Conflict, Displacement, Learned Drives and Theory

by Neal E. Miller

Overview

Neal E. Miller's pioneering work in experimental psychology has earned him worldwide respect. This first of a two-volume collection of his work brings together twenty-one of Miller's most important and representative essays on conflict, displacement, learned drives, and theory. They were selected for both their current relevance and their historical significance.

The theoretical and experimental analysis of conflict behavior in Part I grew out of an interest in applying the laws of learning that Pavlov discovered in the laboratory to certain phenomena that Freud discovered in the clinic. This led naturally to a similar analysis of displacement in Part II and also to the studies of fear as a learnable drives in Part III.

In contrast with the ease of establishing learned fear on the basis of pain, the studies in Part IV show that it is much more difficult, and perhaps impossible, to establish learned appetitive drives on the basis of hunger or thirst. In the first experiments on drugs, Part V attempted to test the applicability of some of the principles discovered by Pavlov in experiments on classical conditioning to the trial-and-error learning situation studied by Thorndike and now frequently called operant conditioning. Later studies of drugs are closely related to the work on fear and conflict and, hence, are grouped nearby.

The first of the theoretical chapters in Part VI summarizes the work on conflict behavior as well as many of my other theoretical ideas, including a cybernetic analysis of behavior. Another chapter is the result of an assignment to represent behavioral sciences, from physiology through anthropology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202361420
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	08/15/2008
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Neal E. Miller (1909-2002) was a professor of psychology at Yale University and professor and head of a laboratory of Physiological Psychology at the Rockefeller University. He is an elected honorary fellow of the British Psychological Society and chairman of the National Research Council Committee on Brain Sciences. He is co-author of four books and author of many articles.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Part I Conflict, Part II Displacement, Part III Fear, PartV Drugs, Part VI Theoretical Perspectives, Part VII Learning, Part VIII Physiological Basis of Motivation, Part IX Motivating Effects of Electrical Stimulation of the Brain, Part X Chemical Coding of Motivation in the Brain, Part XI Instrumental Learning of Visceral Responses

Editorial Reviews

Review on the original single volume work Selected Papers: “Neal Miller is one of a very few who have made truly significant contributions to the elucidation of the mechanisms that control behavior. Thus this collection of his writings will be of great interest not only to professional workers in experimental, physiological, and clinical psychology but to those in other disciplines who are particularly interested in behavior. A number of facets of his extraordinarily diverse research career emerge from the selected papers.” —Peter L. Carlton, Science

From the Publisher