University Daily Kansan
Thursday, July 26, 1973
7
Theory, Practice Clash
Emphases in Psychology Shift to Limited Theories
By JOHN BENDER
Kansan Staff Writer
Psychology, both as a theoretical science and a clinical technique for improving mental health, has shifted its emphasis dramatically since the time Sigmund Freud
It has been about 75 years since Freud began publishing his theories on psychology. Freudian psychoanalysis was an all-encompassing theory of psychology, which emphasized the role of the unconscious and infantile aspects in shaping human behavior. These theories were at least a trend of popularity in the 1980s and 1940s.
Although psychoanalysis still has its adherents, the theory that has the most followers currently in the United States is behaviorism. This theory, which is also an art form of psychology, is based on observable behavior and ignores mental processes, which cannot be observed.
IN RECENT YEARS, there has been a shift away from these all-encompassing theories, David Sunders, associate professor of social psychology, says. In the new book, *Social Psychology* are concentrating on limited problems that attempt to explain specific problems.
Summers gave two reasons for the recent shift away from behaviorism. First, there are some doubts about the validity of the theory. Secondly, there are some who disagree with behaviorism on philosophical and moral grounds.
Summers said that while behavior modification had been successful under highly circumscribed conditions, it might not be as effective outside the laboratory. Furthermore, behaviorism seems to ignore significant phenomena.
"TO IGNORE MENTAL processes is to
lose touch with the world of human
experience," Summerts said.
Summers said that he liked to believe that ethical behavior did not conform to the reward-punishment paradigm of the behaviorists.
"I like to think that people have values, beliefs which they develop and put into practice on the basis of reason," Summers said.
THE BEHAVIORISTS are not able to explain ethical decisions persons make, which may be productive of unpleasant results, Summers said. The behaviorists
might say that doing the right thing makes as person feel good and this is his reward, he said. This is contradictory, Summers said, and this is also true. Others such in depth and unobserveable things
A similar disgard for all-encompassing theories is emerging among clinical psychologist, said Eric Wright, professor of clinical psychology.
Wright said that recent studies had shown that the results clinical psychologists obtain were not necessarily related to the school of psychology to which they adhered. Good clinicians, he said, show similar degrees of success regardless of which school of
thought they follow, and bad clinicians show similar lack of success regardless of their
THE CHARACTERISTICS of the therapist, Wright said, are more important than the theory. The rapport of the clinician with his client and his understanding of and sympathy for the client are the significant factors, Wright said.
Summers said that there was an increasing emphasis in the theoretical psychology on how a person thinks, the cognitive process. The cognitive processes include perceiving, thinking, learning and deciding.
Johnson Co. Police To Patrol in DeSoto
By DEAN FORD
Kansan Staff Write
The mayor of DeSoto and the Johnson County Snieriff have made verbal agreements to contract the police protection unit in city police to the Johnson County police.
The change in the DeSoto police service was brought about by recent vandalism, street fights, complaints by citizens and the arrest of six of the seven city policemen.
DeSoto Mayor Charles Schmidt said that the Johnson County Sheriff, Fred Allenbrand, has agreed to go the route of change but that the details would not be worked out nor the change completed for at least two or three weeks.
"FOR THE NEXT few days, I will be meeting with the city lawyer David Waxse and working out the basic details of the change over," Schmidt said.
Torn Atkins, DeSoto assistant chief of police, said earlier that he would resign if the city decided not to change to the county system for protection.
"Claus Pauls, the city police chief, and I have been working eight to 12 hours a day, seven days a week and getting paid for a 40-hour work week," Atkins said.
"IT WASN'T BAD until four out of five of the reserve policemen resigned in June," he said. "And when the Chief's resignation is effective July 30, will I be the only person left."
The reserve policemen, auxiliary policemen who are not paid for their work, resigned after a citizens organization insisted better police protection, Schmidt said.
Vandals caused $300 worth of damage Monday, according to Atkins. The vandals destroyed electrical meters, one attached to the wall and another one attached to Coker's, a grocery store.
Atkins said that incidents of windows being broken, burglaries, and coke machines being busted had been bad since the beginning of 1972.
PAULS, WHO WILL begin duties on the Bonner Springs police force July 31, said that he had not resigned because DeSoto was to be policed by the county.
"I had resigned before the decision for the county to provide police protection had become an issue," Pauls said. "In fact I am very grateful for the assistance that the county has given in the past three years that I have been chief."
Chancellor Won't Take A Vacation
Though vacation time draws near for KU summer session students and faculty, Chancellor Archy Dkeys has no August vacation to anticipate.
Dykes has a full August schedule and, in addition to attending to regular official duties, will fulfill various speaking engagements through Kansas.
Dykes has repeatedly stressed his desire to communicate with the people of Kansas.
"I accept the principle," Dykes said on his first day as KU's chancellor, "that the best decisions come from the people. And we should be responsible." Should he ultimately control a lot of things?
The people of Kansas will see Dykes often during the next few months. His speaking schedule includes ten Kansas Honors Banquets at which the KU Alumni Association will recognize top students from various locations in the state.
Dykes will probably be accompanied at these speaking engagements by KU students from the area in which he will be presenting, a representative of the Alumni Association.
In addition to these engagements, he will be speaking to KU alumni groups all over the country during the fall semester. He has made speaking commitments with alumni groups in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Ballerville, Topeka, Kansas City, Mo., Wichita, Lincoln, Omaha, Washington, D.C., New York and Denver.
Dykes has also made plans to speak at the U.S.D. 497 opening convoction on Aug. 22, the Raymond Moore Hall dedication, Sept. 18, and the Commerce Faculty-Town Mixer. Sept. 18
He will also be speaking to local groups like the Lawrence Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the American Association of University Professors.
Kansan Classifieds Work For You!
Summers said that much of his own work was in the study of cognitive processes, particularly decision making. He said that he had worked on using computers to externalize the decision making process. By doing this, a person can learn about himself and others, thereby reducing conflict in making decisions. Summer said.
AN ARTICLE by Summers and J. Ernest Flack of the University of Colorado describes a system for reducing conflict between decision makers with the aid of a computer. The article, "Computer-Aided Conflict Resolution in Water Resource Planning: An Illustration," describes a system through which persons can evaluate conflicts and evaluate evaluations to show the areas and extents of agreement and disagreement.
Summers said that studies such as this one, which have a high degree of applicability to everyday situations, were becoming more important.
A major new trend in clinical psychology, Wright said, is an interest in the total environment of the individual. What happens inside a person's head is not the only significant factor in a person's mental health, Wright said.
WRIGHT SAID that a person's fate was not entirely within his own control. Such things as genetic endowment, circumstances of birth and accidents affect a person's mental stability, but they cannot be controlled by the individual, he said.
Summers said that while investigation into different levels of consciousness had captured the imagination, there was resistance to it from the more traditionalist areas of the psychology profession. He said that the investigation of states of conciousness was based on the technique of introspection, which had fallen into disrepute.
families are treated together.
Because of these factors, there is a growing tendency to consider the information available in this book said. One aspect of this is the growing frequency with which spouses or whole
This area is going to have to receive some serious attention in the future, Summers said. Students, he said, are interested in the training that will have to keep up with the students.
A therapy system cannot be translated from one culture to another, Wright said. Freudian therapy, for example, has been singularly unsuccessful in the east, he said.
WRIGHT SAID that the teachings of these oriental traditions would be of clinical value and could be applied to the system of western culture. The therapeutic devices of a religion arise in the context of that value system, he said, and the value system of other religions is different from that of the occident.
A person's beliefs are now considered an important factor in mental health, Wright said. Irrational beliefs, such as racial prejudices, can lead to stress, anxiety and conflict, he said. Thus, interaction between people with different needs is a先障x against mental illness
A NEW CHALLENGE to modern psychology is emerging, however, in the form of a growing distrust of the rational, scientific bases of western culture. Time magazine recently ran a series of four articles titled "Second Thoughts About Man," which dealt with this growing interest in human nature, exemplified in the growing interest in oriental religion, mysticism, drugs and altered states of consciousness.
Particularly interesting in this area are the efforts of Carlos Castaneda, who wrote the Don Juan books dealing with different levels of consciousness, and Oscar Ichozofa of The American Institute uses therapeutic techniques drawn from a variety of oriental and mystical traditions.
Police Say City Burglaries Up
There have been 296 reported burglaries in Lawrence since January of this year, police figure report. In addition, 151 burglaries were reported on the University of Kansas campus.
The city burglaries are a 4.2 per cent increase over last year. However, there is a 50 per cent decrease in robberies and a 40 per cent decrease in auto thefts.
KU Traffic and Security reports that there were nine burglaries last month compared with 17 in June 1972. Only one of the burglaries last month was cleared by arrest.
Fifteen, or five per cent, of the burglaries were cleared.
The total loss of the KU burglars was $45 for June. No amount of loss from the burglary was reported.