FUNCTIONALISM

- Functionalism states that mental states (beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc.) are
constituted solely by their functional role, which means, their causal relations with
other mental states, sensory inputs and behavioural outputs.

The theory of functionalism came about as a reaction to the structuralism theory. William
James did not agree with structuralism and wanted to expand it. psychologists suggested that
According to functionalists, psychology should not concern itself with the structure of
consciousness as it had no basic structure but instead should focus on it’s function/purpose
and how it leads to adaptive behaviour.

This approach to psychology was consistent with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution,
which exerted a significant impact on the character of psychology.

Early influences

The school of functionalism was influenced by Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. The
theory of evolution raised the intriguing possibility of continuity in mental functioning
between humans and the lower animals.

Psychologists realized that the study of animal behavior was vital to their understanding of
human behavior, and they focused their research on the mental functioning of animals.
Darwin’s work also promoted the study of animal mind. (1871, p. 66) Early functionalists
and behaviorist psychologists embraced the commitment to strong continuity derived from
experimental studies of animals to accommodate virtually all forms of human psychology
and behavior” (Greenwood, 2008).

Francis Galton’s work on mental inheritance and the individual differences in human
capacities effectively brought the spirit of evolution to bear on the new psychology. He set up
statistical methods to verify mental testing; an approach to measure individual differences in
mental capacities.

Herbert Spencer – took forward Darwin’s theory of evolution - coined the phrase “survival of
the fittest” – and founded Social Darwinism – everything in the society evolves including
human character and social institutions.

Characteristics of functional psychology

1. The functionalists opposed what they considered the sterile search for the elements of
consciousness in which the structuralists engaged. Rather of providing a static
explanation of the mind's contents, the functionalists sought to comprehend its
function.

2. Functionalism focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its
environment. Functionalists were more interested in the operation of the whole mind
rather than of its individual parts, which were the focus of structuralism.
 3. They believed that mental processes served a purpose: to help the organism adapt to
its surroundings.
4. It was more ideographic than nomothetic, that is, they were more interested in what
made organisms different from one another than what made them similar. Their
emphasis on individual differences has had a profound impact on education.

5. The functionalists urged the broadening of psychology to include research on animals,

children, and abnormal humans.
6. The functionalists accepted both mental processes and behavior as legitimate subject
matter for psychology, and most of them viewed introspection as one of many valid
research tools.

William James

About William James

- The early functionalists included the pre-eminent psychologist and

philosopher William James. James alternated between several careers, starting from
studying art to studying science. James could not find much interest in any of the
fields and thus resumed to medicine. During 1860s He suffered from depression,
digestive disorders and several other health concerns. James was a Harvard Professor
who was primarily trained in physiology and medicine. In 1875: Taught his first
course in Psychology and set up first experimental psychology laboratory at Harvard.
In 1890: Published “Principles of Psychology” which became extremely popular in
the U.S. He extensively worked on stream of consciousness, emotions, the self etc.

His Views on Consciousness;

- James argued that the goal of psychology is not the discovery of the elements of
experience but rather the study of living people as they adapt to their environment.
The function of consciousness is to guide us to those ends required for survival.
Consciousness is vital to the needs of complex beings in a complex environment;
without it, human evolution could not have occurred. Conscious experiences are
simply as they are and not a collection of elements. He described the consciousness as
personal and constantly changing, while we are awake selective in what it attempts to
and active.Thus, the mind is continuous.

General Characteristics of the Stream of Thought

1)Thoughts are personal and owned; they are our thoughts

2)Thoughts are constantly changing
3)Thought is characterized by continuity rather than division or separation
4)Human thought conveys a sense of something other than itself
5)Selectivity, discrimination, choice, and shifting interests are in its very nature.
William James’s stream of consciousness

Intro: James rebelled against the artificiality and narrowness of the ancient position. Striking
at the heart of Wundt’s approach to psychology, James declared that simple sensations do not
exist in conscious experiences but exist only as the result of some convoluted process of
interference or abstraction.

In the place of artificial analysis and reduction of conscious experiences to its elements,
James called for a new program of psychology.William James was famous for the
perspicacious account presented on the stream of consciousness in his masterwork The
Principles of Psychology (1950).

According to James, consciousness is personal and it reflects the experiences of the

individual and therefore it is careless to search for elements common to all minds. Secondly,
consciousness is continuous and cannot be divided up for another. Thirdly, consciousness is
always changing. James coined this phrase “stream of consciousness” stating that
consciousness is always changing and that we can never experience the same thought or
sensation more than once.

Lastly, consciousness is functional. That is, that consciousness might have some biological
utility or it would not have survived over time the function of consciousness is to enable us to
adapt to our environment by allowing us to choose.

Conclusion: The method James cited in the principles point to a major difference between
structural and functional psychologies. the functionalist movement accepted and applied
other methods and broadened the scope of American psychology

Functions of consciousness

• Consciousness served individuals by enabling them to adapt quickly to new

environments
• To learn new things, and to solve new problems that present themselves.
• It enables us to choose one course of action over another (Richardson, 2007)
• Those making the best, most functional choices, adapt most efficiently to the
environment.

The self: material, social and spiritual

James quoted” Man’s Self is the sum total of all that he can call him, not only his body and his
psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his
reputation and works, his land and horses, and yacht and bank account. (James, 1890/1983)”

James (1892/1985) discussed what he called the empirical self, or the “me” of personality,
which consists of everything that a person could call his or her own.

James divided the empirical self into three components: the material self, the social self, and
the spiritual self.

1. Everything material that a person can call his or her own, such as his or her own body,
family, and possessions, makes up the material self.
 2. The social self is the version of oneself that others are aware of.
3. A person's spiritual self is made up of various states of consciousness.

The empirical self (the me) is the person as known by himself or herself, but there is also an
aspect of self that does the knowing (the I). Thus, for James, the self is “partly known and
partly knower, partly object and partly subject”. James admitted that dealing with the “me”
was much easier than dealing with the “I,” or what he called “pure ego”.

The Functional Inequality of Women

James played a vital role in supporting Mary Whiton Calkins to attain graduate education
and overcome prejudice and discrimination. Harvard did not award doctoral degrees to
women until 1963. The primary reason for this restriction was a generally held belief in the
so-called natural intellectual superiority of men.

Variability Hypothesis: According to Charles Darwin, the notion that men show a wider
range and variation of physical and mental development than women; the abilities of women
are seen as more average.

Helen Woolley’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago was the first
experimental test of the Darwinian notion that women were biologically inferior to men,
using functional psychology.

Contributions of functionalism

- Functionalists sought to explain mental processes in a more systematic and accurate

manner.
- James made functionalism popular in America which caused him to be regarded as
the father of American psychology. His work influenced so many researchers
especially cognitivists who were studying memory.
- Functionalism went on to influence major schools of thought still in use today such as
the cognitive behavioral and behavioral schools. It also set the ground of Evolutionary
psychology
- In contrast to structuralism, functionalism featured study on animal behaviour,
infants, and adults with mental problems. The data from various methods, such as
physiological studies, mental tests, and questionare, were used to supplement the
introspective method.
- It emphasized on the application of psychological findings to solve practical problems
which left a lasting impact on contemporary American psychology.
- Functionalism gave a practical slant to modern psychology by throwing light on how
psychology helps us cope with challenging situation (Sharpsteen, 2012). The
functionalists started studying the functions of consciousness and as a result we now
have diversity in psychology with fields like developmental and child psychology
emerging.
- Functionalism was an important influence on psychology. It influenced the
development of behaviorism and applied psychology.1 Functionalism also influenced
the educational system, especially with regards to John Dewey’s belief that children
should learn at the level for which they are developmentally prepared.
Criticisms of functionalism

- The weakness of functionalism influenced the rise of behaviorism in early 20th

century. Functionalism was criticized for not being psychological and lacking
objectivity. Functionalism was criticized perhaps most famously by Wundt. It is
literature. It is beautiful but it is not psychology (Sharpsteen, 2012). Wundt criticized
functionalism as nothing more than literature.
- The school was criticized for not having a single definition of the term
functionalism, the definitions were not wrong a separate but continuation of one
another.
- A lot of weaknesses cited by different scholars who regards functionalism as
unscientific since James is thought not to have carried an experiment to come up with
this theory. It is criticized for not being psychological. The theory of functionalism is
said to be subjective since its mentalism is said by behaviorism to be unobservable
(Gross, 2010).
- Functionalism was also criticized for applying the knowledge of psychology to the
real world as acording to structuralists psychology was supposed to be started as a
pure science