Tracing the Definition of Psychology - Essay Example

?Tracing the Definition of Psychology Introduction Psychology is identified by William James as a discipline that focuses on the brain or mind (Butler & McManus 1998). However, even though psychologists try to understand the complex workings of the brain, there are still some ambiguities in the way human beings are able to experience and express anxieties, sadness, hopes, and desires. Without a doubt, it is seldom plausible to investigate the brain openly (Butler & McManus 1998). Hence, psychologists have unravelled much more by investigating human behaviour, and by applying scientific methods to create assumptions about the highly sophisticated functioning of human behaviour. Psychology, in addition, is about the means where in living things, particularly individuals, exercise their minds or mental capacities, to deal with their immediate environment. The means where in they perform this have evolved throughout time as their surroundings or external environment evolved (Kraus, McAlister & Brentano 1995). The theory of evolution states that if living things fail to adapt to an evolving environment they will face extinction. Mental processes have been, and are still being, influenced by evolutionary mechanisms. This implies that there are evolutionary explanations for the functioning of the human mind (Kraus et al. 1995); for example, the explanation why individuals are more capable of sensing or noticing moving things than motionless objects may be due to the fact that this capability was functional in aiding human predecessors to evade predators (Rajamanickam 2005). It is vital for practitioners of scientific disciplines, including psychologists, to be informed of these explanations. Contemporary psychology has its origins in Germany’s cultural and intellectual development throughout the 1840s and 1850s (Sheehy 2004). Psychology, unlike the natural sciences, is in its formative years and, just as every beginner, its development at the onset has been remarkable. Two centuries ago it would have been easy to identify the psychologists in North American and Europe (Sheehy 2004). Nowadays the population of those with diplomas in psychology is extremely large. Nevertheless, the foundations of psychology are rooted to the union of knowledge and techniques from the natural sciences, medicine, and philosophy. To differing levels the thoughts and influence of the major psychologists manifest those roots (Butler & McManus 1998). According to Sheehy (2004), some have expertise in physics and medicine, like von Helmholtz; some are mathematics, like Luce, and others are neurologists, like Sperry. Quite a few, like ethologist Konrad Lorenz and linguist Noam Chomsky, have by no means considered themselves as practitioners of psychology and would refute that categorization (Butler & McManus 1998). Yet, their thoughts and findings are in domains intimately connected to psychology and have had a deep-seated effect on the way psychologists view and study behaviour. American and European perspectives of psychology have determined several features of the human form as critically vital (Sheehy 2004). As stated by Butler and McManus (1998), these comprise social relationships, personality, language, learning, perception, thinking, intelligence, and the brain. Psychology as a Scientific and Empirical Discipline Psychology is science. But what makes it a science? To resolve this issue, its definition should become more definite. Ordinary people think that psychology does certainly put emphasis on individuals, specifically on the ‘mind’ and its remarkable expressions like mental telepathy, hypnotic forms, and dreams (Abra 1998). These ideas produce an incident that majority of psychologists will eventually encounter (Abra 1998): Someone—perhaps the little old lady next to me on the plane—asks what I do. I grimace, knowing too well what will happen, and murmur, “I’m a psychologist.” “Oh my goodness,” she chortles, “I’d better watch what I say or you’ll analyze me.” “No, I won’t lady! Not only am I not the least bit interested in doing so, I don’t know how! I know less about such things than advice-to-the-lovelorn columnists (Abra 1998: x). Yet, this widespread idea is not completely illogical. Actually, it fits strongly with the description that, starting from the earliest Greeks, dominated for several hundred years. The term ‘psychology’ comes from the Greek words, ‘psyche’ and ‘logos’ (Rajamanickam 2005: 6). Basically, the latter term means “the study of” (Kraus et al. 1995: 5) and the former echoes the concepts of ‘soul’ or ‘mind’ (Kraus et al. 1995: 5), that believed but unseen component that theoretically gives human awareness, or consciousness. Hence interpreted in a literal way, ‘psychology’ has traditionally implied the investigation of the mind and by itself created one primary domain within philosophy, majority of whose prominent icons from Plato to Aristotle, Locke, Kant, Descartes, etc. discussed issues that rest within the realm of psychology, like memory and perception (Rajamanickam 2005). However, around the latter part of the twentieth century, it abruptly obtained a quite distinct definition, hence today most psychologists, definitely those from North America (Abra 1998), identify as the scientific and empirical investigation of behaviour. Therefore, psychology has turned into something very different, for this alteration in definition means a quite distinct standpoint on two basic issues. One is the focus. It is not the mind anymore, but behaviour (Rajamanickam 2005). Second is the procedure of investigation. ‘Science’ points primarily to several guidelines of method that any subject area that regards itself a science should conform to, and it also requires particular practices and assumptions and insistently promotes others (Rajamanickam 2005). This immediate shift in path has cultivated a maxim: ‘psychology has a long history but a short past’ (Abra 1998: x). The roots of psychology can be traced back to ancient times, but its scientific appearance remains in its infancy. This limiting of the realm of psychology was not random. In contrast, it seems to be an evident adjustment required by the nature of the focus itself. In reality, once the combination of interrelated disciplines and the partition of distinct disciplines are attained, the limits between the sciences can be exactly determined and their taxonomy can contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge (Kraus et al. 1995). The concept of awareness or consciousness is interrelated to a great extent. The similar approach toward perception provides people the understanding, and many similarities connect lower and higher observable fact to one another. The objects which peripheral perception has revealed about organisms are viewed as if from a distinct viewpoint or even in an entirely distinct way (Sheehy 2004), and the common facts which are at times similar premises which are ruling non-living things, and at times similar ones. Conclusions Current psychology is now at an exhilarating phase in part due to the fact that its components are, in several areas, collapsing. Psychology is by no means the sole subject area that has had to discuss issues about the way individuals can discern unobservable things. Theoretical and scientific developments have contributed to this process and these advances have evolved, and are still evolving, psychology’s essence as a science. Practitioners of psychology can, at present, utilize advanced measuring tools, enhanced statistical techniques, and electronic devices to process vast amount of information and factors, employing computers and other equipment related to communication and information technology. Investigating the human brain or consciousness as a mechanism of information processing has allowed psychologists to unravel a great deal of aspects that elude observation, and the numerous factors that intercede between stimulus and response, like processes related to decision making, reflection, thinking, and awareness. They are at present able to ground their assumptions about these aspects not entirely on theoretical assumptions emerging from reflection, as the early psychologists did, or entirely on behavioural observations, but on integrations of these aspects supported by more trustworthy and legitimate processes of investigation. These advancements have generated a transformation in psychology as the scientific study of mental processes, and their persistent evolution implies that there is a lot more that awaits discovery. References Abra, J. (1998) Should Psychology be a Science? Pros and Cons. Westport, CT: Praeger. Butler, G. & McManus, F. (1998) Psychology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kraus, O., McAlister, L. & Brentano, F. (1995) Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint. London: Routledge. Rajamanickam, M. (2005) Modern General Psychology. New York: Concept Publishing Co. Sheehy, N. (2004) Fifty Key Thinkers in Psychology. London: Routledge. Read More