Discussion #3 History and Theories of Psychology
the Discussion is based on the topic of your choice from chapter 7 . Explain your understanding of the chapter, include examples, experiences, and theories.
Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History
of Psychology
Eighth Edition
Chapter 7
Romanticism and
Existentialism
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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
After reading and discussing Chapter 7, students should:
• Be aware that romanticism and existentialism were
criticisms of the philosophy of the Enlightenment.
• Understand the general characteristics of romanticism:
– Be familiar with Rousseau’s ideas regarding feelings (in
contrast to reason), nature of humans, and education.
– Be acquainted with the ideas of Goethe, including his
general view of life experience and view of science.
– Be familiar with Schopenhauer’s philosophy and views on
human nature.
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Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
•
Understand the basic philosophy of existentialism.
– Be familiar with Kierkegaard’s philosophy regarding
man, religion and God, truth, and his views on
personal freedom.
– Be acquainted with Nietzsche’s views of human
nature, views on God, opinions vs. convictions, will to
power, and supermen.
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Romanticism
•
Emphasized the irrational components of human
nature
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
– Arthur Schopenhauer
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1 of 2)
•
•
•
Father of Romanticism
Rousseau emphasized feelings in contrast to reason
as the important guiding force in human nature, the
best guide for human conduct is a person’s honest
feelings and inclinations.
For Rousseau, humans are basically good—born good
but are made bad by societal institutions. Humans are,
by nature, social animals who wished to live in
harmony with other humans.
– Noble savage
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2 of 2)
•
The general will is what is best within a community
– Should be sharply distinguished from an individual’s will.
•
Suggested that education should take advantage of
natural impulses rather than distort them.
– Educational institutions should create a situation in
which a child’s natural abilities and interests can be
nurtured.
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1 of 2)
•
Goethe viewed humans as being torn by the stresses
and conflicts of life.
– Life consisted of opposing forces, love and hate, life and
death, good and evil.
?
•
The goal of life should be to embrace these forces rather
than to deny or overcome them.
Insisted that intact, meaningful psychological experience
should be the object of study, rather than meaningless
isolated sensations
– Was an early phenomenologist.
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2 of 2)
•
•
Goethe proposed a theory of evolution before
Darwin
Used a form of what is now called behavior therapy.
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Arthur Schopenhauer (1 of 3)
•
Equated Kant’s noumenal world (things in
themselves in nature) with “will” —a blind force
which cannot be known.
– In humans, this force manifests itself in the will to
survive. This will to survive causes an unending cycle
of needs and need satisfaction.
– Most human behavior is irrational
?
An unending series of pains due to unsatisfied need
which causes us to act to satisfy the need, followed by a
brief experience of satisfaction (pleasure) followed
again by another need to be satisfied, and on it goes.
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Arthur Schopenhauer (2 of 3)
•
Felt that the intelligent beings suffer the most.
– Stated “almost all our sufferings spring from having to do
with other people”.
•
Intelligent people seek solitude while the common
people are gregarious.
– For the intelligent, solitude has two advantages
?
?
Can be alone with his or her own thoughts,
Prevents needing to deal with intellectually inferior people.
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Arthur Schopenhauer (3 of 3)
•
A way of looking at life is as the postponement of
death.
– People do not cling to life because it is pleasant, rather,
they cling to life because they fear death.
•
Wrote of positive and negative impulses, the
unconscious, repression, and resistance before Freud.
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Existentialism
•
Existentialism
– Stressed the meaning of human existence, freedom of
choice, and the uniqueness of each individual.
– The most important aspects of humans are their personal,
subjective interpretations of life and the choices they
make in light of those interpretations.
– Søren Kierkegaard
– Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
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Søren Kierkegaard (1 of 3)
•
•
•
The first modern existentialist.
Was an outspoken critic of organized religion and
believed the most meaningful relationship with God
was one that was personal and not dictated by the
church.
Truth is always what a person believes privately and
emotionally.
– Truth cannot be taught logically, truth must be
experienced.
– Truth is subjectivity—your subjectivity.
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Søren Kierkegaard (2 of 3)
•
The approximation of personal freedom occurs in
stages.
– Aesthetic stage
?
?
People are open to many types of experiences, and do
not recognize their ability to choose.
Live on a hedonistic level.
– Ethical stage
?
People accept responsibility for making choices but
use as their guide ethical principles established by
others.
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Søren Kierkegaard (3 of 3)
– Religious stage
?
People recognize and accept their freedom and have a
personal relationship with God. The nature of the
relationship is personal.
o
People at this stage see possibilities in life that usually
run contrary to convention, and tend to be
nonconformists.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1 of 4)
•
Nietzche proposed two aspects of human nature:
–
Appollonian aspect
?
?
–
Rational side
Desire for tranquility, predictability and orderliness.
Dionysian aspect
?
?
Irrational side
Attraction to creative chaos and to passionate, dynamic,
experiences.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (2 of 4)
– He believed the Western philosophy had emphasized
the intellect and minimized the human passions
– Result was lifeless rationalism
– Urged a fusion of the two aspects
?
•
Not a totally irrational, passionate life but a life of
reasonable passion.
Believed that because of human actions, we had, in
essence, made God “dead.”
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (3 of 4)
•
•
Philosophers and scientists who killed God took
purpose from the universe and stripped humans of
any special place in the world.
Convictions are thought to reflect truth, but cause
fanaticism
–
Opinions are tentative, challengeable, and easily
modified in light of new information.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (4 of 4)
•
All people have a will to power
– To control one’s life, tendency to gain mastery over one’s
self and one’s destiny.
•
Supermen are people who are approaching their full
potential because standard morality does not govern
their lives
– This was misused by the Nazi party who claimed that the
German people were these supermen.
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Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as Psychology
•
•
For both men, Hegelian philosophy was a favorite
target, and both men preached reliance on direct,
personal experience.
The major difference between the two was that
Kierkegaard accepted the existence of God, whereas
for Nietzsche God did not exist.
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History and Theories of Psychology
Class Book:
Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History
of Psychology
ISBN: 978-1-337-56415-1
Cengage