ELSEVIER''''S DICTIONARY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES phần 6 docx

However, in the final analysis, the notion of morality - as it derives from a social codification of “right” and “wrong” - may be viewed as either internal part of an individual’s pers

and accept the course of events and

indica-tions of their disintegration) One of the

com-ponents of the collective unconscious (or

“ob-jective psyche”) is called archetypes (other

names for this component are dominants,

pri-mordial images, imagoes, mythological

im-ages, and behavior patterns), which are

uni-versal ideas that are emotion-laden and create

images/visions that correspond allegedly to

some aspect of the conscious situation in

nor-mal waking life (cf., theory of phylogenesis -

refers to the origin and biological

develop-ment of a species as a whole, but Jung

ex-tended this theory within psychology to

in-clude the development of the psyche and

ar-chetypes; the theory of racial

memory/uncon-scious - holds that people inherit the common

body of experiences and memories of all past

humans, and that in human consciousness

such elements continue from generation to

generation; thus, humans not only inherit their

physical aspects from their ancestors, but their

memories as well) Other components of the

collective unconscious are called the persona -

the masked or public face of personality; the

anima and animus - a bisexual aspect where

the feminine archetype in men is the anima,

and the masculine archetype in women is the

animus (cf Jung’s use of the term syzygy - the

juxtaposition of opposites, or a pair of

oppo-sites, especially the anima and animus; the

term derives from astronomy, in which the

Earth and the moon lie in a straight line on

opposite sides of the sun; Jung was impressed

by the apparent ubiquity of cultural symbols

of syzygy, such as the Chinese complementary

principles of the universe called “yin” and

“yang,” or the melding of a man and woman

into a “divine couple”); the shadow - the

animal instincts that humans have inherited in

their evolution from lower life forms and that

may be manifested as recognition of original

sin, the devil, or an enemy (Jung’s term

infla-tion of consciousness refers to the expansion

of a person’s consciousness beyond its normal

limits stemming from identification with an

archetype, the persona, or a famous person

that results in an exaggerated sense of

impor-tance that may be compensated for by feelings

of inferiority); and the self - comprising all

aspects of the unconscious, it attempts to

achieve equilibrium, integration,

individua-tion, self-actualizaindividua-tion, and unity, and is pressed in the symbols of the mandala and the circle According to Jung, the well-adjusted person is one who seeks a compromise be-

ex-tween the demands of the collective scious and the actualities of the external

uncon-world Jung also distinguishes between the

extraversion attitude - orientation of the

per-son toward the external/objective world, and

the introversion attitude - orientation of the

person toward the internal/subjective world

He describes four fundamental psychological types/functions/styles: thinking (ideational), feeling (evaluative), sensing (perceptual), and intuiting (unconscious or subliminal) aspects

of processing information in the world [cf.,

the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - developed

in 1943 and named after the American writer Isabel M Myers (1897-1980) and her mother, the self-taught American psychologist Ka-tharine E Briggs (1875-1968), designed to

implement/measure Jung’s theory of tional types; cf., clouding effect - a tendency

for people who are classified as different tional types to have problems understanding each other where, allegedly, women and men differ in their communication “styles”] Jung wrote broadly on such diverse topics as my-thology, symbols, occult sciences, word asso-ciations, religion, dreams, telepathy, clairvoy-ance, spiritualism, and flying saucers Jung borrowed concepts from the physical sciences

func-(e.g., the principles of equivalence, entropy, and synchronicity in chemistry and physics) in

describing the psychodynamics of personality

The principle of entropy - as adapted by Jung [the term entropy, originally coined by the

German physicist Rudolf J E Clausius 1888), refers to a measure of the degree of disorder of a closed system and relates to the

(1822-second law of thermodynamics in physics] -

states that the distribution of energy in the psyche seeks an equilibrium or balance When Jung asserted that self-realization is the goal

of psychic development, he meant that the dynamics of personality move toward a per-

fect balance of forces The principle of equivalence states that if energy is expended

in bringing about a certain condition, the amount expended will appear somewhere else

in the system This principle is similar to the

first law of thermodynamics in physics [this

law was discovered by the Ger-man

physi-cian/physicist Julius Mayer (1814-1878) and

states that when a system changes from one

state to another, energy is converted to a

dif-ferent form but the total energy remains

un-changed/conserved; this law virtually makes a

“perpetual-motion” device theoretically

im-possible], and to Hermann von Helmholtz’s

(1821-1894) adaptation in psychology of the

physical principle of the conservation of

en-ergy The principle of synchronicity is a

gen-eral statement concerning event interpretation

that applies to events that occur together in

time but that are not the cause of one another

Jung borrowed the principle of

enantio-dromia from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus

(c 540-c 480 B.C.), which refers to the

no-tion that everything eventually changes into its

opposite, and which Jung described as the

principle that governs all cycles of natural life,

both large and small Today, in spite of a few

detractors and a lack of contact with scientific

psychology, Jungian theory seems to have a

number of devoted proponents and admirers

throughout the world, and his influence has

spread into many extrapsychological

disci-plines, including history, literature, literary

criticism, anthropology, religion, and

philoso-phy, among others Perhaps Jung’s analytical

psychology has been dismissed by many

psy-chologists because his theories are based on

psychoanalytical and clinical findings (which

include mythical and historical sources) rather

than on experimental research It may be

sug-gested that what Jungian theory needs to

make it more acceptable to scientific

psychol-ogy is to test experimentally some of his

hy-potheses See also ANAGOGIC THEORY;

ANIMISM THEORY; DETERMINISM,

DOCTRINE/THEORY OF; FREUD’S

THE-ORY OF PERSONALITY; PERSONALITY

THEORIES; THERMODYNAMICS, LAWS

OF

REFERENCES

Jung, C G (1912) The psychology of the

unconscious Leipzig: Deuticke

Jung, C G (1913) The theory of

psycho-analysis In Collected works Vol 4

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

Press

Jung, C G (1921) Psychological types In

Collected works Vol 6 Princeton,

NJ: Princeton University Press

Jung, C G (1936) The concept of the

collec-tive unconscious In Collected works Vol 9 Part 1 Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press

Jung, C G (1940) The integration of the

personality London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul

Glover, E (1950) Freud or Jung New York:

Norton

Jung, C G (1953) Modern man in search of

a soul New York: Harcourt, Brace

Read, H., Fordham, M., & Adler, G (Eds.)

(1953-1978) C G Jung, Collected works 20 vols Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press

Jung, C G (1957) The undiscovered self

Boston: Little, Brown

Jung, C G (1960) A review of the complex

theory In Collected works Vol 8

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

Myers, I (1962) The Myers-Briggs Type

In-dicator Princeton, NJ: Educational

Testing Service

Jung, C G (Ed.) (1964) Man and his

sym-bols New York: Dell

Jung, C G (1968) Analytical psychology: Its

theory and practice New York:

Random House

Progoff, I (1973) Jung, synchronicity, and

human destiny New York: Julian McGuire, W (Ed.) (1974) The Freud/Jung

letters: The correspondence tween Sigmund Freud and C G Jung Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-

be-versity Press

Coan, R (1994) Archetypes In R J Corsini

(Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology

New York: Wiley

JUSTIFICATION THEORY See

MOTI-VATION, THEORIES OF

JUST-NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCES, PRINCIPLE OF See WEBER’S LAW

JUST-WORLD HYPOTHESIS See

AT-TRIBUTION THEORY

K

KALAM THEORY OF ATOMIC TIME

This theory of time was developed by Arab

philosophers in the tenth- and

eleventh-centuries A.D and sought to demonstrate the

total dependence of the material world on the

will of the Supreme Being or “sole agent.” In

Islam, the term kalam is derived from the

phrase kalam Allah (Arabic: “word of God”),

which refers to the Qur’an, the sacred

scrip-ture of Islam The kalam theory of atomic time

states that temporal entities called “atoms” are

isolated by “voids,” and their configurations

are governed not by natural events or forces

but by the will of the “sole agent;” thus,

ac-cording to this viewpoint, time is ultimately

under the control of the Supreme Being or the

“sole agent.” See also ARISTOTLE’S TIME

THEORY/PARADOX; EARLY GREEK

AND LATER PHILOSOPHICAL

THEO-RIES OF TIME; PLOTINUS’ THEORY OF

TIME; ST AUGUSTINE’S PARADOX OF

TIME; TIME, THEORIES OF

REFERENCES

Maimonides, M (1927) The guide for the

perplexed New York: Dover

Harrison, E (1994) Atomicity of time In S

Macey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of time

New York: Garland

KAMIN EFFECT See BLOCKING,

PHE-NOMENON OF; MOWRER’S THEORY

KANIZSA TRIANGLE ILLUSION See

APPENDIX A

KANT’S THEORY OF

HUMOR/LAUGH-TER In his work on aesthetics, the German

philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

ar-ticulated a theory of jokes that may be taken as

a general theory of humor Kant’s theoretical

approach to humor is a kind of incongruity

theory (i e., laughter is a reaction to the

dis-parity between expectations and perceptions),

although he emphasizes the physical- over the

mental- side of amusement According to

Kant’s theory of humor/laughter, the pleasure

one takes in humor is not as great a pleasure

as one’s delight in beauty or in moral ness Even though amusement is caused by the play of ideas, it is more a type of sensory gratification based on feelings of health and well-being Kant maintained that in listening

good-to a joke the person develops a certain tation as to how it will turn out; then, at the

expec-“punch line,” the expectation suddenly ishes The sudden mental activity is not en-joyed by one’s reason, and the desire to under-stand is frustrated Accompanying the mental movement/gymnastics at the “punch line” is the activity of the person’s internal organs (producing the resultant feeling of health)

van-Thus, according to Kant’s humor theory, the incongruity one experiences in humor gives

the body a sort of “wholesome shock.” In Kant’s approach, the transformations accom-panying laughter (that is, the sudden transfor-mation of a strained expectation into “noth-ing”) must be into nothing and not into the positive opposite of expectation This is be-cause it is not enjoyable to one’s understand-ing directly, but only indirectly, by throwing the body’s organs into a state of oscillation, then restoring them to equilibrium, and thus

promoting health Kant’s humor theory has

been called the “nothing theory of humor” where the “nothing” refers to holes that are

not filled with explanations concerning wit

and laughter Thus, many a “strained

expecta-tion” - which fails to materialize - leads to a

letdown, and not to laughter, in the listener See also HUMOR, THEORIES OF; INCON-GRUITY/INCONSISTENCY THEORIES OF HUMOR; SCHOPENHAUER’S THEORY

OF HUMOR

REFERENCE

Kant, I (1790/1892/1914) Critique of

judg-ment London: Macmillan

KAPPA- AND TAU-EFFECTS See TAU-

AND KAPPA-EFFECTS

KARDOS EFFECT See PERCEPTION (I

GENERAL), THEORIES OF

KASPAR HAUSER EFFECT/EXPERI- MENT This phenomenon is named after a

German teenage boy, Kaspar Hauser (c 1833), who suddenly and mysteriously ap-

1812-peared in the German town of Nuremberg in

1828 Apparently, Hauser was a “feral child”

[i.e., an individual/child/infant who is raised,

supposedly, by wild animals and has little or

no contact or involvement with other humans;

cf., “Wild Child/Boy of Aveyron” - a boy,

about 10 years old, who was discovered in

1798 by a group of hunters near Aveyron,

France; the feral (“wild”) child apparently had

been abandoned at a young age and was living

in the forest, roaming about almost naked, and

had no human contact The child was studied

clinically by the French physician Jean Marie

Gaspard Itard (1775-1838); an engaging,

documentary-type movie - called “L’enfant

sauvage” (or the “Wild Child” in the U.S., and

the “Wild Boy” in the U.K.) - about the case

was made in 1970 by the talented French

filmmaker Francois Truffaut (1932-1984); in

the film, Truffaut himself plays the role of the

doctor who tries to teach language to the boy

and to civilize and socialize him] The Kaspar

Hauser experiment/effect refers to a study/

experiment/technique in which an animal is

reared in isolation from members of its own

species The British ethologist William

Homan Thorpe (1902-1986) conducted such

experiments in the 1950s with birds reared in

isolation in order to determine which aspects

of their songs are “innate” and which ones are

“learned.” See also EMPIRICIST VERSUS

NATIVIST THEORIES; LANGUAGE

AC-QUISITION THEORY; NATURE VERSUS

NURTURE THEORIES; SPEECH

THEO-RIES

REFERENCES

Itard, J M G (1962) The wild boy of

Avey-ron New York:

Appleton-Century-Crofts

Thorpe, W H (1963) Learning and instinct

in animals London: Methuen

Malson, L (1972) Wolf children and the

problem of human nature New

York: Monthly Review Press

Thorpe, W H (1972) Duetting and

antipho-nal songs in birds: Its extent and

sig-nificance Leiden: Brill

Thorpe, W H (1974) Animal nature and

human nature London: Methuen

KELLEY’S ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE

(ANOVA) MODEL See ATTRUBUTION

THEORY; KELLEY’S COVARIATION THEORY

KELLEY’S ATTRIBUTION THEORY

See ATTRIBUTION THEORY

KELLEY’S COVARIATION THEORY In

attempting to answer the question what makes people attribute a behavior to internal versus external factors, the American social psy-chologist Harold H Kelley (1921- ) specu-

lates that people use a principle of covariation

in interpreting other’s behaviors The tion principle is the tendency to ascribe behav-

covaria-ior to a cause that is present only when the behavior occurs, or that is observed to vary over time with the behavior Thus, in this context, one should observe what potential causes are present or absent when a behavior does and doesn’t occur, and draw conclusions

accordingly Kelley’s theory focuses on the

use of three variables or types of information

in deciding whether to make internal or

exter-nal attributions: consistency (the degree to

which one reacts to an event in the same way

on many different occasions), distinctiveness (the degree to which one does not react the same way to different events), and consensus

(the degree to which others react to an event in the same way as the person who is being ob-served) Theoretically, each of the three vari-ables may be judged to be high or low, result-ing in eight possible combinations, often por-

trayed as a 2¯2¯2 cube (called Kelley’s cube model/theory, or Kelley”s ANOVA model)

According to Kelley’s approach, persons tend

to attribute behavior to internal or tional causes within another person when

disposi-consensus is low, distinctiveness is low, and consistency is high On the other hand, Kel- ley’s theory predicts that persons tend to at-

tribute behavior to external or situational

causes when consensus is high, distinctiveness

is high, and consistency is low See also

AT-TRIBUTION THEORY; DENCE BIAS HYPOTHESIS

CORRESPON-REFERENCES

Kelley, H H (1967) Attribution theory in

social psychology In D Levine

(Ed.), Nebraska symposium on tivation (pp 192-328) Lincoln, NB:

mo-University of Nebraska Press

Kelley, H H (1972) Attribution in social

interaction In E E Jones, D E

Kanouse, H H Kelley, R E

Nis-bett, S Valiens, & B Weiner (Eds.),

Attribution: Perceiving the causes of

behavior Morristown, NJ: General

Learning Press

KELLEY’S CUBE MODEL/THEORY See

ATTRIBUTION THEORY; KELLEY’S

CO-VARIATION THEORY

KELLEY’S PRINCIPLE OF

COVARIA-TION/CORRELATION See

ATTRIBU-TION THEORY; KELLEY’S

COVARIA-TION THEORY

KELLY’S PERSONAL CONSTRUCT

THEORY = role-construct theory The

Am-erican psychologist George A Kelly

(1905-1967) developed the personal construct theory

of personality, which emphasizes the ways in

which individuals interpret or construe events,

and advances the viewpoint that each person

unwittingly takes the role of “scientist” by

observing events, formulating concepts to

organize phenomena, and attempting to

pre-dict future events (cf., Kelly’s fundamental

postulate - the conjecture that behavior is

determined and directed by the way in which

people construe their worlds and reality)

Ac-cording to Kelly, people conduct mental

“miniexperiments” in order to interpret and

understand their own experiences In this

sense, people are actively engaged in the

con-struction of their own subjective worlds, and

one’s perceptual processes are directed by the

way one anticipates future events The theory

states that people are active and

future-oriented rather than passive or merely

reac-tive, that they develop certain concepts,

cate-gories, and constructs that they use to describe

themselves, and that a concept such as

hostil-ity may be defined as a continuing and futile

effort to find positive evidence for something

that has already been recognized as a failure

Kelly’s theory has two key features: it deals

both with change and stability - including the

aspects of process and structure in the

individ-ual; and it focuses on the uniqueness of the

person (idiographic) as well as on the

charac-teristics and processes that are common to all

people (nomothetic) Kelly’s major theoretical concept is the construct, which refers to a

bipolar way of interpreting and perceiving

events For instance, the construct/dimension

of “good-bad” is used often by individuals as they assess events and other people Examples

of other constructs - where the bipolar terms

are not necessarily the logical opposite of each other - are “receive-give,” “take-give,” “unas-sertive-assertive,” “hate-love,” and “lust-

love.” When a construct becomes part of an

individual’s cognitive structure, it may be applied to anything or anyone Kelly distin-

guishes among different types of constructs: core constructs (such as “weak-strong”) ver- sus peripheral constructs (such as “humorous- serious”); verbal versus preverbal constructs and superordinate versus subordinate con- structs An individual’s personal constructs are organized to form a construct system rang- ing from a simple system (containing only one

or two levels of organization) to a complex system (containing multiple levels of organiza- tion) Complex construct systems allow greater

differentiation and detailed predictions in

one’s perception of the world, whereas simple construct systems indicate that the person

lumps all people and things into a few ries such as “good-bad” or “successful-unsuccessful” where the person’s predictions are the same without regard to the situation or

catego-circumstances An individual’s personal struct system may be assessed by Kelly’s

con-“Role Construct Repertory Test” (or Rep Test) Interpreting the results from this test is a subjective and laborious process because it is

as much a projective test as a rating scale In the absence of an objective scoring system, the Rep Test has not been widely used for either clinical or research purposes, and its validity is largely unknown Although Kelly

influenced later personality theorists, the ory of personal constructs has advanced little

the-since its initial development Originally,

Kelly’s theory was set down in a formal

postu-late fashion with 11 corollaries in his 1955 book, and it is difficult to classify or contrast

it with other approaches L Sechrest (1977)

describes Kelly’s theory as having many

sec-ond cousins, but no siblings Kelly’s ideas arose from his clinical experience rather than from experimental research or systematic

correlational studies, and there is relatively

little current research based on Kelly’s theory

that is reported in the psychological literature

See also FESTINGER’S COGNITIVE

DIS-SONANCE THEORY;

IDIO-GRAPHIC/NOMOTHETIC LAWS;

PER-SONALITY THEORIES

REFERENCES

Kelly, G A (1955) The psychology of

per-sonal constructs New York:

Nor-ton

Kelly, G A (1963) A theory of personality

New York: Norton

Sechrest, L (1977) Personal constructs

the-ory In R J Corsini (Ed.), Current

personality theories Itasca, IL:

Pea-cock

Pervin, L (1996) The science of personality

New York: Wiley

KENNARD PRINCIPLE The American

physician Margaret A Kennard (1899-1976)

was a pioneer in the experimental study of

“sparing” and “recovery” of function in

organ-isms Her most famous studies were

per-formed on monkeys and apes at Yale

Univer-sity during the late 1930s and early 1940s In

her investigations, she described the

behav-ioral effects of brain damage on infantile,

juvenile, and older primates, and drew

atten-tion to the importance of developmental state

at the time of neural insult Kennard also

con-ducted experiments showing that even adult

primates may exhibit significant recovery of

function, especially if brain lesions are made

in stages rather than all at once The Kennard

principle states that it is easier to recover from

brain damage if the individual is young at the

time of the damage than if the damage occurs

later in life; for many years, the idea persisted

in the medical field that equivalent brain

dam-age to a child and an adult would lead to less

problems in a child than in the adult

Ken-nard’s principle suggests that a child’s brain,

while evolving/developing, exhibits

“neuro-plasticity,” enabling it to work around, or

adapt to, organic brain damage However,

many recent studies indicate that the Kennard

principle is inaccurate and that, in reality, the

outcome for children suffering traumatic brain

injury/insult may be far worse than the

out-come for an equally injured adult See also

LASHLEY’S THEORY; RAL/NERVE THEORY

NEURON/NEU-REFERENCES

Kennard, M A (1936) Age and other factors

in motor recovery from precentral

lesions in monkeys American nal of Physiology, 115, 138-146

Jour-Kennard, M A (1940) Relation of age to

motor impairment in man and

sub-human primates Archives of rology and Psychiatry, 44, 377-397

Neu-Schneider, G E (1979) Is it really better to

have your brain lesion early: A sion of the “Kennard principle.”

revi-Neuropsychology, 17, 557-583

Finger, S., & Wolf, C (1988) The “Kennard

effect” before Kennard: The early

history of age and brain lesions chives of Neurology, 45, 1136-1142

Ar-Webb, C., Rose, F., Johnson, D., & Attree, E

(1996) Age and recovery from brain injury: Clinical opinions and

experimental evidence Brain Injury,

10, 303-310

KENSHALO/NAFE QUANTITATIVE THEORY See NAFE’S VASUCLAR THE-

ORY OF CUTANEOUS SENSITIVITY

KERCKHOFF-DAVIS HYPOTHESIS See

LOVE, THEORIES OF

KERNEL OF TRUTH HYPOTHESIS See

PREJUDICE, THEORIES OF

KERR EFFECT In the general area of visual

research and, in particular, regarding the issue

of experimenter control of stimulus duration,

Riggs (1965) describes the use of the Kerr effect (eponym origination unknown) to

achieve an electro-optical shutter A cell with transparent walls is inserted in a position such that the rays of a stimulus light are parallel, and crossed polarities are placed on either side

of the cell so that a minimum amount of light passes through the system The cell is then filled with a liquid and a current is passed through the liquid in a direction perpendicular

to the optic axis The result is a rotation of the plane of polarization such that some of the light now passes through the stimulating mechanism The main problems with this

system of stimulation are that some light

passes through the polarizers when no current

flows; and a rather limited transmission is

given at peak current However, the major

advantage of the Kerr effect is its practicality

regarding an unlimited range of possible

stimulus exposure times See also VISION/

SIGHT, THEORIES OF

REFERENCE

Riggs, L A (1965) Light as a stimulus for

vision In C H Graham (Ed.),

Vi-sion and visual perception New

York: Wiley

KIERKEGAARD’S THEORY OF

HU-MOR In his theory of humor, the Danish

philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

presents a version of the incongruity theory in

which humor is analyzed in terms of the

“comical” and suggests that the primary

ele-ment in the comical is “contradiction.”

Kierkegaard examines humor, and its close

relative irony, for their relations to the three

“spheres of existence” or the three “existential

stages of life” - the aesthetic, the ethical, and

the religious realms Kierkegaard claims that

irony marks the boundary between the ethical

and the aesthetic spheres, whereas humor

marks the boundary between the ethical and

the religious spheres He asserts that humor is

the last stage of existential awareness before

faith Kierkegaard indicates, also, that a strong

connection exists between having a religious

view of life and possessing a sense of humor

He suggests that the humorous is present

throughout Christianity, and that Christianity

is the most humorous view of life in the

his-tory of the world See also HUMOR,

THEO-RIES OF;

INCONGRUITY/INCONSIST-ENCY THEORIES OF HUMOR

REFERENCE

Kierkegaard, S (1846/1941) Concluding

un-scientific postscript Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press

KINESTHETIC AFTEREFFECT

ILLU-SION/HALLUCINATION See APPENDIX

A

KINETIC AFTEREFFECT ILLUSION

See APPENDIX A

KINETIC DEPTH EFFECT The

German-born American perceptual psychologist Hans

Wallach (1904-1998) described the kinetic depth effect in which a moving two-

dimensional shadow that is cast by a dimensional object (e.g., a rod) appears to be three-dimensional when the object is posi-tioned obliquely and rotated about its center This causes complex transformations making the shadow appear to move in the front of, and behind, the surface on which it is cast If the object stops moving (or if it rotates in a plane that is perpendicular to the surface on which the shadow is cast - causing the shadow to shorten and lengthen as the object rotates),

three-then the kinetic effect disappears This effect is related closely to the visual windmill illusion -

first noted by the English mathematician Robert Smith (1689-1768) - in which the blades of a windmill (seen from a distance and silhouetted against the sky) appear to reverse their direction of rotation See also ALIAS-ING/STROBOSCOPIC PHENOMENON; APPENDIX A; PERCEPTION (I GEN-ERAL), THEORIES OF; PERCEPTION (II COMPARATIVE APPRAISAL), THEORIES

OF

REFERENCES

Smith, R (1738) A compleat system of

op-ticks in four books Cambridge, UK:

R Smith

Wallach, H., & O’Connell, D N (1953) The

kinetic depth effect Journal of perimental Psychology, 45, 205-

Ex-217

KINNEY’S LAW See WHORF-SAPIR

HY-POTHESIS/THEORY

KIRSCHMANN’S LAW OF CONTRAST

See COLOR VISION, THEORIES/LAWS

OF

KJERSTAD-ROBINSON LAW See

SKAGGS-ROBINSON HYPOTHESIS

KLEIN’S THEORY See GOOD BREAST/

OBJECT-BAD BREAST/OBJECT THEORY; OBJECT-RELATIONS THEORY

KNOWLEDGE-ACROSS-SITUATIONS

HYPOTHESIS See ATTRIBUTION

THE-ORY

KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS

PRINCI-PLE See LEARNING THEORIES/LAWS

KOESTLER’S THEORY OF HUMOR/

LAUGHTER The English writer Arthur

Koestler (1905-1983) speculated that the

an-cient Greeks’ humorous attitude toward the

stammering barbarian - much like the

primi-tive person’s laughter over a dying animal’s

anguished kicking and convulsing that

pre-sumably (in the savage’s perception)

“pre-tends” to suffer pain - may be inspired by the

conviction that the foreigner is not really

hu-man but only “pretends” to be Koestler’s

theory of humor/laughter suggests that as

laughter emerged from the ancient/primitive

form of humor, it was so aggressive that it has

been likened to a dagger In ancient Greece,

the dagger was transformed into a pen/quill -

dripping with poison at first and then diluted

and infused later with amusing lyrical and

fanciful elements Koestler notes that the fifth

century B.C saw the first rise of humor into

art, starting with parodies of Olympian heroics

and reaching a peak in the comedies of

Aris-tophanes According to Koestler, from this

point onward, the evolution of humor and

comedy in the western world merged with the

history of literature and art Thus, in

Koestler’s theory, the overall trend in humor -

from the ancient/primitive to later

sophisti-cated forms - was away from

aggression-based humor and toward the “humanization”

of humor and laughter See also HUMOR,

THEORIES OF

REFERENCES

Koestler, A (1964) The act of creation

Lon-don: Hutchinson

Koestler, A (1997) Humour and wit In The

New Encyclopaedia Britannica,

Ma-cropaedia Vol 20 Chicago:

Ency-clopaedia Britannica, Inc

KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF

MORAL-ITY The American psychologist Lawrence

Kohlberg (1927-1987) proposed a

stage-de-pendent theory of moral development, which

is largely cognitive in nature and considers

morality as a universal cognitive process that proceeds from one stage to the next in a defi-nite and fixed manner at a pace that is deter-mined by the individual’s particular experi-ences and opportunities According to Kohl-berg, the typical child progresses through three general levels of moral development: a

preconventional level (cf., ethical-risk pothesis - posits that moral/immoral behavior

hy-depends on a child’s evaluation of the risk involved, i.e., getting caught; as the possibility

of discovery increases, the occurrence of the behavior decreases) in which morality essen-tially is a matter of external rather than inter-nal standards - this “premoral” level is indi-cated when the physical consequences of an action determine its “goodness” or “badness” regardless of the human meaning or value of the consequences and, also, where “right” action consists of things that instrumentally satisfy one’s own needs (and mutuality, recip-rocity, or concern for others is present only to the degree that they help the child fulfill her or

his own needs); a conventional level in which

morality derives from the child’s performance

of correct roles - this “conventional” level is exhibited when “good” behavior occurs in order to please or help others, and conformity-type behaviors occur where the child has the

“intention” of doing “good” (also, at this level, fixed laws and authority figures are obeyed where “right” behavior consists of doing one’s duty, respecting authority, and maintaining social conventions and rules for their own

sake); and a postconventional level in which

morality is basically one of shared standards, duties, and rights - this “self-accepted” moral-ity level is shown when “right” action is de-fined by the standards agreed upon by the whole society and is designed to take account

of an individual’s rights, and where there is awareness that personal values differ where people must reach a consensus on certain so-cial issues (also, this level is characterized by the orientation that “right” is defined by “con-science” in accord with universal principles of justice and respect for others) Kohlberg’s three levels consist of two orientations each

and, thus, his theory of morality identifies six

separate states (three general levels ¯ two orientations each): obedience-reward; instru-mental exchange; conformist; law and order;

social-contract; and universal-ethical

princi-ple The central tenet of Kohlberg’s original

formulation (i.e., the presence of a universally

fixed sequence of six moral stages) has not

been supported by empirical investigations

On the other hand, research does indicate that

an invariant level-to-level sequence may occur

where preconventional morality is a

prerequi-site for conventional reasoning and where

both must precede the appearance of

postcon-ventional morality Critics of Kohlberg’s

the-ory have emphasized the role that

social-cultural factors may play in the development

of postconventional reasoning, especially

experiences within the context of a particular

jurisprudence system of justice Thus,

al-though Kohlberg’s model may not provide the

universal view of a moral person, it may be

relevant to an individual living in the United

States of America who has a constitutionally

based legal system However, in the final

analysis, the notion of morality - as it derives

from a social codification of “right” and

“wrong” - may be viewed as either internal

(part of an individual’s personal code) or

ex-ternal (imposed by society) and, although

certain truths seem to be self-evident, it is

probably not the case that a universal code of

morality either exists or can be established

(cf., theories of religion/ethics, such as ghost

theory which posits that religions originated

from aboriginal or primitive peoples’ beliefs

in ghosts or disembodied spirits; the doctrine

of mysticism which asserts that the ultimate

spiritual truth is to be found in internal states

such as meditation, contemplation, and

intui-tion rather than through external sense

experi-ence such as minister/priest-mediated rituals

or social/religious gatherings; religious

in-stinct hypothesis which holds that all humans

have an innate tendency to want to believe in a

religion, to practice certain rituals, and to

be-have according to the tenets and principles of

some particular religion; and secular

human-ism doctrine which is a nontheistic approach

that rejects supernaturalism, advances the

notion of a person’s capacity for

self-realization through reason, is typically

op-posed to traditional religion but often holds

many of the ethical tenets of religion, and

places great respect for humans as the center

of moral/ ethical interest) See also PIAGET’S

THEORY OF DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES; SOCIAL LEARN-ING/COGNITION THEORIES

REFERENCES

Broad, C D (1930/1956) Five types of

ethi-cal theory London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul

Kohlberg, L (1969) Stages in development of

moral thought and action New

York: Holt

Goldiamond, I (1972) Moral behavior: A

functional analysis Readings in chology today Del Mar, CA: CRM

psy-Kurtines, W., & Greif, E (1974) The

devel-opment of moral thought: Review and evaluation of Kohlberg’s ap-

proach Psychological Bulletin, 81,

453-470

Kohlberg, L (1978) Revisions in the theory

and practice of moral development

In W Damon (Ed.), New directions for child development: Moral devel- opment San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Colby, A (1979) Measurement of moral

judgment: A manual and its results

New York: Cambridge University Press

Blasi, A (1980) Bridging moral cognition

and moral action: A critical review

of the literature Psychological letin, 88, 1-45

Bul-Rich, J M.,& DeVitis, J L (1985) Theories

of moral development Springfield,

IL: C C Thomas

Spilka, B., & McIntosh, D (1997) The

psy-chology of religion: Theoretical proaches Boulder, CO: Westview

ap-Press

Cunningham, G (1999) Religion and magic:

Approaches and theories New

York: New York University Press

Forsyth, J (2003) Psychological theories of

religion Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Prentice Hall

KOHLER-RESTORFF PHENOMENON

See von RESTORFF EFFECT

KOHNSTAMM EFFECT See IMAGERY/

MENTAL IMAGERY, THEORIES OF

KOLMOGOROV’S AXIOMS/THEORY

The Soviet mathematician Andrei Nikolaevich

Kolmogorov (1903-1987) formulated the

axiomatic theory of probability (also known as

Kolmogorov’s axioms) that provides four

pro-positions concerning probabilities from which

all major theorems may be derived: the

prob-ability of any event is equal to, or greater than,

zero; the probability of a particular event is

1.00; if A and B are two mutually exclusive

events (cf., principle of the excluded middle or

excluded middle law - the law/principle which

states that for any proposition p, the

proposi-tion p or not p is true according to logical

necessity), then the probability of the

disjunc-tion (i.e., the probability of either A or B

oc-curring) is equal to the sum of their individual

probabilities; and the probability of a

conjunc-tion of two events A and B (i.e., the

probabil-ity that both A and B occur) is equal to the

probability of A (assuming that B occurs)

multiplied by the probability of B See also

BOOLEAN SET THEORY;

DECISION-MAKING THEORIES; EXCLUDED

MID-DLE, PRINCIPLE OF; PROBABILITY

THEORY/LAWS; SET THEORY

KORTE’S LAWS The German Gestalt

psy-chologist Adolf Korte (1915) developed a

series of general statements or laws that

de-scribe the optimal conditions for apparent

motion when demonstrating the phi

phenome-non (i.e., perceived motion produced when

two stationary lights are flashed successively,

where the sensation of apparent movement of

the light from the first location to the second

location occurs if the time interval between

the flashing of the two lights is about 150

milliseconds) Korte’s principles of apparent

movement (phi) are: (1) when the intensity of

the lights is held constant, the time interval for

optimal phi varies directly with the distance

between the stimuli; (2) when time is held

constant, the distance for optimal phi varies

directly with the intensity of the lights; and (3)

when distance between the stimuli is held

constant, the intensity for optimal phi varies

inversely with the interval of time that is used

Thus, Korte’s laws state that it is more cult to perceive apparent motion or phi when

diffi-the spatial separation between lights is too wide, when illumination is too low, and when interstimulus interval is too short, even though decrements in one (or two) of the variables can be adjusted by increments in the other(s)

The phi phenomenon may be observed in

non-laboratory settings such as in motion pictures (“movies”), television, animated displays, and various neon sign displays where the sensation

of motion is overwhelming and “irresistible.”

Korte’s laws have been revised and extended

in recent experiments (cf., Kolers, 1964), and several other stimulus variables that determine

optimal apparent movement have been

de-scribed See also APPARENT MOVEMENT, PRINCIPLES/THEORIES OF; PHI PHE-NOMENON; UNCONSCIOUS INFERENCE, DOCTRINE OF

REFERENCES

Stratton, G (1911) The psychology of

change: How is the perception of movement related to that of succes-

sion? Psychological Review, 18,

262-293

Korte, A (1915) Kinematoskopische

unter-suchungen Zeitschrift fur gie, 72, 193-296

Psycholo-Neuhaus, W (1930) Experimentelle

unter-suchung deer scheinbewegung chiv fur die Gesamte Psychologie,

Ar-75, 315-458

Fernberger, S (1934) New phenomenon of

apparent visual movement can Journal of Psychology, 46, 309-

Ameri-314

Neff, W (1936) A critical investigation of the

visual apprehension of movement

American Journal of Psychology,

48, 1-42

Kolers, P (1964) The illusion of movement

Scientific American, 211, 98-106

Graham, C (1965) Perception of movement

In C Graham (Ed.), Vision and ual perception New York: Wiley

vis-Bell, H., & Lappin, J (1973) Sufficient

con-ditions for the discrimination of

mo-tion Perception & Psychophys-ics,

14, 45-50

Pantle, A., & Picciano, L (1976) A

multista-ble movement display: Evidence for

two separate motion systems in

hu-man vision Science, 193, 500-502

Beck, J., Elsner, A., & Silverstein, C (1977)

Position uncertainty and the

percep-tion of apparent movement

Percep-tion & Psychophysics, 21, 33-38

KRAEPELIN’S

THEORY/CLASSIFICA-TION See PSYCHOPATHOLOGY,

THE-ORIES OF

KRETSCHMER’S THEORY OF

PER-SONALITY = somatotype theory = typology

theory The German psychiatrist Ernst

Kret-schmer (1888-1964) devised a theory of

per-sonality based on the relationship of physical

characteristics to personality attributes Before

Kretschmer’s theory appeared, various other

viewpoints were advanced by early

investiga-tors concerning the association between

physical and personality traits The Greek

physician Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.)

sug-gested both a typology of physique and a

ty-pology of temperament, as well as indicating

the relationships between the body’s humors

(liquid substances), temperament, and

behav-ior that anticipated the modern importance of

endocrine secretions as determinants of

behav-ior Hippocrates suggested a dichotomy

con-cerning physiques that separated people into

those who were “thick and short” versus those

who were “thin and long.” He also indicated

that these body types are accompanied by

characteristic diseases and disorders For

ex-ample, the first type of person (thick and

short) is prone to apoplexy, and the second

type (thin and long) is prone to consumption

Kretschmer inaugurated constitutional

psy-chology into the modern era based on

observa-tions he made in his psychiatric practice

con-cerning the relationships between physique

and manifest behavior, especially the

behav-iors displayed in manic-depressive psychosis

and schizophrenia As a result of his

meas-urements of physique, Kretschmer described

three fundamental types: asthenic - refers to a

linear, frail physique (later called leptosomic);

athletic - refers to a muscular, wide-shoulder

physique; and pyknic - refers to a plump,

round-figured physique A fourth, “mixed”

type, dysplastic - referring to a “rare or ugly”

physique, was described, also, that applied to

a small group of “deviant” cases Kretschmer

related the incidence of physique types to the

two kinds of psychosis in his patients and concluded that there was a strong biological

affinity between manic-depression and the pyknic body build and a similar association between schizophrenia and the asthenic, ath- letic, and dysplastic body builds Criticisms of Kretschmer’s theory, in this case, focus on his

failure to control adequately for differences in age between manic-depressives and schizo-phrenics Thus, the common observation is suggested that with increasing age most peo-ple increase in weight and, thereby, are more

likely to resemble Kretschmer’s pyknic type

Also, inasmuch as manic-depression typically occurs later in life than does schizophrenia, this may account for the particular relation-ships Kretschmer observed between physique and psychosis See also GALEN’S DOC-TRINE OF THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS; PERSONALITY THEORIES; SHELDON’S TYPE THEORY; TYPE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

REFERENCES

Lavater, J (1804) Essays on physiognomy:

For the promotion of the knowledge and the love of mankind London:

Whittingham

Kretschmer, E (1921) Korperbau und

cha-rakter Berlin: Springer

Kretschmer, E (1925) Physique and

charac-ter New York: Harcourt

Sheldon, W (1944) Constitutional factors in

personality In J McV Hunt (Ed.),

Personality and the behavior ders New York: Ronald Press

disor-Kefir, N., & Corsini, R J (1974)

Disposi-tional sets: A contribution to

typol-ogy Journal of Individual ogy, 30, 163-178

Psychol-KUBLER-ROSS’ STAGES OF DYING THEORY See LIFE, THEORIES OF KUNDT’S RULES/EFFECTS See OP-

PEL’S EFFECT/ILLUSION

L

LABELED-LINE THEORY See

GUSTA-TION/TASTE, THEORIES OF;

OLFAC-TION/SMELL, THEORIES OF

LABELING/DEVIANCE THEORY The

labeling theory of deviant behavior, also

call-ed societal-reaction theory, postulates an

in-teraction between individuals and their social

environment where society both defines and

produces deviance That is, labeling theory

focuses on society’s reaction to personal

be-havior as a fundamental aspect of a

deviance-producing process Whereas other models of

deviance may place the source of deviance

solely within the individual or solely within

society, the labeling theory emphasizes the

interactive processes between society and the

individual (cf., the residual deviance

hypothe-sis - holds that behavioral disorders are due,

after all other reasons have been exhausted or

excluded, to the individual’s intention to break

society’s rules; and the transgenerational

hypothesis - holds that deviant behavior may

be explained on the basis of its having been

acquired or learned from previous

genera-tions) According to labeling theory, deviance

is created by other individuals’ reactions to a

given act or event where those with the ability

and power to label are called the “influential

audience.” Certain behaviors are designated as

il-logical, deviant, or mentally ill when they

have been codified appropriately and when a

group has power to impose standards of

codi-fication [for example, consider the marginal

and controversial issue/practice of nudism, or

the public display of the naked human body,

where rational nudism theories (such as

rebel-lion against Victorian modesty and hypocrisy;

a man’s desire to display his masculinity in

reaction to castration anxiety; a woman’s

de-sire to display her body to indicate her ability

to attract men; or a rejection of religious

prud-ishness via a “back-to-nature” philosophy)

struggle for expression, often, against

inflexi-ble and established standards and social

norms] Thus, both the behavior and the

per-son exhibiting the behavior become labeled as

deviant In general, the study of deviance has

been approached from two different cal aspects: deviance is an exceptional and consistent variation from statistical norms of

theoreti-the overall population (cf., communitarianism theory - a social theory which holds that hu-

man behavior is determined largely by the culture and norms of the place where people live; this approach is in contrast to theories that explain behavior and deviance in indi-vidualistic/intrapsychic terms that do not take into account the role of the social context in understanding human intentions and deviant behaviors); and deviance is defined by the occurrence of single “critical” events (e.g., violence, high-intensity behavior, emotions, or cognitions) In particular, theoretical positions

on deviance include: internal factors and ferences among individuals with use of ty-

dif-pologies and classification schemes such as insanity, criminality, mental illness, and learn-

ing disabilities; social structural differences

where social alienation, enmity, and tial access to both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity are critical aspects of deviance;

differen-interactionist viewpoint, or differential ing theory - where deviance arises from an

label-interaction between individuals’ performances and society’s reaction to those performances;

and learning theory - argues that all behaviors,

including both normal and deviant, are learned according to the laws of punishment, rein-forcement, and modeling Various critics of

deviance theory in general, and formal ing theory in particular, suggest that the label-

label-ing of deviance (such as “criminal” and tally ill”) is an unjust and irrational process, and argue from research that shows that devi-ance is not absolute in character but may be attributed to an act, depending on the variance

“men-of the act from the experience “men-of the audience,

on the observability and location of the act, and on the implied motivation of the act See also BEHAVIOR THERAPY/COGNITIVE THERAPY, THEO-RIES OF; MEDI-CAL/DISEASE MODEL; PERSONALITY THEORIES; PSYCHOPATHOLOGY, THEORIES OF; PYGMALION EFFECT;

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHESY

REFERENCES

Merton, R (1949) Social theory and social

structure New York: Free Press

Becker, H (1963) Outsiders: Studies in the

sociology of deviance New York:

Free Press

Scheff, T (1974) The labeling theory of

men-tal illness American Sociological

Review, 39, 444-452

Gibbons, D., & Jones, J (1975) The study of

deviance: Perspectives and

prob-lems Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Pren-tice-Hall

Prentky, R (1994) Mental illness: Early

his-tory In R J Corsini (Ed.),

Encyclo-pedia of psychology New York:

Wiley

LACK OF SELF KNOWLEDGE

THE-ORY See PLATO’S THEORY OF HUMOR

LADD-FRANKLIN/FRANKLIN COLOR

VISION THEORY The American-German

psychologist Christine Ladd-Franklin (née

Christine Franklin) (1847-1930) proposed a

color vision theory in 1892 that is a

compro-mise between the Young-Helmholtz and the

Hering (later, the Hering-Hurvich-Jameson)

theories, and that has been called both a

ge-netic theory and an evolutionary theory of

color vision The Ladd-Franklin theory

as-sumes that light energy liberates respective

red-, green-, and blue-stimulating substances

from a complex photosensitive molecule in

the retinal nerve endings When the red- and

green-stimulating substances are present, they

combine to form a yellow-stimulating

sub-stance that, in turn, may combine with blue to

form a white-stimulating substance

Accord-ing to this theory, blue and red (or blue and

green) cannot combine and, thereby, do not

individually disappear in the mixtures of

blue-red (or blue-green) Thus, the Ladd-Franklin

theory postulates four primary colors (red,

green, yellow, and blue) where separate cone

mechanisms for each primary are assumed

This four-receptor theory is linked to various

evolutionary facts (such as the evolutionary

development of achromatic rod vision into

chromatic cone vision and the relatively rapid

evolution of the foveal area of the eye as

compared to the periphery) and is able to give

a convincing account of both color blindness and perimetry (stimulation of retinal perimeter areas) data The genetic and evolutionary as-

pects of the Ladd-Franklin genetic theory may

be stated in terms wherein various portions of the retina “recapitulate” the course of evolu-tion and where all four types of color recep-tors are present near the fovea, but not at the

periphery of the retina The Ladd-Franklin evolutionary theory of color vision had much

to recommend it, but it was never as popular

as the Young-Helmholtz theory See also

COLOR VISION, THEORIES/LAWS OF; HERING-HURVICH-JAMESON COLOR VISION THEORY; RECAPITULATION, THEORY OF; YOUNG-HELMHOLTZ COLOR VISION THEORY

REFERENCES

Ladd-Franklin, C (1892) Eine neue theorie

der lichtempfindungen Zeitschrift fur Psychologie und Physiologie Sinnesorgange, 4, 211

Ladd-Franklin, C (1929) Colour and colour

theories New York: Harcourt,

Brace

LADD-FRANKLIN GENETIC THEORY

See LADD-FRANKLIN/FRANKLIN

See LAMARCK’S EVOLUTION THEORY

LAMARCK’S EVOLUTION THEORY =

Lysenko doctrine = ism = Lamarckism The French natural-ist/evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine

Lamarckian-de Monet Lamarck (1744-1829) presented his

theory of evolution in 1800 in a public lecture

in which he proposed the first coherent theory

of the process of evolution prior to Darwin’s theory of natural selection (Lamarck also pro- posed the heredity predisposition theory,

which is used often in relation to pathological conditions, such as schizophrenia, to explain

the conduct of a person who appears to have

inherited a predisposition towards a particular

trait or characteristic; such pathology is

pre-sumed to develop only in the appropriate

envi-ronmental context) Lamarck formulated four

“laws” in this theory: (1) there is a natural

tendency toward increasing organic

complexi-ties; (2) new organs evolve by indirect

envi-ronmental influences; (3) there is a use-disuse

principle operative in changes to an organ

where parts of the body used extensively to

cope with the environment become larger and

stronger and - where new habits are acquired -

useless organs disappear; and (4) acquired

characteristics are inheritable Lamarck

pub-lished his theory of evolution in 1809, the year

Charles Darwin was born Out of his interest

in zoology and by comparing current species

to fossil forms, Lamarck observed several

lines of descent where each line was a

chrono-logical series of older to younger fossils

lead-ing to a modern species To illustrate his

use-disuse principle, Lamarck cited examples of

the blacksmith who develops a bigger bicep in

the arm that works the hammer and a giraffe

stretching its neck to new lengths in pursuit of

tree-leaves to eat The principle of inheritable

acquired characteristics presumes that the

modifications an organism acquires during its

lifetime may be passed along to its offspring

However, there is no convincing evidence to

support this principle, and most scientists

today agree that acquired traits do not change

genes transmitted by gametes to offspring -

notwithstanding recent developments and

techniques in biology called genetic

engineer-ing, recombinant DNA, and gene cloning

where genetic manipulations can cause

pro-found organismic changes and where the term

acquired characteristics may require

redefini-tion Modern geneticists have affirmed that

inheritance is determined solely by the

repro-ductive cells and is unaffected by somatic

(body) cells Therefore, belief in the

inheri-tance of acquired characteristics is rejected,

generally, today Although the Lamarckian

theory of evolution may be ridiculed by some

people today because of its inheritable

ac-quired characteristics assumption, that aspect

of inheritance was accepted widely in

La-marck’s time, and even Darwin himself could

offer no acceptable alternative Also, the

con-cept of inheritable acquired characteristics seems to have some survival value where it has been revived in certain contexts and in

various guises (cf., the notion of meme - a

self-replicating cultural element or pattern of behavior analogous to a gene but transferred from one individual to another via memory and imitation rather than genetic transmission)

by several early and modern biologists and psychologists, for example, Jean Piaget, Her-bert Spencer, William McDougall, and Carl Jung In the 1930s, the Soviet geneticist and agronomist Trofim Denisovich Lysenko

(1898-1976) formulated a neo-Lamarckian theory of genetics (also called Lysenkoism)

that suggested that environment may alter the hereditary material Lysenko rejected the

popular doctrine of neo-Mendelism, and his

theories were offered as Marxist orthodoxy, which won the official support of the Soviet government However, during the 1950s, So-viet physicists and mathematicians had gained status and strength with the growth of the Soviet space program and, as scientific sup-port grew for Francis Crick and James Wat-son’s model of DNA in 1953, criticism mounted against Lysenko and his ideas Lysenko was forced to resign his position as director of the Institute of Genetics and the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1965 In the final analysis, Lamarck probably deserves some credit for his unorthodox theory, which was visionary in may respects: it claimed that evolution is the best explanation for both the fossil record and the current diversity of life, it emphasized the great age of Earth, and it stressed adaptation to the environment as a primary product of evolution See also DAR-WIN’S EVOLUTION THEORY; MEN-DEL’S LAWS/PRIN-CIPLES; USE, LAW OF; WEISMANN’S THEORY

REFERENCES

Lamarck, J (1809) Zoological philosophy:

An exposition with regard to the natural history of animals London:

Macmillan

Lysenko, T D (1948) Agrobiology Moscow:

Foreign Languages Publication House

Watson, J., & Crick, F (1953) Molecular

structure of nucleic acids A

struc-ture for deoxyribose nucleic acid

Nature, 171, 737-738

Dawkins, R (1999) The extended phenotype

The long reach of the gene New

York: Oxford University Press

LAMBERT’S LAW/COSINE LAW See

ABNEY’S LAW; FECHNER’S LAW

LAND EFFECT See COLOR VISION,

THEORIES/LAWS OF

LANDOLT CIRCLES/RINGS See

AP-PENDIX A

LAND’S RETINEX THEORY See COLOR

VISION, THEORIES/LAWS OF

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORY

See CHOMSKY’S PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

THEORY

LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT THEORY

See WHORF-SAPIR

HYPOTHESIS/THE-ORY

LANGUAGE ORIGINS, THEORIES OF

The French word langage (the root of our

word language) was introduced early in the

20th century by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand

de Saussure (1857-1913) to denote the faculty

of speech present in all humans and acquired

through heredity, and divided roughly into the

two aspects of “competence” (langue) and

“performance” (parole) (cf., Saussure, 1959)

Langue denotes language as an abstract

com-municative system, and parole denotes

lan-guage as concrete utterances of particular

speakers The following general theories and

speculations of the phylogenetic (i.e.,

devel-opment in the species or group of people)

origins of language were developed most fully

during the 1800s (even though the earliest

written records are about 4,000 years old,

language probably originated much more

re-cently): the natural response theory - holds

that automatic vocal responses/reactions to

specific environmental stimuli are the initial

verbal communications; the yo-he-ho theory -

suggests that language and speech began as

outcries under the strain of work; and as

workers struggled in groups against the harsh

environment; the onomatopoetic theory (also called the ding-dong theory, the animal-cry theory, the bow-wow theory (from “dogs bark- ing”), the splish-splash theory, and the nativist theory) - holds that imitations of sounds of

animals and natural events constitute the

ori-gins of human language (cf., the echo ple - a tendency for children to imitate the

princi-linguistic patterns/behaviors of their parents;

the theory of imitation and the autism theory

of language learning by the American

psy-chologist Orval Hobart Mowrer (1907-1982) which states that a word initially acquired on

an “autistic,” or “self-satisfying,” basis then may become instrumental in producing subse-quent and predictable behavior on the part of

others); the interjectional theory (also called the pooh-pooh and exclamation theories) -

suggests that humans’ emotional exclamations (such as “ow,” “ah,” “oh,” and “oof”) were

the first words of humankind; the ta-ta theory

holds that language began in combinations of

tongue movements and gestures; and the song theory asserts that language evolved

sing-from inarticulate chants of a ritualistic nature

Collectively, these various phylogenetic points

of view lack in their explanatory power, and today there is no well-formulated or unani-

mously-accepted phylogenetic theory of guage origination However, there is much

lan-research being conducted currently by chologists, linguists, anthropologists, and

psy-biologists on the issue of ontogenetic (i.e., occurrence of language in the individual) lan- guage origins, including the topics of lan-

guage acquisition and language development For instance, in a grammatical context, chil-dren start off producing single-word utter-ances and, with increasing age, grammatical sophistication increases, with predictable pat-terns of mastery on linguistic structures such

as questions, negation, passives, and relative clauses Because language learning occurs so rapidly, and with such apparent ease, some researchers (e.g., Chomsky, 1968; Fodor, 1975) propose that language learning is fun-damentally different from other cognitive skills, and involves an “innate, language-specific component.” Theorists advancing this ontogenetic approach claim that the linguistic input that a child receives does not contain enough information to allow a child to deduce

(within the given time period) the grammatical

structure of the language correctly One

influ-ential innate language-specific theory is called

the theory of parameter setting, which

pro-poses that an infant is born with a set of

“switches/parameters” that code all possible

linguistic variations Such parameters begin

with a “default setting;” linguistic input then

triggers the parameters to be set to the value

appropriate for that language Setting the

pa-rameter in this way subsequently enables

mas-tery of particular syntactic structures of that

language and, thus, through the combination

of the innate parameters and triggers from the

linguistic input, grammatical mastery is

achieved In contrast to this viewpoint, other

theorists consider language acquisition and

development to be an issue of general learning

- involving the traditional learning theory

principles (e.g., Skinner, 1957) - where the

child brings general learning processes to

language and applies these to the linguistic

input, eventually figuring out the grammar

involved Although both the innate theory and

the learning theory approaches toward

lan-guage development have their advocates, a

third viewpoint - called the interaction theory

- holds that the interaction between the infant

and caregiver, or between one person and

another, is at the heart of language acquisition

and development Another speculation is that

language origination/acquisition/development

is analogous to the ethologist’s imprinting

phenomenon (cf., Hess, 1959; Lorenz,

1970-71) - that is, a form of rapid learn-ing (via

innate ability) that takes place during a

“criti-cal period” of development, where the

envi-ronment provides the requisite stimulation to

release or trigger the behavior [cf., the waggle

dance of bees, described by the Austrian

zo-ologist Karl von Frisch (1886-1982), that

comes closer to being a language than any

other nonhuman communication system; and

Yerkish - named after the American

psycholo-gist Robert Yerkes (1876-1956) who

experi-mented with primates - refers to an artificial

language using a computer console with keys

containing geometrical symbols for words in

the effort to communicate with, and study

language development in, chimpanzees;

Rum-baugh, Savage-RumRum-baugh, & Scanlon, 1982]

Thus, each theory essentially contributes to

current understanding of language origination,

ontogenetically considered: humans seem to

be innately sensitized to master language, where they learn the particularities of a lan-

guage via reinforcement and punishment, and

where the specific responsiveness and tion of other people further influences and

interac-fine-tunes language achievement in the

indi-vidual The origins of language may be guished from the evolution of language where,

distin-in chronologically-based terms, study of the

evolution of language starts from the time

when language first emerged, whereas the

study of the origin of language ends at the

point when language emerged Such a tion is necessary due to the fundamentally different ways casual, spoken language changes and the ways hominid communicative behavior changes Theoretically, the early hominid communicative behavior, not human language, was subject to the constraints of

distinc-Darwinian evolution In this latter context, the origins of language also rest on the evolution- ary processes leading to actual language pro-

duction (such as gastrointestinal tract tion, vertebral canal enlargement, descent of the larynx, and increase in encephalization), as

reduc-well as evolutionary mechanisms underlying

language emergence (such as duplication of human genes, change of developmental clock, casual role of behavior in evolution), and the beginnings of symbolic and abstract commu-nication and thinking See also CHOMSKY’S PSYCHOLINGUISTIC THEORY; DAR-WIN’S EVOLUTION THEORY; HUMOR, THEORIES OF; LANGUAGE ACQUISI-TION THEORY; LEARNING THEO-RIES/LAWS; MIRROR NEURONS THE-ORY; RIGHT-SHIFT THEORY; WHORF-SAPIR HYPOTHESIS/THE-ORY

REFERENCES

Hales, F N (1904) Materials for the

psycho-genetic theory of comparison ish Journal of Psychology, 1, 205-

Brit-221

Mowrer, O H (1952) The autism theory of

speech development and some

clini-cal applications Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 17, 263-

268

Skinner, B F (1957) Verbal behavior New

York: Appleton-Century-Crofts

Hess, E (1959) Imprinting: An effect of early

experience Science, 130, 133-141

Saussure, F de (1959) Course in general

linguistics New York:

Philosophi-cal Library

Mowrer, O H (1960) Learning theory and

the symbolic processes New York:

Wiley

Frisch, K von (1967) The dance language

and orientation of bees Cambridge,

MA: Harvard University Press

Chomsky, N (1968) Language and the mind

New York: Harcourt, Brace &

World

Lorenz, K Z (1970-71) Studies on animal

behavior Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press

McNeill, D (1970) The acquisition of

lan-guage: The study of developmental

psycholinguistics New York:

Har-per & Row

Fodor, J A (1975) The language of thought

New York: Crowell

DeCasper, A J., & Fifer, W P (1980) Of

human bonding: Newborns prefer

their mother’s voices Science, 208,

1174-1176

Rumbaugh, D M., Savage-Rumbaugh, E S.,

& Scanlon, J L (1982) The

rela-tionship between language in apes

and human beings In J L Fobes &

J E King (Eds.), Primate behavior

New York: Academic Press

Biakerton, D (1984) The language

biopro-gram hypothesis The Behavioral

and Brain Sciences, 7, 173-221

Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R M (1996)

The origins of grammar

Cam-bridge, MA: M.I.T Press

Saffran, J R., Aslin, R N., & Newport, E L

(1996) Statistical learning by

8-month old infants Science, 274,

1926-1928

Jusczyk, P W (1997) The discovery of

spo-ken language Cambridge, MA:

M.I.T Press

Li, C N., & Hombert, J.-M (2002) On the

evolutionary origin of language In

M Stamenov & V Gallese (Eds.),

Mirror neurons and the evolution of

brain and language Amsterdam,

Netherlands: J Benjamins

Martin, R C (2003) Language processing:

Functional organization and

neuro-anatomical basis Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 55-89

LANKESTER’S DEGENERATION ORY See DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY LARGE NUMBERS, LAW OF See

THE-PROBABILITY THEORY/LAWS

LASHLEY’S THEORY The American

be-haviorist and physiological psychologist Karl Spencer Lashley (1890-1958) developed two principles of brain operation and organization

in his work on localization of functions: the

principle/theory of mass action and the ciple/theory of equipotentiality The concept

prin-of mass action refers to the operation prin-of the

cortex as a coordinated system where large masses of tissue are involved in all complex

functioning (cf., Lashley’s multiple control principle - states that any particular part of the

brain is likely to be implicated in the ance of many different types of behavior; also, conversely, a single behavior involves a num-ber of brain states; the principle maintains that the brain functions as an integrated whole)

perform-The mass action principle contrasts with the

competing theory that specific local areas of the brain mediate specific behaviors Lash-

ley’s argument for mass action is based on the

demonstration that the degree of disruption of

a learned behavior is due not simply to the

location of brain lesions but to the amount of

tissue involved Lashley was not suggesting that there is no localization of function but that such localization was only part of the

explanation In its classical form, localization theory, as proposed by the French physiologist

Pierre Jean Marie Flourens (1794-1867), states that each area within the brain is re-sponsible for specific psychological skills;

thus, in this approach, for instance, the tion of brain injury is the salient factor in as-

loca-sessing loss of skills and behaviors As an

example of mass action, Lashley taught cats to

escape from a puzzle box, then removed ous parts of the cortex of their brains After the cats had recovered from the operation, they were placed in the box again Lashley found that the cats could no longer perform

vari-the previously learned escape behavior, but

with further training they were able to relearn

the escape behavior even in cases where both

frontal lobes had been removed entirely

Lash-ley concluded that the principle of mass action

shows that learning is not dependent on

spe-cific neural connections in the brain but on the

brain as a whole, where the rate of relearning

is a function of the total mass of brain tissue

involved The principle of equipotentiality

within neuropsychology and neurophysiology

refers to the speculation that all the neurons

that mediate a given sensory modality have a

common competing function in addition to

their specific functions (i.e., each has equal

potential for participating in a sensory event

within that modality) By extension, the

prin-ciple applies, also, to the notion that within

certain limits one portion of the cerebral

cor-tex can take on the functions of another part

(cf., functional plasticity theory, vicarious

brain process hypothesis, or alternative brain

process theory - conjecture that in some cases

of damage to a part of the brain, another part

will take over the function of the damaged

part; and reciprocal blow effect - refers to the

case where an external injury to an area on

one side of the head causes a brain injury on

the opposite side; this is caused by pressure

waves traveling to the right and left of the

impact site and producing a summation of

force around the person’s skull from the point

180-degrees away; thus, an injury to the left

side of the head may disrupt motor functions

on the right side of the body rather than the

left side) Thus, the principle of

equipotential-ity states that each part of the brain is just as

important as any other, and if some parts are

removed, other parts can carry on their

func-tions For instance, when Lashley removed the

visual area of rats’ brains - al-though they lost

visual patterning - the rats could still

discrimi-nate differences in light intensity and could

follow a moving-light stimulus The two

theo-ries of equipotentiality and localization form

the basis for the major theoretical schools

within neuropsychology However,

psycho-logical research has not wholly supported

either the localization or the equipotentiality

theory See also BEHAVIORIST THEORY;

BRAIN-LOCALIZATION THEORY;

SPENCE’S THEORY

REFERENCES

Flourens, P J.-M (1824) Recherches

experi-mentales sur les proprietes et les fonctions du systeme nerveaux dans les animaux vertebres Paris: Aca-

demie Royale

Lashley, K S (1924) Studies of cerebral

function in learning V The tion of motor habits after destruction

reten-of the so-called motor areas in

pri-mates Archives of Neurological Psychiatry, 12, 249-276

Lashley, K S (1929) Brain mechanisms and

intelligence Chicago: University of

Chicago Press

Lashley, K S (1950) In search of the

en-gram Symposium of the Society of Experimental Biology, 4, 454-482

Lashley, K S., Chow, K., & Semmes, J

(1951) An examination of the trical field theory of cerebral inte-

elec-gration Psychological Review, 58,

123-136

Luria, A (1973) The working brain New

York: Basic Books

LASHLEY-WADE HYPOTHESIS See

GENERALIZATION, PRINCIPLE OF

LATENCY, LAW OF See SKINNER’S

DESCRIPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND ANT CONDITIONING THEORY

OPER-LATENT INHIBITION, PRINCIPLE OF

See INHIBITION, LAWS OF

LATENT OR INCIDENTAL LEARNING THEORY See TOLMAN’S THEORY LATENT TRAIT THEORY See CLASSI-

CAL TEST/MEASUREMENT THEORY

LATERAL AND VERTICAL THINKING THEORIES See LATERALITY THEO-

RIES

LATERAL EYE MOVEMENT THEORY

See LATERALITY THEORIES

LATERAL HYPOTHALAMUS/FEEDING CENTER THEORY See HUNGER, THE-

ORIES OF

LATERAL INHIBITION THEORY See

LATERALITY THEORIES

LATERALITY THEORIES The term

lat-eral/laterality refers to something situated at

the side, or oriented towards the side - away

from the median axis; for example, the term

lateral dominance denotes “handedness”

(pre-ferred use of left versus right hand, or both as

in “ambidexterous”) or to “cerebral

domi-nance” (right versus left side of cerebral

cor-tex) The cerebral dominance theory posits

that cortical activity relating to higher

func-tions is dominated normally by the cerebral

hemisphere that controls the most-used hand

In lateral eye movement (LEM), there is a

deflection of one’s gaze to the left or right

side (or up versus down in vertical eye

move-ment or VEM) LEM theory states that one’s

direction of gaze indicates an increase of

ac-tivity in the contralateral cerebral hemisphere,

such that a person tends to give a rightward

deflection of gaze when preparing to answer a

question requiring verbal processing, whereas

a leftward gaze deflection indicates that the

person is thinking about a spatial problem

However, it is recommended that one exercise

caution when extrapolating from LEMs to

cognitive-affective processes (cf., Ehrlichman

& Weinberger, 1978; Raine, 1991) In brain

laterality theory, it is posited that there is a

functional asymmetry of the two cerebral

hemispheres of the brain and, even though the

two halves of the brain work together as a

coordinated and integrated whole, many

func-tions are subserved more by one hemisphere

than by the other (e.g., the left side of the

brain in most right-handed people subserves

the language function, whereas the right side

of the brain seems to control visual-spatial

reasoning/memory, tactile/visual recognition

of form, musical ability, and copying/drawing

geometric figures; also, the left hemisphere

seems to be the “analytic” side and functions

in a sequential, rational way, whereas the right

hemisphere seems to be the “synthetic” side

and functions in a more “holistic” and

non-rational fashion) However, it is suggested that

the laterality of the brain provides a means of

processing different components of

informa-tion, rather than performance of separate types

of activity In lateral inhibition theory, there is

suppression by a neuron of the response of a nearby neuron at the same level in a sensory system, and occurs in various neural structures where receptor cells are arranged to represent points along a continuum (e.g., the retina of the eye; the organ of Corti of the cochlea of the inner ear); in this phenomenon, excitation

at one point produces inhibition at adjacent points, leading to augmentation of differences

between neighboring neural regions In lateral thinking theory, creative problem-solving

occurs via reformulation or restructuring of the problem, or assessing it from a new and

fresh perspective (cf., vertical thinking which

involves the discovery of methods for coming obstacles in the accepted cognitive approach) See also INHIBITION, LAWS OF; RIGHT-SHIFT THEORY

over-REFERENCES

Bryden, M P (1965) Tachistoscopic

recogni-tion, handedness, and cerebral

dominance Neuropsychologia, 3,

1-8

Sperry, R W (1968) Hemisphere

deconnec-tion and unity in conscious

aware-ness American Psychologist, 23,

723-733

DeBono, E (1970) Lateral thinking:

Creativ-ity step by step New York: Harper

& Row

Gazzaniga, M S (1970) The bisected brain

New York: fts

Appleton-Century-Cro-Nebes, R D (1974) Hemispheric

specializa-tion in commisurotomized man

Psychological Bulletin, 81, 1-14

Wada, J A., Clarke, R., & Hamm, G (1975)

Cerebral hemispheric asymmetry in

humans Archives of Neurology, 32,

239-246

Lake, D A., & Bryden, M P (1976)

Hand-edness and sex differences in

hemi-spheric asymmetry Brain and guage, 3, 266-282

Lan-Ehrlichman, H., & Weinberger, A (1978)

Lateral eye movements and spheric asymmetry: A critical re-

hemi-view Psychological Bulletin, 85,

1080-1101

Galaburda, A M., LeMay, M., Kemper, T L.,

& Geschwind, N (1978) Right-left

asymmetries in the brain Science,

199, 852-856

Bryden, M P (1979) Evidence for

sex-related differences in cerebral

or-ganization In M A Wittig & A C

Petersen (Eds.), Sex-related

differ-ences in cognitive functioning:

De-velopmental issues New York:

Academic Press

Kinsbourne, M (1982) Hemispheric

speciali-zation and the growth of human

un-derstanding American Psychologist,

37, 411-420

Raine, A (1991) Are lateral eye movements a

valid index of functional

hemi-spheric asymmetries? British

Jour-nal of Psychology, 82, 129-135

LATE SELECTION THEORIES See

AT-TENTION, LAWS/PRINCIPLES/THEORIES

OF

LATTA’S COGNITIVE-SHIFT THEORY

OF HUMOR Robert L Latta (1998)

pro-posed a cognitive-shift theory of humor (which

he calls “Theory L,” named after himself) that

is intended to be an argument against the

tra-ditional incongruity theories of humor Latta’s

theory - expressed in logical and syllogistical

terms - may be classified as a “response-side”

theory, and states that the response aspect of

the basic humor process demonstrates a

par-ticular pattern Specifically, the person

re-sponds to stimuli in a way that entails

“unre-laxation;” that is, the individual makes a

cog-nitive shift (which implies “relaxation”), and

then responds to the situation the shift creates

by relaxing again through the mechanism of

laughter Latta argues that his approach

ac-complishes the following: it meets the

chal-lenges often raised against relief theories of

humor; it allows for the occurrence of a wide

variety of humor processes; it incorporates the

genuine insights of other theories of humor; it

explains the psychodynamics of diverse

ex-amples of humor; it provides a basis for

an-swers to questions regarding the global

phe-nomenon of humor; it is consistent with

evo-lutionary theory; it accounts for the specious

appeal of incongruity theory; and it explains

why humor has remained such a mysterious

phenomenon for such a long time See also

COGNITIVE-PERCEPTUAL THEORIES OF HUMOR; HUMOR, THEORIES OF; IN-CONGRUITY/INCONSISTENCY THEO-RIES OF HUMOR; RELIEF/TENSION-RELIEF THEORIES OF HUMOR

REFERENCE

Latta, R L (1998) The basic humor process:

A cognitive-shift theory and the case against incongruity Berlin: Mouton

de Gruyter

LAUGHTER, THEORIES OF See

HUM-OR, THEORIES OF

LAVATORY-WALL ILLUSION See

AP-PENDIX A, MUNSTERBERG ILLUSION

LAY EPISTEMIC THEORY The

Ameri-can social psychologist Arie W Kruglanski

(1980, 1981, 1990) describes a theory of lay epistemics that is applied to a wide range of

topics within social-cognitive psychology The theory concerns the process whereby human knowledge is formed and modified,

and emphasizes the epistemic (i.e., pertaining

to the need to know, often considered to be a basic drive, and observable, in particular, in young children who are curious and want to

“know everything”) functions of hypothesis generation and hypothesis validation Gener- ally, knowledge is defined in terms of proposi-

tions in which an individual has a given gree of confidence, and where such a defini-tion imposes two functional requirements on a

de-model of knowledge formation: hypothesis generation and hypothesis validation It is assumed that hypothesis generation depends

on persons’ cognitive capability and their

epistemic motivations, and hypothesis tion is based on preexisting inference rules in

valida-the person’s mind that connect given

catego-ries of evidence with given hypotheses pothesis generation and validation models

Hy-have been employed previously to depict temic activities on levels of perception, con-cept formation, problem solving, and scien-

epis-tific discovery The lay epistemic approach

has been employed, also, in analyses of ous social-cognitive phenomena where the same knowledge-acquisition process is as-sumed to exist, such as attribution, attitude formation, dissonance, and judgmental accu-

vari-racy In this way, the lay epistemic analysis

may integrate apparently diverse social

psy-chological issues under the same fundamental

principles In other areas of application, the

lay epistemic theory seems to be capable of

synthesizing conceptions of normal and

neu-rotic inference, of adaptive and maladaptive

thinking, and of lay and scientific inference

See also ATTITUDE/ATTITUDE CHANGE,

THEORIES OF; ATTRIBUTION THEORY;

CONCEPT LEARNING/CONCEPT

FOR-MATION, THEORIES OF; DISSONANCE

THEORY; PROBLEM-SOLVING AND

CREATIVITY STAGE THEORIES

REFERENCES

Kruglanski, A W (1980) Lay epistemologic

process and contents: Another look

at attribution theory Psychological

Review, 87, 70-87

Kruglanski, A W (1981) The epistemic

ap-proach in cognitive therapy

Inter-national Journal of Psychology, 16,

275-297

Kruglanski, A W (1989) Lay epistemics and

human knowledge: Cognitive and

motivational bases New York:

Ple-num

Kruglanski, A W (1990) Lay epistemic

the-ory in social-cognitive psychology

Psychological Inquiry, 1, 181-197,

220-230

LAY PERSONALITY THEORY See

PER-SONALITY THEORIES

LAZARUS’ THEORY OF EMOTIONS

The American psychologist Richard S

Laza-rus (1922- ) proposed a cognitive theory of

emotions that makes the concept of appraisal

the keystone for analyzing and synthesizing

the events that occur in an emotional episode

(cf., theory of induced emotion - holds that the

perception of emotional behavior or

expres-sion is sufficient to excite the same emotion in

the person who perceives it) Lazarus argues

that each emotion one experiences is based on

a specific kind of cognitive appraisal that is

accompanied by motor, behavioral, and

physiological changes Lazarus and his

asso-ciates found that the appraisal of an event or

situation - and, therefore, a person’s emotional

reaction - could be manipulated

experimen-tally According to Lazarus, appraisal falls into various categories: primary - initial

evaluation leading to an incipient emotional

response; secondary - an evaluation of one’s

relation to the environment leading to an

al-tered emotional response; and reappraisal -

evaluation of the significance of the secondary appraisal, or a psychological attempt to cope

with stress in the situation Reappraisal may

not be based on the facts at hand but may be a

“defensive reappraisal” where the person tempts to express a more compatible, friendly,

at-or sympathetic point of view toward the tion or events In Lazarus’ approach, the no-

situa-tion of coping (in the reappraisal phase)

func-tions as a mediator between events in the ronment and one’s emotional reaction Thus,

envi-an individual may cope with a situation by reflecting on it, but it is the appraisal of one’s conclusion (and not the reflection itself) that may alter the person’s subsequent emotion

For example, you may feel uneasy over

some-thing that you have done or said long before

you actually think about it, and subsequently

you decide that you have behaved badly See also ARNOLD’S THEORY OF EMOTIONS; COGNITIVE THEORIES OF EMOTIONS; EMOTIONS, THEORIES AND LAWS OF; SCHACHTER-SINGER’S THEORY OF EMOTIONS

REFERENCES

Lazarus, R S (1966) Psychological stress

and the coping process New York:

McGraw-Hill

Lazarus, R S., Averill, J., & Opton, E (1970)

Towards a cognitive theory of

emo-tion In M Arnold (Ed.), Feelings and emotions New York: Academic

Lazarus, R S (1993) From psychological

stress to the emotions: A history of

changing outlooks Annual Review

of Psychology, 44, 1-21

LEADERSHIP, THEORIES OF The

earli-est invearli-estigation of leadership that is regarded

as uniquely psychological is attributed to the Italian statesman Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-

1527) in his 16th century book “The Prince.”

As defined in psychological research, the term

leadership involves the notion of persuading

people to ignore their individual concerns and

devote themselves instead to a common goal

that is important for the welfare of the group

In another definition, leadership refers to the

direction, supervision, or management of a

group or an organization Originally,

leader-ship was thought to be a fixed attribute of a

person, trait, or a series of traits Leaders may

be “emergent” (i.e., informally acknowledged

and elected by the group) or “appointed” (i.e.,

chosen by the organization of which the group

is a part) Empirical research on leadership

has evolved from the simplistic search for

leadership traits (and the best way to relate to

group members) to the relatively complex

view that different situations require different

types of leader personalities or behaviors

Theories of leadership may be classified as

those stressing leader traits/behaviors, those

emphasizing contingencies/environmental

influences, those dealing with transactional

encounters, and those emphasizing cognitive

processes From the early 1900s to about

1940, leadership research focused on the traits

and personal characteristics that distinguish

leaders from followers The general trait

the-ory viewpoint also has been called the great

man/great woman theory of leadership For

instance, in the great woman theory proposed

by the American psychologist Florence

Har-riet Lewion Denmark (1932- ), an attempt is

made to account for the observable sex

differ-ences in the number of men and women who

are recognized leaders by emphasizing the

significance of personality traits and qualities

where cultural and social, rather than gender,

factors are predominant There have been

studies in support of the trait theory of

leader-ship, some of which have yielded positive

results, but the differences found between

leader and followers were quite small and of

little practical or theoretical value In one case

(Lewin, Lippitt, and White, 1939), it was

indi-cated that a democratic, participative

leader-ship style produced better involvement and

member satisfaction than either an autocratic

or laissez-faire leadership style In another

case (Stogdill and Coons, 1957), using leader

behavior rating scales, two behavior factors

emerged (consideration - concern for the fare of subordinates, and structuring - as-

wel-signing roles, setting standards, and evaluating performance) that helped to understand the leader’s role in shaping the group’s interac-

tion In a humanistic approach (McGregor, 1960), Theory X is described which contains

an assumption about the nature of the worker (i.e., that human nature is basically lazy and

externally motivated) and, also, Theory Y is

described which contains the assumption that human nature is basically responsible and self-directed Another more recent orientation

describes Theory Z (Ouchi, 1981), which

combines some of the positive features of the Japanese workplace with some of the realities

of the American workplace Theory Z suggests

that American firms - such as the Japanese

“paternalistic” firms - offer workers long-term (if not lifetime) employment when possible and restructuring (when necessary) to avoid layoffs, both of which would enhance work-

ers’ loyalty Many of the leader behavior theories have had a major impact on manage-

ment thinking, but they have not been tently supported by empirical research The

consis-Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership ory is based on the amount of direction (task

the-behavior) a leader must provide given the situation and the “level of maturity” of the

followers The contingency leadership ries (e.g., Fiedler, 1967) assert that the

theo-leader’s environment is an important

determi-nant of the leader’s performance The gency model views the leadership situation as

contin-giving high, moderate, or low degree of power, influence, and control to the leader In this approach, the effectiveness of the leader is contingent on both the leader’s personality and the characteristics of the situation (cf.,

idiosyncrasy-credit model - a leadership

mod-el which assumes that a leader is able to part from group standards to the degree that the leader has built up and amassed “credits”

de-or prestige over a period of time by adherence

and conformity to group norms; and toothed theory - holds that task-oriented lead-

saw-ers are most effective when faced with highly unfavorable or highly favorable conditions, and relations-oriented leaders are most effec-tive when situations are only moderately fa-vorable; contributing factors in these leader-

ship situations are esteem and power of the

leader and structure of the particular setting)

Although the contingency theories have

gen-erated controversy, there appears to be

sub-stantial support for this approach The

path-goal theory (House, 1971) is a contingency

model involving the interaction of behavior

and situation that states that the leader must

motivate the subordinate individuals by

stress-ing the relationship between the subordinates’

needs and the organizational goals and by

facilitating the “path” that subordinates must

take to fulfill their own needs and the

organi-zation’s goals Research supports this

ap-proach concerning employee job satisfaction

and motivation, but the theory’s predictions

concerning performance have not been well

supported Another contingency model, called

the normative decision theory (Vroom &

Yet-ton, 1973), deals with the conditions under

which leaders should take an autocratic role

when making decisions This theory assumes

that individual decisions are more

time-effective than group decisions, that

subordi-nates who participate in the formulation of a

decision are more committed to it, and that

complex/ambiguous tasks require more

infor-mation and consultation to achieve

high-quality decisions Further research is needed

concerning the predictive validity of the

nor-mative decision theory, but the theory does

indicate the best leadership style to use under

various decision-making conditions The

newer transactional theories of leadership

have replaced the older situational theory

approach, which argued that leaders are best

viewed in terms of the task faced by the group

and the general situation within which it must

operate The situational theory tended to see

leadership as a kind of “one-way” street; that

is, it assumed that leaders influence and direct

their groups but are not, in turn, affected by

their followers Many recent studies suggest,

however, that leaders’ behaviors are often

strongly affected by the actions and demands

of other group members With more current

transactional theories, leadership is viewed as

a reciprocal process of social influence in

which leaders both direct followers and are, in

turn, influenced by these individuals (cf.,

at-tribution theory of leadership - suggests that

leaders are influenced by their subordinates,

with leaders showing sensitivity to the tudes of subordinates and continuously adjust-

atti-ing to them; cognitive resource theory - holds

that leadership performance depends on the leader’s control over the group’s processes

and outcomes; and distributed-actions theory

of leadership - refers to the performance of

acts that help the group to complete its task and to maintain optimal working relationships

among group/team members) Transactional theory also calls attention to the importance of

the perceptions of both leaders and followers regarding the relationship between them (e.g.,

do the followers perceive the leader’s position

as legitimate or illegitimate?) The tional viewpoint argues, also, that both char-

transac-acteristics of the leader and situational factors (such as the task faced by the group) must be

taken into account Thus, the transactional

approach adopts a highly sophisticated count of the leadership process, and is much more complex than previous approaches Also, leadership theorists have begun increas-

ac-ingly to study the cognitive processes inherent

in leadership situations Leadership theory and research is likely to continue in the study of both noncognitive and cognitive variables in the leader-member relationship, as well as show increasing interest in the role of task characteristics in the determination of effec-tive group and member performance See also ATTRIBUTION THEORY; MACHIAVEL-LIAN THEORY; OCCUPATION THE-ORIES; ORGANIZATIONAL/INDUSTRI-AL/SYSTEMS THEORY; PERSONALITY THEORIES

REFERENCES

Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R (1939)

Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social cli-

mates Journal of Social ogy, 10, 271-299

Psychol-Coffin, T (1944) A three-component theory

of leadership Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 39, 63-83 Stogdill, R., & Coons, A (1957) Leader be-

havior: Its description and urement Columbus: Ohio State

meas-University, Bureau of Business search

Re-McGregor, D (1960) The human side of

en-terprise New York: McGraw-Hill

Fiedler, F (1967) A theory of leadership

ef-fectiveness New York:

McGraw-Hill

House, R (1971) A path-goal theory of leader

effectiveness Administrative

Sci-ence Quarterly, 16, 321-338

Vroom, V., & Yetton, P (1973) Leadership

and decision making Pittsburgh:

University of Pittsburgh Press

Stogdill, R (1974) Handbook of leadership

New York: Free Press

Osborn, R., & Hunt, J (1975) An

adaptive-reactive theory of leadership

Or-ganization & Administrative

Sci-ences, 6, 27-44

Denmark, F H (1977) Styles of leadership

Psychology of Women Quarterly, 2,

99-113

Ouchi, W (1981) Theory Z: How American

business can meet the Japanese

challenge Reading, MA:

Addison-Wesley

Strube, M., & Garcia, J (1981) A

metatheo-retical analysis of Fiedler’s

contin-gency model of leadership

effec-tiveness Psychological Bulletin, 90,

307-321

Hersey, P (1985) The situational leader

New York: Warner

Hogan, R., Curphy, G., & Hogan, J (1994)

What we know about leadership:

Ef-fectiveness and personality

Olmstead, J A (2000) Executive leadership:

Building world-class organizations

Houston, TX: Cashman Dudley

Olmstead, J A (2002) Leading groups in

stressful times: Teams, work units,

and task forces Westport, CT:

Quo-rum books

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS EFFECT/

PHENOMENON/HYPOTHESIS/THEO-RY The American psychologist Martin E P

Seligman (1942- ) and his associates

demon-strated that when reinforcing outcomes are

independent of an organism’s responses, the

individual learns that it will get the same

out-comes whether it responds or not and, thereby, finds that responding is useless In effect, the organism has learned to be inactive or to feel

“helpless.” Constant and unavoidable ment eventually causes organisms to give up and quietly submit to the punishment In the

punish-original experiments on learned helplessness,

dogs were first restrained in harnesses and given a series of severe, inescapable shocks The next day, the dogs were placed in a sim-ple, discriminated-avoidance situation On each trial, when a conditioned stimulus (such

as a tone) came on, shock followed after 10 seconds unless the dogs jumped over a low barrier If they failed to jump, the conditioned stimulus remained on, and shocks continued for 50 seconds Using this procedure, the dogs had an opportunity either to avoid or escape from the shock by jumping the barrier Dogs that did not have “day-before” exposure to inescapable shock had no difficulty learning first to escape from shock and then to avoid it

by jumping as soon as they heard the tioned stimulus On the other hand, the dogs that were pre-trained with inescapable shock almost invariably failed to jump at all Similar effects have been shown in experimental situations with a variety of species and differ-ent aversive stimuli The effects often general-ize from one highly aversive stimulus (such as water immersion) to another stimulus (such as shock) This pattern indicates that the aver-siveness of the situation is the crucial aspect

condi-for most animals The learned helplessness

effects may be thought of as involving the

long-known phenomenon of Einstellung (or set), which is defined as rigidity produced by

earlier experience with testing/training tions (e.g., Luchins, 1942) A certain amount

condi-of controversy occurred for a number condi-of years

concerning whether learned helplessness is

simply an effect of the suppression of ishment (of effective responses), or whether in

pun-some cognitive sense the organisms actually

learn or really “know” that they have no

con-trol over what happens to them The cognitive interpretation is called the learned helpless- ness (LH) hypothesis and is distinguished from the experimentally-based learned-help- lessness effect There is no doubt about the

“effect,” but the status of the “hypothesis” is less certain Apparently, a great deal of inter-

est in learned helplessness derives from

Selig-man’s arguments that learned helplessness

presents a model for understanding the

ubiqui-tous malady of human depression The theory

of learned helplessness has been challenged,

however, by other investigators who have

explained the phenomenon in other ways The

issue is whether learning to be helpless in a

particular situation generalizes only to similar

situations or to a wide variety of them For

instance, McReynolds (1980) observed that

when people experience a situation in which

reinforcements are not contingent on their

responding, their responding extinguishes If

the situation then changes to one where

re-sponding will be reinforced, the individuals

will continue not to respond unless they

per-ceive that the schedule of reinforcement has

changed The more similar the second

situa-tion is to the first, the more likely the person

will act “helpless.” Thus, the phenomenon of

learned helplessness may be viewed as a

fail-ure to discriminate between the situation

un-der which responding is reinforced and the

situation under which it is not reinforced

Further research may determine whether

learned helplessness is a stable personality

trait, as Seligman argues, or whether it can be

explained by instrumental/operant

condition-ing principles See also DEPRESSION,

THE-ORIES OF; MIND/MENTAL SET, LAW OF;

SKINNER’S DESCRIPTIVE BEHAVIOR/

OPERANT CONDITIONING THEORY

REFERENCES

Luchins, A (1942) Mechanization in problem

solving: The effect of Einstellung

Psychological Monographs, 54, No

248

Overmeier, J., & Seligman, M E P (1967)

Effects of inescapable shock upon

subsequent escape and avoidance

learning Journal of Comparative

and Physiological Psychology, 63,

23-33

Seligman, M E P., & Maier, S (1967)

Fail-ure to escape traumatic shock

Jour-nal of Experimental Psychology, 74,

1-9

Seligman, M E P (1975) Helplessness: On

depression development and death

San Francisco: Freeman

Maier, S., & Seligman, M E P (1976)

Learned helplessness: Theory and

evidence Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 105, 3-46

Abramson, L Y., Seligman, M E P., &

Teasdale, J (1978) Learned lessness in humans: Critique and re-

help-formulation Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74

Huesmann, L (Ed.) (1978) Learned

helpless-ness as a model of depression

(Spe-cial Issue) Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 1

McReynolds, W (1980) Learned helplessness

as a schedule-shift effect Journal of Research in Personality, 14, 139-

157

Roth, S (1980) Learned helplessness in

hu-mans: A review Journal of ality, 48, 103-133

Person-Seligman, M E P., & Weiss, J (1980)

Cop-ing behavior: Learned helplessness, physiological activity, and learned

inactivity Behavioral Research Theory, 18, 459-512

LEARNED TASTE AVERSION EFFECT

See GARCIA EFFECT

LEARNING STYLE THEORY The

American organizational/educational ologist David A Kolb (1939- ) developed his Learning Style Inventory (LSI) based on his

psych-experiential learning theory (ELT) (Kolb, 1984) and on learning styles theory (cf.,

Cassidy, 2004) ELT provides a holistic model

of the learning process and a multi-linear model of adult development; it emphasizes the central role that experience plays in the learn-

ing process, differentiating it from both tive learning theories and behavioral learning theories The ELT model advances two dia-

cogni-lectically related modes of experience: crete experience and abstract conceptualiza-tion; and the related modes of transforming experience: reflective observation and active experimentation According to Kolb’s ELT, a four-stage learning cycle is involved where immediate/concrete experiences are the basis for observations and reflections; the reflec-tions are assimilated and distilled into abstract concepts from which new implications for

con-action may be drawn Kolb’s LSI contains

four primary learning styles (doing, thinking,

watching, and feeling), and four learning style

types (accommodator, diverger, converger,

and assimilator) A major hypothesis of

Kolb’s learning style theory is that individuals

use and prefer different learning strategies or

styles that correspond to how effective and

comfortable they are when learning Critics of

Kolb’s LSI cite the following aspects or

ar-guments against its use: it contains flawed

methodology; its statistical procedure is

mis-applied; there are logical inconsistencies in the

theory construction; and there is a general lack

of support for reliability and validity (cf.,

At-kinson, 1989; Koob & Funk, 2002; Wilson,

1986) See also COGNITIVE STYLE

MOD-ELS; LEARNING THEORIES/LAWS

REFERENCES

Kolb, D A (1971/1976/1981/1985) The

Learning Style Inventory Boston:

McBer

Kolb, D A., & Fry, R (1975) Toward an

applied theory of experiential

learn-ing In C Cooper (Ed.), Theories of

group process London: Wiley

Kolb, D A (1984) Experiential learning:

Experience as the source of learning

and development Englewood Cliffs,

NJ: Prentice Hall

Wilson, D K (1986) An investigation of the

properties of Kolb’s Learning Style

Inventory Leadership and

Organi-zation Development Journal, 7,

3-15

Atkinson, G (1989) Kolb’s Learning Style

Inventory - 1985 Psychological

Re-ports, 64, 991-995

Cornwell, J M., & Manfredo, P A (1994)

Kolb’s learning style theory

revis-ited Educational and Psychological

Measurement, 54, 317-327

Kolb, A., & Kolb, D A (2000) Bibliography

of research on experiential learning

and the Learning Style Inventory

Cleveland, OH: Case Western

Re-serve University

Kolb, D A., Boyatzis, R., & Mainemelis, C

(2001) Experiential learning theory:

Previous research and new

direc-tions In R J Sternberg & L Zhaig

(Eds.), Perspectives on thinking,

learning, and cognitive styles

Mah-wah, NJ: Erlbaum

Koob, J J., & Funk, J (2002) Kolb’s

Learn-ing Style Inventory: Issues of

reli-ability and validity Research on cial Work Practice, 12, 293-308

So-Cassidy, S (2004) Learning styles: An

over-view of theories, models, and

meas-ures Educational Psychology, 24,

419-444

LEARNING THEORIES/LAWS The term

learning may be defined as a relatively

per-manent change in behavior or in behavioral potentiality as a result of experience and can-not be attributed to temporary body states such as those induced by illness, fatigue, or

drugs [cf., the alpha-, beta-, and potheses of the American psychologist Knight

gamma-hy-Dunlap (1873-1949), which refer, ively, to the enhancement, non-enhancement,

respect-or hindering of learning through frequency/

repetition of a behavior; and the factor theory

of learning - states that there are two or more

factors/processes involved in learning: tioning, comprehension, and attention factors]

condi-Learning is a general term to describe ioral changes, whereas the term conditioning

behav-is a more specific term used to describe actual procedures that can modify behavior (e.g.,

classical conditioning; instrumental/operant conditioning) In a chronological sequence of ideas in philosophy, the history of learning

starts with the Greek philosopher Plato (c

427-347 B.C.) and his rationalist position

(i.e., knowledge is available only through reasoning) concerning the conception of the

universe in dualistic terms (abstract/ideation/

nonsensory versus sensory experience) Plato

maintained a nativist position in his cence theory of knowledge [i.e., the belief that

reminis-all knowledge is present in the human soul at birth and, thus, “to know” is to remember the

contents of the soul; cf., neo-Platonism theory

- is a revision of Plato’s philosophy, especially

as developed by the Roman introspectionist philosopher Plotinus (c 205-270) who blended the themes of Plato, Pythagoras, Aris-totle, and the Stoics to produce a philosophy consistent with the Christian religious doctrine

of the time] Plato’s famous student Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) held that knowledge is gained

both from sensory experience and from

think-ing/reasoning However, for Aristotle (unlike

Plato), the laws and forms in the universe did

not have an existence independent of their

empirical aspects but are simply observed

relationships in nature Thus, Aristotle’s

posi-tion was that of an empiricist (where

knowl-edge is based on sensory experience), and he

formulated his laws of association (such as the

laws of similarity, contrast, and contiguity)

within this empiricist context According to

Aristotle, sensory experience gives rise to

ideas, and the ideas stimulate other ideas in

accordance with the principles of association

Later, in philosophy, the attempt to explain

the relationship between ideas using the laws

of association came to be known as

tionism Aristotle’s ideas regarding

associa-tionism were so significant that they operate

even today in all the major contemporary

learning theories Next, the French

philoso-pher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) inferred

from his famous edict, “I think, therefore I

am,” that sensory experience must be a

reflec-tion of a greater objective reality Descartes

also postulated (in Cartesian dualism) a

sepa-ration between the mind (which is free and

capable of choice) and the body (which is

similar to a predictable machine) where the

pineal gland is the point of contact between

the mind and body According to Descartes,

the mind can move the gland from side to side

to open or close the “pores” of the brain

(al-lowing “animal/vital spirits” to flow

through-out the body and cause bodily movements in a

reflex action fashion) Descartes relied heavily

on innate ideas (such as the concepts of God,

self, space, and time) that are not derivable

from experience but are an integral part of the

mind Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), however,

opposed the notion that innate ideas are the

source of knowledge Instead, Hobbes held

that sense impressions are the source of all

knowledge and, with this belief, helped to

pave the way for the renewal of the concepts

of empiricism and associationism According

to Hobbes, human behavior is controlled by

“appetites” (events that are “good” and are

approached by the individual) and “aversions”

(events that are “evil” and avoided by the

person); cf., Jeremy Bentham’s (1748-1832)

concept of the pleasure principle, which was

hypothesized to control human behavior and which was later employed by Sigmund Freud

as well as the reinforcement theorists John

Locke (1632-1704) also opposed the notion of

innate ideas and suggested that the mind at

birth is a blank tablet (“tabula rasa”) upon which experiences writes Thus, according to Locke, there is nothing in the mind that is not first in the senses Locke distinguished be-

tween primary qualities (characteristics of

physical objects such as size, weight, solidity,

mobility, and shape) and secondary qualities

(things in the mind of the perceiver such as colors, odors, and tastes) Locke held that ideas are the elements that constitute the mind

where the laws of association explain how the

ideas come to be combined George Berkeley (1685-1753) amended Locke’s viewpoint by claiming that there are no primary qualities, only secondary qualities where the only reality

is the mind Because Berkeley asserted that the contents of the mind are derived from

experience, he may still be considered an piricist Next, the philosopher David Hume

em-(1711-1776) carried Berkeley’s argument another step further and insisted that persons can know nothing for sure about ideas, and mind is no more than a stream of ideas, memories, feelings, and imaginings Hume,

also an empiricist, argued that the “laws of

nature” are constructs of the imagination where the “lawfulness” observed in nature is

in one’s head and not in nature (cf., Hume’s fork - Hume’s argument that the only legiti-

mate sources of knowledge/belief are reason and empirical evidence; this argument was

adopted by the logical positivists who rejected

metaphysics, theology, and ethics as less) Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) attempted

meaning-to reconcile the viewpoints of rationalism (the manipulation of concepts) and empiricism (the

examination of sensory experience) Kant

suggested that innate categories of thought

(such as unity, totality, reality, existence, and causality) exist where innate mental faculties are superimposed over one’s sensory experi-ences, thereby giving them meaning and struc-ture Thus, according to Kant, the mind makes

an active contribution to one’s experience involving organization and meaning of sen-

sory information (cf., Gestalt theory and nitive-developmental theory) In this sense,

cog-Kant kept the doctrine of rationalism vital by

indicating the importance of mind as the

source of knowledge John Stuart Mill

(1806-1873) accepted the earlier notion of Hobbes

and Locke that complex ideas are

combina-tions of simpler ideas but also added the

inno-vative notion that a new totality - which bears

little resemblance to its parts - may emerge in

the process (cf., the later Gestaltists’ assertion

that “the whole is more than the sum of its

parts”) Other historical influences on modern

learning theory are Thomas Reid’s

(1710-1796) suggestion that there are 27 discrete

areas of the brain where each corresponds to a

specific innate faculty, that is, a power of the

mind that influences how one perceives the

world; Franz Joseph Gall’s (1758-1828)

asser-tion that a person’s strong and weak faculties

could be detected by analyzing the

depres-sions and bumps on the person’s skull, a

sys-tem of analysis, known as brain-localization

theory or phrenology; Charles Darwin’s

(1809-1882) demonstration of the utility of

behavior in adjusting to a changing

environ-ment and his evolutionary notion that human

development is biologically continuous with

that of lower animals; and Hermann

Ebbing-haus’ (1850-1909) original experimental

stud-ies of learning and memory using “nonsense

syllables,” which demonstrated how the law of

frequency operates in the formation of new

verbal associations (cf., the cue overload

prin-ciple - states that there are a limited number

of items that can be associated with a cue

before it begins to lose its effectiveness, and

where the more items that are connected with

a cue, the less effective the cue in eliciting the

item in the future; and reduced cue hypothesis

- holds that upon further repetitions of

condi-tioning, less and less of the original stimulus

is required to elicit the response) The

so-called schools or “isms” in the history of

psy-chology also influenced the shape of modern

learning theory: structuralism (via Wilhelm

Wundt and Edward B Titchener), whose goal

was to discover and examine the basic

ele-ments of thought (“sensations”) through the

method of trained introspection (self analysis

using predetermined modes of language or

vocabulary); functionalism (via John Dewey,

William James, and James R Angell), whose

goal was to discover how mental and

behav-ioral processes are related to an organism’s adaptation to its environment by analysis of

the person’s acts and functions; and ism (via John B Watson), whose stated goal

behavior-was to be totally objective and scientific in its study of external behavior, and where the study of inner consciousness was rejected completely Of these schools of psychological

thought, the approach of behaviorism

proba-bly had the most profound overall effect on

American learning theory Numerous theories dominated modern learning theories from

about 1900 to 1960 Most of these may be

called intervening variable theories, or tional theories, because they attempted to

media-explain hypothetical processes that intervene between observable environmental and behav-

ioral events (cf., S-O-R theory/model –

ad-vances the study of intervening variables and

hypothetical constructs as contained in the O

or “organism” component of the model where

S is the stimulus input and R is the response output; some S-O-R theorists emphasize the

“organisms” contributions to learning, and others focus on the importance of “percep-tion” in learning) One exception to the inter-vening variable approach is a metatheoretical/ atheoretical area of study in learning called

the experimental analysis of behavior, which

refers to an emphasis on examination,

devel-opment, and application of the principles of operant conditioning The model of operant conditioning, along with its many experimen-

tally produced concepts, is considered to play

an extremely important role in learning theory

because it helps to explain how new and plex behaviors and phenomena are developed

com-in com-individuals Among the com-intervencom-ing able theories (that attempt to deal with topics

vari-that the experimental analysis of behavior approach tends to avoid, such as memory, motivation, and cognition) are E C Tolman’s

expectancy theory - where “expectanies” were

hypothesized to develop in the organism due solely to the temporal succession, or contigu-ity, of environmental events and not necessar-ily on the consequences of responding (cf.,

cognitive sign principle - the conjecture that

true learning involves an awareness that the various steps to the achievement of a goal is a unified pattern, and that every step is a totality rather than merely a series of connections); I

Pavlov’s physiological theory - in which the

relation between events and intervening

vari-ables invoke physiological referents to explain

how learning occurs (cf., D Hebb’s

neuropsy-chological theory and irradiation theory - a

hypothesis that assumes that during learning

excitation spreads into neighboring structures

such as nerves or muscles; more generally,

irradiation theory refers to learning that

in-volves selective reinforcement of one of many

responses within a “response hierarchy;” and

C L Morgan’s trial and error theory of

learning - proposes that learning consists of

the process of succeeding in attempts by

try-ing repeatedly, and gaintry-ing knowledge

subse-quently from one’s failures; phenomena such

as “sudden solutions” and “insight” in

prob-lem-solving serve to qualify this approach

somewhat); E R Guthrie’s molecular

/contiguity theory - where temporally

contigu-ous events, molecular stimulus events called

“cues,” molecular responses called

“move-ments,” and molar behaviors called “acts” are

examined to understand an organism’s

behav-ior; R S Woodworth’s massed-spaced theory

of learning - refers to the relative advantages

and disadvantages of learning material in an

intensive session; factors such as the volume

of material to be learned, the nature of the

learning theory, the context in which the

mate-rial is learned and reinforced, and learner/

individual differences are experimentally

ma-nipulated in studies of this theory; and C L

Hull’s and K Spence’s drive-reduction theory

- in which contiguity of stimulus with

re-sponse, in addition to various drive-reduction

concepts such as “habit,” was hypothesized to

account for learned behavior (cf.,

linear-operator model of learning - holds that

learn-ing is based on an organism respondlearn-ing to part

of the total stimulus where responses occur

due to fractional elements of the total

stimu-lus; in this model, learning is increased by

reward but reduced by the effort required by

the learning process; cf., Bush & Mosteller,

1955) Supplemental modern learning theories

developed in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s

have been called “miniature” theories, and

they typically involve quantitative

characteris-tics with a circumscribed range of content

Such miniature theories are illustrated by W

Estes’ mathematical learning/stimulus

sam-pling theory; R Atkinson and R Shiffrin’s formation-processing/memory theory; H Simon and L Gregg’s stochastic/computer model theory; and R D Luce’s probability theory of learning - states that when a choice

in-of behavior exists, the probability in-of a sponse tends toward the probability of rein-forcement Currently, the work by intervening

re-variable theorists on classical conditioning and by experimental analysts on operant con- ditioning may be viewed as converging on a

common understanding of mutually employed

concepts such as the key concept of forcement in learning theory However, vari-

rein-ous important questions concerning learning processes and phenomena remain unanswered (Hergenhah, 1982): How does learning vary

as a function of maturation? Does learning depend on reward? How does learning vary as

a function of species? How does learned havior relate to instinctive behavior? Can some associations be learned more easily than

be-others? How does learning vary as a function

of personality characteristics? To what extent

is learning a function of the total ment? and How do internal and external vari- ables interact with type of learning? (cf., the areas of applied learning theory in educational psychology called instructional theory and

environ-instructional design; Gagne, 1985; Reigeluth,

1983; cf., knowledge of results principle -

states that immediate/prompt feedback given

to a learner concerning performance is more effective than delayed feedback, also called

performance re-view effect; practice effect -

refers to any change or improvement in ing that results from repetition or practice of

learn-the task materials; and testing effect - refers to

any of a number of consequences of taking tests, ranging from developing a strong atti-tude, positive or negative, towards tests to learning how to take tests to obtain unwar-ranted positive results) Most of what is now known about learning came out of the great debates among learning theorists that took place in the 1930s and 1940s Such an atmos-phere still exists in psychology, but the debate among learning theorists does not seem to be

as intense today as it was during that earlier era See also ASSOCIATION, LAWS/PRINCIPLES OF; BANDURA’S THEORY; BEHAVIORIST THEORY;

COMTE’S LAW/THEORY; DARWIN’S

EVOLUTION THEORY;

EMPIRI-CAL/EMPIRICISM, DOCTRINE OF;

EM-PIRICIST VERSUS NATIVIST THEORIES;

ESTES’ STIMULUS SAMPLING THEORY;

FORMAL DISCIPLINE THEORY;

GE-STALT THEORY AND LAWS; GUTHRIE’S

THEORY OF BEHAVIOR; HEBB’S

THE-ORY OF PERCEPTUAL LEARNING;

HULL’S LEARNING THEORY;

INFOR-MATION/INFORMATION-PROCESSING

THEORY; INTERBEHAVIORAL THEORY;

MIND-BODY THEORIES; MIND/MENTAL

STATES, THEORIES OF; MOTOR

LEARN-ING THEORIES; MOWRER’S THEORY;

PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING

PRINCI-PLES/LAWS/THEORIES; PIAGET’S

THE-ORY OF DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES;

PUNISHMENT, THEORIES OF;

REIN-FORCEMENT THEORY;

REINFORCE-MENT, THORNDIKE’S THEORY OF;

SKINNER’S DESCRIPTIVE BEHAVIOR/

OPERANT CONDITIONING THEORY;

SPENCE’S THEORY; THORNDIKE’S LAW

OF EFFECT; TOLMAN’S THEORY;

WUNDT’S THEORIES/DOCTRINES

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Bentham, J (1830) Works J Bowruy (Ed.)

Edinburgh: Hait

Gall, F (1835) Works: On the functions of the

brain and each of its parts Boston:

Marsh, Capen, & Lyon

Reid, T (1849) Essays on the intellectual

powers of the mind Edinburgh:

Macachian, Stewart

Darwin, C (1859) On the origin of species by

means of natural selection London:

Murray

Ebbinghaus, H von (1885) Uber das

ge-dachtnis Leipzig: Duncker

Wertheimer, M (1912) Experimentelle

studi-en uber das sehstudi-en von be-wegung

Zeitschrift fur Psychologie, 61,

161-265

Pavlov, I (1927) Conditioned reflexes

Lon-don: Oxford University Press

Symonds, P M (1927) Laws of learning

Journal of Educational Psychology,

18, 405-413

Tolman, E C (1932) Purposive behavior in

animals and men New York:

Ap-pleton-Century-Crofts

Dashiell, J (1935) A survey and synthesis of

learning theories Psychological Bulletin, 32, 261-275

Guthrie, E R (1935) The psychology of

learning New York: Harper Skinner, B F (1938) The behavior of organ-

isms: An experimental analysis

New York; fts

Appleton-Century-Cro-Hull, C L (1943) Principles of behavior

New York: fts

Appleton-Century-Cro-Pitts, W (1943) A general theory of learning

and conditioning Psychometrika, 8,

1-18

Hilgard, E R (1948) Theories of learning

New York: fts

Appleton-Century-Cro-Hebb, D O (1949) The organization of

be-havior New York: Wiley

Estes, W (1950) Toward a statistical theory

of learning Psychological Review,

57, 94-107

Spence, K (1951) Theoretical interpretations

of learning In S S Stevens (Ed.),

Handbook of experimental ology New York: Wiley

psych-Hull, C L (1952) A behavior system: an

introduction to behavior theory cerning the individual organism

con-New Haven, CT: Yale University Press

Bush, R R., & Mosteller, F (1955)

Stochas-tic models for learning New York:

Wiley

Spence, K (1956) Behavior theory and

con-ditioning New Haven, CT: Yale

University Press

Gregg, L., & Simon, H (1967) Process

mod-els and stochastic theories of simple

concept formation Journal of ematical Psychology, 4, 246-276

Math-Atkinson, R., & Shiffrin, R (1968) Human

memory: A proposed system and its control processes In K Spence & J

Spence (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation Vol 2

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Seligman, M E P (1970) On the generality

of the laws of learning

Psycho-logical Review, 77, 406-418

Bower, G., & Hilgard, E R (1981) Theories

of learning Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

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learn-ing and theory of instruction New

York: Holt, Rinehart, and Win-ston

Mowrer, R R., & Klein, S B (2001)

Hand-book of contemporary learning

the-ories Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum

LEARNING THEORY, THORNDIKE’S

See REINFORCEMENT, THORNDIKE’S

THEORY OF

LEAST ACTION, LAW OF See GESTALT

THEORY/LAWS

LEAST COMMITMENT, PRINCIPLE

OF See INFORMATION/INFORMATION-

PROCESSING THEORY

LEAST CONSTRAINT, LAW OF See

GESTALT THEORY/LAWS

LEAST-EFFORT, GESTALT PRINCIPLE

OF See GESTALT THEORY/LAWS

LEAST EFFORT, PRINCIPLE OF = law

of simplest path This general principle states

that when there are a number of possibilities

for action, a person will select the one that

requires the least amount of effort, or the one

that involves the minimum expenditure of

cognitive energy (cf., Allport, 1954) The

principle has been invoked in a wide range of

disciplines and in a diverse range of problems

from rats learning to run mazes (cf., Tsai,

1932) to the operation of economic systems

In the area of personality and social

psychol-ogy, a principle called least interest found

expression similar to that of least effort: in a

personal relationship, whichever member of a

couple is less interested in the relationship is

the one who is able to set its terms The American philologist George Kingsley Zipf (1902-1950) enumerated various functional relationships in the area of the lawfulness of

language phenomena that exemplify the ciple of least effort: the frequency of occur-

prin-rence of words is inversely related to their length; that is, there is a universal tendency for people to use short words (e.g., “TV”) more often than long ones (e.g., “television”); the lower the rank order in word frequency, the more different words are found at that rank (e.g., in a sample of 1,000 words there are many different words that occur once, and there are only a very few words that occur as frequently as 40 times per 1,000 words); the more “effortful” a sound is, the less frequent its occurrence tends to be; and the average number of different meanings per word is proportional to its frequency of occurrence Zipf presented analyses and evidence indicat-ing that there is a “grand harmony” or balance

in the use of language A related principle,

called economy of effort, or adaptive tion, refers to the tendency of an organism in

adapta-repeated performances to minimize the penditure of energy by eliminating useless movements See also LANGUAGE ORI-GINS, THEORIES OF; ZIPF’S LAW

ex-REFERENCES

Tsai, L S (1932) The law of minimum effort

and maximum satisfaction in animal

behavior Monographs of the tional Research Institute of Psy- chology, Academica Sinica, 1, 1-47 Zipf, G K (1949) Human behavior and the

Na-principle of least effort Cambridge,

MA: Addison-Wesley

Allport, G W (1954) The nature of

preju-dice Cambridge, MA:

Addison-Wesley

LEAST-ENERGY EXPENDITURE, CIPLE OF See GESTALT THEORY/

PRIN-LAWS

LEAST INTEREST, PRINCIPLE OF See

LEAST EFFORT, PRINCIPLE OF

LEAST SQUARES, LAW OF See

PROB-ABILITY THEORY/LAWS

LEE-BOOT EFFECT See OLFACTION/

SMELL, THEORIES OF

LEE-HENDRICKS MODEL See LOVE,

THEORIES OF

LEFT-RIGHT EFFECT See

DEVELOP-MENTAL THEORY

LEIBNITZ’S MONAD THEORY See

HERBART’S DOCTRINE OF

APPERCEP-TION

LENIENCY EFFECT See

EXPERIMEN-TER EFFECTS

LENS MODEL The Hungarian-born

Ameri-can psychologist Egon Brunswik (1903-1955)

proposed this metaphor to emphasize the

probabilistic relationship between “ecological/

distal criterion” (an aspect or feature of an

environmental context to which an organism

must adapt functionally, and which the

organ-ism cannot perceive directly but judges it as

best it can from sensory cues) and the sensory

cues of “imperfect ecological validity” (a

dimension/aspect of a proximal/near stimulus,

such as the monocular and binocular depth

cues one employs in making depth perception

assessments) whereby an organism judges the

ecological criterion In the lens model, sensory

cues are hypothesized as being focused by

cognitive processes in a manner similar to a

lens with rays of light falling onto the object

or surface of the ecological criterion

Brunswik refers to the correlation between the

sensory cue(s) and the imperceptible

ecologi-cal criterion as the “ecologiecologi-cal validity” of the

cue(s) See also PERCEPTION (II

COM-PARATIVE APPRAISAL, THEORIES OF;

PROBABILISTIC FUNCTIONALISM,

THE-ORY OF

REFERENCE

Brunswik, E (1952) The conceptual

frame-work of psychology Chicago:

Uni-versity of Chicago Press

LEONARDO’S PARADOX See VISION/

SIGHT, THEORIES OF

LEPLEY HYPOTHESIS/LEPLEY-HULL

HYPOTHESIS See SERIAL POSITION

EFFECT

LESS-LEADS-TO-MORE EFFECT See

FESTINGER’S COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY

LEVEE EFFECT See SELYE’S THEORY/

MODEL OF STRESS

LEVELS OF PROCESSING THEORY

See INFORMATION/INFORMATION-PRO- CESSING THEORY; SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM MEMORY, THEORIES OF

LEWIN’S FIELD THEORY = topological

psychology = hodological/vector psychology The German-born American psychologist

Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) developed a field theory of personality that was influenced by

Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis The

concept of field, a major principle of

Ge-staltists, refers to the determination of one’s behavior by the psychophysical field, consist-ing of an organized system of stresses or forces, that is analogous in its dynamics to an electromagnetic/gravitational field in physics

In the field theory approach, a person’s

per-ception of an object is determined by the total field in which the object is contained Accord-

ing to Lewin, field theory provides a method

of analyzing causal relations among mutually interdependent facts and of developing scien-tific constructs The principal features of

Lewin’s field theory are study of behavior as a

function of the field that exists at the time the behavior occurs; analysis of behavior in the situation as a whole and from which the com-ponent parts may be distinguished; focus on the concrete person in a concrete situation that can be represented mathematically; and a preference for psychological, as opposed to physical or physiological, descriptions of the field in which underlying forces or needs de-termine behavior Lewin’s conceptualization

of the structure of personality is cast in terms

of spatial representations because such counts can be treated in nonmetrical-mathematical ways, whereas ordinary verbal definitions do not lend themselves to such treatments For example, the separation of the person from the rest of the universe is de-picted by simply drawing an enclosed figure such as a circle, square, or triangle The boundary of the figure defines the limits of the