Psychological Research Is Influenced by the Historical Time Period in Which It Is Conducted - Essay Example

Research propels daily activities in the global arena. It helps in finding answers to challenging phenomena such as erupting natural as well as manmade extrication. Research is, therefore, an imperative tool towards development that, if exploited appropriately, can lead to the discovery of many and diverse environments. One such research is psychological research, which has helped in the medical sector provide dispensing answers about patients. Psychological conditions prevail in everyone, a study of the conditions help in establishing the employee conditions during interviews and obtain information from criminals as well as treat mentally retarded people. In as much as psychological research has remained helpful in various fraternities, it gets influenced by many factors with the key one being historical time of undertaking the study. Several psychologists have carried out research on psychology at different times. Although they studied on the same discipline, they came up with different results with theory advancing from the previously conducted theory. Personally is one area of psychological research where many psychologists conducted research (Pillman 2003, 1390). Lewis Goldberg for instance is a renowned psychologist in the 1980s who conducted a series of researches coming up with five personality traits. From his perspective, personality segregated into extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, intellectual sensitivity and agreeableness. The research came to a success with the help of a questionnaire where Golberg could measure the level of intellectual, extrovert as well as emotional stability. Notably technological methods of psychological research remained scarce by the time. One can imagine how an analysis of answers from a questionnaire gives a decisive answer about another person (Siegel 2005, 181). Hans Eysenck is another psychologist who conducted research in 1967 concluding that personality constitutes only three dimensions. On the other hand, the personality theory brought up by Paul Costa and Robert McCRae in 1992, which although had five explanations for personality were slightly different from Golberg’s. In as much as the researches got conducted while focusing on same objectives such as source as well as characteristics of personality, the difference in the results come, as a result of varying period (Pillman 2003, 1391). Acquiescence response bias is one of the diseases blamed on the Adorno’s psychological research. This was a tendency of erupting errors during interviews where respondents gave misguided answers regardless of the topic. The mistake got pegged on the design of a wrong scale also called the F scale, which was authoritarian and one way. It is, therefore, perceived that participants who scored highly on the scale did not have proficient personality, but were absurd authoritarians (Hickok Love-Geffen & Klima 2002, 171). However, with time a new scale came up called the Bass revised scale, which allowed answering on both directions. The differential problem among the two generations, was the confirmatory bias ness, which one scale promoted while the other offered liberty. This, therefore, proves that psychological research gets influenced by the period it is conducted as psychological methods also play an imperative role in the whole process. Notably, various psychological theories came up during totalitarian political regime to provide information on fascism and genocide (Flora 2004, 144). In as much as the theorists need appreciation for the admirable work done, it should also be pointed that the theories had no base as well as methodological grounds to convince people. Apart from psychological research on personality development, behavior change also remains a key factor in the verge conducting psychological resolutions. Behavior change gets influenced by many factors such as influence from other people, age development as well as maturity. In many cases behavior, change get inspired by external activities, as well as people. Behavior change can be forceful or peaceful depending on the place as well as conditions. The penal system, for instance, helps in correcting people from doing wrong things to clear issues. There are various disorders associated with behavior change including obsession disorder, which lowers anxiety of people. Among the prominent psychologists, who conducted research on behavior change included Burrhus Frederic Skinner (Jones 2002, 86). He mainly concentrated on consequences of behavior. Another psychologist is Ivan Pavlov, who as a means of behavior change studied automatic reaction to stimulus (Hickok Love-Geffen & Klima 2002, 170). He took a test with dogs where reflex actions of the dog got tested using meet. From the research, he was able to conclude that dogs react to stimuli through the psychic effect, which allow them to salivate for food before getting the food. In the early 1920s John Watson, a famous psychologist applied the same theory but with different experiment materials. Using a rat and sound Watson was able to come up with a different finding due to behavior experience a factor that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the time influence psychological research (Oesterreich 2005, 276). However, from Skilner’s research, consequences play an imperative role in shaping behavior change. For instance, he believed positive re-enforcement to be from instrumental applications, which instilled behavior change. The Skinnerian theory of punishment points out behavior changes associated with undesirable measurements as ineffective. Elicited behavior became another key concern in 1953 Skinner argument where he was able to advance from undertaking tests with rats to human beings. He was able to explain why people are able to build houses, as well as respond to other stimuli that do not favor their safe survival. Consequently, he was able to explain why cautioning impart implicit assumption in people thereby making them not do what they got cautioned from. Contrary to previous research, skinner was able to make a turn in research in 1971 where he proposed punishment as a poor way of controlling behavior (Jones 2002, 61). In his argument, he proposed that punishment leads people to know what not to undertake instead of the right thing to perform. Considering that he supported punishment from his previous research as a means of ensuring behavior change, it thrills why he changed. This proves that psychological research in influenced by the historical period when undertaken (Siegel 2005, 280). Therapeutic processes also provide psychological distress towards behaviorism. Current psychological methods can examine the behavior of diverse people to arrive at a conclusion that provide the best solution. For instance, children displaying self-harm in the current can be identified in time using the current psychological methods thereby providing non-harming behavioral solutions. Consequently, adults who cannot communicate effectively when taken to mental hospitals get introduced to behavioral and social skills initiating behavior change. In addition, current existing machines allow for instigated behavior changes giving appropriate solution for every problem. This becomes another factor that proves psychological research to be related to the historical period (Flora 2004, 134). Advancement of language and the brain becomes another area of study when finding the relativity of psychological study with time. The study of the brain connects back to the eighteenth century when Doctor Franz Joseph Gall came up with a theory proposing the brain, to be having diverse roles (Oesterreich 2005, 275). From his perspective, the brain is segregated into varied regions with each region specialized to perform its own function. For instance, there is the part that deals with storing of memory such as those of romantic love. Phrenology is the name of the functional anatomy of the brain as proposed by Gall, which studies the brain as a structural organ. The brain in regards to the cognitive process portrays individual characteristics, which also assists in language benevolence. This was a theory, which was in the verge of challenging religious authorities who saw people as immaterial souls. In as much as he accepted mental processes as a stem of operations in the body, according to him the brain worked equally to the whole body (Jones 2002, 34). From Gall’s research genius people had psychological deviation from the normal behavior, a research that was doubted by other psychologists. Pierre Paul Broca is another French psychologist who conducted a research on the brain linking the brain to speech. For instance, he was able to prove that damage of the brain affected speech in varied ways. Consequently, Phineas Gage experienced brain damage coming up with a theory, which explained any effect on the brain as depending on the part damaged. He further asserted that brain impairment came because of impairment, which could affect speech and delivery of gestures. The above psychological researches got conducted at different times and people under varied conditions. In as much as the subject of study remained the brain a difference in research manifests suggesting psychological research as dependent on the historical period (Oesterreich 2005, 275). Another psychologist, Carl Wernicle, born in 1848, was also able to conduct psychological research on varied brain hemispheres. His analysis focused on people with problems in constructing sentences as impairment. He was able to identify an area in the brain called the Wernickes area a condition, which he associated with aphasia. This is a proof that as time advanced, more evidence on brain functioning came up from different psychologists. Consequently, advancement in technology played a vital role enabling proficient research in all psychological arenas. While summarizing it is essential to note that all the researches which got conducted where aimed at finding sustainable solution to psychological problems. Historical period, therefore, played a principal in dictating the nature of psychological results. References Hickok, G., Love-Geffen, T & Klima, E.S. 2002, ‘Role of the left hemisphere in sign language comprehension’, Brain and Language, vol. 82, no. 2, pp. 167–78. Oesterreich, D 2005, ‘Flight into security: a new approach and measure of the authoritarian personality’, Political Psychology, vol. 26, no.2, pp. 275–97. Jones, M 2002, Social Psychology of Prejudice, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pillman, F 2003, ‘Carl Wernicke (1848–1905)’, Journal of Neurology, vol. 250, no. 11, pp. 1390–1. Flora, S. R 2004, The power of reinforcement, State university of New York press, Albany, NY. Siegel, S 2005, ‘Drug tolerance, drug addiction and drug anticipation’, Current directions in psychological science, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 296-300. Read More