Summary
In view of the limited accessibility of mental life to introspection, psychology has frequently resorted to technological metaphors. These metaphors are related to the scientific revolution and the root metaphor ‘the world is a machine’. It implies that stimuli in the environment are to be described in physical terms and that ‘enriching’ processes take place in the mind. Recently, this approach has been challenged by, for example, ideas about ecological relevance, naive explanations in psychology, and the Gibsonian movement. It is argued that several fields of psychology show a development reminiscent of the Aristotelian tradition and the ancient metaphor ‘the world is a humanlike organism’. Apart from that, there is a revival of other general metaphors such as contextualism and realism. This simultaneous use of scarcely compatible ontological positions describes a part of psychology’s disunity. Psychology appears not to optimize the accumulation of knowledge since it either advocates a complex, enriching mind or a complex, enriched environment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Duindam, V. (1984). Het vlees is woord geworden. Unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Utrecht.
Fodor, J. A. (1983). The modularity of mind. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Helson, H. (1964). Adaption-level theory: An experimental and systematic approach to behavior. New York: Harper.
van Hezewijk, R. (1985). Vooronderstellingen en interpetatiestiflen in de psychologie. Utrecht: Elinkwijk, doctoral dissertation, University of Utrecht.
Hoffman, R., & Nead, J. M. (1983). General contextualism, ecological science and cognitive research. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 4(4), 507–560.
Koestler, A. (1967). The ghost in the machine. London: Hutchinson.
Kuhn, T. S. (1957). The Copernican revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Linschoten, J. (1964). Idolen van de psycholoog. Utrecht: ijleveld.
Michon, J. A. (1985). Bottom up en top down. De Psycholoog, 20(6), 275–280.
Neisser, U. (1967). Cognitive psychology. New York: Appleton.
Neisser, U. (1982). Memory observed. San Francisco: Freeman.
Pepper, S. C. (1942). World hypotheses. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Popper, K. R., and Eccles, J. C. (1977). The self and his brain. Springer International.
Prigogine, I. (1980). From being to becoming: Time and complexity in the physicalsciences.
De Rooij, J. (1985). Tijd voor astrologie. De Psycholoog, 20(5), 229–236.
Spangenberg, J. F. A., & Nijhuis, F. J. N. (1985). Crisisperceptie in de psychologie. Nederlands Tifdschrift voor de Psychologie, 40, 348–359.
Turvey, M. T., Shaw, R. E., Reed, E. S., & Mace, W. M. (1981). Ecological laws of perceiving and acting: In reply to Fodor and Pylyshyn. Cognition, 9, 237–304.
Vroon, P. A., & Draaisma, D. (1986a). De mens als metafoor. Baarn: Ambo.
Vroon, P. A. (1986b). Denkstijlen in de geneeskunde. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Integrale Geneeskunde, 1, 18–26.
Vroon, P. A. (1987). Man-machine analogs and theoretical mainstreams in psychology. In Wm J. Baker, M. E. Hyland, H. van Rappard, and A. W. Staats (Eds.), Current issues in theoretical psychology (pp. 393–414 ). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Wallace, E. (1976). Aristotle’s psychology. New York: Arno Press.
Westfall, R. S. (1977). The construction of modern science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilcox, S., Edwards, D. A. (1982). Some Gibsonian perspectives on the ways that psychologists use physics. Acta Psychologica, 52, 147–163.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Vroon, P.A. (1988). Psychology between Ecological Laws and the Scientific Revolution. In: Baker, W.J., Mos, L.P., Rappard, H.V., Stam, H.J. (eds) Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology. Recent Research in Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3902-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3902-4_4
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-96757-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-3902-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive