The nature of psychology



The nature of psychology

("Introduction to Psychology " Ernest R. Hilgard Richard C. Atkinson Rita L. Atkinson)

Psychology touches almost every facet of our lives. As society has become progressively more complex, psychology has assumed an increasingly important role in solving human problems. Psychologists are concerned with an astonishing variety of problems. Some are specific and practical. What is the best treatment for drug addiction or obesity? How can people be persuaded to give up smoking?

Psychology also affects our lives through its influence on laws and public policy. Law concerning discrimination, capital punishment, sexual behavior, and the conditions under which a person may be held legally responsible for his actions are influenced by psychological theories of human nature.

Because psychology affects so many aspects of our lives it is important even for those who do not intend to specialize in the field, to know something about its basic facts and research methods. An introductory course in psychology should give you a better understanding of why people behave as they do and should provide insights into your own attitudes and reactions.

Psychology is relatively young compared to other scientific disciplines, and recent years seen a virtual explosion in psychological research. As a result, psychological theories and concepts have been continuously evolving and changing. For this reason, it is difficult to give a precise definition of psychology. Basically, psychologists are interested in finding out “why people act as they do.” But there are different ways of explaining useful to consider alternative approaches to explaining psychological phenomena.

Neurobiological Approach

The human brain with its twelve billion nerve cells and almost infinite number of interconnections and pathways may well be the most complex structure in the universe. In principle, all psychological events are represented in some manner by the active of the active of the brain and nervous system in conjunction with the other body systems. One approach to the study of man attempts to relate his actions to events to taking place inside his body, particularly within the brain and nervous system. This approach tries to reduce observable (overt) behavior and mental events, such as thoughts and emotions, to neurobiological processes. Recent discoveries have made it dramatically clear that there is an intimate relationship between brain activity and behavior and experience. Emotional reactions, such as fear and rage, have been produced in animals and humans by mild electrical stimulation of specific areas deep in the brain.

Because of the complexity of the brain and the fact that live human brains are seldom available for study, tremendous gaps exist in our knowledge of neural functioning. A psychological conception of man based on neurobiology would be inadequate indeed. For this reason, other methods are used to investigate psychological phenomena. In many instances it is more practical to study antecedent conditions and their consequences without worrying about what goes on inside the organism.

Behavioral approach

With the behavioral approach a psychologist studies an individual by looking at his behavior rather than his internal workings. The view that behavior should be the sole subject matter of psychology was first advanced by the American psychologist John B. Watson in the early 1900s.

Behaviorism, as Watson’s position came to be called, helped shape the course of psychology during the first half of this century and its outgrowth, stimulus-response psychology, is still strong in America, particularly through the work of Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner. Stimulus-response psychology (or S-R psychology) studies the stimuli the elicit behavioral responses, the rewards and punishments that maintain these responses, and the modifications in behavior obtained by changing the patterns of rewards and punishments. Stimulus-response psychology is not concerned with what goes on inside the organism; for this reason it has sometimes been called the “black box” approach. S-R psychologists maintain that although the brain and nervous system may carry on complex activities that the psychologist cannot see (inside the black box), a science of psychology can be based strictly on what goes into the box and what comes out, without worrying about what goes on inside. Thus, a theory of learning can be developed by observing how learned behavior varies with environmental conditions.

A strict S-R approach does not consider the individual’s conscious experiences. Conscious experiences are simply those of which the experiencing person is fully aware. You may be aware of the various thoughts and hypotheses that go through your mind as you solve a difficult problem. A psychologist can record what a person says about his conscious experiences and from this objective data can make inferences about the person’s mental activity. But, by and large, S-R psychologists have not chosen to study the mental processes that intervene between the stimulus and the observable response.

Cognitive Approach

Cognitive psychologists argue that we are not merely passive receptors of stimuli; the mind actively processes the information it receives and transforms it into new forms and categories.

Cognition refers to those mental processes that transform the sensory input in various ways, code it, store it in memory, and retrieve it for later use. Perception, imagery, problem-solving, remembering, and thinking are all terms that describe stages of cognition (Neisser, 1967).

Cognitive psychology can be considered analogous to an electronic computer. Incoming information is processed in various ways-selected, compared and combined with other information already in memory, transformed and rearranged, and so on; the response output depends on the nature of these internal processes.

Psychoanalytic Approach

The psychoanalytic conception of man was developed by Sigmund Freud in Europe. The basic assumption of Freud’s theory is that much of man’s behavior is determined by innate instincts that are largely unconscious. By unconscious processes Freud meant thoughts, fears, and wishes of which the person is unaware but which influence his behavior. He believed that many forbidden or punished impulses of childhood are driven out of awareness into the unconscious where they still affect behavior. According to Freud, unconscious impulses find expression in dreams, slips of speech, mannerisms, and symptoms of neurotic illness, as well as through such socially approved behavior as artistic, literary, or scientific activity.

Freud’s view of human nature was essentially negative. Man is driven by the same basic instincts as animals (primary sex and aggression), and he is continually struggling against a society that stresses the control of these impulses. Because Freud believed that aggression was a basic instinct, he was pessimistic about the possibility of men ever living together peacefully.

Humanistic Approach

According to humanistic psychology an individual's main motivational force is a tendency toward growth and self-actualization. Every person has a basic need to develop his potential to the fullest, to progress beyond what he is now. He may not know which path leads to growth, and he may be blocked by all kinds of environmental and cultural obstacles, but his natural tendency is toward actualization of his potential.

The main concern of the humanistic psychologist is the individual's subjective experience. An individual's perceptions for himself and the world are considered a more important concern for study than his actions. Within this viewpoint, some humanists would even reject scientific psychology, claiming that its methods can contribute nothing worthwhile to an understanding of the nature of man.

Application of different conceptions

Each approach would attempt to modify behavior in a different way. For example, the neurobiologist would look for a drug or some other physical means, such as surgery, for controlling aggression. The behaviorist would try to modify the environmental conditions to provide new learning experiences that reward noaggressive types of behavior. The cognitive psychologist would use an approach similar to that of the behaviorist, although he might focus more on the individual's through processes and his reasoning when confronted with anger-arousing situations. the psychoanalyst might probe the individual's unconscious to discover why his hostility is directed toward certain people or situations and then try to redirect it into more acceptable channels society's priorities to place more emphasis on improving interpersonal relationships and providing conditions that promote the development of man's potential for constructive and cooperative actions.

About half the people who have advanced degree in psychology work in colleges and universities; other work in the government and private agencies – business, industry, clinics, and guidance centers. Those in private practice who offer their services to the public for a fee represent only a small minority. Psychologists do a variety of things, depending and their fields of specialization and their work locations.

Experimental Psychologist

This category usually consists of those psychologists who use experimental methods to find out how people react to sensory stimuli, perceive the word around them, learn and remember, respond emotionally, and are motivated to action, whether by hunger or the desire to become president. Experimental psychologists also work with animals. Sometimes they attempt to relate animal and human behavior; sometimes they study animals in order to compare the behavior of different species (comparative psychology). Whatever their interest, experimental psychologist are concerned with developing precise methods of measurement and control.

Psychological Psychologist

Closely related to experimental psychology is physiological psychology. The psychological psychologist wants to discover the relationship between bodily processes and behavior. How to sex hormones influence behavior? What area of the brain controls speech?

Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychologists

A developmental psychologist is concerned with human growth and the factors that shape human behavior from birth to old age. He might study a specific ability such as how language develops and changes in the growing child, or a particular period of life, such as infancy, the preschool years, or adolescence.

Social psychologists are concerned also with the behavior of groups. They are perhaps best known for their work in public opinion and attitudes surveys, audience measurement, and market research. Surveys are now widely used by newspapers, magazines, radio and television networks, as well as by governmental agencies.

Social psychologists investigate such topics as propaganda and persuasion, conformity, and intergroup conflict. At present, a significant part of their research effort is directed toward identifying the factors that contribute to race prejudice and to aggression.

Clinical and Counseling Psychologists

The greatest number of psychologists is engaged in clinical psychology, the application of psychological principles to the diagnosis and treatment of emotional and behavioral problems – mental illness, juvenile delinquency, criminal behavior, drug addiction, mental retardation, marital and family conflict, and other less serious adjustment problems. A clinical psychologist may work in a mental hospital, a juvenile court or probation office, a mental-health clinic, an institution for the mental retarded, a prison, or a university medical school. He may also practice privately, often in association with other professional colleagues. His affiliations with the medical profession, especially psychiatry, are close.

The counseling psychologist serves many of the same function, although he typically works with students in high schools or universities giving advice on problems of social adjustment and vocational and educational goals.

School and Educational Psychologists

The pubic schools provide a wide range of opportunities for psychologists. Because the beginnings of serious emotional problems often appear in the early grades, many elementary schools employ psychologists whose training combines courses in child development, education, and clinical psychology. These school psychologists work with individual children to evaluate learning and emotional problems; administering and interpreting intelligence, achievement, and personality tests is part of their job. In consultation with parents and teachers, they plan ways of helping the child both in the classroom and at home. They also provide a valuable resource for teachers, offering suggestions for coping with classroom problems.

The educational psychologist is a specialist in learning and teaching. He may work in the school system, but more often he is employed by a university's school of education where he does research on teaching methods and helps train teachers and school psychologists.

Industrial and Engineering Psychologists

Industrial society makes available many goods that add to the comforts and satisfactions of living, but it also creates a number of problems. Modern technologies make warfare more destructive and more frightening; misuse of technology pollutes air and water, drains nature resources, and may drastically change the values by which people regulate their lives.

Industrial and engineering psychologists are deeply involved with these problems. At one level they serve the technological process – they are concerned with human factors in industry, such as personnel selection, employee morale, and the design of complex machines so that human errors are minimized.

Methodologists

With the development of modern methods of experimentation and treatment of data – hologysymbolized by the high-speed computer-problems of research design, statistics, and computation have become so complex that the methodologist has become a specialist.

Statisticians in psychology formerly were associated chiefly with test construction and the interpretation of results. As experts in sampling theory, they may now be called on to design a systematic procedure to locate people for questioning in a survey of public opinion or of voting behavior. As experts in experimental design, they may be asked to help research psychologists arrange procedures for gathering and analyzing data.

Methods of Psychology

Experimental Method – the experimental method can be use outside the laboratory as well as inside. Thus it is possible in an experiment in economics to investigate the effects of different taxation methods by trying these methods out on separate but similar communities. Most experimentation takes place in special laboratories, chiefly because the control of conditions commonly requires special equipment that is best housed and used in one place. The laboratory is generally located in a university or a research institute, where it is accessible to scientists who work on a variety of topics.

Observation Method – the early stages of a science necessitate exploration to become familiar with the relationships that later will become the object or more precise study. Careful observation of animal and human behavior is the starting point of psychology.

Survey Methods – some problems that are difficult to study by direct observation may be studied through the use of questionnaires or interviews. For example, prior to the Masters and Johnson research on sexual response, most of the information on how people behaved sexuality came from extensive survey conducted by the late Alfred Kinsey and his associates some 25 years ago.

Test methods - the test is an important research instrument in contemporary psychology. It is used to measure all kinds of abilities, interests, attitudes, and accomplishments. Tests enable the psychologist to obtain large quantities of data from people with minimum disturbance of their living routines and without elaborate laboratory equipment. A test essentially presents a uniform situation to a group of people who vary in aspects relevant to the situation.

Case histories – scientific biographies, known as case histories, are important sources of data for psychologist studying individuals. Most case histories are prepared by reconstructing the biography of a person according to remembered events and records. Reconstructions is necessary because the person's earlier history often does not become a matter of interest until he develops some sort of problem; at such time understanding of the past is thought to be important to comprehension of present behavior. The retrospective methods may result in distortions of events or oversights, but it is often the only methods available.

Measurement in Psychology

Whatever methods psychologists use, sooner or later they find it necessary to make statements about amounts or quantities. Variables have to be assessed in some clear manner, so that investigations can be repeated and confirmed by others. Occasionally variables can be grouped into classes or categories, as when separating boys and girls for the study of sex differences.

The family of behavioral science

A study of human activity should go beyond what happens to an isolated person and consider the institutional arrangements under which man lives: the family, the community, and the larger society, with their complex interrelationships. Because the problems of these arrangements are much too varied to be understood from any single standpoint, a number of different fields of inquiry have developed: history, anthropology, economics, geography, political science, sociology, and other specialties. Taken together, these are known as the behavioral or social science.

All science have two foci of interest, basic research hand applied research. Basic research is concerned with the quest for knowledge, regardless of whether it has immediate practical value. A psychologist studying learning in the laboratory may not be concerned primarily with improving methods of teaching, although his finding may eventually have applications to education. He wants to satisfy his curiosity about the laws that his chief concern.

Applied research seeks to improve the human condition by discovering something that can be put to practical use.

Summary

1. The study of man can be approached from several viewpoints. The neurobiological approach attempts to relate human actions to events taking place inside the body, particularly in the brain and nervous system. The behavioral approach focuses on those external activities of the organism that can be observed and measured. Cognitive psychology is concerned with the way the brain actively processes incoming information by transforming it internally in various ways. The psychoanalytic approach emphasizes unconscious motives stemming from repressed sexual and aggressive impulses in childhood. Humanistic psychology focuses on the person's subjective experiences, freedom of choice, and motivation toward self-actualization. A particular area of psychological investigation can be approached from several of these viewpoints.

2. Psychology is defined as the science that studies behavior and mental processes. Its numerous areas of specialization include clinical an counseling psychology; experimental psychology; developmental, personality and social psychology; industrial and engineering psychology; school and educational psychology. Some psychologists are chiefly methodologist whose expertise is primary in mathematics, statistics, and computation.

3. When applicable, the experimental methods is preferred for studying problems because it seeks to control all variables except the one being studied, and provides for precise measurement of the independent and dependent variables. The independent variable is the one manipulated by the experimenter; the dependent variable, usually some measure of the subject behavior, is affected by changes in the independent variable.

4. Other methods for investigating psychological problems include the observational method, the survey method, the test method, and case histories.

5. Measurement in psychology requires arranging observations so that numerical values can be assigned to the resulting data. One approach is through experimental design, in which experiments are so arranged that changes in the dependent variables cab be studied in relation to changes in the independent variable is something that is either present or absent, the control group method is appropriate; then the experimenter compares what happens in a given setting when the variables is present and when it is absent. Any differences in means can be tested for significance by appropriate statistical test.

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