Phenomenology (psychology)

Phenomenology (psychology)

In psychology, phenomenology is used to refer to subjective experiences or their study. The experiencing subject can be considered to be the person or self. Subjective experiences are those that are in principle not directly observable by any external observer. One aspect of this of great philosophical interest is qualia, whose archetypical exemplar is "redness". "Is my experience of redness the same as yours?" "How would we know?" Subjective experiences are not merely perceptual. They can include any emotional, cognitive, or conative experience reaching the consciousness of the subjectFact|date=September 2007.

Difficulties in considering subjective phenomena

The now-scorned philosophical psychology prevalent before the end of the nineteenth century relied heavily on introspection. The speculations concerning the mind based on those observations were criticized by the pioneering advocates of a more scientific approach to psychology, such as William James and the behaviorists Edward Thorndike, Clark Hull, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner.

Philosophers have long confronted the problem of "qualia". Few philosophers believe that it is possible to be sure that one person's experience of the "redness" of an object is the same as another person's, even if both persons had effectively identical genetic and experiential histories.Fact|date=October 2007 In principle, the same difficulty arises in feelings (the subjective experience of emotion), in the experience of effort, and even in the "meaning" of concepts.Fact|date=October 2007

Psychotherapy and the phenomenology of emotion

Carl Rogers' person-centered psychotherapy theory is based directly on the "phenomenal field" personality theory of Combs and Snygg (1949) [Rogers, Carl R. (1951) "Client-Centered Therapy". Boston: Houghton Mifflin.] . That theory in turn was grounded in phenomenological thinking. [ [http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/snygg&combs.html] Boeree, C. George, Donald Snygg and Arthur Combs in "Personality Theory" retrieved Oct. 7, 2007] . Rogers attempts to put a therapist in closer contact with a person by listening to the person's report of their recent subjective experiences, especially emotions of which the person is not fully aware. For example, in relationships the problem at hand is often not based around what actually happened, but instead is based around the perceptions and feelings of each individual in the relationship. The phenomenal field focuses on "how one feels right now".

Dennett's Heterophenomenology

Daniel Dennett has developed a phenomenological philosophical approach which he calls heterophenomenology. It provides a philosophical basis for a scientific psychology of subjective experience [Dennett, Daniel C., "Consciousness Explained". Boston, Little, Brown & Co., chs. 3 & 4] .

Other approaches

The psychotherapeutic and scientific approaches to the phenomenology of subjective conscious experience do not seem to exhaust the possibilities. In some realms of psychotherapy and self-help different phenomenological approaches continue.Fact|date=October 2007

Notes

References

* Combs, Arthur W. and Snygg, Donald (1949), "Individual Behavior: A New Frame of Reference for Psychology". New York, Harper & Brothers.

Further reading

See also

*Stream of consciousness (psychology)
*Associationism
*Association of Ideas
*Ideology, Prejudice

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/csnygg99/Don/PsycRev41/text.html Snygg, Donald (1941) The Need For A Phenomenological System of Psychology "Psychol. Rev." 48,404-424.]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Phenomenology (philosophy) — Phenomenology is the study of phenomena (from Greek, meaning that which appears ) and how they appear to us from a first person perspective. In modern times, it usually refers to the philosophy developed by Edmund Husserl, which is primarily… …   Wikipedia

  • Phenomenology — may be:* Phenomenology (philosophy) * Phenomenology (science) * Phenomenology (particle physics) * Phenomenology (architecture) * Phenomenology (psychology) …   Wikipedia

  • Psychology — (from Greek gr. ψῡχή, psȳkhē , breath, life, soul ; and gr. λογία, logia ) is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. Psychologists study such phenomena as perception, cognition, emotion …   Wikipedia

  • PSYCHOLOGY — PSYCHOLOGY, the science of the mind or of mental phenomena and activities. Psychological Concepts in the Bible Psychology has a long past, but only a short history (H. Ebbinghaus, Abriss der Psychologie, 1908). Nowhere is this aphorism better… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • phenomenology — phenomenological /fi nom euh nl oj i keuhl/, phenomenologic, adj. phenomenologically, adv. phenomenologist, n. /fi nom euh nol euh jee/, n. Philos. 1. the study of phenomena. 2. the system of Husserl and his followers stressing the description of …   Universalium

  • Phenomenology (The beginnings of) — The beginnings of phenomenology Husserl and his predecessors Richard Cobb Stevens Edmund Husserl was the founder of phenomenology, one of the principal movements of twentieth century philosophy. His principal contribution to philosophy was his… …   History of philosophy

  • Psychology of art — The psychology of art is an interdisciplinary field that studies the perception, cognition and characteristics of art and its production. For the use of art materials as a form of psychotherapy, see art therapy. The psychology of art is related… …   Wikipedia

  • Phenomenology (science) — The term phenomenology in science is used to describe a body of knowledge which relates several different empirical observations of phenomena to each other, in a way which is consistent with fundamental theory, but is not directly derived from… …   Wikipedia

  • psychology — /suy kol euh jee/, n., pl. psychologies. 1. the science of the mind or of mental states and processes. 2. the science of human and animal behavior. 3. the sum or characteristics of the mental states and processes of a person or class of persons,… …   Universalium

  • psychology — The profession ( e.g., clinical p.), scholarly discipline (academic p.), and science (research p.) concerned with the behavior of humans and animals, and related mental and physiologic processes. [psycho + G. logos, study] adlerian p. SYN:… …   Medical dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”