Psychology as the Study of the Mind or the Soul - Essay Example

dear client, please do not submit this yet to your I’m still double checking everything. I’m fixing the in-text citations and reference page. I’ll upload the finalized paper today. I’ll inform you once the finalized paper is ready. Thanks =) History of Psychology ‘Psychology’, an ancient Greek word made up of psyche which is the mind or the soul while logy means study. Simply put, psychology is the study of the mind or the soul. Many psychologists prefer to focus on the mind and leave the issue of the soul to theology and the great religions of the world. Though it is largely concerned with the study of humans, the behaviour of animals is also studied. In fact, many of the earlier theories of psychology originated from studies conducted with rats, pigeons, cats, monkeys and dogs. These theories have been used to describe human behaviour and have influenced educational practice. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines psychology as the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. The American Heritage Dictionary defines psychology as the science that deals with mental processes and behavior. It also includes the study of the emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual or group. In short, psychology may be defined as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. There are 3 key word and phrases in these definitions, namely; scientific, behaviour and mental processes. The first is the term scientific which means studies using the scientific method. The scientific method proposed by Dewey (1922) comprises the following steps: 1. A statement of the problem and identification of the hypotheses to be tested. 2. The design of the study and employment of data collection techniques to answer the research question or hypothesis. 3. The collection and analysis of data. 4. Report of the findings and decide whether to accept or reject the hypothesis. The second term is behaviour which relates to whatever activity (by a human or animal) that can be observed, measured and recorded. Behaviour is also observed to occur when individuals speak or write something. For example, a person who records his or her fear or attitude is a manifestation of behaviour. The third term is mental processes include all processes involved in thinking, memory, learning, attitudes, emotions and so forth. This has become the focus of many psychologists but the problem is that these processes cannot be observed and are difficult to record and measure accurately. [This is an issue that will be discussed later in the chapter]. Both the psychologist studying human behaviour and the scientist studying the physical word use the scientific method. However, for the psychologist, humans possess neither the simplicity nor the predictability of the physical world. Even the behaviour of a cat or dog is unpredictable! The physicist, the chemist and even the biologist, employing the scientific method has been able to discover great theories and laws explaining the behaviours of physical matter, molecules, cells and so forth. These explanations are more stable, precise and replicable. The psychologist is still struggling with having to discover a single, precise and magnificent law explaining the behaviour of a human or even a rat. Even though the scientific method is widely used in psychology, researchers have to make various kinds of inferences and interpretations. Why? This is because the subjects studied are humans. Compared to cells or chemicals studied by scientists, humans are comparatively less stable (see Figure 1.1). Studying the behaviours of humans is more complicated because of the influence of extraneous variables that are difficult to control. Oftentimes it requires researchers to make inferences or interpretation because the data is comparatively less clear-cut. The Roots of Psychology Psychology is interested in the nature of humans and how human beings function. However, psychology is by no means the only field of inquiry that seeks answers to the puzzles of human nature. The roots of psychology can be traced to the ancient philosopher based on their early records to understand psychology. The earliest roots of modern psychology can be traced to two different approaches to human behaviour: philosophy and physiology (see Figure 1.2). Philosophy explores and attempts to explain human nature through introspection or self-examination of one’s experiences. Through a process of self-questioning and asking others questions, philosophers have attempted to unravel how we think, how we learn, how we gain knowledge and how we use our experiences. Physiology is the study of the human body and through observation early Greek scholars attempted to understand the workings of the human body. Early philosophers were most concerned with nature of knowledge or epistemology. In epistemology you ask such questions as: What is knowledge? What are the origins of knowledge? What does it mean to know? Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), known as the father of modern medicine argued that there was a close connection between the mind and the body. He proposed that mental illness was not caused by demons but caused by physical malfunctions. By dissecting human cadavers and operating on living organisms, he concluded that the mind controlled the human body. He was the first to suggest that the mind resides in the brain. Plato (427-347 B.C.) who lived at about the same time also subscribed to Hippocrates’ view that the mind and body were separate and the mind was located in the brain. He believed that reality did not lie in concrete objects but are represented in abstract form in our minds. In other words, when we see a chair, the ‘real’ chair exists in our minds. Plato reasoned that the head is the seat of the mind. Plato was a rationalist who believed that knowledge is gained through thinking and analysing in an effort to understand the world and peoples relationship to it. The mind and body interact with one another but they are essentially different. The mind is superior to the body. Truth is found in our thoughts (via introspection) not through our senses (via observation). Platos view formed the foundation for theorising about psychological processes, an activity that may or may not lead to subsequent empirical investigation. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) who was Plato’s student disagreed with him on many points. He argued that the mind and body were NOT separate and felt that the mind and body are one and the same. He believed that we understand the mind by studying the body and that we rely on observation of concrete objects and actions rather than on our own thoughts (introspection) to discover truth. He argued that that reality lies only in the concrete world of objects that we apprehend through our senses. Aristotle was an empiricist who believed that knowledge is gained by experience, observation and experimentation. Aristotles view formed the foundation for the methods of empirical psychological research. Ibn Sina (980-1037), a Muslim philosopher famous for his works on medicine viewed the human being as consisting of both hidden (sirr) and open (alin) elements. The hidden part consists of the powers of the mind while the open part is the human body and its organs (Abd al-Rahman al Naqib, 1993). The powers of the mind or mental faculties are classified into three groups: First, the group of vegetative faculties, in which humans and plants both share. They are concerned with the survival of the human being, growth through nutrition, and preservation of the species through reproduction. They comprise 3 faculties: feeding, growth and reproduction. Second, the group of faculties shared by humans and animals. They comprise two faculties. One is the perceptive faculty of the exterior world though the five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The other faculty is directed from within, by way of common sense, imagination, memory and reflection. Third, the group of faculties which distinguish human beings from animals. They comprise two faculties: an active faculty directing the human’s practical conduct, and a cognitive faculty directing his or her intellectual conduct. The first is practical and the second is contemplative. There seems to be consensus among these early philosophers that the mind and body relationship is important is determining human behaviour. Most psychologists today agree that the concept of mind and body have merit. But, more important is to provide empirical evidence to confirm the relationship between mind and body (The History of Psychology, 2006). The Birth of Modern Psychology The year 1879 is generally regarded as the year in which psychology as a formal science was officially born. A German scholar named Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), who was trained in both philosophy and medicine, had written in his first book on sense perception in 1862 that psychology could become science only if it employed the experimental method in studying the workings of the mind. In a subsequent publication in 1873, he announced that that he intended to make psychology a science and he established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. Others in both North America and Europe were also doing psychological research at this time but Wundts laboratory was the first to be formally established and to have its research results published in a scholarly journal. These are among the reasons that he is credited as the primary founder of the modern discipline of psychology. Many of Americas early psychologists received their training in Wundts lab. The focus of research in the Leipzig Laboratory was on sensation, perception, imagery and attention Wundt doubted that more complex processes could be studied experimentally. One of Wundts favourite research methods was "trained introspection." Wundt and his associates and students trained research subjects to carefully observe and analyse their own mental experiences – including sensations, mental images, and emotional reactions - under controlled conditions. The training of subjects in introspection was rigorous and exhaustive. Wundt hoped that by providing such training he could produce reliable, verifiable, objective results. In the long run, however, it proved to be impossible to use introspection to produce reliable results and the approach was abandoned as a research technique by other psychologists Structuralism and Functionalism In the early days of psychology there were two dominant theoretical perspectives. Structuralism was the name given to the approach pioneered by Wundt. The term originated from Edward Titchener, an American psychologist who had been trained by Wundt. Structuralism relied on trained introspection, a research method whereby subjects related what was going on in their minds while performing a certain task. However, it proved to be unreliable method because there was too much individual variation in the experiences and reports of research subjects (Wade & Tavris, 2002). An American psychologist named William James (1842-1910), developed a competing approach, which came to be known as functionalism. He argued that the mind is constantly changing and it is pointless to look for the building blocks of experience. Instead, focus should be on how and why an organism does something (Levin, 2004). It was suggested that psychologists should look for the underlying cause of behaviour and the mental the processes involved. This emphasis on the causes and consequences of behaviour has influenced contemporary psychology. Psychoanalysis Another early theory in psychology was developed by the Austrian physician, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Originally trained as a neurologist, Freud became interested in how psychological factors might contribute to some of his patients problems. He became convinced that many of his patients symptoms had mental rather than physical explanations. In particular, he believed that early experiences such as conflicts and traumas had caused such distress for his patients as children that the memory of them was extremely threatening and therefore the patients were unable to consciously recall these events. He believed that even more important than our conscious thoughts in determining how we react and respond to events are forces that operate unconsciously. Such unconscious material as repressed wishes, conflicts, guilty secrets, yearnings and desires exert a powerful influence on our behaviour and emotional reactions. Freud gradually developed his ideas into a broad theory of human psychological functioning and a method for treating patients with psychologically based disorders. Both the theory and the treatment method became known as psychoanalysis. Behaviourism A very different approach to psychology emerged in the early 1900s. The work of several scholars contributed to the development and growth of this approach but one of them, the American John B. Watson (1878-1958) is typically credited as the “father of behaviourism.” Behaviourism is a theoretical perspective that is based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour. In 1913, he published an article that has since become known as “The Behaviourist Manifesto”. In it he argued that psychology should altogether abandon the study of consciousness (mental processes) and attend only to directly observable and, therefore verifiable, behaviour [We will discuss further in Chapter 2: Behavioural Learning Theories]. A strict empiricist, Watson proposed a revolutionary re-definition of psychology. He argued that mental processes were not a proper subject of study for a scientific discipline because there are private events that cannot be examined by an impartial observer. He proposed that psychology should instead be the science of behaviour. Watson’s ideas and the works of Thorndike and B.F. Skinner became the dominant theoretical perspective in much of psychology from the 1920’s to the 1960’s. Cognitivism The 1960s saw the rejection of behaviourism and the emergence of the cognitive revolution. The movement composed of psychologists who challenged the prevailing behaviourist model of human functioning and insisted that focus should shift towards studying the “interior” mental processes. Using the computer as an analogy, researchers provided important clues and directions in understanding the human brain how it perceives, stores and organises information, how information is used to make decisions and solve problems. Among the prominent scholars who developed various theories explaining human cognition were Miller (1956), Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968), Bartlett (1932), Festinger (1957) and many others [We will discuss further in Chapter 3: Cognitive Learning Theories and Chapter 4: Information Processing Model]. A broad array of disciplines such cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, semiotics, neuroscience, anthropology and philosophy have contributed to the emergence of what we now call “cognitive science”. REFERENCES Abd al-Rahman al Naqib (1993). Ibn Sina. Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative Education. XXIII, 1 &2. vol. 93. 53-69. Bruner, J. (1960). The process of education. Boston: Wiley. Christensen, L. (1988). Experimental Methodology. San Francisco: Wiley. Dewey, J. (1922). Human Nature and Conduct. New York: Henry Holt and Company. History of Psychology: A TimeLine of psychological ideas (2006). Marcos Emanoel Pereira Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. Hunt, M. (1993). The Story of Psychology, New York: MacMillan. Saljo, R. (1979). Learning in the learners perspective: I. Some common-sense conceptions. Reports from the Institute of Education. University of Gothenberg, 76. Lefrancois, GH. (1982), Psychology for Teaching, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Levin, J. (2004). Functionalism. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/ Vernon, D. (2008). What is cognition? One view of cognitive systems. Khalifa University of Science, Technology, and Research UAE Wade, C. & Tavris, C. (2002). Psychology (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wagner, K (2008). What is cognition? About.com: Psychology. The New York Times Company. Read More