Graves, Claire

J. M. Blackbourn & Jennifer Fillingim & James Campbell

Claire Graves (1914–1986) was a professor of psychology at Union College from 1948 to 1978. He developed a sociobiological theory of human development that emphasized an individual's need to solve specific problems or answer specific questions at a given developmental level. Dr. Graves felt that different ways of thinking about and explaining the observable world was embedded in the neural structure of all human beings, and environmental events specific to each individual give rise to different “levels of existence.” He saw psychological functioning as an emergent, unfolding process marked by a progressive subordination of lower-level behavior systems to higher-level behavior systems according to the changes in that person's existential problems. Therefore, each individual interprets the observable world based upon the paradigm associated with his or ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.