Mark Flynn

Conflicting views on the importance of emotion to human development and growth: Piaget and Whitehead

In this paper I analyse the concept of emotion on Jean Piagets theory of development and Alfred North Whiteheads theory of growth. For Piaget, emotion is the motivating force of action emanating from outside the individual in the form of sensations emitted by objects. His view is rooted in the Newtonian conception of a universe comprised of isolated objects requiring an emotive force to initiate a series of mechanistic interactions between objects. Piaget reduces all conscious human experience to a cognitive formulation of these causal relations. His abstract concept of emotion as force fails to explain the relationship between bodily feelings, emotions, and higher forms of consciousness in human beings. Conversely, Whitehead explains that emotions are the crucial mediating factors between the welter of awareness of these feelings in higher organisms. His view is consistent with the new physics and its emphasis on indeterminacy, energy, and the organic relationship among events. Whiteheads concrete concept of emotion gives insight into the experience of bodily feelings and their relationship to the growth and learning of human beings. The implications of these conflicting views of emotion for psychology and education are clear. Psychologists must avoid the reductionist tendencies illustrated in Piagets theory if they hope to understand the subtleties of human experience. Failing to do this will lead them to a concept of human growth and learning in which ideas have no internal relationship with the experience of the knower. Such a conception distorts our understanding of human beings and ignores the joy of knowing.

Critical Comment on Hicks-Caskey and Potter, “Effect of the Full Moon on a Sample of Developmentally Delayed, Institutionalized Women”

Hicks-Caskey and Potter (1991) claim to have found a “full moon effect” on women in a developmental center. Further, they suggest the discrepancies in findings on lunar effects can be accounted for by (i) a lack of equivalent operational definitions and (ii) a person selection factor. It is argued that the Hicks-Caskey and Potter findings are undermined by weekday, holiday, season, weather, particular staff-subject interactions, and expectancy effects. In addition, the proposed explanations for differing outcomes in lunar studies do not explain both the negative findings and conflicting positive findings.

Transforming What is There Into What is Here: The Feel of Knowledge in a University Setting

In this paper I take the position that an understanding of Alfred North Whiteheads theory of the rhythmic cycles of mental growth are significant for a process pedagogy and that searching for analogues of these cycles in our own concrete learning experiences may help to reveal basic pedagogical principles for educators. Evidence for this position is presented in the form of an overview of my attempts to determine if students in a university setting could identify Whiteheads cycles of romance-freedom, precision-discipline, and generalization-freedom in their own learning experiences. During this analytical phase of our experience the students and I were able to transform Whiteheads abstract description of the learning process into a concrete personal understanding of his theory of mental growth. We also began to explore the practical application of this theory in the classroom. In other words, we were able to transform what was there in the abstract into what is here in our concrete experience.

SOURCES USED BY EDUCATION STUDENTS TO CONCEPTUALIZE LEARNING DISABILITIES

An earlier investigation indicated that the education students in this sample gave estimates of the prevalence of learning disabilities that were 4 times greater than those given by experts. In the present study, we identified the sources of information these students used to conceptualize and estimate the prevalence of these disabilities. These 140 first-year education students cited direct contact with persons identified as learning disabled as the primary individual source and personal experience as the primary type of source they used to form conceptions of learning disabilities. These findings raise questions about the effects exposure to possible stereotypes of learning disabilities and their resolution may have on the practices of educators. Faculty must present research to students so stereotypical views of pupils who have difficulty learning in school and the solutions to their problems are questioned.