EUROPEAN FUNCTIONALISTS:David Katz, Edgar Rubin, Jean Piaget

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 16

EUROPEAN FUNCTIONALISTS

David Katz

The first of the European functionalists was David Katz. He taught psychology at Stockholm,

Sweden, for a number of years. In order to develop theory of functions of consciousness, Katz

experimented upon how we see colors. He showed through his experiments that the perception of colors

remains constant in different lights. This means that if someone is asked about a color in one kind of light,

his or her answer would be the same in another kind of light. But in reality, colors change because of

different lights. David Katz showed that human subjects see them as before. This he called the

"phenomenon of color constancy." Katz purported that color constancy is a function of the consciousness

which makes the person perceive a color in the same way as before. Therefore, Katz also focused on

explaining the functions of consciousness and hence included in the functionalist school of thought.

Edgar Rubin

The other European functionalist was Edgar Rubin who taught at Copenhagen, Holland. Rubin

showed by his experiments on perception, that human beings see shapes in terms of figure and ground.

This is not just limited to the sense of vision but also on other senses. For example, in case of the sense of

vision, sky is the ground and clouds are the figures. When we look at the clouds, we acknowledge their

existence because they exist in a background of the blue sky. Further, when we look at a tree, the sky again

serves as the background while the tree is the figure in the background. In case of other senses, the sense of

hearing also depicts this phenomenon. When we listen to a song, the music being played is the ground and

voice of the singer is the figure. Therefore, Edgar Rubin also focused on how the consciousness functions

rather than the structure of the consciousness.

Jean Piaget

The third European functionalist was Jean Piaget who worked at Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland.

Piaget is famous for his theory of how children's minds develop.

He postulated the concept of Schemata. According to him, Schemata is a construct or an idea in

the mind of children that how the world is, and how the world functions. In other words, it is what the

children perceive about the world around them. They think about how everything occurs, how things go

about and how they function. Of all this they make up explanations which according to Piaget is a

Schemata.

Schemata develop over the time by two processes:

Assimilation

Accommodation

Here, assimilation is the absorption of new and different information about the world and

accommodation according to Piaget is the expanding, stretching and changing of schemata to absorb new

information about the world. This means that when a child is exposed to various happening of the world he

absorbs information from the happenings. This information, collection or absorption process is called

assimilation. On the other hand, the information is a subject to constant change. As the child grows, he is

exposed to more and more information which requires constant refurbishing of the previously gathered

information. This process is called accommodation.

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Another contribution of Jean Piaget is that he elaborated how children develop. According to him

development takes place in four stages:

The sensory-motor stage

This is the first stage of development when children learn using their sensations. For example a

child touches a hot object and is hurt, this would create awareness in his or her mind that

touching hot objects is harmful. Therefore, the child learns by using the sensations. Further all

sensations like hot, cold, rough, smooth shall result in learning.

The pre-operational stage

This is the second stage when the child for the first time, discovers rules and principles of how

things work. In other words, the child has the primary or initial information about the working

of the things that he sees around him. It is above from learning just through senses.

The concrete operational stage

This is the third stage when his reason and logic develops and he learns by reasoning. This

stage combines the information gathered from the previous two stages and the child is able to

develop his own explanation of the things.

The formal operational stage

This is the most developed and the last stage of development where the child is able to learn by

abstraction. In other words, the child is able to draw conclusions about working of things, and

phenomena using his own ability to associate ideas, perceive, think, and explain the

happenings.

Jean Piaget therefore studied psychological functions in terms of learning and in terms of development.

This means that he focused on how learning and development takes place. In other words, he also focused

on the functions rather than structure of psychological phenomena. He is therefore included in the

functionalist school as a European functionalist

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