I feel that yes, Freud took psychology off in the wrong direction and am constantly puzzled at why he is so still highly revered by the lay folks/media. But, to disagree with Stephen, I also believe that Piaget took us in the wrong direction regarding children's cognitive abilities as well as how they learn. Vygotsky had it right but he wrote in a language we couldn't translate and, of course, we love folks from northern Europe. Piaget's theory states that children often learn in isolation through trial and error. True enough if no one is around. But there are many times that a mentor is extremely, if not necessary, to the learning of more complex skills.* There are very few exceptions to this principle. When one reads the biography of the great ones in any field, almost always you learn that there was an adult acting as a tutor due to love of learning and teaching. I feel strongly about this as so many of our learning programs (god help us, especially from the University of Chicago) assume children can 'figure it out on their own.' Sure, the brightest can. And we leave the rest behind--forever.
Joan [EMAIL PROTECTED] *This is aside from the "gifted" who can learn by trial and error--hurray, hurray. But if we base our teaching practices on their learning process, then we have the failure of learning shown in so many of our schools today. > On 17 Mar 2007 at 11:55, Hoganjohn wrote: > >> >> I'm not a major fan of Freud, but the blogger is trying to >> identifythe most influential studies. It would be hard to deny Freud's >> influence. As for Freud not being a "real" researcher,I notice >> thatsomeone has included Piaget on the list, and certainly his early >> work with his three children was no more experimental than Freud's work >> was. > > That someone was me, of course. I don't think it's so hard to deny > Freud's influence, if by "influence" we mean a lasting effect on the > direction of evidence-based psychology. He caused lots of trouble, > certainly, and had a powerful effect on literature and popular culture, > but on real scientific psychology? Not a chance. > > As for Piaget, his methods may not have been experimental, but his > observations launched a million experiments to see if he was right. His > work has had a profound and lasting influence on current research in > child psychology. > > My unprovable opinion is that modern psychology would have been better > off had Freud never existed, but much poorer without Piaget. > > > Stephen > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. > Department of Psychology > Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 2600 College St. > Sherbrooke QC J1M 0C8 > Canada > > Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy > TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at > http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > --- > To make changes to your subscription go to: > http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english > > > --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
