Digital information: Educational psychology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_psychology

Nature vs nurture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture

Freud
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Piaget
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Freinet
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Steiner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner

Montessori
http://www.montessori.org/

Experience based education

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To Test or not to test

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Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychologyof schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing on subgroups such as gifted children and those subject to specificdisabilities. Researchers and theorists are likely to be identified in the US and Canada aseducational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. This distinction is however not made in the UK, where the generic term for practitioners is "educational psychologist." Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education and classroom management. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences. In universities, departments of educational psychology are usually housed within faculties of education, possibly accounting for the lack of representation of educational psychology content in introductory psychology textbooks.[1]

Contents
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o o o o o o o o o o o o o

1 Social, moral and cognitive development 1.1 Senses of seriousness and of fantasy 2 Individual differences and disabilities 3 Learning and cognition 3.1 Behavioral perspective 3.2 Cognitive perspective 3.3 Developmental perspective 3.4 Social cognitive perspective 3.5 Constructivist perspective 4 Motivation 5 Research methodology 5.1 Quantitative methods 5.2 Qualitative methods 6 Applications in instructional design and technology 7 Applications in teaching 8 History 8.1 Before 1890 8.2 1890-1920 8.3 1920-Present 9 Careers in educational psychology 9.1 Education and training 9.2 Employment outlook 10 Research journals 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

[edit]Social,

moral and cognitive development

An abacus provides concrete experiences for learning abstract concepts.

To understand the characteristics of learners in childhood,adolescence, adulthood, and old age, educational psychology develops and applies theories of human development. Often represented as stages through which people pass as they mature, developmental theories describe changes in mental abilities (cognition), social roles, moral reasoning, and beliefs about the nature of knowledge. For example, educational psychologists have conducted research on the instructional applicability of Jean Piaget's theory of development, according to which children mature through four stages of cognitive capability. Piaget hypothesized that children are not capable of abstract logical thought until they are older than about 11 years, and therefore younger children need to be taught using concrete objects and examples. Researchers have found that transitions, such as from concrete to abstract logical thought, do not occur at the same time in all domains. A child may be able to think abstractly about mathematics, but remain limited to concrete thought when reasoning about human relationships. Perhaps Piaget's most enduring contribution is his insight that people actively construct their understanding through a self-regulatory process.[2] Piaget proposed a developmental theory of moral reasoning in which children progress from a nave understanding of morality based on behavior and outcomes to a more advanced understanding based on intentions. Piaget's views of moral development were elaborated byKohlberg into a stage theory of moral development. There is evidence that the moral reasoning described in stage theories is not sufficient to account for moral behavior. For example, other factors such as modeling (as described by the social cognitive theory of morality) are required to explain bullying. Rudolf Steiner's model of child development interrelates physical, emotional, cognitive, and moral development[3] in developmental stages similar to those later described by Piaget.[4] Developmental theories are sometimes presented not as shifts between qualitatively different stages, but as gradual increments on separate dimensions. Development of epistemological beliefs (beliefs about knowledge) have been described in terms of gradual changes in people's belief in: certainty and permanence of knowledge, fixedness of ability,

and credibility of authorities such as teachers and experts. People develop more sophisticated beliefs about knowledge as they gain in education and maturity.[5] [edit]Senses

of seriousness and of fantasy

A child must learn to develop a sense of seriousness, an ability to distinguish degrees of seriousness as it relates to transgressions and expenditure of time; for example, a child must learn to distinguish between levels of seriousness in admonitions such as between "don't fidget" and "don't forget to look both ways when crossing the street," which have the same linguistic and normative structure, but different levels of seriousness.[6][7] [edit]Individual

differences and disabilities

An example of an item from a cognitive abilities test

Each person has an individual profile of characteristics, abilities and challenges that result from predisposition, learning and development. These manifest as individual differences in intelligence,creativity, cognitive style, motivation and the capacity to process information, communicate, and relate to others. The most prevalent disabilities found among school age children are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disability, dyslexia, and speech disorder. Less common disabilities include mental retardation, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, andblindness.[2] Although theories of intelligence have been discussed by philosophers since Plato, intelligence testing is an invention of educational psychology, and is coincident with the development of that discipline. Continuing debates about the nature of intelligence revolve on whether intelligence can be characterized by a single factor known as general intelligence, [8] multiple factors (e.g., Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences[9]), or whether it can be measured at all. In practice, standardized instruments such as the Stanford-Binet IQ test and the WISC[10] are widely used in economically developed countries to identify children in need of individualized educational treatment. Children classified as gifted are often provided with accelerated or enriched programs. Children with identified deficits may be provided with enhanced education in specific skills such as phonological awareness. In addition to basic abilities, the individual's personality traits are also important, with people higher inconscientiousness and hope attaining superior academic achievements, even after controlling for intelligence and past performance.[11] [edit]Learning

and cognition

Two fundamental assumptions that underlie formal education systems are that students (a) retain knowledge and skills they acquire in school, and (b) can apply them in situations outside the classroom. But are these assumptions accurate? Research has found that, even when students report not using the knowledge acquired in school, a considerable portion is

retained for many years and long-term retention is strongly dependent on the initial level of mastery.[12] One study found that university students who took a child development course and attained high grades showed, when tested ten years later, average retention scores of about 30%, whereas those who obtained moderate or lower grades showed average retention scores of about 20%.[13] There is much less consensus on the crucial question of how much knowledge acquired in school transfers to tasks encountered outside formal educational settings, and how such transfer occurs.[14] Some psychologists claim that research evidence for this type of far transfer is scarce,[15][16] while others claim there is abundant evidence of far transfer in specific domains.[17] Several perspectives have been established within which the theories of learning used in educational psychology are formed and contested. These include behaviorism, cognitivism, social cognitive theory, and constructivism. This section summarizes how educational psychology has researched and applied theories within each of these perspectives. [edit]Behavioral

perspective

Applied behavior analysis, a set of techniques based on the behavioral principles of operant conditioning, is effective in a range of educational settings.[18] For example, teachers can alter student behavior by systematically rewarding students who follow classroom rules with praise, stars, or tokens exchangeable for sundry items.[19][20] Despite the demonstrated efficacy of awards in changing behavior, their use in education has been criticized by proponents of self-determination theory, who claim that praise and other rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. There is evidence that tangible rewards decrease intrinsic motivation in specific situations, such as when the student already has a high level of intrinsic motivation to perform the goal behavior.[21] But the results showing detrimental effects are counterbalanced by evidence that, in other situations, such as when rewards are given for attaining a gradually increasing standard of performance, rewards enhance intrinsic motivation.[22][23] Many effective therapies have been based on the principles of applied behavior analysis, including pivotal response therapy which is used to treat autism spectrum disorders. [edit]Cognitive

perspective

Among current educational psychologists, the cognitive perspective is more widely held than the behavioral perspective, perhaps because it admits causally related mental constructs such as traits, beliefs, memories, motivations and emotions. Cognitive theories claim that memory structures determine how information is perceived, processed, stored, retrieved and forgotten. Among the memory structures theorized by cognitive psychologists are separate but linked visual and verbal systems described by Allan Paivio's dual coding theory. Educational psychologists have used dual coding theory and cognitive load theory to explain how people learn from multimedia presentations.[24]

Three experiments reported by Krug, Davis and Glover[25] demonstrated the advantage of delaying a 2nd reading of a text passage by one week (distributed) compared with no delay between readings (massed).

The spaced learning effect, a cognitive phenomenon strongly supported by psychological research, has broad applicability within education.[26] For example, students have been found to perform better on a test of knowledge about a text passage when a second reading of the passage is delayed rather than immediate (see figure).[25] Educational psychology research has confirmed the applicability to education of other findings from cognitive psychology, such as the benefits of usingmnemonics for immediate and delayed retention of information.[27] Problem solving, regarded by many cognitive psychologists as fundamental to learning, is an important research topic in educational psychology. A student is thought to interpret a problem by assigning it to a schema retrieved from long-term memory. A problem students run into while reading is called "activation." This is when the students representations of the text are present during working memory. This causes the student to read through the material without absorbing the information and being able to retain it. When working memory is absent from the readers representations of the working memory they experience something called "deactivation." When deactivation occurs, the student has an understanding of the material and is able to retain information. If deactivation occurs during the first reading, the reader does not need to undergo deactivation in the second reading. The reader will only need to reread to get a "gist" of the text to spark their memory. When the problem is assigned to the wrong schema, the student's attention is subsequently directed away from features of the problem that are inconsistent with the assigned schema.[28] The critical step of finding a mapping between the problem and a pre-existing schema is often cited as supporting the centrality of analogical thinking to problem solving. [edit]Developmental

perspective

Main article: Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development Developmental psychology, and especially the psychology of cognitive development, opens a special perspective for educational psychology. This is so because education and the psychology of cognitive development converge on a number of crucial assumptions. First, the psychology of cognitive development defines human cognitive competence at successive phases of development. Education aims to help students acquire knowledge and develop skills which are compatible with their understanding and problem-solving capabilities at different ages. Thus, knowing the students' level on a developmental sequence provides information on the kind and level of knowledge they can assimilate, which, in turn, can be used as a frame for organizing the subject matter to be taught at different school grades. This is the reason why Piaget's theory of cognitive development was so influential for education, especially mathematics and science education.[29] In the same direction, the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development suggest that in addition to the concerns above, sequencing of concepts and skills in teaching must take account of the processing and working memory capacities that characterize successive age levels.[30][31] Second, the psychology of cognitive development involves understanding how cognitive change takes place and recognizing the factors and processes which enable cognitive competence to develop. Education also capitalizes on cognitive change, because the construction of knowledge presupposes effective teaching methods that would move the student from a lower to a higher level of understanding. Mechanisms such as reflection on actual or mental actions vis--vis alternative solutions to problems, tagging new concepts or

solutions to symbols that help one recall and mentally manipulate them are just a few examples of how mechanisms of cognitive development may be used to facilitate learning.[31]
[32]

Finally, the psychology of cognitive development is concerned with individual differences in the organization of cognitive processes and abilities, in their rate of change, and in their mechanisms of change. The principles underlying intra- and inter-individual differences could be educationally useful, because knowing how students differ in regard to the various dimensions of cognitive development, such as processing and representational capacity, selfunderstanding and self-regulation, and the various domains of understanding, such as mathematical, scientific, or verbal abilities, would enable the teacher to cater for the needs of the different students so that no one is left behind.[33][34] [edit]Social

cognitive perspective

Main article: Social cognitive theory Social cognitive theory is a highly influential fusion of behavioral, cognitive and social elements that was initially developed by educational psychologist Albert Bandura. In its earlier, neo-behavioral incarnation called social learning theory, Bandura emphasized the process ofobservational learning in which a learner's behavior changes as a result of observing others' behavior and its consequences. The theory identified several factors that determine whether observing a model will affect behavioral or cognitive change. These factors include the learner's developmental status, the perceived prestige and competence of the model, the consequences received by the model, the relevance of the model's behaviors and consequences to the learner's goals, and the learner's self-efficacy. The concept of selfefficacy, which played an important role in later developments of the theory, refers to the learner's belief in his or her ability to perform the modeled behavior. An experiment by Schunk and Hanson,[35] that studied grade 2 students who had previously experienced difficulty in learning subtraction, illustrates the type of research stimulated by social learning theory. One group of students observed a subtraction demonstration by a teacher and then participated in an instructional program on subtraction. A second group observed other grade 2 students performing the same subtraction procedures and then participated in the same instructional program. The students who observed peer models scored higher on a subtraction post-test and also reported greater confidence in their subtraction ability. The results were interpreted as supporting thehypothesis that perceived similarity of the model to the learner increases self-efficacy, leading to more effective learning of modeled behaviors. It is supposed that peer modeling is particularly effective for students who have low self-efficacy. Over the last decade, much research activity in educational psychology has focused on developing theories of self-regulated learning (SRL) and metacognition. These theories work from the central premise that effective learners are active agents who construct knowledge by setting goals, analyzing tasks, planning strategies and monitoring their understanding. Research has indicated that learners who are better at goal-setting and self-monitoring tend to have greater intrinsic task interest and self-efficacy;[36] and that teaching learning strategies can increase academic achievement.[37] [edit]Constructivist

perspective

Main article: Constructivism

Constructivism is a category of learning theory in which emphasis is placed on the agency and prior "knowing" and experience of the learner, and often on the social and cultural determinants of the learning process. Educational psychologists distinguish individual (or psychological) constructivism, identified with Piaget's theory of cognitive development, from social constructivism. A dominant influence on the latter type isLev Vygotsky's work on sociocultural learning, describing how interactions with adults, more capable peers, and cognitive tools are internalized to form mental constructs. Elaborating on Vygotsky's theory, Jerome Bruner and other educational psychologists developed the important concept of instructional scaffolding, in which the social or information environment offers supports for learning that are gradually withdrawn as they become internalized. [edit]Motivation Motivation is an internal state that activates, guides and sustains behavior. Educational psychology research on motivation is concerned with the volition or will that students bring to a task, their level of interest and intrinsic motivation, the personally held goals that guide their behavior, and their belief about the causes of their success or failure. As intrinsic motivation deals with activities that act as their own rewards, extrinsic motivation deals with motivations that are brought on by consequences or punishments. A form of attribution theory developed by Bernard Weiner[38] describes how students' beliefs about the causes of academic success or failure affect their emotions and motivations. For example, when students attribute failure to lack of ability, and ability is perceived as uncontrollable, they experience the emotions of shame and embarrassment and consequently decrease effort and show poorer performance. In contrast, when students attribute failure to lack of effort, and effort is perceived as controllable, they experience the emotion of guilt and consequently increase effort and show improved performance. Motivational theories also explain how learners' goals affect the way they engage with academic tasks.[39] Those who have mastery goalsstrive to increase their ability and knowledge. Those who have performance approach goals strive for high grades and seek opportunities to demonstrate their abilities. Those who have performance avoidance goals are driven by fear of failure and avoid situations where their abilities are exposed. Research has found that mastery goals are associated with many positive outcomes such as persistence in the face of failure, preference for challenging tasks, creativity and intrinsic motivation. Performance avoidance goals are associated with negative outcomes such as poor concentration while studying, disorganized studying, less self-regulation, shallow information processing and test anxiety. Performance approach goals are associated with positive outcomes, and some negative outcomes such as an unwillingness to seek help and shallow information processing. Locus of control is a salient factor in the successful academic performance of students. During the 1970s and '80s, Cassandra B. Whyte did significant educational research studying locus of control as related to the academic achievement of students pursuing higher education coursework. Much of her educational research and publications focused upon the theories of Julian B. Rotter in regard to the importance of internal control and successful academic performance.[40] Whyte reported that individuals who perceive and believe that their hard work may lead to more successful academic outcomes, instead of depending on luck or fate, persist and achieve academically at a higher level. Therefore, it is important to provide education and counseling in this regard.[41]

[edit]Research

methodology

The research methods used in educational psychology tend to be drawn from psychology and other social sciences. There is also a history of significant methodological innovation by educational psychologists, and psychologists investigating educational problems. Research methods address problems in both research design and data analysis. Research design informs the planning of experiments and observational studies to ensure that their results have internal, external and ecological validity. Data analysis encompasses methods for processing both quantitive (numerical) and qualitative (non-numerical) research data. Although, historically, the use of quantitative methods was often considered an essential mark of scholarship, modern educational psychology research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods.[40] [edit]Quantitative

methods

Test scores and other educational variables often approximate a normal distribution.

Perhaps first among the important methodological innovations of educational psychology was the development and application of factor analysis by Charles Spearman. Factor analysis is mentioned here as one example of the many multivariate statistical methods used by educational psychologists. Factor analysis is used to summarize relationships among a large set of variables or test questions, develop theories about mental constructs such as selfefficacy or anxiety, and assess the reliability and validity of test scores.[42] Over 100 years after its introduction by Spearman, factor analysis has become a research staple figuring prominently in educational psychology journals. Because educational assessment is fundamental to most quantitative research in the field, educational psychologists have made significant contributions to the field of psychometrics. For example, alpha, the widely used measure of test reliability was developed by educational psychologist Lee Cronbach. The reliability of assessments are routinely reported in quantitative educational research. Although, originally, educational measurement methods were built onclassical test theory, item response theory and Rasch models are now used extensively in educational measurement worldwide. These models afford advantages over classical test theory, including the capacity to produce standard errors of measurement for each score or pattern of scores on assessments and the capacity to handle missing responses. Meta-analysis, the combination of individual research results to produce a quantitative literature review, is another methodological innovation with a close association to educational psychology. In a meta-analysis, effect sizes that represent, for example, the

differences between treatment groups in a set of similar experiments, are averaged to obtain a single aggregate value representing the best estimate of the effect of treatment.[43] Several decades after Pearson's work with early versions of meta-analysis, Glass[44] published the first application of modern meta-analytic techniques and triggered their broad application across the social and biomedical sciences. Today, meta-analysis is among the most common types of literature review found in educational psychology research. Other quantitative research issues associated with educational psychology include the use of nested research designs (e.g., a student nested within a classroom, which is nested within a school, which is nested within a district, etc.) and the use of longitudinal statistical models to measure change. [edit]Qualitative

methods

Qualitative methods are used in educational studies whose purpose is to describe events, processes and situations of theoretical significance. The qualitative methods used in educational psychology often derive from anthropology, sociology or sociolinguistics. For example, the anthropological method of ethnography has been used to describe teaching and learning in classrooms. In studies of this type, the researcher may gather detailed field notes as a participant observer or passive observer. Later, the notes and other data may be categorized and interpreted by methods such as grounded theory. Triangulation, the practice of cross-checking findings with multiple data sources, is highly valued in qualitative research. Case studies are forms of qualitative research focusing on a single person, organization, event, or other entity. In one case study,[45]researchers conducted a 150-minute, semistructured interview with a 20-year-old woman who had a history of suicidal thinking between the ages of 14 to 18. They analyzed an audio-recording of the interview to understand the roles of cognitive development, identity formation andsocial attachment in ending her suicidal thinking. Qualitative analysis is most often applied to verbal data from sources such as conversations, interviews, focus groups, and personal journals. Qualitative methods are thus, typically, approaches to gathering, processing and reporting verbal data. One of the most commonly used methods for qualitative research in educational psychology is protocol analysis.[46] In this method the research participant is asked to think aloud while performing a task, such as solving a math problem. In protocol analysis the verbal data is thought to indicate which information the subject is attending to, but is explicitly not interpreted as an explanation or justification for behavior. In contrast, the method of verbal analysis[47] does admit learners' explanations as a way to reveal their mental model or misconceptions (e.g., of the laws of motion). The most fundamental operations in both protocol and verbal analysis are segmenting (isolating) and categorizing sections of verbal data. Conversation analysis and discourse analysis, sociolinguistic methods that focus more specifically on the structure of conversational interchange (e.g., between a teacher and student), have been used to assess the process of conceptual change in science learning.[48] Qualitative methods are also used to analyze information in a variety of media, such as students' drawings and concept maps, video-recorded interactions, and computer log records.

[edit]Applications

in instructional design and technology

Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives: categories in the cognitive domain[49]

Instructional design, the systematic design of materials, activities and interactive environments for learning, is broadly informed by educational psychology theories and research. For example, in defining learning goals or objectives, instructional designers often use a taxonomy of educational objectives created by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues. [49] Bloom also researched mastery learning, an instructional strategy in which learners only advance to a new learning objective after they have mastered its prerequisite objectives. Bloom[50] discovered that a combination of mastery learning with one-to-one tutoring is highly effective, producing learning outcomes far exceeding those normally achieved in classroom instruction. Gagn, another psychologist, had earlier developed an influential method of task analysis in which a terminal learning goal is expanded into a hierarchy of learning objectives[51] connected by prerequisite relations. Intelligent tutoring system Educational technology John R. Anderson Cognitive tutor Cooperative learning Collaborative learning Problem-based learning Computer-supported collaborative learning William Winn Constructive alignment

[edit]Applications

in teaching

A class size experiment in the United States found that attending small classes for 3 or more years in the early grades increased high school graduation of students from low income families.[52]

Research on classroom management and pedagogy is conducted to guide teaching practice and form a foundation for teacher education programs. The goals of classroom management are to create an environment conducive to learning and to develop students' selfmanagement skills. More specifically, classroom management strives to create positive teacherstudent and peer relationships, manage student groups to sustain on-task behavior, and use counseling and other psychological methods to aid students who present persistent psychosocial problems.[53] Introductory educational psychology is a commonly required area of study in most North American teacher education programs. When taught in that context, its content varies, but it typically emphasizes learning theories (especially cognitively oriented ones), issues about motivation, assessment of students' learning, and classroom management. A developing Wikibook about educational psychology gives more detail about the educational psychology topics that are typically presented in preservice teacher education. Special education Lesson plan

[edit]History [edit]Before

1890

Modern educational psychologists are not the first to analyze educational processes. Philosophers of education such as Juan Vives, Johann Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, and Johann Herbart had examined, classified and judged the methods of education centuries before the beginnings of psychology in the late 1800s. Juan Vives (1492-1540) proposed induction as the method of study and believed in the direct observation and investigation of the study of nature[54]. He was one of the first to emphasize that the location of the school is important to learning.[55] He suggested that the school should be located away from disturbing noises; the air quality should be good and there should be plenty of food for the students and teachers.[55] Vives emphasized the importance of understanding individual

differences of the students and suggested practice as an important tool for learning.[55] He also supported the education of women[54]. Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827) emphasized the child rather than the content of the school. [56] He spoke out against the method of rote memorization as the method for learning and suggested direct observation as a better way of learning.[56] He used object teaching, which means when teaching the teacher should proceed gradually from the concrete objects to the abstract and complex material[54]. He believed that the relationship between the teacher and the child was important in providing a basis for the education of the child.[56] He also was interested in the education of poor children. He was the first to establish an elementary school. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1853) is the founder of the kindergarten movement, which combined work and play to teach children responsibility and cooperation.[56] Johann Herbart (1776-1841) is considered the father of educational psychology.[57] He believed that learning was influenced by interest in the subject and the teacher.[57] He thought that teachers should consider the students existing mental sets, what they already know, when presenting new information or material.[57] Herbart came up with what is now known as the formal steps. They are 5 steps that teachers should use are: 1. Review material that has already been learned by the teacher [57]

2. Prepare the student for new material by giving them an overview of what they are learning next [57] 3. 4. Present the new material.[57] Relate the new material to the old material that has already been learned.[57]

5. Show how the student can apply the new material and show the material they will learn next.[57] [edit]1890-1920 The period of 1890-1920 is considered the golden era of educational psychology where aspirations of the new discipline rested on the application of the scientific methods of observation and experimentation to educational problems. From 1840 to 1920 37 million people immigrated to the United States[54]. This created an expansion of elementary schools and secondary schools. The increase in immigration also provided educational psychologists the opportunity to use intelligence testing to screen immigrants at Ellis Island[54]. Darwinisminfluenced the beliefs of the prominent educational psychologists.[54] Even in the earliest years of the discipline, educational psychologists recognized the limitations of this new approach. The pioneering American psychologist William James commented that: Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art; and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves. An intermediate inventive mind must make that application, by using its originality.[58] James is the father of psychology in America but he also made contributions to educational psychology. In his famous series of lecturesTalks to Teachers on Psychology, published in 1899 and now regarded as the first educational psychology textbook, James defines education as "the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior[58]. He states that teachers should train the pupil to behavior[58] so that he fits into the social and physical world. Teachers should also realize the importance of habit and instinct. They should present information that is clear and interesting and relate this new information and material to things the student already knows about.[58] He also addresses important issues such as

attention, memory, and association of ideas. Alfred Binet published Mental Fatigue in 1898, in which he attempted to apply the experimental method to educational psychology.[54] In this experimental method he advocated for two types of experiments, experiments done in the lab and experiments done in the classroom. In 1904 he was appointed the Minister of Public Education.[54] This is when he began to look for a way to distinguish children with developmental disabilities.[54] Binet strongly supported special education programs because he believed that abnormality could be cured.[54]The Binet-Simon test was the first intelligence test and was the first to distinguish between normal children and those with developmental disabilities.[54] Binet believed that it was important to study individual differences between age groups and children of the same age.[54] He also believed that it was important for teachers to take into account individual students strengths and also the needs of the classroom as a whole when teaching and creating a good learning environment.[54] He also believed that it was important to train teachers in observation so that they would be able to see individual differences among children and adjust the curriculum to the students.[54] Binet also emphasized that practice of material was important. In 1916 Lewis Terman revised the Binet-Simon so that the average score was always 100.[57] The test became known as the Stanford-Binet and was one of the most widely used tests of intelligence. Terman, unlike Binet, was interested in using intelligence test to identify gifted children who had high intelligence.[54] In his longitudinal study of gifted children, who became known as the Termites, Terman found that gifted children become gifted adults.[57] Edward Thorndike (1874-1949) supported the scientific movement in education. He based teaching practices on empirical evidence and measurement.[54] Thorndike developed the theory of instrumental conditioning or the law of effect. The law of effect states that associations are strengthened when it is followed by something pleasing and associations are weakened when followed by something not pleasing. He also found that learning is done a little at a time or in increments, learning is an automatic process and all the principles of learning apply to all mammals. Thorndikes research with Robert Woodworth on the theory of transfer found that learning one subject will only influence your ability to learn another subject if the subjects are similar.[54] This discovery led to less emphasis on learning the classics because they found that studying the classics does not contribute to overall general intelligence.[54] Thorndike was one of the first to say that individual differences in cognitive tasks were due to how many stimulus response patterns a person had rather than a general intellectual ability.[54] He contributed word dictionaries that were scientifically based to determine the words and definitions used.[54] The dictionaries were the first to take into consideration the users maturity level.[54] He also integrated pictures and easier pronunciation guide into each of the definitions.[54]Thorndike contributed arithmetic books based on learning theory. He made all the problems more realistic and relevant to what was being studied, not just to improve the general intelligence[54]. He developed test that were standardized to measure performance in school related subjects.[54] His biggest contribution to testing was the CAVD intelligence test which used a mulitdimensional approach to intelligence and the first to use a ratio scale.[54] His later work was on programmed instruction, mastery learning and computer-based learning: If, by a miracle of mechanical ingenuity, a book could be so arranged that only to him who had done what was directed on page one would page two become visible, and so on, much that now requires personal instruction could be managed by print.[59] John Dewey (1859-1952) had a major influence on the development of progressive education

in the United States. He believed that the classroom should prepare children to be good citizens and facilitate creative intelligence.[54] He pushed for the creation of practical class that could be applied outside of a school setting.[54] He also thought that education should be student-oriented not subject-oriented. For Dewey education was social that helped bring together generations of people. He states that students learn by doing. He believed in an active mind that was able to be educated through observation and problem solving and inquiry. In his 1910 book How We Think he emphasizes that material should be provided in way that is stimulating and interesting to the student and it encourages original thoughts and problem solving.[60] He also stated that material should be relative to the students own experience.[60] "The material furnished by way of information should be relevant to a question that is vital in the students own experience"[60] Jean Piaget (1896-1980) developed the theory of cognitive development.[54] The theory stated that intelligence developed in four different stages. The stages are the sensorimotor stage from birth to 2 years old, the preoperational state from 2 years old to 7 years old, the concrete operational stage from 7 years old to 10 years old, and formal operational stage from 11 years old and up.[54] He also believed that learning was constrained to the childs cognitive development. Piaget influenced educational psychology because he was the first to believe that cognitive development was important and something that should be paid attention to in education.[54] Most of the research on Piagetian theory was mainly tested and done by American educational psychologists [edit]1920-Present The amount of people receiving a high school and college education increased dramatically from 1920 to 1960.[54] Because of very little jobs available to the teens coming out of eighth grade there was an increase in high school attendance in the 1930s .[54] The progressive movement in the United State took off at this time and led to the idea of progressive education. John Flanagan, an educational psychologist, developed tests for combat trainees and instructions in combat training.[54] In 1954 the work of Kenneth Clark and his wife on the effects of segregation on black and white children was influential in the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.[57] From the 1960s to present day educational psychology has switched from a behaviorist perspective to a more cognitive based perspective because of the influence and development of cognitive psychology at this time.[54] Jerome Bruner was the first to apply the cognitive approaches in educational psychology. [54] He was the one who introduced the ideas ofJean Piaget into educational psychology. He advocated for discovery learning where teachers create a problem solving environment that allows the student to question, explore and experiment.[54] In his book The Process of Education Bruner stated that the structure of the material and the cognitive abilities of the person are important in learning.[54] He emphasized the importance of the subject matter. He also believed that how the subject was structured was important for the students understanding of the subject and it is the goal of the teacher to structure the subject in a way that was easy for the student to understand.[54] In the early 1960s Bruner went to Africa to teach math and science to schoolchildren, which influenced his view as schooling as a cultural institution. Bruner was also influential in the development of MACOS, Man a Course of Study, which was an educational program that combined anthropology and science.[54] The program explored human evolution and social behavior. He also helped with the development of the head start program. He was interested in the influence of culture on education and

looked at the impact of poverty on educational development.[54] Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999) spent over 50 years at the University of Chicago where he worked in the department of education.[54] He believed that all students can learn. He developed taxonomy of educational objectives.[54] The objectives were divided into three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The cognitive domain deals with how we think.[61] It is divided into categories that are on a continuum from easiest to more complex. [61] The categories are knowledge or recall, comprehension application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.[61]The affective domain deals with emotions and has 5 categories.[61] The categories are receiving phenomenon, responding to that phenomenon, valuing, organization, and internalizing values.[61] The psychomotor domain deals with the development of motor skills, movement and coordination and has 7 categories, that also goes from simplest to complex.[61] The 7 categories of the psychomotor domain are perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation, and origination.[61] The taxonomy provided broad educational objectives that could be used to help expand the curriculum to match the ideas in the taxonomy.[54] The taxonomy is considered to have a greater influence internationally then in the United States. Internationally, the taxonomy is used in every aspect of education from training of the teachers to the development of testing material.[54] Bloom believed in communicating clear learning goals and promoting an active student. He thought that teachers should provide feedback to the students on their strengths and weaknesses. [54] Bloom also did research on college students and their problem solving processes. He found that they differ in understanding the basis of the problem and the ideas in the problem. He also found that students differ in process of problem solving in their approach and attitude toward the problem.[54] Nathaniel Gage is important in educational psychology because he did research to improve teaching and understand the processes involved in teaching.[54] In 1963 he was the editor of the Handbook of Research on Teaching, which became an influential book in educational psychology. The handbook helped set up research on teaching and made research on teaching important to educational psychology.[54] He also was influential in the founding of the Stanford Center for Research and Development in teaching, which not only contributed important research on teaching but also influenced the teaching of important educational psychologists.[54] [edit]Careers

in educational psychology
and training

[edit]Education

A person may be considered an educational psychologist after completing a graduate degree in educational psychology or a closely related field. Universities establish educational psychology graduate programs in either psychology departments or, more commonly, faculties of education. Educational psychologists work in a variety of settings. Some work in university settings where they carry out research on the cognitive and social processes of human development, learning and education. Educational psychologists may also work as consultants in designing and creating educational materials, classroom programs and online courses. Educational psychologists who work in k12 school settings (closely related are school psychologists in the US and Canada) are trained at the master's and doctoral levels. In addition to conducting assessments, school psychologists provide services such as academic and behavioral intervention, counseling, teacher consultation, and crisis intervention.

However, school psychologists are generally more individual-oriented towards students. In the UK, status as a Chartered Educational Psychologist is gained by completing: an undergraduate degree in psychology permitting registration with the British Psychological Society two or three years experience working with children, young people and their families. a three-year professional doctorate in educational psychology.

The previous requirement to train and work for two years as a teacher has now been abandoned. [edit]Employment

outlook

Employment for psychologists in the United States is expected to grow faster than most occupations through the year 2014, with anticipated growth of 1826%. One in four psychologists are employed in educational settings. In the United States, the median salary for psychologists in primary and secondary schools is US$58,360 as of May 2004.[62] In recent decades the participation of women as professional researchers in North American educational psychology has risen dramatically.[63] The percentage of female authors of peerreviewed journal articles doubled from 1976 (24%) to 1995 (51%), and has since remained constant. Female membership on educational psychology journal editorial boards increased from 17% in 1976 to 47% in 2004. Over the same period, the proportion of chief editor positions held by women increased from 22% to 70%. [edit]Research

journals

There are several peer-reviewed research journals in educational psychology tracked by Journal Citation Reports. The most highly cited journals related to educational psychology are currently Child Development and Educational Psychologist.

Nature versus nurture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture," i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical andbehavioral traits. The phrase "Nature versus nurture" in its modern sense was coined[1][2][3] by the English Victorian polymath Francis Galton in discussion of the influence of heredity and environment on social advancement, although the terms had been contrasted

previously, for example byShakespeare (in his play, The Tempest: 4.1). Galton was influenced[4] by the book On the Origin of Species written by his cousin, Charles Darwin. The concept embodied in the phrase has been criticized[3][4] for its binary simplification of two tightly interwoven parameters, as for example an environment of wealth, education and social privilege are often historically passed to genetic offspring. The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" was termed by philosopher John Locke tabula rasa ("blank slate") and proposes that humans develop from only environmental influences. This question was once considered to be an appropriate division of developmental influences, but since both types of factors are known to play such interacting roles in development, most modern psychologists and anthropologists consider the question naive representing an outdated state of knowledge.[5][6][6][7][8] In the social and political sciences, the nature versus nurture debate may be contrasted with the structure versus agency debate (i.e.socialization versus individual autonomy). For a discussion of nature versus nurture in language and other human universals, see alsopsychological nativism.
Contents
[hide]

o o

1 Scientific approach 2 Heritability estimates 3 Interaction of genes and environment 3.1 Obligate vs. Facultative

Adaptations 4 Advanced techniques 5 Nature and Nurture 6 IQ debate 7 Personality traits 8 Genomics 9 Philosophical difficulties 9.1 Free will 10 Controversy and Debunking 11 Use in fiction 12 See also 13 References

[edit]Scientific

approach

To disentangle the effects of genes and environment, behavioral

geneticists perform adoption and twin studies. These seek to decompose the variance in a population into genetic and environmental components. This move from individuals to populations makes a critical difference in the way we think about nature and nurture. This difference is perhaps highlighted in the quote attributed to psychologist Donald Hebb who is said to have once answered a journalist's question of "which, nature or nurture, contributes more to personality?" by asking in response, "Which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?"[9] For a particular rectangle, its area is indeed the product of its length and width. Moving to a population, however, this analogy masks the fact that there are many individuals, and that it is meaningful to talk about their differences.[10] Thus if a game such as soccer defined the width of a playing field very tightly, but left the length unspecified, then differences in the area of the playing fields would be almost entirely due to differences in length. Scientific approaches also seek to break down variance beyond these two categories of nature and nurture. Thus rather than "nurture", behavior geneticists distinguish shared family factors (i.e., those shared by siblings, making them more similar) and nonshared factors (i.e., those that uniquely affect individuals, making siblings different). To express the portion of the variance due to the "nature" component, behavioral geneticists generally refer to the heritability of a trait. With regard to the Big Five personality traits as well as adult IQ in the general U.S. population, the portion of the overall variance that can be attributed to shared family effects is often negligible.
[11]

On the other hand, most traits are thought to be at least partially heritable. In this context, the

"nature" component of the variance is generally thought to be more important than that ascribed to the influence of family upbringing. In her Pulitzer Prize-nominated book The Nurture Assumption, author Judith Harris argues that "nurture," as traditionally defined in terms of family upbringing does not effectively explain the variance for most traits (such as adult IQ and the Big Five personality traits) in the general population of the United States. On the contrary, Harris suggests that either peer groups or random environmental factors (i.e., those that are independent of family upbringing) are more important than family environmental effects.[12][13] Although "nurture" has historically been referred to as the care given to children by the parents, with the mother playing a role of particular importance, this term is now regarded by some as any environmental (not genetic) factor in the contemporary nature versus nurture debate. Thus the definition of "nurture" has expanded to include influences on development arising from prenatal, parental, extended family, and peer experiences, and extending to influences such as media, marketing, and socio-economic status. Indeed, a substantial source of environmental input to human nature may arise from stochastic variations in prenatal development.[14][15]

[edit]Heritability
Main article: Heritability

estimates

This chart illustrates three patterns one might see when studying the influence of genes and environment on traits in individuals. Trait A shows a high sibling correlation, but little heritability (i.e. high shared environmental variance c2; low heritability h2). Trait B shows a high heritability since correlation of trait rises sharply with degree of genetic similarity. Trait C shows low heritability, but also low correlations generally; this means Trait C has a high nonshared environmental variance e2. In other words, the degree to which individuals display Trait C has little to do with either genes or broadly predictable environmental factorsroughly, the outcome approaches random for an individual. Notice also that even identical twins raised in a common family rarely show 100% trait correlation.

It is important to note that the term heritability refers only to the degree of genetic variation between people on a trait. It does not refer to the degree to which a trait of a particular individual is due to environmental or genetic factors. The traits of an individual are always a complex interweaving of both.[16] For an individual, even strongly genetically influenced, or "obligate" traits, such as eye color, assume the inputs of a typical environment during ontogenetic development (e.g., certain ranges of temperatures, oxygen levels, etc.). In contrast, the "heritability index" statistically quantifies the extent to which variation between individuals on a trait is due to variation in the genes those individuals carry. In animals where breeding and environments can be controlled experimentally, heritability can be determined relatively easily. Such experiments would be unethical for human research. This problem can be overcome by finding existing populations of humans that reflect the experimental setting the researcher wishes to create. One way to determine the contribution of genes and environment to a trait is to study twins. In one kind of study, identical twins reared apart are compared to randomly selected pairs of people. The twins share identical genes, but different family environments. In another kind of twin study, identical twins reared together (who share family environment and genes) are compared to fraternal twins reared together (who also share family environment but only share half their genes).

Another condition that permits the disassociation of genes and environment is adoption. In one kind of adoption study, biological siblings reared together (who share the same family environment and half their genes) are compared to adoptive siblings (who share their family environment but none of their genes). In many cases, it has been found that genes make a substantial contribution, including psychological traits such as intelligence and personality.[17] > Yet heritability may differ in other circumstances, for instance environmental deprivation.[18] Examples of low, medium, and high heritability traits include:

Low heritability

Medium heritability

High heritability

Specific language

Weight

Blood type

Specific religion

Religiosity

Eye color

Twin and adoption studies have their methodological limits. For example, both are limited to the range of environments and genes which they sample. Almost all of these studies are conducted in Western, first-world countries, and therefore cannot be extrapolated globally to include poorer, non-western populations. Additionally, both types of studies depend on particular assumptions, such as the equal environments assumption in the case of twin studies, and the lack of preadoptive effects in the case of adoption studies.

[edit]Interaction

of genes and environment

Heritability refers to the origins of differences between people. Individual development, even of highly heritable traits, such as eye color, depends on a range of environmental factors, from the other genes in the organism, to physical variables such as temperature, oxygen levels etc. during its development or ontogenesis. The variability of trait can be meaningfully spoken of as being due in certain proportions to genetic differences ("nature") , or environments ("nurture"). For highly penetrant Mendelian genetic disorders such as Huntington's disease virtually all the incidence of the disease is due to genetic differences. Huntington's animal models live much longer or shorter lives depending on how they are cared for[citation needed]. At the other extreme, traits such as native language are environmentally determined: linguists have found that any child (if capable of learning a language at all) can learn any human language with equal facility. With virtually all biological and psychological traits, however, genes and environment work in concert, communicating back and forth to create the individual. At a molecular level, genes interact with signals from other genes and from the environment. While

there are many thousands of single-gene-locus traits, so-called complex traits are due to the additive effects of many (often hundreds) of small gene effects. A good example of this is height, where variance appears to be spread across many hundreds of loci.[19] Extreme genetic or environmental conditions can predominate in rare circumstancesif a child is born mute due to a genetic mutation, it will not learn to speak any language regardless of the environment; similarly, someone who is practically certain to eventually develop Huntington's disease according to their genotype may die in an unrelated accident (an environmental event) long before the disease will manifest itself.

The "two buckets" view of heritability.

More realistic "homogenous mudpie" view of heritability.

Steven Pinker (2004) likewise described several examples: concrete behavioral traits that patently depend on content provided by the home or culture which language one speaks, which religion one practices, which political party one supportsare not heritable at all. But traits that reflect the underlying talents and temperamentshow proficient with language a person is, how religious, how liberal or conservativeare partially heritable. When traits are determined by a complex interaction of genotype and environment it is possible to measure the heritability of a trait within a population. However, many nonscientists who encounter a report of a trait having a certain percentage heritability imagine non-interactional, additive contributions of genes and environment to the trait. As an analogy, some laypeople may think of the degree of a trait being made up of two "buckets," genes and environment, each able to hold a certain capacity of the trait. But even for intermediate heritabilities, a trait is always shaped by both genetic dispositions and the environments in which people develop, merely with greater and lesser plasticities associated with these

heritability measures. Heritability measures always refer to the degree of variation between individuals in a population. These statistics cannot be applied at the level of the individual. It is incorrect to say that since the heritability index of personality is about 0.6, you got 60% of your personality from your parents and 40% from the environment. To help to understand this, imagine that all humans were genetic clones. The heritability index for all traits would be zero (all variability between clonal individuals must be due to environmental factors). And, contrary to erroneous interpretations of the heritibility index, as societies become more egalitarian (everyone has more similar experiences) the heritability index goes up (as environments become more similar, variability between individuals is due more to genetic factors). Some have pointed out that environmental inputs affect the expression of genes (see the article on epigenetics). This is one explanation of how environment can influence the extent to which a genetic disposition will actually manifest.[citation needed] The interactions of genes with environment, called geneenvironment interactions, are another component of the nature nurture debate. A classic example of geneenvironment interaction is the ability of a diet low in the amino acid phenylalanine to partially suppress the genetic disease phenylketonuria. Yet another complication to the naturenurture debate is the existence of gene-environment correlations. These correlations indicate that individuals with certain genotypes are more likely to find themselves in certain environments. Thus, it appears that genes can shape (the selection or creation of) environments. Even using experiments like those described above, it can be very difficult to determine convincingly the relative contribution of genes and environment.

[edit]Obligate

vs. Facultative Adaptations

Traits may be considered likely to be adaptations (such as the umbilical cord), byproducts of adaptations (the belly button) or due to random variation (convex or concave belly button shape).[20] An alternative to contrasting nature and nurture focuses on "obligate vs. facultative" adaptations [20] Adaptations maybe generally more obligate (robust in the face of typical environmental variation) or more facultative (sensitive to typical environmental variation). For example, the rewarding sweet taste of sugar and the pain of bodily injury are obligate psychological adaptationstypical environmental variability during development does not much affect their operation.[21] On the other hand, facultative adaptations are somewhat like "if-then" statements. An example of a facultative psychological adaptation may be adult attachment style. The attachment style of adults, (for example, a "secure attachment style," the propensity to develop close, trusting bonds with others) is proposed to be conditional on whether an individual's early childhood caregivers could be trusted to provide reliable assistance and attention. An example of a facultative physiological adaptation is tanning of skin on exposure to sunlight (to prevent skin damage).

[edit]Advanced

techniques

The power of quantitative studies of heritable traits has been expanded by the development of new techniques. Developmental genetic analysis examines the effects of genes over the course of a human lifespan. For example, early studies of intelligence, which mostly examined young children, found that heritability measures 4050%. Subsequent developmental genetic analyses found that variance attributable to additive environmental effects is less apparent in older individuals,[22][23][24] with estimated heritability of IQ being higher than that in adulthood. Another advanced technique, multivariate genetic analysis, examines the genetic contribution to several traits that vary together. For example, multivariate genetic analysis has demonstrated that the genetic determinants of all specific cognitive abilities (e.g., memory, spatial reasoning, processing speed) overlap greatly, such that the genes associated with any specific cognitive ability will affect all others. Similarly, multivariate genetic analysis has found that genes that affect scholastic achievement completely overlap with the genes that affect cognitive ability. Extremes analysis, examines the link between normal and pathological traits. For example, it is hypothesized that a given behavioral disorder may represent an extreme of a continuous distribution of a normal behavior and hence an extreme of a continuous distribution of genetic and environmental variation. Depression, phobias, and reading disabilities have been examined in this context. For a few highly heritable traits, some studies have identified loci associated with variance in that trait in some individuals. For example, research groups have identified loci that are associated with schizophrenia (Harrison and Owen, 2003) in subsets of patients with that diagnosis.

[edit]Nature

and Nurture

The nature argument states that everything a person will ever become, their physical appearance, personality etc., is already decided since their developmental information is in their genes. Genes are activated at appropriate times during development and are the basis for protein production. Proteins include a wide range of molecules, such as hormones and enzymes that act in the body as signaling and structural molecules to direct development. The nurture argument, on the other hand, argues that although inherited genes make up the person, they do not limit the potential a person can achieve if the right environment is provided. In reality, it is most likely an interaction of both genes and environment, nature and nurture, that affect the development of a person. Even in the womb, genes interact with hormones in the environment to signal the start of a new developmental phase. The hormonal environment, likewise, does not act independently of the genes and it cannot correct lethal errors in the genetic makeup of a fetus. The genes and the environment must be in sync for

normal development. Similarly, even if a person has inherited genes for taller than average height, the person may not grow to be as tall as is genetically possible if proper nutrition is not provided. Here too the interaction of genes and the environment is blurred. It has been suggested that the key to understanding complex human behaviour and diseases is to study genes, the environment, and the interactions between the two equally.[25]

[edit]IQ

debate

Main article: Heritability of IQ Evidence suggests that family environmental factors may have an effect upon childhood IQ, accounting for up to a quarter of the variance. On the other hand, by late adolescence this correlation disappears, such that adoptive siblings are no more similar in IQ than strangers.[26] Moreover, adoption studies indicate that, by adulthood, adoptive siblings are no more similar in IQ than strangers (IQ correlation near zero), while full siblings show an IQ correlation of 0.6. Twin studies reinforce this pattern: monozygotic (identical) twins raised separately are highly similar in IQ (0.74), more so than dizygotic (fraternal) twins raised together (0.6) and much more than adoptive siblings (~0.0).[27] Recent adoption studies also found that supportive parents can have a positive effect on the development of their children.[28]

[edit]Personality

traits

Personality is a frequently cited example of a heritable trait that has been studied in twins and adoptions. Identical twins reared apart are far more similar in personality than randomly selected pairs of people. Likewise, identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins. Also, biological siblings are more similar in personality than adoptive siblings. Each observation suggests that personality is heritable to a certain extent. However, these same study designs allow for the examination of environment as well as genes. Adoption studies also directly measure the strength of shared family effects. Adopted siblings share only family environment. Most adoption studies indicate that by adulthood the personalities of adopted siblings are little or no more similar than random pairs of strangers. This would mean that shared family effects on personality are zero by adulthood. As is the case with personality, non-shared environmental effects are often found to out-weigh shared environmental effects. That is, environmental effects that are typically thought to be life-shaping (such as family life) may have less of an impact than non-shared effects, which are harder to identify. One possible source of non-shared effects is the environment of pre-natal development. Random variations in the genetic program of development may be a substantial source of non-shared environment. These results suggest that "nurture" may not be the predominant factor in "environment."[citation needed]

[edit]Genomics
Main article: Genomics With the advent of genomic sequencing, it has become possible to search for and identify specific gene polymorphisms that affect traits such as IQ and personality. These techniques work by tracking the association of differences in a trait of interest with differences in specific molecular markers or functional variants. An example of a visible human traits for which the precise genetic basis of differences are relatively well known is eye color. For traits with many genes affecting the outcome, a smaller portion of the variance is currently understood: For instance for height known gene variants account for around 5-10% of height variance at present.[citation needed]

[edit]Philosophical

difficulties

Philosophical questions regarding nature and nurture include the question of the nature of the trait itself, questions of determinism, and whether the question is well posed. As well as asking if a trait such as IQ is heritable, one can ask what it is about "intelligence" that is being inherited. Similarly, if in a broad set of environments genes account for almost all observed variation in a trait then this raises the notion of genetic determinism and orbiological determinism, and the level of analysis which is appropriate for the trait. Finally, as early as 1951, Calvin Hall[29] suggested that discussion opposing nature and nurture was fruitless. Environments may be able to be varied in ways that affect development: This would alter the heritability of the character changes, too. Conversely, if the genetic composition of a population changes, then heritability may also change. The example of phenylketonuria (PKU) is informative. Untreated, this is a completely penetrant genetic disorder causing brain damage and progressive mental retardation. PKU can be treated by the elimination of phenylalanine from the diet. Hence, a character (PKU) that used to have a virtually perfect heritability is not heritable any more if modern medicine is available (the actual allele causing PKU would still be inherited, but the phenotype PKU would not be expressed anymore). It is useful then to think of what is inherited as a mechanism for breaking down phenylalanine. Separately from this we can consider whether the organism has other mechanisms (for instance a drug that breakdown this amino acid) or does not need the mechanism (due to dietary exclusion). Similarly, within, say, an inbred strain of mice, no genetic variation is present and every character will have a zero heritability. If the complications of geneenvironment interactions and correlations (see above) are added, then it appears to many that heritability, the epitome of the naturenurture opposition, is "a station passed."[30] A related concept is the view that the idea that either nature or nurture explains a creature's

behavior is an example of the single cause fallacy.

[edit]Free

will

Some believe that evolutionary explanations describes factors which limit our free will, in that it can be seen to imply that we behave in ways in which we are naturally inclined. J. Mizzoni wrote There are some moral philosophers (such as Thomas Nagel) who believe that evolutionary considerations are irrelevant to a full understanding of the foundations of ethics. Other moral philosophers (such as J. L. Mackie) tell quite a different story. They hold that the admission of the evolutionary origins of human beings compels us to concede that there are no foundations for ethics.[31] Critics of this ethical view point out that whether or not a behavioral trait is inherited does not affect whether it can be changed by one's culture or independent choice,[32] and that evolutionary inclinations could be discarded in ethical and political discussions regardless of whether they exist or not.[33] Leda Cosmides and John Tooby argue that William James (18421910) argued that humans have more "instincts" than animals, and that greater freedom of action is the result of having more psychological instincts, not fewer.[34] Daniel C. Dennett explores this idea in his 2003 book Freedom Evolves.

[edit]Controversy

and Debunking

A recent study concluded by Oxford scientists shed doubt on this theory as it applies to human society: "Social behavior among primates including humans has a substantial genetic basis, a team of scientists has concluded from a new survey of social structure across the primate family tree." The study has proven that primates living in many habitats, while feeding on many different foods such as fruits, leaves or grass, "[suggest] that their common ancestry and the inherited genes that shape behavior are a stronger influence than ecology on their social structure." [35] [36]

[edit]Use

in fiction

The nature vs. nurture debate has come up in fiction in various ways. An obvious example of the debate can be seen in science-fiction stories involving cloning, where genetically identical people experience different lives growing up and are consequently shaped into different people despite beginning with the same potential. An example of this is The Boys from Brazil, where multiple clones of Hitler are created as part of a Nazi scientist's experiments to recreate the Fuhrer by arranging for the clones to experience the same defining moments that Hitler did. Other, more complex examples include the film Trading Places- where two wealthy brothers make a bet over the debate by ruining the life of one of their employees and promoting a street bum to replace him to see what happens-, or the differences between

the Marvel Comicscharacters Nate Grey and Cable, two people who are essentially alternate versions of each other from two different timelines, beginning with the same potential but developing in a highly different manner afterwards.

Psychosexual development
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series of articles on

Psychoanalysis

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In Freudian psychology, psychosexual development is a central element of thepsychoanalytic sexual drive theory, that human beings, from birth, possess an instinctual libido(sexual appetite) that develops in five stages. Each stage the oral, the anal,

the phallic, thelatent, and the genital is characterized by the erogenous zone that is the source of the libidinal drive. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced anxiety, thwarting his or her sexual appetite during any libidinal (psychosexual) development stage, said anxiety would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder.[1][2]
Contents
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1 Background 2 Freudian psychosexual development

o o o o o o o o

2.1 Oral stage 2.2 Anal stage 2.3 Phallic stage 2.4 Latency stage 2.5 Genital stage 3 Criticism 3.1 Scientific 3.2 Feminist 3.3 Anthropologic 4 See also 5 References

[edit]Background

The neurologist Sigmund Freud (ca. 1921)

Sigmund Freud (18561939) observed that during the predictable stages of early childhood development, the child's behavior is oriented towards certain parts of his or her body, e.g. the mouth during breast-feeding, the anus during toilet-training. He proposed that adult neurosis (functional mental disorder) often is rooted in childhood sexuality, therefore, said neurotic adult behaviors were manifestations of childhood sexual fantasy and desire. That because human beings are born "polymorphously perverse", infants can derive sexual pleasure from any part of their bodies, and that socialization directs the instinctual libidinal drives into adult heterosexuality.[3] Given the predictable timeline of childhood behavior, he proposed "libido development" as a model of normal childhoodsexual development, wherein the child progresses through five psychosexual stages (i) the oral, (ii) the anal, (iii) the phallic, (iv) the latent, and (v) the genital in which the source pleasure is in a different erogenous zone.

[edit]Freudian

psychosexual development

Sexual infantilism In pursuing and satisfying his or her libido (sexual drive), the child might experience failure (parental and societal disapproval) and thus might associate anxiety with the given erogenous zone. To avoid anxiety, the child becomes fixated, preoccupied with the psychologic themes related to the erogenous zone in question, which persist into adulthood, and underlie the personality and psychopathology of the man or woman, as neurosis, hysteria, personality disorders, et cetera.

Stage

Age Range

Erogenous zone

Consequences of psychologic fixation

Oral

Birth1 year

Mouth

Orally aggressive: chewing gum and the ends of pencils, etc. Orally Passive: smoking, eating, kissing, oral sexual practices[4] Oral stage fixation might result in a passive, gullible, immature, manipulativepersonality.

Anal

13 years

Anal retentive: Obsessively organized, Bowel and bladderelimina or excessively neat tion Anal expulsive: reckless, careless, defiant, disorganized, coprophiliac

Phallic 36 years

Genitalia

Oedipus complex (in boys and girls); according to Sigmund Freud. Electra complex (in girls); according to Carl

Jung. Laten 6 Dormant sexual feelings cy puberty Genita Puberty Sexual interests mature l death [edit]Oral Sexual unfulfillment if fixation occurs in this stage. Frigidity, impotence, unsatisfactory relationships

stage

The first stage of psychosexual development is the oral stage, spanning from birth until the age of two years, wherein the infant's mouth is the focus of libidinal gratification derived from the pleasure of feeding at the mother's breast, and from the oral exploration of his or her environment, i.e. the tendency to place objects in the mouth. The id dominates, because neither the ego nor the super ego is yet fully developed, and, since the infant has no personality (identity), every action is based upon the pleasure principle. Nonetheless, the infantile ego is forming during the oral stage; two factors contribute to its formation: (i) in developing a body image, he or she is discrete from the external world, e.g. the child understands pain when it is applied to his or her body, thus identifying the physical boundaries between body and environment; (ii) experiencing delayed gratification leads to understanding that specific behaviors satisfy some needs, e.g. crying gratifies certain needs.[5] Weaning is the key experience in the infant's oral stage of psychosexual development, his or her first feeling of loss consequent to losing the physical intimacy of feeding at mother's breast. Yet, weaning increases the infant's self-awareness that he or she does not control the environment, and thus learns of delayed gratification, which leads to the formation of the capacities for independence (awareness of the limits of the self) and trust (behaviors leading to gratification). Yet, thwarting of the oral-stage too much or too little gratification of desire might lead to an oral-stage fixation, characterised by passivity, gullibility, immaturity, unrealistic optimism, which is manifested in a manipulative personality consequent to ego malformation. In the case of too much gratification, the child does not learn that he or she does not control the environment, and that gratification is not always immediate, thereby forming an immature personality. In the case of too little gratification, the infant might become passive upon learning that gratification is not forthcoming, despite having produced the gratifying behavior.[5]

[edit]Anal

stage

The second stage of psychosexual development is the anal stage, spanning from the age of fifteen months to three years, wherein the infant'serogenous zone changes from the mouth (the upper digestive tract) to the anus (the lower digestive tract), while the ego formation continues. Toilet training is the child's key anal-stage experience, occurring at about the age of two years, and results in conflict between the Id(demanding immediate gratification) and the Ego (demanding delayed gratification) in eliminating bodily wastes, and handling related activities (e.g. manipulating

excrement, coping with parental demands). The style of parenting influences the resolution of the IdEgo conflict, which can be either gradual and psychologically uneventful, or which can be sudden and psychologically traumatic. The ideal resolution of the IdEgo conflict is in the child's adjusting to moderate parental demands that teach the value and importance of physical cleanliness and environmental order, thus producing a self-controlled adult. Yet, if the parents make immoderate demands of the child, by over-emphasizing toilet training, it might lead to the development of a compulsive personality, a person too concerned with neatness and order. If the child obeys the Id, and the parents yield, he or she might develop a self-indulgent personality characterized by personal slovenliness and environmental disorder. If the parents respond to that, the child must comply, but might develop a weak sense of Self, because it was the parents' will, and not the child's ego, who controlled the toilet training.

[edit]Phallic

stage

The third stage of psychosexual development is the phallic stage, spanning the ages of three to six years, wherein the child's genitalia are his or her primary erogenous zone. It is in this third infantile development stage that children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and the bodies of their parents; they gratify physical curiosity by undressing and exploring each other and their genitals, and so learn the physical (sexual) differences between "male" and "female" and the gender differences between "boy" and "girl". In the phallic stage, a boy's decisive psychosexual experience is the Oedipus complex, his sonfather competition for possession of mother. This psychological complex derives from the 5th-century BC Greek mythologic character Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father, Laius, and sexually possessed his mother, Jocasta. Analogously, in the phallic stage, a girl's decisive psychosexual experience is the Electra complex, her daughtermother competition for psychosexual possession of father. This psychological complex derives from the 5th-century BC Greek mythologic Electra, who plotted matricidal revenge with Orestes, her brother, against Clytemnestra, their mother, and Aegisthus, their stepfather, for their murder of Agamemnon, their father, (cf. Electra, by Sophocles).[6][7][8] Initially, Freud equally applied the Oedipus complex to the psychosexual development of boys and girls, but later developed the female aspects of the theory as the feminine Oedipus attitude and the negative Oedipus complex;[9] yet, it was his studentcollaborator, Carl Jung, who coined the term Electra complex in 1913.[10][11] Nonetheless, Freud rejected Jung's term as psychoanalytically inaccurate: "that what we have said about the Oedipus complex applies with complete strictness to the male child only, and that we are right in rejecting the term 'Electra complex', which seeks to emphasize the analogy between the attitude of the two sexes".[12][13]

Oedipus complex: Oedipus explains the riddle of the Sphinx,Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. (ca. 1805)

Electra complex: Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, by Frederic Leighton, c.1869

Oedipus Despite mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child's desires, the child begins forming a discrete sexual identity "boy", "girl" that alters the dynamics of the parent and child relationship; the parents become the focus of infantile libidinal energy. The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon his mother, and focuses jealousy and emotional rivalry against his father because it is he who sleeps with mother. To facilitate uniting him with his mother, the boy's id wants to kill father (as did Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based upon the reality principle, knows that the father is the stronger of the two males competing to possess the one

female. Nevertheless, the boy remains ambivalent about his father's place in the family, which is manifested as fear of castration by the physically greater father; the fear is an irrational, subconscious manifestation of the infantile Id.[14] Electra Whereas boys develop castration anxiety, girls developpenis envy that is rooted in anatomic fact: without a penis, she cannot sexually possess mother, as the infantile id demands. Resultantly, the girl redirects her desire for sexual union upon father; thus, she progresses towards heterosexual femininity that culminates in bearing a child who replaces the absentpenis. Moreover, after the phallic stage, the girl's psychosexual development includes transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile clitoris to the adult vagina. Freud thus considered a girl's Oedipal conflict to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy, resulting, potentially, in a submissive woman of insecure personality.[15] Psychologic defense In both sexes, defense mechanisms provide transitory resolutions of the conflict between the drives of the Id and the drives of the Ego. The first defense mechanism is repression, the blocking of memories, emotional impulses, and ideas from the conscious mind; yet it does not resolve the IdEgo conflict. The second defense mechanism is Identification, by which the child incorporates, to his or her ego, the personality characteristics of the same-sex parent; in so adapting, the boy diminishes his castration anxiety, because his likeness to father protects him from father's wrath as a rival for mother; by so adapting, the girl facilitates identifying with mother, who understands that, in being females, neither of them possesses a penis, and thus they are not antagonists.[16] Dnouement Unresolved psychosexual competition for the opposite-sex parent might produce a phallic-stage fixation leading a girl to become a woman who continually strives to dominate men (viz. penis envy), either as an unusually seductive woman (high self-esteem) or as an unusually submissive woman (low self-esteem). In a boy, a phallic-stage fixation might lead him to become an aggressive, over-ambitious, vain man. Therefore, the satisfactory parental handling and resolution of the Oedipus complex and of the Electra complex are most important in developing the infantile super-ego, because, by identifying with a parent, the child internalizes morality, thereby, choosing to comply with societal rules, rather than having to reflexively comply in fear of punishment.

[edit]Latency

stage

The fourth stage of psychosexual development is the latency stage that spans from the age of six years until puberty, wherein the child consolidates the character habits he or she developed in the three, earlier stages of psychologic and sexual development. Whether or not the child has successfully resolved the Oedipal conflict, the instinctual drives of the id are inaccessible to the Ego, because his or her defense mechanisms repressed them during the phallic stage. Hence, because said drives are latent (hidden) and gratification is delayed unlike during the preceding oral, anal, and phallic stages the child must derive the pleasure of gratification from secondary

process-thinking that directs the libidinal drives towards external activities, such as schooling, friendships, hobbies, et cetera. Any neuroses established during the fourth, latent stage, of psychosexual development might derive from the inadequate resolution either of the Oedipus conflict or of the Ego's failure to direct his or her energies towards socially acceptable activities.

[edit]Genital

stage

The fifth stage of psychosexual development is the genital stage that spans puberty and adult life, and thus occupies most of the life of a man and of a woman; its purpose is the psychologic detachment and independence from the parents. The genital stage affords the person the ability to confront and resolve his or her remaining psychosexual childhood conflicts. As in the phallic stage, the genital stage is centered upon the genitalia, but the sexuality is consensual and adult, rather than solitary and infantile. The psychological difference between the phallic and genital stages is that the ego is established in the latter; the person's concern shifts from primary-drive gratification (instinct) to applying secondary process-thinking to gratify desire symbolically and intellectually by means of friendships, a love relationship, family and adult responsibilities.

[edit]Criticism [edit]Scientific
A usual criticism of the scientific (experimental) validity of the Freudian psychology theory of human psychosexual development is thatSigmund Freud (18561939) was personally fixated upon human sexuality, therefore, he favored defining human development with a normativetheory of psychologic and sexual development.[17] Hence, the phallic stage proved controversial, for being based upon clinical observations of the Oedipus complex. In Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy (1909), the case study of the boy "Little Hans" (Herbert Graf, 190373) who was afflicted withequinophobia, the relation between Hans's fears of horses and of father - derived from external factors such as the birth of his sister, and internal factors like the desire of the infantile id to replace father as companion to mother, as well as guilt for enjoying the masturbationnormal to a boy of his age. Moreover, his admitting to wanting to procreate with mother was considered proof of the boy's sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent; he was a heterosexual male. Yet, the boy Hans was unable to relate fearing horses to fearing his father. Thepsychoanalyst Freud noted that "Hans had to be told many things that he could not say himself" and that "he had to be presented with thoughts, which he had, so far, shown no signs of possessing".[17]

[edit]Feminist
Contemporaneously, Sigmund Freud's psychosexual development theory is criticized as sexist, because it was informed with his introspection (self-analysis). To integrate the female libido (sexual desire) to psychosexual development, he proposed that girls develop "penis envy". In response, the German Neo-Freudian psychoanalyst Karen Horney, counter-proposed

that girls instead develop "Power envy", rather than penis envy. She further proposed the concept of "womb and vagina envy", the male's envy of the female ability to bear children; yet, contemporary formulations further develop said envy from the biologic (child-bearing) to the psychologic (nurturance), envy of women's perceived right to be the kind parent.[18]

[edit]Anthropologic

Psychosexual development: Bronisaw Malinowski and natives, Trobriand Islands (1918).

Contemporary criticism also questions the universality of the Freudian theory of personality (Id, Ego, Super-ego) discussed in the essay On Narcissism (1917), wherein he said that "it is impossible to suppose that a unity, comparable to the egocan exist in the individual from the very start". Contemporary cultural considerations have questioned the normative presumptions of the Freudian psychodynamic perspective that posits the sonfather conflict of the Oedipal complex as universal and essential to human psychologic development. The anthropologist Bronisaw Malinowski's studies of the Trobriand islanderschallenged the Freudian proposal that psychosexual development (e.g. the Oedipus complex) was universal. He reported that in the insular matriarchal society of the Trobriand, boys are disciplined by their maternal uncles, not their fathers; impartial, avuncular discipline. In Sex and Repression in Savage Society (1927), Malinowski reported that boys dreamed of feared uncles, not of beloved fathers, thus, Power not sexual jealousy is the source of Oedipal conflict in such nonWestern societies. In Human Behavior in Global Perspective: an Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology (1999), Marshall H. Segall et al. propose that Freud based the theory of psychosexual development upon a misinterpretation.[19] Furthermore, contemporary research confirms that although personality traits corresponding to the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latent stage, and the genital stage are observable, they remain undetermined as fixed stages of childhood, and as adult personality traits derived from childhood.[20]

SIGMUND FREUD began his researches into the workings of the

human mind in 1881, after a century during which Europe and America saw the reform of the insane asylum and an ever-increasing interest in

"abnormal" psychological states, especially the issue of "nervous diseases" (which was the first phenomenon that Freud studied, examining the nervous system of fish while gaining his medical degree at the University of Vienna from 1873 to 1881). Freud turned to the issue of psychology after reading in 1884 about Breuer's treatment of hysteria by hypnosis and after studying under Charcot at the Sorbonne in 1885. Freud faced opposition and even ridicule for many of his ideas until a group of young doctors began to follow him to Vienna in 1902, leading to the creation of the Viennese PsychoAnalytic Society and, then later in 1910, the formation of the International Psycho-Analytic Association. Although he often distinguished his ideas from medicine and biology, Freud was especially interested in establishing a scientific basis for his theories and, so, he often turned to biological models in order to underline the empirical basis for what were, by necessity, subjective interpretations of apparently illogical and certainly multivalent symbols (for example, in his analysis of dreams). In A Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (First Lecture), Freud confesses of the difficulties faced by a psychoanalytical critic at the turn of the twentieth century: no empirical evidence; a reliance on the spoken word, because of the talking cure; the extremely personal (because barbaric) nature of sexual drives, which therefore resist exposure (hence the notion of the unconscious); and civilization's "natural" antipathy to the revelation of the instinctive pleasures that we continually sacrifice for the common good (15.15-24). Despite these caveats, Freud was, indeed, drawn by scientific models for his theories. Although Freud's main concern was with "sexual desire," he understood desire in terms of formative drives, instincts, and appetites that "naturally" determined one's behaviors and beliefs, even as we continually repress those behaviors and beliefs. (As a young student in Vienna, Freud was, in fact, especially fascinated by Charles Darwin's theories of evolution.) Following a biological logic, if you will, Freud therefore established a rigid model for the "normal" sexual development of the human subject, what he terms the "libido development." Here, then, is your story, as told by Freud, with the ages provided as very rough approximations since Freud often changed his mind about the actual dates of the various stages and also acknowledged that development varied between individuals. Stages can even overlap or be experienced simultaneously.

0-2 years of age. Early in your development, all of your desires were
oriented towards your lips and your mouth, which accepted food, milk, and anything else you could get your hands on (the oral phase). The first object of this stage was, of course, the mother's breast, which could be transferred to auto-erotic objects (thumb-sucking). The mother thus logically became

your first "love-object," already a displacement from the earlier object of desire (the breast). When you first recognized the fact of your father, you dealt with him by identifying yourself with him; however, as the sexual wishes directed to your mother grew in intensity, you became possessive of your mother and secretly wished your father out of the picture (the Oedipus complex). This Oedipus complex plays out throughout the next two phases of development.

2-4 years of age. Following the oral phase, you entered the sadisticanal phase, which is split between active and passive impulses: the impulse to mastery on the one hand, which can easily become cruelty; the impulse to scopophilia (love of gazing), on the other hand. This phase was roughly coterminous with a new auto-eroticobject: the rectal orifice (hence, the term "sadistic-anal phase"). According to Freud, the child's pleasure in defecation is connected to his or her pleasure in creating something of his or her own, a pleasure that for women is later transferred to child-bearing.

4-7 years of age. Finally, you entered the phallic phase, when the penis
(or the clitoris, which, according to Freud, stands for the penis in the young girl) become your primary object-cathexis. In this stage, the child becomes fascinated with urination, which is experienced as pleasurable, both in its expulsion and retention. The trauma connected with this phase is that of castration, which makes this phase especially important for the resolution of theOedipus complex. Over this time, you began to deal with your separation anxieties (and your all-encompassing egoism) by finding symbolic ways of representing and thus controlling the separation from (not to mention your desire for) your mother. You also learned to defer bodily gratification when necessary. In other words, your egobecame trained to follow the realityprinciple and to control the pleasure-principle, although this ability would not be fully attained until you passed through the latency period. In resolving the Oedipus complex, you also began toidentify either with your mother or your father, thus determining the future path of your sexual orientation. Thatidentification took the form of an "ego-ideal," which then aided the formation of your "super-ego": an internalization of the parental function (which Freud usually associated with the father) that eventually manifested itself in your conscience (and sense of guilt).

7-12 years of age. Next followed a long "latency period" during which
your sexual development was more or less suspended and you concentrated on repressing and sublimating your earlier desires and thus learned to follow the reality-principle. During this phase, you gradually freed yourself from your parents (moving away from the mother and reconciling yourself with your father) or by asserting your independence (if you responded to your incestuous desires by becoming overly subservient to your father). You also

moved beyond your childhood egoism and sacrificed something of your own ego to others, thus learning how to love others.

13 years of age onward (or from puberty on). Your development

over the latency period allowed you to enter the final genital phase. At this point, you learned to desire members of the opposite sex and to fulfill yourinstinct to procreate and thus ensure the survival of the human species. To explain the early psycho-drama of your childhood, Freud turned to a dramatic work, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus (who, according to a prophecy, is fated to sleep with his mother and kill his father) attempts to escape his fate but, in the process, unwittingly does the very things he was attempting to avoid. Freud therefore coined the term, the Oedipus complex. One should note that anyone can get arrested at or insufficiently grow out of any of the primal stages, leading to various symptoms in one's adult life. (See fixation and regression.) One thing "you" have surely noticed is the decidedly masculine bent of Freud's story of sexual development. Indeed, Freud often had difficulty incorporating female desire into his theories, leading to his famous, unanswered question: "what does a woman want?" As Freud states late in life, "psychology too is unable to solve the riddle of femininity" ("New Introductory Lectures"22.116). It is for this reason that many feminists have criticized Freud's ideas and one reason why many feminists interested in psychoanalysis have turned instead to Kristeva. (See also Gender and Sex.) To explain women, Freud argued that young girls followed more or less the same psychosexual development as boys. Indeed, he argues paradoxically that "the little girl is a little man" ("New Introductory Lectures" 22.118) and that the entrance into the phallic phase occurs for the young girl through her "penis-equivalent," the clitoris. In fact, according to Freud, the young girl, also experiences the castration-complex, with the difference that her tendency is to be a victim of what Freud terms "penis-envy," a desire for a penis as large as a man's. After this stage, according to Freud, the woman has an extra stage of development when "the clitoris should wholly or in part hand over its sensitivity, and at the same time its importance, to the vagina" ("New Introductory Lectures" 22.118). According to Freud, the young girl must also at some point give up her first object-choice (the mother and her breast) in order to take the father as her new proper objectchoice. Her eventual move into heterosexual femininity, which culminates in giving birth, grows out of her earlier infantile desires, with her own child now taking "the place of the penis in accordance with an ancient symbolic equivalence" ("New Introductory Lectures" 22.128).

JEAN PIAGET

1896 - 1980
Dr. C. George Boeree

Biography Jean Piaget was born in Neuchtel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896. His father, Arthur Piaget, was a professor of medieval literature with an interest in local history. His mother, Rebecca Jackson, was intelligent and energetic, but Jean found her a bit neurotic -- an impression that he said led to his interest in psychology, but away from pathology! The oldest child, he was quite independent and took an early interest in nature, especially the collecting of shells. He published his first paper when he was ten -- a one page account of his sighting of an albino sparrow. He began publishing in earnest in high school on his favorite subject, mollusks. He was particularly pleased to get a part time job with the director of Nuechtels Museum of Natural History, Mr. Godel. His work became well known among European students of mollusks, who assumed he was an adult! All this early experience with science kept him away, he says, from the demon of philosophy. Later in adolescence, he faced a bit a crisis of faith: Encouraged by his mother to attend religious instruction, he found religious argument childish. Studying various philosophers and the application of logic, he dedicated himself to finding a biological explanation of knowledge. Ultimately, philosophy failed to assist him in his search, so he turned to psychology. After high school, he went on to the University of Neuchtel. Constantly studying and writing, he became sickly, and had to retire to the mountains for a year to recuperate. When he returned to Neuchtel, he decided he would write down his philosophy. A fundamental point became a centerpiece for his entire lifes work: In all fields of life (organic, mental, social) there exist totalities qualitatively distinct from their parts and imposing on them an organization. This principle forms the basis of his structuralist philosophy, as it would for the Gestaltists, Systems Theorists, and many others. In 1918, Piaget received his Doctorate in Science from the University of Neuchtel. He worked for a year at psychology labs in Zurich and at Bleulers famous psychiatric clinic. During this period, he was introduced to the works of Freud, Jung, and others. In 1919, he taught psychology and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. Here he met Simon (of Simon-Binet fame) and did research on intelligence testing. He didnt care for the right-or-wrong style of the intelligent tests and started interviewing his subjects at a boys school instead, using the psychiatric interviewing techniques he had learned the year before. In other words, he began asking how children reasoned. In 1921, his first article on the psychology of intelligence was published in the Journal de Psychologie. In the same year, he accepted a position at the Institut J. J. Rousseau in Geneva. Here he began with his students to research the reasoning of elementary school children. This research became his first five books on child psychology. Although he considered this work highly preliminary, he was surprised by the strong positive public reaction to his work. In 1923, he married one of his student coworkers, Valentine Chtenay. In 1925, their first daughter was born; in 1927, their second daughter was born; and in 1931, their only son was born. They immediately became the focus of intense observation by Piaget and his wife. This research became three more books!

In 1929, Piaget began work as the director of the International Bureau of Education, a post he would hold until 1967. He also began large scale research with A. Szeminska, E. Meyer, and especially Brbel Inhelder, who would become his major collaborator. Piaget, it should be noted, was particularly influential in bringing women into experimental psychology. Some of this work, however, wouldnt reach the world outside of Switzerland until World War II was over. In 1940, He became chair of Experimental Psychology, the Director of the psychology laboratory, and the president of the Swiss Society of Psychology. In 1942, he gave a series of lectures at the Collge de France, during the Nazi occupation of France. These lectures became The Psychology of Intelligence. At the end of the war, he was named President of the Swiss Commission of UNESCO. Also during this period, he received a number of honorary degrees. He received one from the Sorbonne in 1946, the University of Brussels and the University of Brazil in 1949, on top of an earlier one from Harvard in 1936. And, in 1949 and 1950, he published his synthesis, Introduction to Genetic Epistemology. In 1952, he became a professor at the Sorbonne. In 1955, he created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology, of which he served as director the rest of his life. And, in 1956, he created the School of Sciences at the University of Geneva. He continued working on a general theory of structures and tying his psychological work to biology for many more years. Likewise, he continued his public service through UNESCO as a Swiss delegate. By the end of his career, he had written over 60 books and many hundreds of articles. He died in Geneva, September 16, 1980, one of the most significant psychologists of the twentieth century. Theory Jean Piaget began his career as a biologist -- specifically, a malacologist! But his interest in science and the history of science soon overtook his interest in snails and clams. As he delved deeper into the thought-processes of doing science, he became interested in the nature of thought itself, especially in the development of thinking. Finding relatively little work done in the area, he had the opportunity to give it a label. He called it genetic epistemology, meaning the study of the development of knowledge. He noticed, for example, that even infants have certain skills in regard to objects in their environment. These skills were certainly simple ones, sensori-motor skills, but they directed the way in which the infant explored his or her environment and so how they gained more knowledge of the world and more sophisticated exploratory skills. These skills he called schemas. For example, an infant knows how to grab his favorite rattle and thrust it into his mouth. Hes got that schema down pat. When he comes across some other object -- say daddys expensive watch, he easily learns to transfer his grab and thrust schema to the new object. This Piaget calledassimilation, specifically assimilating a new object into an old schema. When our infant comes across another object again -- say a beach ball -- he will try his old schema of grab and thrust. This of course works poorly with the new object. So the schema will adapt to the new object: Perhaps, in this example, squeeze and drool would be an appropriate title for the new schema. This is called accommodation, specifically accomodating an old schema to a new object. Assimilation and accommodation are the two sides of adaptation, Piagets term for what most of us would call learning. Piaget saw adaptation, however, as a good deal broader than the kind of learning that Behaviorists in the US were talking about. He saw it as a fundamentally biological process. Even ones grip has to accommodate to a stone, while clay is assimilated into our grip. All living things adapt, even without a nervous system or brain. Assimilation and accommodation work like pendulum swings at advancing our understanding of the world and our competency in it. According to Piaget, they are directed at a balance between the

structure of the mind and the environment, at a certain congruency between the two, that would indicate that you have a good (or at least good-enough) model of the universe. This ideal state he calls equilibrium. As he continued his investigation of children, he noted that there were periods where assimilation dominated, periods where accommodation dominated, and periods of relative equilibrium, and that these periods were similar among all the children he looked at in their nature and their timing. And so he developed the idea of stages of cognitive development. These constitute a lasting contribution to psychology. The sensorimotor stage The first stage, to which we have already referred, is the sensorimotor stage. It lasts from birth to about two years old. As the name implies, the infant uses senses and motor abilities to understand the world, beginning with reflexes and ending with complex combinations of sensorimotor skills. Between one and four months, the child works on primary circular reactions -- just an action of his own which serves as a stimulus to which it responds with the same action, and around and around we go. For example, the baby may suck her thumb. That feels good, so she sucks some more... Or she may blow a bubble. Thats interesting so Ill do it again.... Between four and 12 months, the infant turns to secondary circular reactions, which involve an act that extends out to the environment: She may squeeze a rubber duckie. It goes quack. Thats great, so do it again, and again, and again. She is learning procedures that make interesting things last. At this point, other things begin to show up as well. For example, babies become ticklish, although they must be aware that someone else is tickling them or it wont work. And they begin to develop object permanence. This is the ability to recognize that, just because you cant see something doesnt mean its gone! Younger infants seem to function by an out of sight, out of mind schema. Older infants remember, and may even try to find things they can no longer see. Between 12 months and 24 months, the child works on tertiary circular reactions. They consist of the same making interesting things last cycle, except with constant variation. I hit the drum with the stick -- rat-tat-tat-tat. I hit the block with the stick -- thump-thump. I hit the table with the stick -clunk-clunk. I hit daddy with the stick -- ouch-ouch. This kind of active experimentation is best seen during feeding time, when discovering new and interesting ways of throwing your spoon, dish, and food. Around one and a half, the child is clearly developing mental representation, that is, the ability to hold an image in their mind for a period beyond the immediate experience. For example, they can engage in deferred imitation, such as throwing a tantrum after seeing one an hour ago. They can usemental combinations to solve simple problems, such as putting down a toy in order to open a door. And they get good at pretending. Instead of using dollies essentially as something to sit at, suck on, or throw, now the child will sing to it, tuck it into bed, and so on. Preoperational stage The preoperational stage lasts from about two to about seven years old. Now that the child has mental representations and is able to pretend, it is a short step to the use of symbols. A symbol is a thing that represents something else. A drawing, a written word, or a spoken word comes to be understood as representing a real dog. The use of language is, of course, the prime example, but another good example of symbol use is creative play, wherein checkers are cookies, papers are dishes, a box is the table, and so on. By manipulating symbols, we are essentially thinking, in a way the infant could not: in the absence of the actual objects involved! Along with symbolization, there is a clear understanding of past and future. for example, if a child is

crying for its mother, and you say Mommy will be home soon, it will now tend to stop crying. Or if you ask him, Remember when you fell down? he will respond by making a sad face. On the other hand, the child is quite egocentric during this stage, that is, he sees things pretty much from one point of view: his own! She may hold up a picture so only she can see it and expect you to see it too. Or she may explain that grass grows so she wont get hurt when she falls. Piaget did a study to investigate this phenomenon called the mountains study. He would put children in front of a simple plaster mountain range and seat himself to the side, then ask them to pick from four pictures the view that he, Piaget, would see. Younger children would pick the picture of the view they themselves saw; older kids picked correctly.

Similarly, younger children center on one aspect of any problem or communication at a time. for example, they may not understand you when you tell them Your father is my husband. Or they may say things like I dont live in the USA; I live in Pennsylvania! Or, if you show them five black and three white marbles and ask them Are there more marbles or more black marbles? they will respond More black ones! Perhaps the most famous example of the preoperational childs centrism is what Piaget refers to as their inability to conserve liquid volume. If I give a three year old some chocolate milk in a tall skinny glass, and I give myself a whole lot more in a short fat glass, she will tend to focus on only one of the dimensions of the glass. Since the milk in the tall skinny glass goes up much higher, she is likely to assume that there is more milk in that one than in the short fat glass, even though there is far more in the latter. It is the development of the child's ability to decenter that marks him as havingmoved to the next stage. Concrete operations stage The concrete operations stage lasts from about seven to about 11. The word operations refers to logical operations or principles we use when solving problems. In this stage, the child not only uses symbols representationally, but can manipulate those symbols logically. Quite an accomplishment! But, at this point, they must still perform these operations within the context of concrete situations. The stage begins with progressive decentering. By six or seven, most children develop the ability

to conserve number, length, and liquid volume. Conservation refers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance. If you show a child four marbles in a row, then spread them out, the preoperational child will focus on the spread, and tend to believe that there are now more marbles than before.

Or if you have two five inch sticks laid parallel to each other, then move one of them a little, she may believe that the moved stick is now longer than the other.

The concrete operations child, on the other hand, will know that there are still four marbles, and that the stick doesnt change length even though it now extends beyond the other. And he will know that you have to look at more than just the height of the milk in the glass: If you pour the mild from the short, fat glass into the tall, skinny glass, he will tell you that there is the same amount of milk as before, despite the dramatic increase in mild-level!

By seven or eight years old, children develop conservation of substance: If I take a ball of clay and roll it into a long thin rod, or even split it into ten little pieces, the child knows that there is still the same amount of clay. And he will know that, if you rolled it all back into a single ball, it would look quite the same as it did -- a feature known as reversibility.

By nine or ten, the last of the conservation tests is mastered: conservation of area. If you take four one-inch square pieces of felt, and lay them on a six-by-six cloth together in the center, the child who conserves will know that they take up just as much room as the same squares spread out in the corners, or, for that matter, anywhere at all.

If all this sounds too easy to be such a big deal, test your friends on conservation of mass: Which is

heavier: a million tons of lead, or a million tons of feathers? In addition, a child learns classification and seriation during this stage. Classification refers back to the question of whether there are more marbles or more black marbles? Now the child begins to get the idea that one set can include another. Seriation is putting things in order. The younger child may start putting things in order by, say size, but will quickly lose track. Now the child has no problem with such a task. Since arithmetic is essentially nothing more than classification and seriation, the child is now ready for some formal education! Formal operations stage But the concrete operations child has a hard time applying his new-found logical abilities to nonconcrete -- i.e. abstract -- events. If mom says to junior You shouldnt make fun of that boys nose. How would you feel if someone did that to you? he is likely to respond I dont have a big nose! Even this simple lesson may well be too abstract, too hypothetical, for his kind of thinking. Dont judge the concrete operations child too harshly, though. Even adults are often taken-aback when we present them with something hypothetical: If Edith has a lighter complexion than Susan, and Edith is darker than Lily, who is the darkest? Most people need a moment or two. From around 12 on, we enter the formal operations stage. Here we become increasingly competent at adult-style thinking. This involves using logical operations, and using them in the abstract, rather than the concrete. We often call this hypothetical thinking. Heres a simple example of a task that a concrete operations child couldnt do, but which a formal operations teenager or adult could -- with a little time and effort. Consider this rule about a set of cards that have letters on one side and numbers on the other: If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other side. Take a look at the cards below and tell me, which cards do I need to turn over to tell if this rule is actually true? Youll find the answer at the end of this chapter.

It is the formal operations stage that allows one to investigate a problem in a careful and systematic fashion. Ask a 16 year old to tell you the rules for making pendulums swing quickly or slowly, and he may proceed like this: A long string with a light weight -- lets see how fast that swings. A long string with a heavy weight -- lets try that. Now, a short string with a light weight. And finally, a short string with a heavy weight. His experiment -- and it is an experiment -- would tell him that a short string leads to a fast swing, and a long string to a slow swing, and that the weight of the pendulum means nothing at all! The teenager has learned to group possibilities in four different ways: By conjunction: Both A and B make a difference (e.g. both the strings length and the pendulums weight). By disjunction: Its either this or that (e.g. its either the length or the weight). By implication: If its this, then that will happen (the formation of a hypothesis).

By incompatibility: When this happens, that doesnt (the elimination of a hypothesis). On top of that, he can operate on the operations -- a higher level of grouping. If you have a proposition, such as it could be the string or the weight, you can do four things with it: Identity: Leave it alone. It could be the string or the weight. Negation: Negate the components and replace ors with ands (and vice versa). It might not be the string and not the weight, either. Reciprocity: Negate the components but keep the ands and ors as they are. Either it is not the weight or it is not the string. Correlativity: Keep the components as they are, but replace ors with ands, etc. Its the weight and the string. Someone who has developed his or her formal operations will understand that the correlate of a reciprocal is a negation, that a reciprocal of a negation is a correlate, that the negation of a correlate is a reciprocal, and that the negation of a reciprocal of a correlate is an identity (phew!!!). Maybe it has already occured to you: It doesnt seem that the formal operations stage is something everyone actually gets to. Even those of us who do dont operate in it at all times. Even some cultures, it seems, dont develop it or value it like ours does. Abstract reasoning is simply not universal. [Answer to the card question: The E and the 7. The E must have an even number on the back -- that much is obvious. the 7 is odd, so it cannot have a vowel on the other side -- that would be against the rule! But the rule says nothing about what has to be on the back of a consonant such as the K, nor does it say that the 4 musthave a vowel on the other side!]

Rudolf Steiner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other people named Rudolf Steiner, see Rudolf Steiner (disambiguation).

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

Full name

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

Born

25(27?) February 1861 Murakirly, Austria-Hungary(now Donji Kraljevec,Croatia)

Died

30 March 1925 (aged 64) Dornach, Switzerland

Era

20th-century philosophy

Region

Western Philosophy

School

Phenomenology, Holism,Monism

Main intere Metaphysics, Epistemology,Philosophy of sts science,Esotericism, Christianity,Spiritual Science,Freemasonry

Notable ide Anthroposophy,Anthroposophical as Medicine,Biodynamic Agriculture,Eurythmy, Spiritual Science,Waldorf Education

Influenced by[show]

Influenced[show]

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner[1] (25/27 February 1861[2] 30 March 1925) was an Austrianphilosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist.[3][4] He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher. At the beginning of the 20th century, he founded a spiritual movement, Anthroposophy, as an esoteric philosophy growing out of Europeantranscendentalism and with links to Theosophy. Steiner led this movement through several phases. In the first, more philosophically oriented phase, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and mysticism;[5] his philosophical work of these years, which he termed spiritual science, sought to provide a connection between the cognitive path of Western philosophy and the inner and spiritual needs of the human being.
[6]:291

In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of

artistic media, including drama, the movement arts (developing a new artistic form, eurythmy) and architecture, culminating in the building of a cultural centre to house all the arts, the Goetheanum. After the First World War, Steiner worked with educators, farmers, doctors, and other professionals to develop numerous practical initiatives, includingWaldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine.[7] Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual component. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's world view, in which Thinking is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas.[8] A consistent thread that runs from his earliest philosophical phase through his later spiritual orientation is the goal of demonstrating that there are no essential limits to human knowledge.[9]

Contents
[hide]

o o o o

1 Biography 1.1 Childhood and education 1.2 Writer and philosopher 1.3 Steiner and the Theosophical Society 1.4 The Anthroposophical Society and its cultural

activities

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

1.5 Social reform 1.6 Attacks, illness, and death 1.7 Spiritual research 2 Breadth of activity 2.1 Education 2.2 Social activism 2.3 Architecture and visual arts 2.4 Performing arts 2.5 Anthroposophical medicine 2.6 Biodynamic farming and gardening 3 Philosophical development 3.1 Goethean science 3.2 Knowledge and freedom 3.3 Spiritual science 4 Steiner and Christianity 4.1 Christ and human evolution 4.2 Divergence from conventional Christian thought 4.3 The Christian Community 5 Reception and controversy 5.1 Scientism 5.2 Race and ethnicity 5.2.1 Judaism

6 Bibliography 6.1 Writings (selection) 6.2 Works about Steiner 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit]Biography [edit]Childhood

and education
Part of a series on

Anthroposophy
General

Anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner Goetheanum Anthroposophical Society

Anthroposophically inspired work

Anthroposophical medicine Biodynamic agriculture Camphill Movement Eurythmy Waldorf education

Philosophy

Philosophy of Freedom Social threefolding

Steiner's father, Johann(es) Steiner (June 23, 1829, Geras or Trabenreith, Irnfritz-Messern and lived Geras Abbey, Waldviertel 1910, Horn), left a position as a gamekeeper[10] in the service of Count Hoyos in Geras, northeast Lower Austria to marry one of the Hoyos family's housemaids, Franziska Blie (May 8, 1834, Horn, Waldviertel 1918, Horn), a marriage for which the Count had refused his permission. Johann became a telegraph operator on the Southern Austrian Railway, and at the time of Rudolf's birth was stationed in Kraljevec in the Murakzregion, then part of the Austrian Empire (present-day Donji Kraljevec, Meimurje region, northernmost Croatia). In the first two years of Rudolf's life, the family moved twice, first toMdling, near Vienna, and then, through the promotion of his father to stationmaster, toPottschach, located in the foothills of the eastern Austrian Alps in Lower Austria.[7] Steiner entered the village school; following a disagreement between his father and the

schoolmaster, he was briefly educated at home. At about nine years Steiner experienced seeing the spirit of an aunt who had died in a far-off town asking him to help her; neither he nor his family knew of the woman's death at this time.[11] In 1869 the family moved to the village ofNeudrfl (near Wiener Neustadt), and in 1879 to Inzersdorf. The latter move was to enable Steiner to attend the Vienna Institute of Technology, where he studied mathematics, physics, and philosophyon an academic scholarship from 1879 to 1883.
[12]:446

In 1882, one of Steiner's teachers, Karl Julius Schrer, suggested Steiner's name to Joseph

Krschner, editor of a new Deutschen Nationalliteratur edition ('German National Literature') of Goethe's works.[13] Steiner was then asked to become the edition's natural science editor.[14]

The house where Rudolf Steiner was born, in modern Croatia

In his autobiography, Steiner related that at 21, on the train between his home village and Vienna, he met a simple herb gatherer, Felix Kogutzki, who spoke about the spiritual world "as one who had his own experience therein...".[15]:39-40 Kogutzki conveyed to Steiner a knowledge of nature that was non-academic and spiritual; soon thereafter Steiner began to read Goethe's works on natural science. He also introduced Steiner to a person that Steiner only identified as a Master, and who had a great influence on Steiner's subsequent development, in particular directing him to study Fichte's philosophy.[16] Over the course of his life Steiner purportedly met with two spiritual masters, the other being Christian Rosenkreutz.[17] In 1891, Steiner earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Rostock in Germany with a thesis based upon Fichte's concept of the ego,[6] later published in expanded form as Truth and Knowledge.[18]

[edit]Writer

and philosopher

Rudolf Steiner 1900

In 1888, as a result of his work for the Krschner edition of Goethe's works, Steiner was invited to work as an editor at the Goethe archives in Weimar. Steiner remained with the archive until 1896. As well as the introductions for and commentaries to four volumes of Goethe's scientific writings, Steiner wrote two books about Goethe's philosophy: The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception (1886)[19] andGoethe's Conception of the World (1897).[20] During this time he also collaborated in complete editions of the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and the writer Jean Paul and wrote numerous articles for various journals. During his time at the archives, Steiner wrote what he considered to be his most important philosophical work, Die Philosophie der Freiheit (The Philosophy of Freedom or The Philosophy of Spiritual ActivitySteiner's preferred English title) (1894), an exploration of epistemology and ethics that suggested a path upon which humans can become spiritually free beings. In 1896, Elisabeth Frster-Nietzsche asked Steiner to help organize the Nietzsche archive in Naumburg.Her brother by that time was non compos mentis. Frster-Nietzsche introduced Steiner into the presence of the catatonic philosopher; Steiner, deeply moved, subsequently wrote the book Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom. Steiner later related, "Nietzsche's ideas of the 'eternal recurrence' and of 'bermensch' remained long in my mind. For in these was reflected that which a personality must feel concerning the evolution and essential being of humanity when this personality is kept back from grasping the spiritual world by the restricted thought in the philosophy of nature characterizing the end of the 19th century....What attracted me particularly was that one could read Nietzsche without coming upon anything which strove to make the reader a 'dependent'

of Nietzsche's."[15] In 1897, Steiner left the Weimar archives and moved to Berlin. He became part owner, chief editor, and an active contributor to the literary journal Magazin fr Literatur, where he hoped to find a readership sympathetic to his philosophy. Many subscribers were alienated by Steiner's unpopular support of mile Zola in the Dreyfus Affair[21] and the journal lost more subscribers when Steiner published extracts from his correspondence with anarchist John Henry Mackay.[21] Dissatisfaction with his editorial style eventually led to his departure from the magazine. In 1899, Steiner married Anna Eunicke; the couple separated several years later. Anna died in 1911.

[edit]Steiner

and the Theosophical Society

Main article: Rudolf Steiner and the Theosophical Society

Marie Steiner 1903

In 1899, Steiner published an article, Goethe's Secret Revelation, discussing the esoteric nature of Goethe's fairy tale The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily. This article led to an invitation by the Count and Countess Brockdorff to speak to a gathering of Theosophists on the subject of Nietzsche. Steiner continued speaking regularly to the members of the Theosophical Society, becoming the head of its newly constituted German section in 1902 without ever formally joining the society.[6][22] By 1904, Steiner was appointed by Annie Besant to be leader of the Theosophical Esoteric Society for Germany and Austria. It was also within this society that Steiner met and worked with Marie von Sivers, who became his second wife in 1914. The German Section of the Theosophical Society grew rapidly under Steiner's leadership as he lectured throughout much of Europe on his spiritual science. During this period, Steiner maintained an original approach, replacing Madame Blavatsky's terminology with his own, and basing his spiritual research and teachings upon the Western esoteric and philosophical tradition. This and other differences, in particular Steiner's vocal rejection of Leadbeater and Besant's claim

that Jiddu Krishnamurti was the vehicle of a newMaitreya, or world teacher,[23] led to a formal split in 1912/13,[6] when Steiner and the majority of members of the German section of the Theosophical Society broke off to form a new group, the Anthroposophical Society.

[edit]The

Anthroposophical Society and its cultural activities

English sculptor Edith Maryon belonged to the innermost circle of founders of anthroposophy and headed the Section of Fine Arts at the Goetheanum

The Anthroposophical Society grew rapidly. Fueled by a need to find a home for their yearly conferences, which included performances of plays written by Eduard Schur as well as Steiner himself, the decision was made to build a theater and organizational center. In 1913, construction began on the first Goetheanum building, in Dornach, Switzerland. The building, designed by Steiner, was built to a significant part by volunteers who offered craftsmanship or simply a will to learn new skills. Once World War I started in 1914, the Goetheanum volunteers could hear the sound of cannon fire beyond the Swiss border, but despite the war, people from all over Europe worked peaceably side by side on the building's construction. Beginning in 1919, Steiner was called upon to assist with numerous practical activities (see below), including the first Waldorf school, founded that year in Stuttgart, Germany. His lecture activity expanded enormously. At the same time, the Goetheanum developed as a wide-ranging cultural centre. On New Year's Eve, 1922/1923, the building burned to the ground; contemporary police reports indicate arson as the probable cause.[7]:752[24]:796 Steiner immediately began work designing a second Goetheanum building this time made of concrete instead of wood which was completed in 1928, three years after his death. In 1923, Steiner founded a School of Spiritual Science, intended as an "organ of initiative" for

research and study and as "the soul of the Anthroposophical Society".[25] This included a general course of study based on meditative exercises (intended to guide a meditant from the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe.)[26] and research departments focusing on areas such as education, medicine, agriculture, art, natural science, social science, and literature. Steiner spoke of laying the Foundation Stone of the new society in the hearts of his listeners.

[edit]Social

reform

Steiner became a well-known and controversial public figure during and after World War I. In response to the catastrophic situation in post-war Germany, he proposed extensive social reforms through the establishment of a Threefold Social Order in which the cultural, political and economic realms would be largely independent. Steiner argued that a fusion of the three realms had created the inflexibility that had led to catastrophes such as World War I. In connection with this, he promoted a radical solution in the disputed area of Upper Silesia, claimed by both Poland and Germany; his suggestion that this area be granted at least provisional independence led to his being publicly accused of being a traitor to Germany.[27] In 1919, Steiner's chief work on social reform (English title: Toward Social Renewal) was released simultaneously in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and sold some 80,000 copies in the first year.

[edit]Attacks,

illness, and death

Right wing groups had been rapidly gaining strength in Germany. In 1919, the political theorist of the National Socialist movement in Germany, Dietrich Eckart, attacked Steiner and suggested that he was a Jew.[28] In 1921, Adolf Hitler attacked Steiner in an article in the right-wing Vlkischer Beobachter newspaper that included accusations that Steiner was a tool of the Jews,[29] and other nationalist extremists in Germany called up a "war against Steiner". In 1922 a lecture in Munich was disrupted when stink bombs were let off and the lights switched out.[30][31] Unable to guarantee his safety, Steiner's agents cancelled a next lecture tour.[21]:193[32] The 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich led Steiner to give up his residence in Berlin, saying that if those responsible for the attempted coup [Hitler and others] came to power in Germany, it would no longer be possible for him to enter the country;[33] he also warned against the disastrous effects it would have for Central Europe if the National Socialists came to power.[28]:8 The loss of the Goetheanum affected Steiner's health seriously. From 1923 on, he showed signs of increasing frailness and illness. He continued to lecture widely, and even to travel; especially towards the end of this time, he was often giving two, three or even four lectures daily for courses taking place concurrently. Many of these were for practical areas of life; simultaneously, however, Steiner began an extensive series of lectures presenting his research on the successive incarnations of various individualities, and on the technique of karma research generally.[34] Increasingly ill, his last lecture was held in September, 1924. He continued work on his

autobiography during the last months of his life; he died on 30 March 1925.

[edit]Spiritual

research

From 1899 until his death in 1925, Steiner articulated an ongoing stream of experiences that he claimed were of the spiritual world experiences he said had touched him from an early age on.
[21]

Steiner aimed to apply his training in mathematics, science, and philosophyto produce rigorous,

verifiable presentations of those experiences.[35] Steiner believed that through freely chosen ethical disciplines and meditative training, anyone could develop the ability to experience thespiritual world, including the higher nature of oneself and others.[21] Steiner believed that such discipline and training would help a person to become a more moral, creative and free individual - free in the sense of being capable of actions motivated solely by love.[36] Steiner's ideas about the inner life were influenced by Franz Brentano,[21] with whom he had studied, and Wilhelm Dilthey, both founders of the phenomenological movement in European philosophy, as well as the transcendentalist philosophers Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling. Steiner was also strongly influenced by Goethe's phenomenological approach to science.[21][37][38] Steiner led the following esoteric schools:

His independent Esoteric School of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1904. This

school continued after the break with Theosophy but was disbanded at the start of World War I.

A lodge called Mystica Aeterna within the Masonic Order of Memphis and Mizraim, which

Steiner led from 1906 until around 1914. Steiner added to the Masonic rite a number of Rosicrucian references.[39] The figure of Christian Rosenkreutz also plays an important role in several of his later lectures.

The School of Spiritual Science of the Anthroposophical Society, founded in 1923 as a

further development of his earlier Esoteric School. The School of Spiritual Science was intended to have three classes, but only the first of these was developed in Steiner's lifetime. All the texts relating to the School of Spiritual Science have been published in the full edition of Steiner's works.

[edit]Breadth

of activity

After the First World War, Steiner became active in a wide variety of cultural contexts. He founded a number of schools, the first of which was known as the Waldorf school,[40] and which later evolved into a worldwide school network. He also founded a system of organic agriculture, now known as Biodynamic agriculture, which was one of the very first forms of, and has contributed significantly to the development of, modern organic farming.[41] His work in medicine led to the

development of a broad range of complementary medications and supportive artistic and biographic therapies.[42] Homes for children and adults with developmental disabilities based on his work (including those of theCamphill movement) are widespread.[43] His paintings and drawings influenced Joseph Beuys and other modern artists. His two Goetheanum buildings are generally accepted to be masterpieces of modern architecture,[44][45] and other anthroposophical architects have contributed thousands of buildings to the modern scene. One of the first institutions to practice ethical banking was an anthroposophical bank working out of Steiner's ideas. Steiner's literary estate is correspondingly broad. Steiner's writings, published in about forty volumes, include books, essays, four plays ('mystery dramas'), mantric verse, and an autobiography. His collected lectures, making up another approximately 300 volumes, discuss an extremely wide range of themes. Steiner's drawings, chiefly illustrations done on blackboards during his lectures, are collected in a separate series of 28 volumes. Many publications have covered his architectural legacy and sculptural work.

[edit]Education

The Waldorf school in Verrires-le-Buisson (France)

Main article: Waldorf education As a young man, Steiner already supported the independence of educational institutions from governmental control. In 1907, he wrote an essay on "Education in the Light of Spiritual Science", in which he described the major phases of child development that were later to form the foundation of his approach to education. In 1919, Emil Molt invited him to lecture to the workers at Molt's factory in Stuttgart. Out of these lectures came a new school, the Waldorf school. In 1922, Steiner brought these ideas to Oxford at the invitation of Professor Millicent Mackenzie and the Oxford Conference led to the founding of Waldorf schools in Britain.[46] During Steiner's lifetime, schools based on his educational principles were also founded in Hamburg, Essen, The Hague and London; there are now more than 1000 Waldorf schools worldwide.

[edit]Social

activism

For a period after World War I, Steiner was extremely active as a lecturer on social reform. A petition expressing his basic social ideas (signed by Herman Hesse, among others) was very widely circulated. His chief book on social reform, Toward Social Renewal, sold tens of thousands of copies in his lifetime. In this, Steiner suggested that the cultural, political and economic spheres of society needs to work together as consciously cooperating yet independent entities. Each of these three realms has a particular task: political institutions should establish political equality and protect human rights; cultural institutions should cultivate the free and unhindered development of such realms as science, art, education and religion; and economic institutions should encourage producers, distributors and consumers to cooperate to provide for society's needs.[47] He saw the establishment of what he calledThreefold Social Order as a vital response to what he saw as an already visible trend toward the mutual independence of these three realms. Steiner saw theocracy, conventional shareholder capitalism, and state socialism as attempts by, respectively, cultural, economic, and governmental institutions to dominate the others. In the present day, he suggested, such attempts by any one of these spheres to manipulate another would be contrary to society's interests; such negative mutual influences would include e.g. corporate pressure on governments, state attempts to interfere with science, education, or religion, or religious influences on governmental entities.

The cultural realm (science, art, religion, education, and the press) requires and fosters

freedom;

The political realm requires and fosters equality; The economic realm requires and fosters cooperation and solidarity.

Steiner also gave many suggestions for many specific social reforms.

[edit]Architecture

and visual arts

First Goetheanum

Steiner designed 17 buildings, including the First and Second Goetheanums. These two buildings,

built in Dornach, Switzerland, were intended to house significant theater spaces as well as aSchool for Spiritual Science. Three of Steiner's buildings have been listed amongst the most significant works of modern architecture.[48]

The Representative of Humanity (detail)

His primary sculptural work is The Representative of Humanity (1922), a nine-meter high wood sculpture executed as a joint project with the sculptor Edith Maryon and now on permanent display at the Goetheanum. Steiner's blackboard drawings were unique at the time and almost certainly not originally intended as art works. Josef Beuys' work, itself heavily influenced by Steiner, has led to the modern understanding of Steiner's drawings as artistic objects.[49]

[edit]Performing

arts

Together with Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Rudolf Steiner developed the art of eurythmy, sometimes referred to as "visible speech and visible song". According to the principles of eurythmy, there are archetypal movements or gestures that correspond to every aspect of speech - the sounds (or phonemes), the rhythms, and the grammatical function - to every "soul quality" - joy, despair, tenderness, etc. - and to every aspect of music - tones, intervals, rhythms, and harmonies. As a playwright, Steiner wrote four "Mystery Dramas" between 1909 and 1913, including The Portal of Initiation and The Soul's Awakening. They are still performed today by Anthroposophical groups. Steiner also founded a new approach to artistic speech, or "speech formation", and drama. Michael Chekhov took up and extended Steiner's approach in what is now known as the Chekhov method of acting.[50]

[edit]Anthroposophical

medicine

Main article: Anthroposophical medicine

From the late 1910s, Steiner was working with doctors to create a new approach to medicine. In 1921, pharmacists and physicians gathered under Steiner's guidance to create a pharmaceutical company called Weleda which now distributes natural medical products worldwide. At around the same time, Dr. Ita Wegman founded a first anthroposophic medical clinic (now the Ita Wegman Clinic) in Arlesheim.

[edit]Biodynamic

farming and gardening

In 1924, a group of farmers concerned about the future of agriculture requested Steiner's help. Steiner responded with a lecture series on anecological and sustainable approach to agriculture that increased soil fertility without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.[51]Biodynamic agriculture is now practiced widely in Europe, North America, and Australasia.[52][53][54] A central aspect of biodynamics is that the farm as a whole is seen as an organism, and therefore should be a largely self-sustaining system, producing its own manure and animal feed. Plant or animal disease is seen a symptom of problems in the whole organism. Steiner also suggested timing agricultural activities such as sowing, weeding, and harvesting to utilize the influences on plant growth of the moon andplanets; and the application of natural materials prepared in specific ways to the soil, compost, and crops, with the intention of engaging non-physical beings and elemental forces. He encouraged his listeners to verify his suggestions empirically, as he had not yet done.

[edit]Philosophical [edit]Goethean

development

science

See also: Goethean science In his commentaries on Goethe's scientific works, written between 1884 and 1897, Steiner presented Goethe's approach to science as essentially phenomenological in nature, rather than theory- or model-based. He developed this conception further in several books, The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception (1886) and Goethe's Conception of the World (1897), particularly emphasizing the transformation in Goethe's approach from the physical sciences, where experiment played the primary role, to plant biology, where imagination was required to find the biological archetypes (Urpflanze), and postulated that Goethe had sought but been unable to fully find the further transformation in scientific thinking necessary to properly interpret and understand the animal kingdom.[55] Steiner defended Goethe's qualitative description of color as arising synthetically from the polarity of light and darkness, in contrast toNewton's particle-based and analytic conception. He emphasized the role of evolutionary thinking in Goethe's discovery of the intermaxillary bone in human beings; Goethe expected human anatomy to be an evolutionary transformation of animal anatomy.[55]

[edit]Knowledge

and freedom

See also: Philosophy of Freedom Steiner approached the philosophical questions of knowledge and freedom in two stages. The first was his dissertation, published in expanded form in 1892 as Truth and Knowledge. Here Steiner suggests that there is an inconsistency between Kant's philosophy, which postulated that the essential verity of the world was inaccessible to human consciousness, and modern science, which assumes that all influences can be found in what Steiner termed the sinnlichen und geistlichen (sensory and mental/spiritual) world to which we have access. Steiner terms Kant's Jenseits-Philosophie (philosophy of an inaccessible beyond) a stumbling block in achieving a satisfying philosophical viewpoint.[56] Steiner postulates that the world is essentially an indivisible unity, but that our consciousness divides it into the sense-perceptible appearance, on the one hand, and the formal nature accessible to our thinking, on the other. He sees in thinking itself an element that can be strengthened and deepened sufficiently to penetrate all that our senses do not reveal to us. Steiner thus explicitly denies all justification to a division between faith and knowledge; otherwise expressed, between the spiritual and natural worlds. Their apparent duality is conditioned by the structure of our consciousness, which separates perception and thinking, but these two faculties give us two complementary views of the same world; neither has primacy and the two together are necessary and sufficient to arrive at a complete understanding of the world. In thinking about perception (the path of natural science) and perceiving the process of thinking (the path of spiritual training), it is possible to discover a hidden inner unity between the two poles of our experience.[36]:Chapter 4 Truth, for Steiner, is paradoxically both an objective discovery and yet "a free creation of the human spirit, that never would exist at all if we did not generate it ourselves. The task of understanding is not to replicate in conceptual form something that already exists, but rather to create a wholly new realm, that together with the world given to our senses constitutes the fullness of reality."[57] A new stage of Steiner's philosophical development is expressed in his Philosophy of Freedom. Here, he further explores potentials within thinking: freedom, he suggests, can only be approached asymptotically and with the aid of the "creative activity" of thinking. Thinking can be a free deed; in addition, it can liberate our will from its subservience to our instincts and drives. Free deeds, he suggests, are those for which we are fully conscious of the motive for our action; freedom is the spiritual activity of penetrating with consciousness our own nature and that of the world,[58] and the real activity of acting in full consciousness.[36]:133-4 This includes overcoming influences of both heredity and environment: "To be free is to be capable of thinking one's own thoughts - not the thoughts merely of the body, or of society, but thoughts generated by one's deepest, most original, most essential and spiritual self, one's individuality."[6]

Steiner affirms Darwin's and Haeckel's evolutionary perspectives but extends this beyond its materialistic consequences; he sees humanconsciousness, indeed, all human culture, as a product of natural evolution that transcends itself. For Steiner, nature becomes self-conscious in the human being. Steiner's description of the nature of human consciousness thus closely parallels that of Solovyov:[59] In human beings, the absolute subject-object appears as such, i.e. as pure spiritual activity, containing all of its own objectivity, the whole process of its natural manifestation, but containing it totally ideally - in consciousness....The subject knows here only its own activity as an objective activity (sub specie object). Thus, the original identity of subject and object is restored in philosophical knowledge.[60]

[edit]Spiritual

science

See also: Anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner's exercises for spiritual development In his earliest works, Steiner already spoke of the "natural and spiritual worlds" as a unity.[21] From 1900 on, he began lecturing about concrete details of the spiritual world(s), culminating in the publication in 1904 of the first of several systematic presentations, his Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos, followed by How to Know Higher Worlds (1904/5), Cosmic Memory (a collection of articles written between 1904 and 1908), and An Outline of Esoteric Science (1910). Important themes include:

the human being as body, soul and spirit; the path of spiritual development; spiritual influences on world-evolution and history; and reincarnation and karma.

Steiner emphasized that there is an objective natural and spiritual world that can be known, and that perceptions of the spiritual world and incorporeal beings are, under conditions of training comparable to that required for the natural sciences, including self-discipline, replicable by multiple observers. It is on this basis that spiritual science is possible, with radically different epistemological foundations than those of natural science. For Steiner, the cosmos is permeated and continually transformed by the creative activity of nonphysical processes and spiritual beings. For the human being to become conscious of the objective reality of these processes and beings, it is necessary to creatively enact and reenact, within, their creative activity. Thus objective spiritual knowledge always entails creative inner activity.[21] Steiner articulated three stages of any creative deed:[36]:Pt II, Chapter 1

Moral intuition: the ability to discover or, preferably, develop valid ethical principles; Moral imagination: the imaginative transformation of such principles into a concrete

intention applicable to the particular situation (situational ethics); and

Moral technique: the realization of the intended transformation, depending on a mastery of

practical skills. Steiner termed his work from this period on Anthroposophy. He emphasized that the spiritual path he articulated builds upon and supports individual freedom and independent judgment; for the results of spiritual research to be appropriately presented in a modern context they must be in a form accessible to logical understanding, so that those who do not have access to the spiritual experiences underlying anthroposophical research can make independent evaluations of the latter's results.[36] Spiritual training is to support what Steiner considered the overall purpose of human evolution, the development of the mutually interdependent qualities of love and freedom.[6]

[edit]Steiner

and Christianity

In 1899 Steiner experienced what he described as a life-transforming inner encounter with the being of Christ; previously he had little or no relation to Christianity in any form. Then and thereafter, his relationship to Christianity remained entirely founded upon personal experience, and thus both non-denominational and strikingly different from conventional religious forms.
[6]

Steiner was then 38, and the experience of meeting the Christ occurred after a tremendous inner

struggle. To use Steiner's own words the "experience culminated in my standing in the spiritual presence of the Mystery of Golgotha in a most profound and solemn festival of knowledge."[61]

[edit]Christ

and human evolution

Steiner describes Christ's being and mission on earth as having a central place in human evolution:[62] To comprehend the central role of the Christ in Steiner's spiritual philosophy it is necessary to understand the esoteric cosmology that he espoused. In Steiner's theory of cosmic evolution, the incremental spiritual development of the human form is interwoven and inseparable from the cosmological development of the universe. This evolution and gradual descent into matter occurs over vast cosmic periods, or yugas. The Christ being brings the impulse which enables humanity's conscious ascent back into the spiritual worlds.[63] The being of Christ is central to all religions, though called by different names by each. Every religion is valid and true for the time and cultural context in which it was born. Historical forms of Christianity need to be transformed considerably in our times in order to meet the on-going evolution of humanity. It is the being that unifies all religions and not a particular religious faith that Steiner saw as the central force in human evolution. He understood Christ's incarnation as a historical reality, and a pivotal point in human history, however. The "Christ Being" is for Steiner not only the Redeemer of the Fall from Paradise, but also the unique pivot and meaning of earth's "evolutionary" processes and of all

human history.[62] The essence of being "Christian" is, for Steiner, a search for balance between polarizing extremes[62]:102-3 and the ability to manifest love in freedom.[6]

[edit]Divergence

from conventional Christian thought

Steiner's views of Christianity diverge from conventional Christian thought in key places, and include gnostic elements.[55] One of the central points of divergence is found in Steiner's views on reincarnation and karma. Steiner also posited two different Jesus children involved in the Incarnation of the Christ: one child descended from Solomon, as described in the Gospel of Matthew; the other child from Nathan, as described in the Gospel of Luke.[47] He references in this regard the fact that thegenealogies in these two gospels list twenty-six (Luke) to forty-one (Matthew) completely different ancestors for the generations from David to Jesus. See Genealogy of Jesus for alternative explanations of this radical divergence. Steiner's view of the second coming of Christ is also unusual. He suggested that this would not be a physical reappearance, but rather, meant that the Christ being would become manifest in non-physical form, in the "etheric realm" i.e. visible to spiritual vision and apparent in community life for increasing numbers of people, beginning around the year 1933. He emphasized that the future would require humanity to recognize this Spirit of Love in all its genuine forms, regardless of how this is named. He also warned that the traditional name, "Christ", might be used, yet the true essence of this Being of Love ignored.[55]

[edit]The

Christian Community

In the 1920s, Steiner was approached by Friedrich Rittelmeyer, a Lutheran pastor with a congregation in Berlin. Rittelmeyer asked if it was possible to create a more modern form of Christianity. Soon others joined Rittelmeyer mostly Protestant pastors and theology students, but including several Roman Catholic priests. Steiner offered counsel on renewing the sacraments of their various services, combining Catholicism's emphasis on the rites of a sacred tradition with the emphasis on freedom of thought and a personal relationship to religious life characteristic of modern, Johannine Christianity.[47] Steiner made it clear, however, that the resulting movement for the renewal of Christianity, which became known as "The Christian Community", was a personal gesture of help to a movement founded by Rittelmeyer and others independently of the Anthroposophical Society.[47] The distinction was important to Steiner because he sought with Anthroposophy to create a scientific, not faith-based, spirituality.[62] For

those who wished to find more traditional forms, however, a renewal of the traditional religions was also a vital need of the times.

[edit]Reception

and controversy

See also: Reception of anthroposophy Steiner's work has influenced a broad range of noted personalities. These include the philosophers Albert Schweitzer, Owen Barfield andRichard Tarnas;[citation needed] the writers Saul Bellow,[64] Michael Ende,[65] Selma Lagerlf,[66] Andrej Belyj,[67][68] David Spangler,[citation needed] William Irwin Thompson,[citation needed] and esotericist douard Schur;[citation needed] the artists Josef Beuys,[69]Wassily Kandinsky,[70][71] and Murray Griffin;[72] actor and acting teacher Michael Chekhov;[73] cinema director Andrei Tarkovsky;[74] and conductor Bruno Walter.[75] Olav Hammer, though sharply critical of esoteric movements generally, terms Steiner "arguably the most historically and philosophically sophisticated spokesperson of the Esoteric Tradition."[76] Albert Schweitzer wrote that he and Steiner had in common that they had "taken on the life mission of working for the emergence of a true culture enlivened by the ideal of humanity and to encourage people to become truly thinking beings".[77] American writer and academic Robert Todd Carroll has said of Steiner that "Some of his ideas on education such as educating the handicapped in the mainstream are worth considering, although his overall plan for developing the spirit and the soul rather than the intellect cannot be admired".[78]

[edit]Scientism
See also: Anthroposophy: Scientific basis Olav Hammer critiques as scientism Steiner's claim to use a scientific methodology to investigate spiritual phenomena based upon his claims of clairvoyant experience.
[76]

Steiner regarded the "observations" of spiritual research as more dependable

(and above all, consistent) than observations of physical reality yet considered spiritual research as fallible[12] and, perhaps surprisingly, held the view that anyone capable of thinking logically was in a position to correct errors by spiritual researchers.[79]

[edit]Race

and ethnicity

Steiner's work includes both universalist, humanist elements and historically influenced racial assumptions.[80] Due to the contrast and even contradictions between these elements, "whether a given reader interprets Anthroposophy as racist or not depends upon that reader's concerns."[81] Steiner considered that every

people, by dint of a shared language and culture, has a unique essence, which he called its soul or spirit,[76] saw race as a physical manifestation of humanity's spiritual evolution and at times seemed to place races into a complex hierarchy largely derived from contemporary theosophical views, yet he consistently and explicitly subordinated the role of hereditary factors, including race and ethnicity, to individual factors in development.[81] The human individuality, for Steiner, is centered in a person's unique spiritual biography (i.e., the vast sum of an individuality's experiences and development not bound by waking hours or a single lifetime), not the body's accidental qualities.[22] More specifically: Steiner characterized specific races, nations, and ethnicities in ways that have been termed racist by critics[82] including characterizations of various races and ethnic groups as flowering, others as backward or destined to disappear;[81] and hierarchical views of the spiritual evolution of different races,[83] includingat times, and inconsistentlyportraying the white race, European culture, or the Germanic culture as representing the high point of human evolution as of the early 20th century, though describing these as destined to be superseded by future cultures.
[81]

Nevertheless, his views about German culture were not ethnically based; he saw

this culture, in particular Goethe and the German transcendentalists, as the source of spiritual ideals that were of central importance both for the immediate region and for the world.[84] Throughout his life, Steiner consistently emphasized the core spiritual unity of all the world's peoples and sharply criticized racial prejudice. He articulated beliefs that the individual nature of any person stands higher than any racial, ethnic, national or religious affiliation;[7][47] that race and ethnicity are transient and superficial, not essential aspects of the individual;[81] that each individual incarnates among / as part of many different peoples and races over successive lives, thus bearing within himor herself a range of races and peoples;[81][85] and that race is rapidly losing any remaining significance for humanity.[81] Above all, Steiner considered "race, folk, ethnicity and gender" to be general, describable categories into which individuals may choose to fit, but from which free human beings can and will liberate themselves.[22]

[edit]Judaism
During the years when Steiner was best known as a literary critic, he published a series of articles attacking various manifestations ofantisemitism[86] and criticizing some of the most prominent anti-Semites of the time as "barbaric" and "enemies of culture".[87] Towards the end of his life and after his death, massive defamatory press attacks against Steiner were undertaken by early National Socialist leaders

(including Adolf Hitler) and other right-wing nationalists. These criticized Steiner's thought, and Anthroposophy, as being incompatible with National Socialist racist ideology and charged both that Steiner was influenced by his close connections with Jews and that he was himself Jewish.[28][87] On a number of occasions, Steiner promoted full assimilation of the Jewish people into the nations in which they lived, a stance that has come under criticism in recent years.[81] He was also a critic of his contemporary Theodor Herzl's goal of a Zionist state, as well as of any other ethnically determined nation, as he considered ethnicity to be an outmoded basis for social life in today's world.

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Intelligence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Intelligence (disambiguation).

Human intelligence
Abilities and Traits

Abstract thought Communication Creativity Emotional Intelligence Knowledge Learning Memory Problem solving Reaction time Reasoning Understanding Visual processing Models and Theories

CattellHornCarroll theory Fluid and crystallized intelligence General intelligence factor Intelligence quotient Theory of multiple intelligences Triarchic theory of intelligence Fields of study

Cognitive epidemiology Environment and intelligence Evolution of human intelligence Heritability of IQ Impact of health on intelligence Neuroscience and intelligence Psychometrics Race and intelligence

Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought,understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, and problem solving. Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in animals and plants. Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines or the simulation of intelligence in machines. Numerous definitions of and hypotheses about intelligence have been proposed since before the twentieth century, with no consensus reached by scholars. Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public, as well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical settings.[1]

Contents
[hide]

o o o

1 History of the term 2 Definitions 3 Human intelligence 3.1 Psychometrics 3.2 Other theories 3.3 Evolution of

intelligence

3.4 Improving intelligence 4 Animal and plant intelligence 5 Artificial intelligence 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit]History
Main article: Nous

of the term

Intelligence derives from the Latin verb intelligere which derives from inter-legere meaning to "pick out" or discern. A form of this verb,intellectus, became the medieval technical term for understanding, and a translation for the Greek philosophical term nous. This term was however strongly linked to the metaphysical and cosmological theories of teleological scholasticism, including theories of the immortality of the soul, and the concept of the Active Intellect (also known as the Active Intelligence). This entire approach to the study of nature was strongly rejected by the early modern philosophers such as Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and David Hume, all of whom preferred the word "understanding" in their English philosophical works.[2]
[3]

Hobbes for example, in his Latin De Corpore, used "intellectus intelligit" (translated in the

English version as "the understanding understandeth") as a typical example of a logical absurdity.

[4]

The term "intelligence" has therefore become less common in English language philosophy, but

it has later been taken up (without the scholastic theories which it once implied) in more contemporary psychology.

[edit]Definitions
How to define intelligence is controversial. Groups of scientists have stated the following:

1.

from "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" (1994), an editorial statement by fifty-

two researchers: A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or testtaking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings"catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do.[5]

2.

from "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" (1995), a report published by the

Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association: Individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, to overcome obstacles by taking thought. Although these individual differences can be substantial, they are never entirely consistent: a given person's intellectual performance will vary on different occasions, in different domains, as judged by different criteria. Concepts of "intelligence" are attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena. Although considerable clarity has been achieved in some areas, no such conceptualization has yet answered all the important questions, and none commands universal assent. Indeed, when two dozen prominent theorists were recently asked to define intelligence, they gave two dozen, somewhat different, definitions.[6][7] Besides the foregoing definitions, these psychology and learning researchers also have defined intelligence as:

Researcher

Quotation

Alfred Binet

Judgment, otherwise called "good sense," "practical sense," "initiative," the faculty of adapting one's self to circumstances ... auto-critique.[8]

David Wechsler

The aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment.[9]

Lloyd Humphreys

"...the resultant of the process of acquiring, storing in memory, retrieving, combining, comparing, and using in new contexts information and conceptual skills."[10]

Cyril Burt

Innate general cognitive ability[11]

Howard Gardner

To my mind, a human intellectual competence must entail a set of skills of problem solving enabling the individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters and, when appropriate, to create an effective product and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems and thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge.[12]

Linda Gottfredson

The ability to deal with cognitive complexity.[13]

Sternberg & Salter Goal-directed adaptive behavior.[14]

The theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability describes intelligence as "the unique propensity of human beings to Reuven Feuerstein change or modify the structure of their cognitive functioning to adapt to the changing demands of a life situation."[15]

What is considered intelligent varies with culture. For example, when asked to sort, the Kpelle people take a functional approach. A Kpelleparticipant stated "the knife goes with the orange because it cuts it." When asked how a fool would sort, they sorted linguistically, putting the knife with other implements and the orange with other foods, which is the style considered intelligent in other cultures.[16]

[edit]Human

intelligence

[edit]Psychometrics
Main articles: Intelligence quotient and Psychometrics

The IQs of a large enough population are calculated so that they conform[17] to a normal distribution.

The approach to understanding intelligence with the most supporters and published research over the longest period of time is based on psychometric testing. It is also by far the most widely used in practical settings. Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests include the Stanford-Binet, Raven's Progressive Matrices, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and theKaufman Assessment Battery for Children. There are also psychometric tests that are not intended to measure intelligence itself but some closely related construct such as scholastic aptitude. In the United States examples include the SSAT, the SAT, the ACT, the GRE, the MCAT, theLSAT, and the GMAT.[1] Intelligence tests are widely used in educational, business, and military settings due to their efficacy in predicting behavior. IQ and g (discussed in the next section) are correlated with many important social outcomesindividuals with low IQs are more likely to be divorced, have a child out of marriage, be incarcerated, and need long-term welfare support, while individuals with high IQs are associated with more years of education, higher status jobs and higher income.
[18]

Intelligence is significantly correlated with successful training and performance outcomes, and

IQ/g is the single best predictor of successful job performance.[1][19]

[edit]General intelligence factor or g

Main article: g factor (psychometrics) There are many different kinds of IQ tests using a wide variety of test tasks. Some tests consist of a single type of task, others rely on a broad collection of tasks with different contents (visualspatial, verbal, numerical) and asking for different cognitive processes (e.g., reasoning, memory, rapid decisions, visual comparisons, spatial imagery, reading, and retrieval of general knowledge). The psychologist Charles Spearman early in the 20th century carried out the first formal factor analysis of correlations between various test tasks. He found a trend for all such tests to correlate

positively with each other, which is called a positive manifold. Spearman found that a single common factor explained the positive correlations among test. Spearman named it g for "general intelligence factor". He interpreted it as the core of human intelligence that, to a larger or smaller degree, influences success in all cognitive tasks and thereby creates the positive manifold. This interpretation of g as a common cause of test performance is still dominant in psychometrics. An alternative interpretation was recently advanced by van der Maas and colleagues.
[20]

Their mutualism model assumes that intelligence depends on several independent

mechanisms, none of which influences performance on all cognitive tests. These mechanisms support each other so that efficient operation of one of them makes efficient operation of the others more likely, thereby creating the positive manifold. IQ tasks and tests can be ranked by how highly they load on the g factor. Tests with high gloadings are those that correlate highly with most other tests. One comprehensive study investigating the correlations between a large collection of tests and tasks[21] has found that theRaven's Progressive Matrices have a particularly high correlation with most other tests and tasks. The Raven's is a test of inductive reasoning with abstract visual material. It consists of a series of problems, sorted approximately by increasing difficulty. Each problem presents a 3 x 3 matrix of abstract designs with one empty cell; the matrix is constructed according to a rule, and the person must find out the rule to determine which of 8 alternatives fits into the empty cell. Because of its high correlation with other tests, the Raven's Progressive Matrices are generally acknowledged as a good indicator of general intelligence. This is problematic, however, because there are substantial gender differences on the Raven's,[22] which are not found when g is measured directly by computing the general factor from a broad collection of tests.[23]

[edit]Historical psychometric theories

Main article: Intelligence quotient#History Several different theories of intelligence have historically been important. Often they emphasized more factors than a single one like in g

[edit]Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory
Main article: Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory Many of the broad, recent IQ tests have been greatly influenced by the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory. It is argued to reflect much of what is known about intelligence from research. A hierarchy of factors is used. g is at the top. Under it there are 10 broad abilities that in turn are subdivided into 70 narrow abilities. The broad abilities are:[24]

Fluid Intelligence (Gf): includes the broad ability to reason, form concepts, and solve

problems using unfamiliar information or novel procedures.

Crystallized Intelligence (Gc): includes the breadth and depth of a person's acquired

knowledge, the ability to communicate one's knowledge, and the ability to reason using previously learned experiences or procedures.

Quantitative Reasoning (Gq): the ability to comprehend quantitative concepts and

relationships and to manipulate numerical symbols.

Reading & Writing Ability (Grw): includes basic reading and writing skills. Short-Term Memory (Gsm): is the ability to apprehend and hold information in immediate

awareness and then use it within a few seconds.

Long-Term Storage and Retrieval (Glr): is the ability to store information and fluently

retrieve it later in the process of thinking.

Visual Processing (Gv): is the ability to perceive, analyze, synthesize, and think with

visual patterns, including the ability to store and recall visual representations.

Auditory Processing (Ga): is the ability to analyze, synthesize, and discriminate auditory

stimuli, including the ability to process and discriminate speech sounds that may be presented under distorted conditions.

Processing Speed (Gs): is the ability to perform automatic cognitive tasks, particularly

when measured under pressure to maintain focused attention.

Decision/Reaction Time/Speed (Gt): reflect the immediacy with which an individual can

react to stimuli or a task (typically measured in seconds or fractions of seconds; not to be confused with Gs, which typically is measured in intervals of 23 minutes). See Mental chronometry. Modern tests do not necessarily measure of all of these broad abilities. For example, Gq and Grw may be seen as measures of school achievement and not IQ.[24] Gt may be difficult to measure without special equipment. g was earlier often subdivided into only Gf and Gc which were though to correspond to the Nonverbal or Performance subtests and Verbal subtests in earlier versions of the popular Wechsler IQ test. More recent research has shown the situation to be more complex.[24]

[edit]Controversies
While not necessarily a dispute about the psychometric approach itself, there are several controversies regarding the results from psychometric research. Examples are the role of genetics vs. environment, the causes of average group differences, or the Flynn effect. One criticism has been against the early research such as craniometry.[25] A reply has been that drawing conclusions from early intelligence research is like condemning the auto industry by criticizing the performance of the Model T.[26] Several critics, such as Stephen Jay Gould, have been critical of g, seeing it as a statistical artifact, and that IQ tests instead measure a number of unrelated abilities.[25][27] The American

Psychological Association's report "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" stated that IQ tests do correlate and that the view that g is a statistical artifact is a minority one.

[edit]Other

theories

There are critics of IQ, who do not dispute the stability of IQ test scores or the fact that they predict certain forms of achievement rather effectively. They do argue, however, that to base a concept of intelligence on IQ test scores alone is to ignore many important aspects of mental ability.[1] On the other hand, Linda S. Gottfredson (2006) has argued that the results of thousands of studies support the importance of IQ for school and job performance (see also the work of Schmidt & Hunter, 2004). IQ also predicts or correlates with numerous other life outcomes. In contrast, empirical support for non-g intelligences is lacking or very poor. She argued that despite this the ideas of multiple non-gintelligences are very attractive to many due to the suggestion that everyone can be smart in some way.[28]

[edit]Multiple intelligences
Main article: Theory of multiple intelligences Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is based on studies not only of normal children and adults but also by studies of gifted individuals (including so-called "savants"), of persons who have suffered brain damage, of experts and virtuosos, and of individuals from diverse cultures. This led Gardner to break intelligence down into at least eight different components: logical, linguistic, spatial, musical,kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist and existential intelligences. He argues that psychometric tests address only linguistic and logical plus some aspects of spatial intelligence.[1] A major criticism of Gardner's theory is that it has never been tested, or subjected to peer review, by Gardner or anyone else, and indeed that it is unfalsifiable.[29] Others (e.g. Locke, 2005) have suggested that recognizing many specific forms of intelligence (specific aptitude theory) implies a politicalrather than scientificagenda, intended to appreciate the uniqueness in all individuals, rather than recognizing potentially true and meaningful differences in individual capacities. Schmidt and Hunter (2004) suggest that the predictive validity of specific aptitudes over and above that of general mental ability, or "g", has not received empirical support. Howard Gardner mentions in his Multiple Intelligences The Theory in Practice[30] book, briefly about his main seven intelligences he introduced. In his book, he starts off describing Linguistic and Logical Intelligence because he believed that in society, we have put these two intelligences on a pedestal. However, Gardner believes all of the intelligences he found are equal. Note: At the time of the publication of Gardner's book Multiple Intelligences The Theory in Practice, naturalist and existential intelligences were not mentioned. Linguistic Intelligence: The kind of ability exhibited in its fullest form, perhaps, by poets.

Logical-Mathematics Intelligence: Is logical and mathematical ability, as well as scientific ability. Howard Gardner believed Jean Piaget may have thought he was studying all intelligence, but in truth, Piaget was really only focusing on the logical mathematical intelligence. Spatial Intelligence: The ability to form a mental model of a spatial world and to be able to maneuver and operate using that model. Musical Intelligence: Leonard Bernstein had lots of it; Mozart, presumably, had even more. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence: The ability to solve problems or to fashion products using one's whole body, or parts of the body. For example, dancers, athletes, surgeons, craftspeople, etc. Interpersonal Intelligence: The ability to understand people. People who are well in interpersonal are most likely teachers, politicians, clinicians, religious leaders, etc. Intrapersonal Intelligence: A correlative ability, turned inward. It is a capacity to form an accurate, veridical model of oneself and to be able to use that model to operate effectively in life.

[edit]Triarchic theory of intelligence

Main article: Triarchic theory of intelligence Robert Sternberg proposed the triarchic theory of intelligence to provide a more comprehensive description of intellectual competence than traditional differential or cognitive theories of human ability.[31] The triarchic theory describes three fundamental aspects of intelligence. Analytic intelligence comprises the mental processes through which intelligence is expressed. Creative intelligence is necessary when an individual is confronted with a challenge that is nearly, but not entirely, novel or when an individual is engaged in automatizing the performance of a task. Practical intelligence is bound in a sociocultural milieu and involves adaptation to, selection of, and shaping of the environment to maximize fit in the context. The triarchic theory does not argue against the validity of a general intelligence factor; instead, the theory posits that general intelligence is part of analytic intelligence, and only by considering all three aspects of intelligence can the full range of intellectual functioning be fully understood. More recently, the triarchic theory has been updated and renamed the Theory of Successful Intelligence by Sternberg.[32][33] Intelligence is defined as an individual's assessment of success in life by the individual's own (idiographic) standards and within the individual's sociocultural context. Success is achieved by using combinations of analytical, creative, and practical intelligence. The three aspects of intelligence are referred to as processing skills. The processing skills are applied to the pursuit of success through what were the three elements of practical intelligence: adapting to, shaping of, and selecting of one's environments. The mechanisms that employ the processing skills to achieve success include utilizing one's strengths and compensating or correcting for one's weaknesses. Sternberg's theories and research on intelligence remain contentious within the scientific

community.[34][35][36][37]

[edit]Piaget's theory and Neo-Piagetian theories

Main articles: Piaget's theory of cognitive development and Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development In Piaget's theory of cognitive development the focus is not on mental abilities but rather on a child's mental models of the world. As a child develops, increasingly more accurate models of the world are developed which enable the child to interact with the world better. One example being object permanence where the child develops a model where objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Piaget's theory described four main stages and many sub-stages in the development. Degree of progress through these is correlated with but is not identical with psychometric IQ.[38][39] Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development expand Piaget's theory in various ways such as also considering psychometric-like factors such as processing speed and working memory, "hypercognitive" factors like self-monitoring, more stages, and more consideration on how progress may vary in different domains such as spatial or social.[40][41] Piaget's theory has been criticized for the age of appearance of a new model of the world, such as object permanence, being dependent on how the testing is done (see the article on object permanence). More generally, the theory may be very difficult to test empirically due to the difficulty of proving or not proving that a mental model is the explanation for the results of the testing.[42]

[edit]Emotional intelligence
Main article: Emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence is an argued ability, capacity, skill or, a self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Different models have been proposed for the definition of emotional intelligence and there is disagreement about how the term should be used. The concept is controversial (Locke, 2005), with some seeing it as a skill or form of personality rather than intelligence, and its predicative ability, especially after controlling for the effects of IQ and the Big Five personality traits, is disputed.

[edit]Latent inhibition
Main article: Latent inhibition Latent inhibition has been related to elements of intelligence, namely creativity and genius.

[edit]Evolution

of intelligence

Main article: Evolution of human intelligence

The ancestors of modern humans evolved large and complex brains exhibiting an ever-increasing intelligence through a long evolutionary process (see Homininae). Different explanations have been proposed.

[edit]Improving

intelligence

Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.[43]Conscious efforts to influence intelligence raise ethical issues. Eugenics has variously been regarded as meritorious or deplorable in different periods of history, falling greatly into disrepute after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.[citation needed] Neuroethics considers the ethical, legal and social implications of neuroscience, and deals with issues such as the difference between treating a human neurological disease and enhancing the human brain, and how wealth impacts access to neurotechnology. Neuroethical issues interact with the ethics of human genetic engineering. Because intelligence appears to be at least partly dependent on brain structure and the genes shaping brain development, it has been proposed that genetic engineering could be used to enhance the intelligence, a process sometimes called biological uplift in science fiction. Experiments on mice have demonstrated superior ability in learning and memory in various behavioral tasks.[44] Transhumanist theorists study the possibilities and consequences of developing and using techniques to enhance human abilities and aptitudes, and individuals ameliorating what they regard as undesirable and unnecessary aspects of the human condition. According to Rosemary Hopcroft, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Intelligence is negatively linked with sexual frequency (people with higher levels of education often have lower numbers of sexual partners). [45]

[edit]Animal

and plant intelligence

Main articles: Animal cognition and Plant intelligence

The common chimpanzee can use tools. This chimpanzee is using a stick in order to get food.

Although humans have been the primary focus of intelligence researchers, scientists have also attempted to investigate animal intelligence, or more broadly, animal cognition. These researchers are interested in studying both mental ability in a particular species, and comparing abilities between species. They study various measures of problem solving, as well as mathematical and language abilities. Some challenges in this area are defining intelligence so that it means the same thing across species (e.g. comparing intelligence between literate humans and illiterate animals), and then operationalizing a measure that accurately compares mental ability across different species and contexts. Wolfgang Khler's pioneering research on the intelligence of apes is a classic example of research in this area. Stanley Coren's book, The Intelligence of Dogs[unreliable source?] is a notable popular book on the topic.[46] Nonhuman animals particularly noted and studied for their intelligence include chimpanzees, bonobos (notably the language-using Kanzi) and other great apes, dolphins, elephants and to some extent parrots and ravens. Controversy exists over the extent to which these judgments of intelligence are accurate.[citation needed] Cephalopod intelligence also provides important comparative study. Cephalopods appear to exhibit characteristics of significant intelligence, yet their nervous systems differ radically from those of most other notably intelligent life-forms (mammals and birds). It has been argued that plants should also be classified as being intelligent based on their ability to sense the environment and adjust theirmorphology, physiology and phenotype accordingly.[47][48]

[edit]Artificial

intelligence

Main article: Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (or AI) is both the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it, through "the study and design of intelligent agents"[49] or "rational agents", where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximize its chances of success.[50] Achievements in artificial intelligence include constrained and well-defined problems such as games, crossword-solving and optical character recognition. General intelligence or strong AI has not yet been achieved and is a long-term goal of AI research. Among the traits that researchers hope machines will exhibit are reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception, and the ability to move and manipulate objects.[49][50] In the field of artificial intelligence there is no consensus on how closely the brain should besimulated.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

Diagnostics

WISC-III, Dutch edition

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), developed by Dr. David Wechsler, is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16 inclusive that can be completed without reading or writing. The WISC takes 65-80 minutes to administer and generates an IQ score which represents a childs general cognitive ability.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Test format 3 Psychometric properties 4 Uses 5 Translations 6 References 7 External links

[edit]History
The original WISC (Wechsler, 1949) was an adaption of several of the subtests which made up the WechslerBellevue Intelligence Scale (Wechsler, 1939) but also featured several subtests designed specifically for it. The subtests were organized into Verbal and Performance scales, and provided scores for Verbal IQ (VIQ), Performance IQ (PIQ), and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ). A revised edition was published in 1974 as the WISC-R (Wechsler, 1974), featuring the same subtests

however the age range was changed from 5-15 to 6-16. The third edition was published in 1991 (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991) and brought with it a new subtest as a measure of processing speed. In addition to the traditional VIQ, PIQ, and FSIQ scores, four new index scores were introduced to represent more narrow domains of cognitive function: the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), the Perceptual Organization Index (POI), the Freedom from Distractibility Index (FDI), and the Processing Speed Index (PSI). The current version, the WISC-IV, was produced in 2003 followed by the UK version in 2004. Each successive version has re-normed the test to compensate for the Flynn effect. Ensuring not only that the norms do not become outdated which is suggested to result in inflated scores on intelligence measures, but that they are representative of the current population (Flynn, 1984, 1987, 1999; Matarazzo, 1972). Additional updates and refinements include changes to the questions to make them less biased against minorities and females, and updated materials to make them more useful in the administration of the test.

[edit]Test

format

The WISC is one of a family of Wechsler intelligence scales. Subjects 16 and over are tested with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale(WAIS), and children ages three to seven years, three months are tested with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence(WPPSI). There is some overlap between tests, with children aged 7 being able to complete the WPPSI or the WISC-IV, and children aged 16 being able to complete the WISC-IV or the WAIS. Different floor and ceiling effects can be achieved using the different tests, allowing for a greater understanding of the childs abilities or deficits. This means that a 16 year old child who has mental retardation may be tested using the WISC-IV so that the clinician may see the floor of their knowledge (the lowest level). The WISC-IV is divided into fifteen subtests, ten of which formed part of the previous WISC III. The five new subtests include three core tests: Picture Concepts, Letter-Number Sequencing, Matrix Reasoning and two supplemental tests: Cancellation and Word Reasoning. The supplemental subtests are used to accommodate children in certain rare cases, or to make up for spoiled results which may occur from interruptions or other circumstances. Testers are allowed no more than two substitutions in any FSIQ test, or no more than one per index. A total of five composite scores can be derived with the WISCIV. The WISC-IV generates a Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) which represents overall cognitive ability, the four other composite scores are Verbal Comprehension index (VCI), Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI), Processing Speed Index (PSI) and Working Memory Index (WMI). Each of the ten core subtests is given equal weighting towards full scale IQ. There are three subtests for both VCI and PRI, thus they are given 30% weighting each; in addition, PSI and WMI are given weighting for their two subtests each. The WISC-IV also produces seven process scores

on three subtests: block design, cancellation and digit span. These scores are intended to provide more detailed information on cognitive abilities that contribute to performance on the subtest. These scores do not contribute to the composite scores. The VCI's subtests are as follows:

Vocabulary - examinee is asked to define a provided word. Similarities - asking how two words are alike/similar. Comprehension - questions about social situations or common concepts. Information (supplemental) - general knowledge questions. Word reasoning (supplemental)- a task involving clues that lead to a specific word, each

clue adds more information about the object/word/concept. The Verbal Comprehension Index is an overall measure of verbal concept formation (the child's ability to verbally reason) and is influenced by knowledge learned from the environment. The PRI's subtests are as follows:

Block Design - children put together red-and-white blocks in a pattern according to a

displayed model. This is timed, and some of the more difficult puzzles award bonuses for speed.

Picture Concepts - children are provided with a series of pictures presented in rows (either

two or three rows) and asked to determine which pictures go together, one from each row.

Matrix Reasoning - children are shown an array of pictures with one missing square, and

select the picture that fits the array from five options.

Picture Completion (supplemental) - children are shown artwork of common objects with a

missing part, and asked to identify the missing part by pointing and/or naming. The WMI's (formerly known as Freedom from Distractibility Index) subtests are as follows:

Digit Span - children are orally given sequences of numbers and asked to repeat them,

either as heard and in reverse order.

Letter-Number Sequencing - children are provided a series of numbers and letters and

asked to provide them back to the examiner in a predetermined order.

Arithmetic (supplemental) - orally administered arithmetic questions. Timed.

The PSI's subtests are as follows:

Coding - children under 8 mark rows of shapes with different lines according to a code,

children over 8 transcribe a digit-symbol code. The task is time-limited with bonuses for speed.

Symbol Search - children are given rows of symbols and target symbols, and asked to

mark whether or not the target symbols appear in each row.

Cancellation (supplemental)- children scan random and structured arrangements of

pictures and marks specific target pictures within a limited amount of time.

[edit]Psychometric

properties

The WISCIV US standardization sample consisted of 2,200 children between the ages of 6 and 16 years 11 months and the UK sample consisted of 780 children. Both standardizations included special group samples including the following: children identified as gifted, children with mild or moderate mental retardation, children with learning disorders (reading, reading/writing, math, reading/writing/math), children with ADHD, children with expressive and mixed receptiveexpressive language disorders children with autistic disorder, children with Aspergers syndrome, children with open or closed head injury, and children with motor impairment. WISCIV is also validated with measures of achievement, memory, adaptive behaviour, emotional intelligence, and giftedness. Equivalency studies were also conducted within the Wechsler family of tests enabling comparisons between various Wechsler scores over the lifespan. A number of concurrent studies were conducted to examine the scales reliability and validity. Evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of the WISCIV is provided by correlational studies with the following instruments: WISCIII, WPPSIIII, WAISIII, WASI, WIATII,CMS, GRS, BarOn EQ, and the ABASII. Evidence of construct validity was provided through a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor-analytic studies and mean comparisons using matched samples of clinical and nonclinical children.

[edit]Uses
The WISC is used not only as an intelligence test, but as a clinical tool. Many practitioners use it to diagnose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities, for example. This is usually done through a process called pattern analysis, in which the various subtests' scores are compared to one another (ipsative scoring) and clusters of unusually low scores in relation to the others are searched for. David Wechsler himself suggested this in 1958.[1] However, the research does not show this to be a very effective way to diagnose ADHD or learning disabilities.[2] The vast majority of ADHD children do not display certain subscores substantially below others, and many children who display such patterns do not have ADHD. Other patterns for children with learning disabilities show a similar lack of usefulness of the WISC as a diagnostic tool.[3] When diagnosing children, best practice suggests that a multi-test battery (i.e., multi-factored evaluation) should be used as learning problems, attention, and emotional difficulties can have similar symptoms, co-occur, or reciprocally influence each other. For example, children with

learning difficulties can become emotionally distraught and thus have concentration difficulties, begin to exhibit behavior problems, or both. Children with ADD or ADHD may show learning difficulties because of their attentional problems or also have learning disorder or mental retardation (or have nothing else). In short, while diagnosis of any childhood or adult difficulty should never be made based on IQ alone (or interview, physician examination, parent report, other test etc. for that matter) the cognitive ability test can help rule out, in conjunction with other tests and sources of information, other explanations for problems, uncover co-morbid problems, and be a rich source of information when properly analyzed and care is taken to avoid relying simply on the single summary IQ score (Sattler, 2008). The empirical consensus is that the WISC is best used as a tool to evaluate intelligence and not to diagnose ADHD or learning disabled children. It can be used to show discrepancies between a child's intelligence and his/her performance at school (and it is this discrepancy that School Psychologists look for when using this test). In a clinical setting, learning disabilities are generally diagnosed through a comparison of intelligence scores and scores on an achievement test, such as the Woodcock Johnson III or Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II. If a child's achievement is below what would be expected given their level of intellectual functioning (as derived from an IQ test such as the WISC-IV), then a learning disability may be present. Subsequently, the WISC can be used as part of an assessment battery to identify intellectual giftedness, learning difficulties, and cognitive strengths and weaknesses. When combined with other measures such as the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment SystemII (ABASII; Harrison & Oakland, 2003) and the Childrens Memory Scale (CMS; Cohen, 1997) its clinical utility can be enhanced. Combinations such as these provide information on cognitive and adaptive functioning, both of which are required for the proper diagnosis of learning difficulties and learning and memory functioning resulting in a richer picture of a childs cognitive functioning. The WISCIV has also been co normed with the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-II UK (WIATII UK; The Psychological Corporation, 2005), a measure of academic achievement. This linkage provides information on both cognitive ability and academic achievement in children. Tests of intellectual functioning are used extensively in school settings to evaluate specific cognitive deficits that may contribute to low academic achievement, and to predict future academic achievement. Using the WISCIV in such a manner provides information for educational intervention purposes, such as interventions that address learning difficulties and cognitive deficits. The WISC-IV can also be used to assess a child's cognitive development, with respect to the child's chronological age. Using such comparisons with other sources of data, the WISC can contribute information concerning a child's developmental and psychological well-being. Very high or very low scores may suggest contributing factors for adjustment difficulties in social contexts that present problems in accepting such developmental diversity (or that cannot accommodate more than a certain level of high cognitive functioning.)

[edit]Translations
WISC has been translated or adapted to many languages, and norms have been established for a number of countries, including Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Croatian, French (France and Canada), German (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), English (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia), Welsh, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese (Hong Kong), Korean (South Korea), Greek, Romanian, Slovenian and Italian. Separate norms are established with each translation. (Norway uses the Swedish norms). India uses the Malin's Intelligence Scale for Children (MISIC), an adaptation of WISC.[4]

Theory of multiple intelligences

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human intelligence
Abilities and Traits

Abstract thought Communication Creativity Emotional Intelligence Knowledge Learning Memory Problem solving Reaction time Reasoning Understanding Visual processing Models and Theories

CattellHornCarroll theory Fluid and crystallized intelligence General intelligence factor Intelligence quotient Theory of multiple intelligences Triarchic theory of intelligence Fields of study

Cognitive epidemiology

Environment and intelligence Evolution of human intelligence Heritability of IQ Impact of health on intelligence Neuroscience and intelligence Psychometrics Race and intelligence

This article is about Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. For other theories of the multiple intelligences, see Intelligence. The theory of multiple intelligences was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983 as a model ofintelligence that differentiates intelligence into various specific (primarily sensory) modalities, rather than seeing it as dominated by a single general ability. Gardner argues that there is a wide range of cognitive abilities, and that there are only very weak correlations between these. For example, the theory predicts that a child who learns to multiplyeasily is not necessarily generally more intelligent than a child who has more difficulty on this task. The child who takes more time to master simple multiplication 1) may best learn to multiply through a different approach, 2) may excel in a field outside of mathematics, or 3) may even be looking at and understanding the multiplication process at a fundamentally deeper level, or perhaps as an entirely different process. Such a fundamentally deeper understanding can result in what looks like slowness and can hide a mathematical intelligence potentially higher than that of a child who quickly memorizes the multiplication table despite a less detailed understanding of the process of multiplication. The theory has been met with mixed responses. Traditional intelligence tests and psychometricshave generally found high correlations between different tasks and aspects of intelligence, rather than the low correlations which Gardner's theory predicts. Nevertheless many educationalists support the practical value of the approaches suggested by the theory.[1]

Contents
[hide]

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

1 The multiple intelligences 1.1 Logical-mathematical 1.2 Spatial 1.3 Linguistic 1.4 Bodily-kinesthetic 1.5 Musical 1.6 Interpersonal 1.7 Intrapersonal 1.8 Naturalistic 1.9 Existential 2 Use in education 3 Critical reception 3.1 The definition of intelligence 3.2 Tautology 3.3 Neo-Piagetian criticism 3.4 Spatial intelligence 3.5 Modern IQ tests measure many

abilities

3.6 Lack of empirical evidence 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit]The

multiple intelligences

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

Gardner articulated several criteria for a behavior to be an intelligence.[2] These were that the intelligences: 1. Potential for brain isolation by brain damage, 2. Place in evolutionary history,

3. Presence of core operations, 4. Susceptibility to encoding (symbolic expression), 5. A distinct developmental progression, 6. The existence of savants, prodigies and other exceptional people, 7. Support from experimental psychology and psychometric findings. Gardner believes that eight abilities meet these criteria:[3]

Spatial Linguistic Logical-mathematical Bodily-kinesthetic Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal Naturalistic

He considers that existential and moral intelligence may also be worthy of inclusion.[4] The first three are closely linked to fluid ability, and the verbal and spatial abilities that form the hierarchical model of intelligence[5]

[edit]Logical-mathematical
This area has to do with logic, abstractions, reasoning and numbers. While it is often assumed that those with this intelligence naturally excel in mathematics, chess, computer programming and other logical or numerical activities, a more accurate definition places less emphasis on traditional mathematical ability and more on reasoning capabilities, recognizing abstract patterns, scientific thinking and investigation and the ability to perform complex calculations.
[citation needed]

Logical reasoning is closely linked to fluid intelligence and togeneral ability.[6]

[edit]Spatial
Main article: Spatial intelligence This area deals with spatial judgement and the ability to visualize with the mind's eye. Careers which suit those with this type of intelligence include artists, designers and architects. A spatial person is also good with puzzles.[citation needed] Spatial ability is one of the three factors beneath g in the hierarchical model of intelligence.

[edit]Linguistic
This area has to do with words, spoken or written. People with high verbal-linguistic intelligence display a facility with words and languages. They are typically good at reading,

writing, telling stories and memorizing words along with dates. They tend to learn best by reading, taking notes, listening to lectures, and by discussing and debating about what they have learned.[citation needed] Those with verbal-linguistic intelligence learn foreign languages very easily as they have high verbal memory and recall, and an ability to understand and manipulate syntax and structure.[citation needed] Verbal ability is one of the most g-loaded abilities.[7]

[edit]Bodily-kinesthetic
The core elements of the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are control of one's bodily motions and the capacity to handle objects skilfully (206). Gardner elaborates to say that this intelligence also includes a sense of timing, a clear sense of the goal of a physical action, along with the ability to train responses so they become like reflexes. In theory, people who have bodily-kinesthetic intelligence should learn better by involving muscular movement (e.g. getting up and moving around into the learning experience), and are generally good at physical activities such as sports or dance. They may enjoy acting or performing, and in general they are good at building and making things. They often learn best by doing something physically, rather than by reading or hearing about it. Those with strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence seem to use what might be termed muscle memory they remember things through their body such as verbal memory. Careers that suit those with this intelligence include: athletes, [(transportation)], dancers, musicians, actors, surgeons, doctors, builders,police officers, and soldiers. Although these careers can be duplicated through virtual simulation, they will not produce the actual physical learning that is needed in this intelligence.[8]

[edit]Musical
This area has to do with sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, and music. People with a high musical intelligence normally have good pitch and may even have absolute pitch, and are able to sing, play musical instruments, and compose music. Since there is a strong auditory component to this intelligence, those who are strongest in it may learn best via lecture. Language skills are typically highly developed in those whose base intelligence is musical. In addition, they will sometimes use songs or rhythms to learn. They have sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, melody or timbre. Careers that suit those with this intelligence include instrumentalists, singers, conductors, disc jockeys, orators, writers and composers. Research measuring the effects of music on second language acquisition is supportive of this music-language connection. In an investigation conducted on a group of elementary-aged English language learners, music facilitated their language learning. [9] Gardner's theory may help to explain why music and its sub-componenets (i.e., stress, pitch, rhythm) may be viable vehicles for second language learning.

[edit]Interpersonal
This area has to do with interaction with others. In theory, people who have a high interpersonal intelligence tend to be extroverts, characterized by their sensitivity to others' moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations, and their ability to cooperate in order to work as part of a group. They communicate effectively and empathize easily with others, and may be either leaders or followers. They typically learn best by working with others and often enjoy discussion and debate. Careers that suit those with this intelligence include sales, politicians, managers, teachers and social workers.[10]

[edit]Intrapersonal
This area has to do with introspective and self-reflective capacities. This refers to having a deep understanding of the self; what your strengths/ weaknesses are, what makes you unique, being able to predict your own reactions/emotions. Philosophical and critical thinking is common with this intelligence. Many people with this intelligence are authors, psychologists, counselors, philosophers, and members of theclergy.

[edit]Naturalistic
This area has to do with nurturing and relating information to ones natural surroundings. Examples include classifying natural forms such as animal and plant species and rocks and mountain types; and the applied knowledge of nature in farming, mining, etc. Careers which suit those with this intelligence include naturalists, farmers and gardeners.

[edit]Existential
Some proponents of multiple intelligence theory proposed spiritual or religious intelligence as a possible additional type. Gardner did not want to commit to a spiritual intelligence, but suggested that an "existential" intelligence may be a useful construct.[11] The hypothesis of an existential intelligence has been further explored by educational researchers.[12] Ability to contemplate phenomena or questions beyond sensory data, such as the infinite and infinitesimal. Careers or callings which suit those with this intelligence include shamans, priests, mathematicians, physicists, scientists, cosmologists and philosophe rs.

[edit]Use

in education

Gardner (1999) defines an intelligence as biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture (pp. 3334). According to Gardner, there are more ways to do this than just through logical and linguistic intelligence. Gardner believes that the purpose of schooling "should be to develop intelligences and to help people reach vocational and avocational goals

that are appropriate to their particular spectrum of intelligences. People who are helped to do so, [he] believe[s], feel more engaged and competent and therefore more inclined to serve society in a constructive way."[13] Traditionally, schools have emphasized the development of logical intelligence and linguistic intelligence (mainly reading and writing). IQ tests (given to about 1,000,000 students each year)[citation needed] focus mostly on logical and linguistic intelligence. Upon doing well on these tests, chances of attending a prestige college or university increase, which in turn creates contributing members of society (Gardner, 1993). While many students function well in this environment, there are those who do not. According to Helding (2009)[14], "Standard IQ tests measure knowledge gained at a particular moment in time, they can only provide a freezeframe view of crystallized knowledge. They cannot assess or predict a persons ability to learn, to assimilate new information, or to solve new problems," (pp.196). Gardner's theory argues that students will be better served by a broader vision of education, wherein teachers use different methodologies, exercises and activities to reach all students, not just those who excel at linguistic and logical intelligence. It challenges educators to find ways that will work for this student learning this topic (Gardner, 1999, p. 154). Many teachers[who?] see the theory as simple common sense. Some[who?] say that it validates what they already know: that students learn in different ways. The challenge that this brings for educators is to know which students learn in which ways. On the other hand, James Traub's article in The New Republic notes that Gardner's system has not been accepted by most academics in intelligence or teaching. Gardner states that, while Multiple Intelligences theory is consistent with much empirical evidence, it has not been subjected to strong experimental tests. . . Within the area of education, the applications of the theory are currently being examined in many projects. Our hunches will have to be revised many times in light of actual classroom experience (Gardner, 1993, p. 33). George Miller, the psychologist credited with discovering the mechanisms by which short-term memory operates, wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Gardner's argument boiled down to "hunch and opinion" (p. 20). Gardner's subsequent work has done very little to shift the balance of opinion. A recent issue of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law devoted to the study of intelligence contained virtually no reference to Gardner's work. Most people who study intelligence view M.I. theory as rhetoric rather than science, and they are divided on the virtues of the rhetoric[citation needed]. The application of the theory of multiple intelligences varies widely. It runs the gamut from a teacher who, when confronted with a student having difficulties, uses a different approach to teach the material, to an entire school using M.I. as a framework. In general, those who subscribe to the theory strive to provide opportunities for their students to use and develop all the different intelligences, not just the few at which they naturally excel.[citation needed] There are

many different online tests teachers can have their students take in order to determine which of the intelligences are best suited for their personal learning. An example of one can be found at[15] Of the schools implementing Gardner's theory, the most well-known[citation needed] is New City School, in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been using the theory since 1988. The school's teachers have produced two books for teachers, Celebrating Multiple Intelligences and Succeeding With Multiple Intelligences and the principal, Thomas Hoerr, has written Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School as well as many articles on the practical applications of the theory. The school has also hosted four conferences, each attracting over 200 educators from around the world and remains a valuable resource for teachers interested in implementing the theory in their own classrooms[16] Thomas Armstrong argues that Waldorf education organically engages all of Gardner's original seven intelligences.[1]

[edit]Critical [edit]The

reception

definition of intelligence

One major criticism of the theory is that it is ad hoc: that Gardner is not expanding the definition of the word "intelligence"; rather, he denies the existence of intelligence as traditionally understood and instead uses the word "intelligence" whenever other people have traditionally used words like "ability". This practice has been criticized by Robert J. Sternberg (1983, 1991), Eysenck (1994), and Scarr (1985). Defenders of MI theory argue that the traditional definition of intelligence is too narrow, and thus broader definition more accurately reflects the differing ways in which humans think and learn. They would state that the traditional interpretation of intelligence collapses under the weight of its own logic and definition, noting that intelligence is usually defined as the cognitive or mental capacity of an individual, which by logical necessity would include all forms of mental qualities, not simply the ones most transparent to standardized I.Q. tests. Some of these criticisms arise from the fact that Gardner has not provided a test of his multiple intelligences. He originally defined it as the ability to solve problems that have value in at least one culture, or as something that a student is interested in. However, he added adisclaimer that he has no fixed definition, and his classification is more of an artistic judgment than fact: Ultimately, it would certainly be desirable to have an algorithm for the selection of an intelligence, such that any trained researcher could determine whether a candidate's intelligence met the appropriate criteria. At present, however, it must be admitted that the selection (or rejection) of a candidate's intelligence is reminiscent more of an artistic judgment

than of a scientific assessment. (Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, 1985) Gardner argues that by calling linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities intelligences, but not artistic, musical, athletic, etc. abilities, the former are needlessly aggrandized. Certain critics balk at this widening of the definition, saying that it ignores "the connotation of intelligence...[which] has always connoted the kind of thinking skills that makes one successful in school."[17] Gardner writes "I balk at the unwarranted assumption that certain human abilities can be arbitrarily singled out as intelligence while others cannot."[18] Critics hold that given this statement, any interest or ability is now redefined as "intelligence". Thus, by adopting this theory, studying intelligence becomes difficult, because it diffuses into the broader concept of ability or talent. Gardner's addition of the naturalistic intelligence and conceptions of the existential and moral intelligences are seen as fruits of this diffusion. Defenders of the MI theory would argue that this is simply a recognition of the broad scope of inherent mental abilities, and that such an exhaustive scope by nature defies a simple, one-dimensional classification such as an assigned IQ value.

[edit]Tautology
The theory and definitions have been critiqued by Perry D. Klein as being so unclear as to be tautologous and thus unfalsifiable. Having a high musical ability means being good at music while at the same time being good at music is explained by having a high musical ability.[19]

[edit]Neo-Piagetian

criticism

Andreas Demetriou suggests that theories which overemphasize the autonomy of the domains are as simplistic as the theories that overemphasize the role of general intelligence and ignore the domains. He agrees with Gardner that there indeed are domains of intelligence that are relevantly autonomous of each other.[20] In fact, some of the domains, such as verbal, spatial, mathematical, and social intelligence are identified by most lines of research in psychology. However, in Demetriou's theory, one of the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, Gardner is criticized for underestimating the effects exerted on the various domains of intelligences by processes that define general processing efficiency, such as speed of processing, executive functions, working memory, and meta-cognitive processes underlyingself-awareness and self-regulation.[citation needed] All of these processes are integral components of general intelligence that regulate the functioning and development of different domains of intelligence. Thus, it is argued that the domains are to a large extent expressions of the condition of the general processes. At the same time, the domains may vary because of their constitutional

differences but also differences in individual preferences and inclinations. Moreover, their functioning both channels and influences the operation of the general processes.[21][22] Thus, one cannot satisfactorily specify the intelligence of an individual or design effective interventions programs unless both the general processes and the domains of interest are evaluated.[23][24]

[edit]Spatial

intelligence

Gardner argues that IQ tests only measures linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities. Psychologist Alan S. Kaufman argues that IQ tests have measured spatial abilities for 70 years.[25]

[edit]Modern

IQ tests measure many abilities

Modern IQ tests are greatly influenced by the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory which incorporates a general intelligence but also many more narrow abilities. While IQ tests do give an overall IQ score, they now also give scores for many more narrow abilities.[25]

[edit]Lack

of empirical evidence

According to a 2006 study many of Gardner's "intelligences" actually correlate with the g factor, supporting the idea of a single dominant type of intelligence. According to the study, each of the domains proposed by Gardner involved a blend of g, of cognitive abilities other than g, and, in some cases, of non-cognitive abilities or of personality characteristics.[26] Linda S. Gottfredson (2006) has argued that the results of thousands of studies support the importance of IQ for school and job performance. IQ also predicts or correlates with numerous other life outcomes. In contrast, empirical support for non-g intelligences is lacking or very poor. She argued that despite this the ideas of multiple non-g intelligences are very attractive to many due to the suggestion that everyone can be smart in some way.[27] A critical review of MI theory argues that there is little empirical evidence to support it: "To date there have been no published studies that offer evidence of the validity of the multiple intelligences. In 1994 Sternberg reported finding no empirical studies. In 2000 Allix reported finding no empirical validating studies, and at that time Gardner and Connell conceded that there was "little hard evidence for MI theory" (2000, p. 292). In 2004 Sternberg and Grigerenko stated that there were no validating studies for multiple intelligences, and in 2004 Gardner asserted that he would be "delighted were such evidence to accrue" (p. 214), and he admitted that "MI theory has few enthusiasts among psychometricians or others of a traditional psychological background" because they require "psychometric or experimental evidence that allows one to prove the existence of the several intelligences" (2004, p. 214)." (Waterhouse, 2006a, p. 208). The same review presents evidence to demonstrate that cognitive neuroscience research

does not support the theory of Multiple Intelligences: "the human brain is unlikely to function via Gardners multiple intelligences. Taken together the evidence for the intercorrelations of subskills of IQ measures, the evidence for a shared set of genes associated with mathematics, reading, and g, and the evidence for shared and overlapping "what is it?" and "where is it?" neural processing pathways, and shared neural pathways for language, music, motor skills, and emotions suggest that it is unlikely that each of Gardners intelligences could operate "via a different set of neural mechanisms" (1999, p. 99). Equally important, the evidence for the "what is it?" and "where is it?" processing pathways, for Kahnemans two decision-making systems, and for adapted cognition modules suggests that these cognitive brain specializations have evolved to address very specific problems in our environment. Because Gardner claimed that the intelligences are innate potentialities related to a general content area, MI theory lacks a rationale for the phylogenetic emergence of the intelligences." (From Waterhouse, 2006a, p. 213). A number of articles have surveyed the use of Gardner's ideas and conclude that there is little to no academically substantiated evidence that his ideas work in practice. Steven A. Stahl found that most of the previous studies which claimed to show positive results had major flaws: Among others, Marie Carbo claims that her learning styles work is based on research. {I discuss Carbo because she publishes extensively on her model and is very prominent in the workshop circuit...} But given the overwhelmingly negative findings in the published research, I wondered what she was citing, and about a decade ago, I thought it would be interesting to take a look. Reviewing her articles, I found that out of 17 studies she had cited, only one was published. Fifteen were doctoral dissertations and 13 of these came out of one universitySt. Johns University in New York, Carbos alma mater. None of these had been in a peer-refereed journal. When I looked closely at the dissertations and other materials, I found that 13 of the 17 studies that supposedly support her claim had to do with learning styles based on something other than modality.[28] To date, the current No Child Left Behind test legislation in the United States does not encompass the multiple intelligences framework in the exams' design and/or implementation.[29]