Good morning everyone,
In the 1960s, the Behaviorists -- specifically, I believe it was B.F. Skinner -- came up with the idea of 'The Black Box' model-theory, in connection with his/their 'Stimulus-Response' model-theory.
The idea -- or assumption -- was (in very loose, layperson's terms), that if an experimenter gave an experimentee a 'provocative, conditioning stimulus' over and over again -- like a shock if a rat didn't run the maze right, or some food if it did -- then, applying this theory to humans, you wouldn't need a 'psychology of the mind' -- but simply leave it alone as an 'untouched' 'Black Box' inside our 'Brain' or 'Brain-Mind'. Experimenters didn't need to know about 'the Black Box' or man's 'Brain' or 'Brain-Mind' because they could control the 'response' elicited from the Black Box-Brain simply by 'controlling the variables' and the 'provocative conditioning stimuli' that could give the experimenter a reliable prediction of how the rat/human experimentee was going to behave. Welcome to Skinner's view of 'Utopia' -- Walden 2.
Then as a counter-reaction against Skinner's view of 'Utopia' and only 'scientifically investigating' man's 'observable behavior' as opposed to his 'internal, invisible, thought-feeling-impulse mind-brain (black box) process', along came the human-existentialists (actually they were already present), and the 'cognitive theorists and therapists' (they were just beginning to surface in the 50s and 60s), and also an 'integrative cognitive-behavior theorist and therapist' who I wrote my Honours Thesis in psychology for in 1979 (Dr. Donald Meichenbaum) at The University of Waterloo.
And in my Honours Thesis, I created a rather crude, robotic model-theory of man's 'black box-mind-brain' that went a little bit beyond the work of the already existing cognitive theorists/therapists at the time (Aaron Beck, George Kelly, Albert Ellis, before any of them in the 1930s -- Alfred Korzybski followed by S.I. Hayakawa -- and before any of them in ancient Greece, Epictetus -- 'Man is not disturbed by things but by the view he takes of them.', and the cognitive-behavior theorist who I was writing for and who was very familiar with the work of all these cognitive theorists mentioned above -- Dr. Meichenbaum -- who became very well recognized and appreciated for both his clinical-therapeutic work, and his theoretical academic essays and books
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Donald Meichenbaum is a psychologist noted for his contributions to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). He developed a therapeutic technique called cognitive behavior modification (CBM), which focuses on identifying dysfunctional self-talk in order to change unwanted behaviors. In other words, Dr. Meichenbaum views behaviors as outcomes of our own self-verbalizations.
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Now, the essay I wrote back in 1979 can be represented (in updated fashion) by the model you see below you, as labelled by the acronym 'SPICIER'.
S -- Stimulus/Sensory...
P -- Perception,,,
I -- Interest (or lack of it, or Anti-Interest)...
C -- Choice of...
I -- Interpretive...
E -- Evaluative...
R -- Response...
You see, this is meant to be a 'SPICIER' model than Skinner's 'Black Box' theory because Skinner's Black Box theory tells us nothing about what is going on inside our 'Black Box' -- meaning our 'Brain'.
It is also a SPICIER model than the cognitive SBR model as supported by such Cognitive Therapists and Theorists as...Albert Ellis, Jerome Frank, Aaron Beck, George Kelley...
Because it delves deeper into the black box or belief or brain theory or brain-mind (SBMR) theory than what you get from just the word 'belief'....which can mean many things...assumptions, associations, inferences, interpretations, perceptions, evaluations, values, transferences....And the SPICIER model introduces the gestalt idea of 'interest' and the humanistic existential idea of 'choice'.
Now, if I wanted to present a 'SPITE-IER' model, then I would introduce the idea of 'Transference' -- and we would have -- Sensual Perception-Interest-Transference Energy-Interpretative-Evaluative-Response'...transference energy adding positive or negative energy to the already existing 'immediacy' or 'here-and-now' energy of the mind-brain's eco-system.
Now, if we introduce one of Freud's first 'neurotic formulas' back in 1893-1895, we come up with something like this -- creatively extrapolated on by yours truly and labelled with another acronym...
N equals DUIT which can mean a number of associated different things...
Neurosis equals Defense against Unbearable, Irreconcilable Transferences...
Neurosis equal Defense against Unbearable, Irreconcilable Theories...
We will leave things here for future discussion...
-- DGBN, May 13, 2014,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic-Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
