[lbo-talk] Sternberg article on Academically Adrift

[Miles Jackson]

On 02/08/2011 07:31 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
>
> The underlying problem is that psychology has to develop an 
> explanatory theory of mind, and as far as I know they haven't. This 
> seems to me to be the same problem with cognitive sciences.
>
> What is put forth above, is what I think is called the behavioral 
> school model, and so that's why I thought it was contested territory. 
> We used to call the UCB Educational Psychology Dept the rat-theory 
> crowd back in the day.

As many long-time LBOsters know, I'm a psychology professor (with tenure 
and everything!), so I feel compelled to respond to Chuck's claims 
above.  First, psychologists have developed many "explanatory theories 
of mind", from Freud to cognitive psychologists like Sternberg to 
neurocognitive theorists.  You may disagree with one or more of these 
approaches, but psychologists are definitely not lacking in the "theory 
of mind" department.  Second, Sternberg is a cognitive psychologist; the 
cognitive perspective is fundamentally at odds with the radical 
behaviorist ("rat theory") perspective.  Radical behaviorists like 
Skinner reject the notion that mental processes can explain behavior.

Miles