The Concept of Phrenology as a Pseudoscience - Assignment Example

Number] Psychology The concept of phrenology has long been debated and criticized after which its position has been determined as a pseudoscience just like palmistry or astrology. A phrenologist, thus, does not only look at the bumps and indentations to assess the structure of an individual’s skull but also uses these findings for various purposes such as firstly evaluating the findings and determining what does the skull surface have to say about an individual’s character, natural aptitudes, and tendencies. Secondly, these findings help in assessing the concept of cortical localization. This is an idea through which some mental functions are localized in particular areas of the mind. Phrenologists now use modern research methods such as MRI and PET to find out about the localization of mental functions inside the brain (Benjamin 22). 2. Through mental healing, only those patients can be cured who believe that the superior healing power belongs to God and him alone. A real man falls under the pressures and burdens of his own creations. God does not create disorders or diseases. Pain is something which is ignited and developed in our nature to drive us higher. If one closes its doors to the negativities of the outer world and believe in the divine power which surrounds us, he would be able to realize the divine and higher selfhood. Unlimited good belongs to all and with mental healing, people will start going towards the right direction where everything starts with a principle and aid lies in the divinity of one’s selfhood (Benjamin 77). Normal healing is nothing but self-healing. 3. The title of the first edition of Thomas Upham’s textbook published in 1827 was Elements of Intellectual Philosophy. 4. Flourens admired the dissecting skills of Gall but highly criticized his ideas of phrenology in regard to both the psychological speculations and the support of cortical localization which was based on clinical observation. He studied the ablations on animals and proved that the mind was not located in the heart, but in the brain. For his criticism, he provided experimental evidence and questioned the functional localization within the brain. He applied the technique of ablation or extirpation which is known as the surgical removal of some parts of the brain to analyze how other parts would function without that part and observing the postoperative behaviour. Flouren’s investigation has been a turning point in the modern era. He researched about extirpation of cerebellum’s increasing parts which, according to him, were involved in the posture control. Through this, he examined the maintenance of physical balance in a greater deal. 5. The methods Fechner proposed are highly important for the analysis of relative and absolute thresholds. The problem in absolute thresholds is to determine the least amount of sensation detected by a person. There are three methods that would yield similar data in determination of thresholds. Fechner also introduced the usage of averages to balance the differences that he realized were present due to individual differences and which needed to be controlled. His methods were the method of limits in which he showed that two stimuli were his research subjects, the method of constant stimuli in which he presented a randomly chosen from a small set, and the method of adjustment in which his research subject could make changes to one stimulus (Benjamin 65). Through these methods he could use sound devices to determine absolute threshold. 6. Brentano and Wundt have had opposing views in the history of psychology. Wundt had been pained in psychology as a physical reductionist while Brentano was painted as being a more holistic theorist. Brentano felt that physicist dealt with assumed realities which were assumedly objective. Another major difference between Brentano and Wundt was their chosen methods. Brentano’s methods considered philosophical questions while Wundt’s methods believed in making efforts that would separate philosophical questioning from empirical investigation (Rieber 59). 7. Mary Whiton Calkins faced many issues in the world of psychology just because she was a woman. Her major contribution was her work towards self-psychology and inventing the paired association technique. She believed that the conscious self of an individual is the primary focus in psychology but her contributions had resulted to greater refusals and her influence in psychology is most of the times overlooked by students, scholars, and psychologists. As a woman the issues and facts that she opposed included her opposition to the right of vote. She believed that in a democratic country, every citizen must have the right to vote and educated women must be given importance in the government without the distinction simply based on sex; which is merely illogical. 8. Calkins contributed in many writings of psychology and philosophy including The Good Man and The Good (1918) and The Persistent Problems of Philosophy (1907). In these two publications, she comprehensively expressed her views of philosophy. Two of her other important concepts were memory and self in which she researched many factors and aspects. For many years she researched for the way to define the idea but in the end she found no way. She was also appointed as the Associate Professor at Wellesley College and then became a Research Professor. Calkins was also elected as the president in 1905 of American Psychological Association. In 1918 she became the president. 9. Sigmund Freud had a disturbing childhood where his mother was the third wife of his father and younger than his eldest brother from his father’s first marriage. Thus his brother was attracted to his mother and Freud started feeling disgusted about his father. He had bizarre considerations of childhood sexuality and so he developed controversial researches where he talked about childhood incest representing a repressed unconscious fantasy (Benjamin 98). Freud’s ideas were highly related to his childhood experiences. Secondly, psychologists have concluded that he may be partially right when he concluded that every individual has repressive incestuous urges. The new research proves that individuals are more attracted towards people with faced that resemble their own. This doesn’t mean that every individual wants to have sex with his family members secretly. Kids who are raised together also tend to be attracted to each other and so do blood relatives. 10. The tabula rasa concept of John Locke presented that an individual’s mind at birth is like a blank slate. Experience, nature, and nurture help individuals to build ideas and their personalities. Siblings living in the same family, same nurture, and same genes can also be very different at times. This is because of a number of factors. Genes does not always determine the attitude, behaviour, and personality. The environment of the infant affects the personality and development of brain much more than the genes. Every individual develops a different personality as per the nurture, experiences, and responses that they get. Siblings of the same family are also at times treated differently by parents. Every action or response given to the infant plays a part in developing his personality. Each child would take the actions differently and perceive them in a different manner, and react differently to them. Environment keeps changing and every child of the same family gets affected by it. 11. In my opinion, I disagree that case studies should not be used in psychology. Even though every case is different and every reaction to treatment of individuals is different in regard to the mind and brain variations, case studies often provide helpful guidelines in psychology and in clinical practice. They have long been used in psychology and psychologists are successfully treating the individuals which can be seen in the advancement of psychology in the past decade. Case studies would not necessarily show the studies of an individual person, but the case could also be about a business department or situation which can be used to get detailed information about a situation or individual. 12. In 1865, Broca had written that he believed speech was mediated by the right hemisphere in left-handed people. The concept was accepted globally by the majority and then in the twentieth century scientists started to wonder about the accuracy of Broca’s concepts after the review published in 1914 by Shepherd Ivory Franz. In this review, Franz had stated that Borca’s belief was not borne out by case studies. He discussed a case in which it was found that a left-handed person had developed aphasia after a wound of the left front lobe. Based on this review, it was proved that a majority of left-handed people can have speech localized on their brain’s left sides or might also exhibit a mixed dominance (Finger 393). 13. According to Wundt, attention is the representations that are present in consciousness in differing degrees. The differing degrees of presence associate with the differing degrees of consciousness turning towards them. Wundt also clarifies that this consciousness is the common image of consciousness as the inner vision. The concept by Wundt is important in schizophrenia when researchers discovered that specific mechanisms of working memory and attention are the central features of schizophrenia (Rieber 128). The experts use these methods and concepts to construct the attention and working memory to construct falsified and specific hypotheses. The hypotheses can be used to control attention, working memory, and selection of responses. Thus Wundt’s concepts are highly used in contemporary research of schizophrenia. 14. Blumenthal has recorded Wundt as the founding father we never knew. His discussion of Wundt’s Historical Context presents a naturalistic view as he praises Wundt and believes him as the influential psychologist in experimental psychology. He has assessed the historical accounts of the early 20th century which are concerning the mind-body dualism issues as well as associatism and elementalism. He assesses that the central theme of Wundt’s psychology is volitional attention. Wundt’s work consists of modern psychology and research of the human information processing (Rieber 143). 15. As William James talks about the human memory he gives the example of four men who visit Europe separately. He explains how different experiences can leave an impact on the memory even if a person saw or met it only once in his lifetime. Out of the four men, one will probably bring home pictures of costumes, parks views, colours, and statutes while for the other person all these may seem to be non-existent. For the second statistics of the visit may be more important while for the third the account of restaurants, theatres, and public balls may be more important. The fourth one may just remember few names of places that he visited. This shows that the human memory stores different kinds of information from the same experiences due to their varying functions (James 265). In contemporary research, memory refers to those processes that help individuals to gain, store, retain, and retrieve the information. This example can still be relevant in contemporary research as human memory stores different things and aspects. Work Cited Benjamin, Lucy. A Brief History of Modern Psychology. USA: John Wiley & Sons, 2006 Benjamin, Lucy. History of Psychology: Original Sources and Contemporary Research. USA: John Wiley & Sons, 2008 James, Williams. The Principles of Psychology. USA: Dover Publications, 1950 Rieber, Robert. Wilhelm Wundt in History: The Making of a Scientific Psychology. USA: Springer, 2001 Finger, Stanley. Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations Into Brain Function. USA: Oxford University Press, 2001 Read More