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Chapter 17

Contemporary Trends

Chapter Objectives:

• Review of contemporary psychology as positivist and empirical.
• Current trends in psychology expressed in: Learning and motivation, perception, developmental psychology, social psychology, and personality.
• Psychology as an international enterprise: Modern Asian psychology.

Chapter Summary

Current trends within psychology were surveyed by looking at representative developments in the areas of learning, motivation and memory, perception, development, social psychology, and personality. In addition, from the end of the nineteenth century, when contact with the West became routine, psychology enjoyed relative success in Asia. Indeed, we can certainly point to Japan as a contemporary leader in psychological inquiry in all areas, rivaling the productivity of the United States and Europe. In all areas we see a clear shift away from adherence to the systems of psychology and toward a greater reliance on the data collection of an empirical approach to psychological issues. In general, psychology is guided by a direction best described as eclectic. While models integrating the diversity of data have emerged, especially in the areas of learning and developmental psychology, the remaining areas of contemporary psychology remain at an empirical level with no universally accepted theoretical views apparent. Such a state is beneficial because empiricism provides psychology with a framework of open-ended study. However, empiricism, especially when articulated as the experimental method, also carries assumptions that ultimately commit psychology to a natural science approach, to the exclusion of other methods of inquiry.

Suggested issues and topics for class discussion and/or short essay examination questions:

1. Briefly discuss the state of post-system psychology. What is the role of empiricism in contemporary psychology?

2. What is the significance of two-process theories of conditioning in terms of environmental-organismic relationships? How is the r_g-s_g response a mechanism of central mediation?

3. Briefly describe Bindra's incentive motivation. Can this interpretation be reduced to S-R elements?

4. How is Bolles's proposal for two types of expectancy a cognitive interpretation of conditioning?

5. How is Seligman's "preparedness" a biological predisposition?

6. How are split-brain and state-dependent learning studies consistent with reflexology?

7. How is the study of perception used in the context of earlier systems of psychology, e.g., structural psychology or gestalt psychology?

8. How have studies of infrahuman development contributed to the physiological basis of contemporary behavioristic psychology?

9. Outline and evaluate Piaget's goals and major findings in psychology. How does his work relate to the tradition of mental activity in psychology?

10. What is the relationship between the person and the environment in Piaget's view? How does this work relate to the tradition of mental activity in psychology?

11. What is psycholinguistics, and how is it contrasted to traditional behavioristic views of language? How is the contemporary importance of psycholinguistics a direct implication of Piaget's work?

12. Are the findings of psycholinguistics reducible to more basic processes? Is psycholinguistics an empirical study?

13. Why was the study of aging processes rather minimal prior to contemporary research efforts?

14. What sources influenced the view of social psychology earlier in the twentieth century?

15. Why is Brody's distinction between phenomenological and non-phenomenological approaches to psychology an interesting development, relative to the time since the formal inception of psychology over 100 years ago?

16. Why has the traditional study of personality been linked so closely with specific systems?

17. What are the factor theories of personality? Are they empirical?

18. Summarize the major critical concerns for the study of personality, and what do they propose for the empirical study of the individual?

19. In general, what aspects of the systems period of psychology are supported by contemporary research trends?

20. Why is contemporary psychology described as neo-functional?

21. Summarize the major differences in philosophical assumptions about the nature of people, which provide the historical background of psychology in East and West.

22. What is the Western influence on current Eastern psychology?

23. What is Zen psychology, and how is it an Eastern tradition?

24. Describe the historical evolution psychology in post-feudal Japan in terms of adaptation to foreign influences.

25. Briefly summarize the cultural context of assumptions regarding human activity from Eastern and Western traditions.

Objective Questions:

1. Contemporary psychology shares a general consensus on

A. materialism. B. empiricism. C. analysis.

D. reductionism. E. experimentation.

2. Research in contemporary psychology is guided by

A. theory. B. specific issues.

C. the systems. D. deduction.

E. an overall perspective.

3. The study of learning and motivation is more closely aligned with

A. mental passivity. B. reflexology. C. evolution.

D. behaviorism. E. Gestalt principles.

4. Two-process theory focuses on the relationships between

A. sensations and cortical activity.

B. sensory motor pathways.

C. inhibition and excitation.

D. instinct and purpose.

E. Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning.

5. The Pavlovian element of incentive motivation proposed by the neo-Hullians is called

A. the fractional anticipatory response.

B. sign-gestalt expectancy.

C. drive. D. habit. E. inhibition.

6. Bindra's view of motivation focuses on

A. drive. B. incentive responses. C. r_g-s_g.

D. incentive stimuli. E. instinct.

7. Bolles referred to constraints on learning as

A. peripheral inhibition. B. learned expectancies.

C. innate expectancies. D. environmental factors.

E. discriminative stimuli.

8. Seligman's view of biological dispositions proposed the concept of

A. expectancies. B. incentive. C. drive.

D. instincts. E. preparedness.

9. Post-war research on the physiological basis of learning has greatly benefited from improvements in

A. empiricism. B. reductionism.

C. theory. D. technology. E. materialism.

10. Studies showing that memory retrieval is controlled by comparable internal physiological conditions during acquisition and retention are examples of

A. SSDR. B. split-brain deficits.

C. state dependent learning.

D. counterconditioning. E. two-process theory.

11. Traditional research in perception, prior to contemporary trends, had been guided

A. theory. B. specific issues. C. the systems.

D. deduction. E. an overall perspective.

12. Experiments in developmental psychology, using infrahuman subjects, have attempted to study behavior in light of

A. social relations. B. sensory processes.

C. cognitive motivation. D. habit formation.

E. central nervous system development.

13. Which of the following does not describe Piaget's research approach?

A. experimental B. intuitive

C. speculative D. deductive E. ontological

14. The major direction from Piaget's work led to the recasting of the study of

A. social relations. B. associations.

C. sensations.

D. incentive motivation. E. language.

15. Psycholinguistics may be described as the study of

1. language.

B. communication.

C. internal thought.

1. word associations.
2. consciousness.

16. Psycholinguistics is

A. reducible to word units.

B. reducible to semantic units.

C. best approached through psychological inquiry.

D. interdisciplinary in approach.

E. a new name for associationism.

17. Among the scholars of the systems period, the person most interested in human aging was

A. Wundt. B. Freud. C. Jung.

D. Adler. E. Lewin.

18. Human aging is best viewed as

A. physiological deterioration.

B. determined by early experience.

C. a static period, resistant to adjustment.

D. similar to the aging process in lower species.

E. a series of critical periods and growth patterns.

19. Social psychology inherited a strong tradition from the writings of

A. Wundt and Titchener. B. Darwin and Spencer.

C. Galton and Pearson. D. Brentano and Stumpf.

E. Wertheimer and Koffka.

20. Floyd Allport's social psychology relied on

A. McDougall's observations.

B. Spencer's Theory.

C. experimental studies.

D. phenomenological studies.

E. psychoanalysis.

21. The post-system developments in social psychology have relied on

A. anecdotal data. B. intuitive studies.

C. case studies. D. empirical studies.

E. phenomenological studies.

22. One of the pressing issues in social psychology concerns

A. phenomenological vs. non-phenomenological methods.

B. materialism vs. reductionism.

C. empiricism vs. speculation.

D. individuals vs. groups.

E. psychology vs. sociology.

23. The traditional study of personality

A. was ignored by the systems.

B. distinguished among the systems.

C. was reducible to reflexology.

D. contained mostly Freudian interpretations.

E. was largely empirical.

24. Eysenck's work on personality has resulted in

A. refuting Jung's theory.

B. a novel, nonempirical study of personality.

C. a phenomenology of personality.

D. the empirical study of dynamic relations.

E. support for libidinal energy.

25. The contemporary study of personality seeks to find a strong basis in

A. factor theory. B. psychoanalysis.

C. phenomenology. D. materialism.

E. empiricism.

26. In general, contemporary Eastern psychology is greatly influenced by

A. Zen philosophy.

B. Russian reflexology.

C. Shintoism.

D. biology.

E. Western psychology.

27. Modern psychology in China has been subjected to the influence of

A. Soviet reflexology. B. Western psychology.

C. the Cultural Revolution.

D. Communist Party goals. E. all of the above.

28. Kwanicki Tanaka

A. introduced Watsonian Behaviorism to Japan.

B. introduced Gestalt psychology to Japan.

C. championed the Japanese psychoanalytic movement.

D. introduced Zen psychology.

E. fostered the study of psycholinguistics.

29. The leading country for contemporary psychology in Asia is

A. India. B. Iran. C. China.

D. Japan. E. none; they are equally influential.

30. During this century, distinctions in psychological views between East and West have become

A. sharpened. B. blurred. C. clearer.

D. heightened. E. more realistic.