Joseph L Mills
Biographic Data
| ID | 4877455 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joseph L Mills |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joseph L |
| FAMILY NAME | Mills |
| SIGNATURE | MILLS J L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Saskatchewan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4955-4384 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1965 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Incorporating Realist Fiction into Dialogical Theories of the Self
The study of realist fiction can illuminate and expand dialogical theories of the self, especially those originating in M.M. Bakhtin’s writings. To overcome the criticism that the study of the literary criticism surrounding major works of fiction has no place in psychology and needs no input from it, I advance the concept of the Edited Other. The concept states that, in analytic and related forms of psychotherapy, specific and paramount modes of …
Hallucinogens as hard science: The adrenochrome hypothesis for the biogenesis of schizophrenia
Working in a psychiatrically innovative environment created by the Government of Saskatchewan, Canada, Abram Hoffer and Humphry F. Osmond enunciated the adrenochrome hypothesis for the biogenesis of schizophrenia in 1952, slightly later proposing and, apparently, demonstrating, in a double-blind study, that the symptoms of the illness could be reversed by administering large doses of niacin. After placing the hypothesis within its ideological fra…
Trust amply recompensed: Psychological research at Weyburn, Saskatchewan, 1957-1961
During the 1950s and 1960s professionals intensely debated the prospect of changes in the mental health system, largely as a result of the introduction of new therapies, revised theories of mental disorder, and shifting policies governing mental health accommodation. As well as giving rise to new subspecialties within medicine, psychiatrists in some jurisdictions at this time worked closely with psychologists in an attempt to offer a more compreh…
Lessons from the periphery: Psychiatry in Saskatchewan, Canada, 1944—68
The government of the Saskatchewan Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation, when elected in 1944, established prog rammes for the state-funded care of all those suffering from mental illness. It enacted legislation covering the care and treatment of the mentally ill and created a division of the Department of Public Health, the Psychiatric Ser vices Branch (PSB), which both recr uited and trained psychiatric staff, meeting the need for non-medical s…
John Rickman, Wilfred Ruprecht Bion, and the origins of the therapeutic community
The history of psychiatric therapeutic communities is complex and obscure. Nevertheless, one can make a reasonable case for saying that the first true therapeutic community was created at Northfield Military Hospital, Birmingham, England, in 1945. That community had its origins in the thought and practice of two British psychoanalysts, John Rickman and Wilfred Ruprecht Bion. Accordingly, in the present article their careers and the social and int…
Literary Realism and Psychology: A Response to Moghaddam’s Proposal
Moghaddam has suggested that psychologists could profit from the study of fiction. Although agreeing with Moghaddam in general, I feel it necessary to specify, fairly closely, the type of fiction which might be susceptible to psychological analysis. I choose literary realism, as defined by Wellek, as a possible area for fruitful analysis. Having discounted the difficulties possibly besetting such an analysis, I give some examples of the ways in w…
The philosophy of psychology
Hard-Nosed Psychologists: Some Reflections on Writing Psychology's History
This article discusses some of the issues involved in writing a historiography of histories of psychological thought, using as an example the development of my own thinking while writing a history of behaviorism. Taking the approaches of narrative historians as a starting point, I ask if such approaches can be applied to the writing of psychology's history, concluding that narrative approaches are congruent only with the analysis of particular ep…
Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology
Journal Article Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology. By John A. Mills. (New York: New York University Press, 1998. xiv, 246 pp. $37.50, ISBN 0-8147-5611-5.) Get access Thomas H. Leahey Thomas H. Leahey Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 2, September 2000, Pages 686–687, https://doi.org/10.2307/2568841 Pu…
Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology
What is lacking is the bold and exciting behavioristic hypothesis that what one observes and talks about is always the "real" or "physical" world (or at least the "one" world) and that "experience" is a derived construct to be understood only through an analysis of verbal (not, of course, merely vocal) processes.-B. F. SkinnerPassions shape the future spontaneously, unpredictably, necessarily -PaulÉmile BorduasThe longing for order, a desire to t…
Psychologists on the March: Science, Practice, and Professionalism in America, 1929-1969 , by James H. Capshew
Taming the Troublesome Child: American Families, Child Guidance, and the Limits of Psychiatric Authority . Kathleen W. Jones
Professor Mills comments
Evolutionary Theory and Psychology
II. Deconstructing Constructing the Subject
American Exceptionalism and American Social Science
An Assessment of Skinner's Theory of Animal Behavior
The genesis of Hull's principles of behavior
It is claimed that, in writing the Principles of Behavior, Clark L. Hull was under the influence of four imperatives (the need to distance himself from Gestalt psychology, the need to make quantitative predictions, the need for theoretical unification, and the need to express a biologico-mechanistic philosophy). Mainly by using the correspondence between Hull and Kenneth W. Spence it is suggested how each imperative might have controlled Hull's t…
Thomas Brown on the philosophy and psychology of perception
Thomas Brown's theory of perception is set in its philosophical context, and the influence of George Berkeley, David Hume, and Thomas Reid on Brown is discussed. Destutt de Tracy, who appears to have been an unacknowledged source for Brown's ideas, is also discussed. Brown's theory of perception is elaborated, and he is categorized both as a sense-datum theorist and as a phenomenalist.
Purpose and Conditioning: A Reply to Waller
Some Observations on Skinner's Moral Theory
The Effect of Level of Education on Judgments of Grammatical Acceptability
From Chomsky's assertion that the deep and surface structures of very simple utterances are highly similar, it follows that judgments of the degree of acceptability of such utterances should approximate judgments of their grammaticality. To test Chomsky's assertion that all native speakers of English share the same deep structure, judgments of the acceptability of selected permutations of examples of Scott's subject-verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ) w…
Using the Permutational Model to Predict Grammatical Patterns
The study concerns grammaticality as defined by degree of disruption of Scott's (1969) subject--verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ) sentence. Experiment I demonstrated that use of ambiguous qualifiers such that the meaning of sentences of SQVO or SVQO form could be re-interpreted caused relatively high grammatical judgments, whereas use of non-ambiguous qualifiers depressed judgments. Experiment II (using English words) and Experiment III (using inflect…
Validating the Permutational Test of Grammaticality
The permutational test of grammaticality employs the notion of a kernel sentence, defined as subject-verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ). Three experiments are reported leading to the following conclusions: (1) an index measuring progressive disruption of the kernel yielded Pearson r's of .65 to .84 with mean numbers of grammatical judgments of the 23 permutations of SVOQ. (2) When the index of disruption is relatively low subjects tend to reinterpret t…
Inter-Item Associative Strength and Proactive Inhibition in Paired-Associate Learning
The experimental design was 2 × 2 factorial, with 2 levels of prior list (one or none), 2 of response term inter-item associative strength (high or low), and a 15-min. retention interval. The expectation was that high inter-item associative strength would reduce proactive inhibition. The hypothesis failed; the proportion of function words per list had no effect on recall
Some Observations on Skinner's Moral Theory
John Rickman, Wilfred Ruprecht Bion, and the origins of the therapeutic community
The history of psychiatric therapeutic communities is complex and obscure. Nevertheless, one can make a reasonable case for saying that the first true therapeutic community was created at Northfield Military Hospital, Birmingham, England, in 1945. That community had its origins in the thought and practice of two British psychoanalysts, John Rickman and Wilfred Ruprecht Bion. Accordingly, in the present article their careers and the social and int…
Validating the Permutational Test of Grammaticality
The permutational test of grammaticality employs the notion of a kernel sentence, defined as subject-verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ). Three experiments are reported leading to the following conclusions: (1) an index measuring progressive disruption of the kernel yielded Pearson r's of .65 to .84 with mean numbers of grammatical judgments of the 23 permutations of SVOQ. (2) When the index of disruption is relatively low subjects tend to reinterpret t…
Trust amply recompensed: Psychological research at Weyburn, Saskatchewan, 1957-1961
During the 1950s and 1960s professionals intensely debated the prospect of changes in the mental health system, largely as a result of the introduction of new therapies, revised theories of mental disorder, and shifting policies governing mental health accommodation. As well as giving rise to new subspecialties within medicine, psychiatrists in some jurisdictions at this time worked closely with psychologists in an attempt to offer a more compreh…
An Assessment of Skinner's Theory of Animal Behavior
The Effect of Level of Education on Judgments of Grammatical Acceptability
From Chomsky's assertion that the deep and surface structures of very simple utterances are highly similar, it follows that judgments of the degree of acceptability of such utterances should approximate judgments of their grammaticality. To test Chomsky's assertion that all native speakers of English share the same deep structure, judgments of the acceptability of selected permutations of examples of Scott's subject-verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ) w…
Using the Permutational Model to Predict Grammatical Patterns
The study concerns grammaticality as defined by degree of disruption of Scott's (1969) subject--verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ) sentence. Experiment I demonstrated that use of ambiguous qualifiers such that the meaning of sentences of SQVO or SVQO form could be re-interpreted caused relatively high grammatical judgments, whereas use of non-ambiguous qualifiers depressed judgments. Experiment II (using English words) and Experiment III (using inflect…
Retroactive Inhibition of Descriptive Prose
Two 29-word descriptive passages from the works of D. H. Lawrence were placed on a memory drum and learned by serial anticipation in the usual RI paradigm. Significant RI occurred, but relative RI was only 8.78%, far less than is found with more difficult prose material. It thus appears that the structure of the material protected it against interference
Language and laughter in Shavian Comedy
Relationship between Rated Degree of Familiarity with Individual Sentences and the Extent of Recall of Connected Discourse
An assessment was made of the strength and direction of the relationship between rated degree of familiarity for connected discourse and the extent of recall of such material. The experimental material consisted of two short passages of prose (a narrative and an argument) and of a rating scale containing all the sentences from these passages inserted randomly among other individual sentences selected from a wide range of sources. 20 Ss provided b…
The Relationship Between “Change Tendency” and Examination Results in University Students
Proactive Inhibition of Descriptive Prose as a Function of the Length of Retention Interval
New book in review
THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. By Bernard Bailyn. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967; pp. xiii+335. $5.95. THE MENNONITE CHURCH IN AMERICA, SOMETIMES CALLED OLD MENNONITES. By John C. Wenger. Introduction by Harold S. Bender. (Mennonite History, Vol. II.) Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1966; pp. 384. $7.95. MENNONITES IN THE CONFEDERACY: A STUDY IN CIVIL WAR PACIFISM. By Samuel Horst. Scottdale, Pa.: H…
Relationship between Scaled Familiarity, Rate of Learning, and Extent of Recall in Connected Discourse
Scaled familiarity values were obtained for 19 24-word passages of connected discourse using the successive categories scaling method. The passages ranged from an item on the sporting page of a newspaper to a fifth-order approximation to English. Eight passages, lying at approximately equal intervals along the scale, were set on memory drums. 64 Ss learned them by the serial-anticipation method and relearned them 1 wk. later. Learning rate and ex…
Retention of Connected Discourse
6 24-word English sentences were made up, 2 representing each of 3 levels of meaningfulness. Meaningfulness was defined in terms of the Thorndike-Lorge frequency of the words making up the sentences. The sentences were mounted on memory drums and learned by serial anticipation to a criterion of 100% correct responses or to a lower criterion, equivalent across level of meaningfulness. The retention intervals were 20 min. and 24 hr., the former pro…
Inter-Item Associative Strength and Proactive Inhibition in Paired-Associate Learning
The experimental design was 2 × 2 factorial, with 2 levels of prior list (one or none), 2 of response term inter-item associative strength (high or low), and a 15-min. retention interval. The expectation was that high inter-item associative strength would reduce proactive inhibition. The hypothesis failed; the proportion of function words per list had no effect on recall
Validating the Permutational Test of Grammaticality
The permutational test of grammaticality employs the notion of a kernel sentence, defined as subject-verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ). Three experiments are reported leading to the following conclusions: (1) an index measuring progressive disruption of the kernel yielded Pearson r's of .65 to .84 with mean numbers of grammatical judgments of the 23 permutations of SVOQ. (2) When the index of disruption is relatively low subjects tend to reinterpret t…
Using the Permutational Model to Predict Grammatical Patterns
The study concerns grammaticality as defined by degree of disruption of Scott's (1969) subject--verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ) sentence. Experiment I demonstrated that use of ambiguous qualifiers such that the meaning of sentences of SQVO or SVQO form could be re-interpreted caused relatively high grammatical judgments, whereas use of non-ambiguous qualifiers depressed judgments. Experiment II (using English words) and Experiment III (using inflect…
The Effect of Level of Education on Judgments of Grammatical Acceptability
From Chomsky's assertion that the deep and surface structures of very simple utterances are highly similar, it follows that judgments of the degree of acceptability of such utterances should approximate judgments of their grammaticality. To test Chomsky's assertion that all native speakers of English share the same deep structure, judgments of the acceptability of selected permutations of examples of Scott's subject-verb-object-qualifier (SVOQ) w…
Some Observations on Skinner's Moral Theory
Purpose and Conditioning: A Reply to Waller
Thomas Brown on the philosophy and psychology of perception
Thomas Brown's theory of perception is set in its philosophical context, and the influence of George Berkeley, David Hume, and Thomas Reid on Brown is discussed. Destutt de Tracy, who appears to have been an unacknowledged source for Brown's ideas, is also discussed. Brown's theory of perception is elaborated, and he is categorized both as a sense-datum theorist and as a phenomenalist.
An Assessment of Skinner's Theory of Animal Behavior
The genesis of Hull's principles of behavior
It is claimed that, in writing the Principles of Behavior, Clark L. Hull was under the influence of four imperatives (the need to distance himself from Gestalt psychology, the need to make quantitative predictions, the need for theoretical unification, and the need to express a biologico-mechanistic philosophy). Mainly by using the correspondence between Hull and Kenneth W. Spence it is suggested how each imperative might have controlled Hull's t…
II. Deconstructing Constructing the Subject
American Exceptionalism and American Social Science
Evolutionary Theory and Psychology
Professor Mills comments
Hard-Nosed Psychologists: Some Reflections on Writing Psychology's History
This article discusses some of the issues involved in writing a historiography of histories of psychological thought, using as an example the development of my own thinking while writing a history of behaviorism. Taking the approaches of narrative historians as a starting point, I ask if such approaches can be applied to the writing of psychology's history, concluding that narrative approaches are congruent only with the analysis of particular ep…
Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology
Journal Article Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology. By John A. Mills. (New York: New York University Press, 1998. xiv, 246 pp. $37.50, ISBN 0-8147-5611-5.) Get access Thomas H. Leahey Thomas H. Leahey Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 2, September 2000, Pages 686–687, https://doi.org/10.2307/2568841 Pu…
Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology
What is lacking is the bold and exciting behavioristic hypothesis that what one observes and talks about is always the "real" or "physical" world (or at least the "one" world) and that "experience" is a derived construct to be understood only through an analysis of verbal (not, of course, merely vocal) processes.-B. F. SkinnerPassions shape the future spontaneously, unpredictably, necessarily -PaulÉmile BorduasThe longing for order, a desire to t…
Psychologists on the March: Science, Practice, and Professionalism in America, 1929-1969 , by James H. Capshew
Psychology (30 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology (13 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Psychoanalysis (8 works) · Linguistics (7 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works)