful for instructional decision and guidance. Investigation of the structure and cognitive processes of highly competent performers in various knowledge domains is beginning to suggest techniques for assessing the attainment of increasingly complex levels of skill and understanding. Research on information processing models of aptitude measures and self-monitoring skills is providing an understanding of the abilities for learning tested by intelligence and aptitude tests. Understanding of how these abilities are acquired is a prerequisite to facilitating their acquisition. It is concluded that these advances in the study of cognition should contribute to redressing social concerns about testing and assessment in education. (59 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)