The Evolution and Key Issues in Psychology: From Ancient Philosophers to Modern Discipline, Study notes of Psychology

Download The Evolution and Key Issues in Psychology: From Ancient Philosophers to Modern Discipline and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! PROLOGUE (SUMMARY) Overview Psychology traces its roots back to early recorded history when scholars reflected on the relationship between mind and body. Psychologists’ initial focus on the mind’s structure was later replaced by the study of its functions. As the science of behavior and mental processes, psychology has its origins in many disciplines and countries. The discipline is growing and globalizing. Psychology’s important issues include questions regarding stability versus change in personality, human rationality versus irrationality, and the relative contributions of biology and experience. Although the different perspectives on human nature have their own purposes and questions, they are complementary and together provide a fuller understanding of mind and behavior. Some psychologists conduct basic or applied research; others provide professional services, including assessing and treating troubled people. With its perspectives ranging from the biological to the social, and settings from the clinic to the laboratory, psychology has become a meeting place for many disciplines. Mastering psychology requires active study. A preview-read-think-review study method boosts students’ learning and performance. Psychology’s Roots Views of prescientific thinkers regarding the origins of knowledge and how the mind and body relate. In their attempt to understand human nature, early scholars examined the origins of knowledge and how the mind and body relate. Socrates and Plato argued that some ideas are innate. Furthermore, they viewed mind as separable from body and continuing after death. In contrast, Aristotle maintained that knowledge grows from our experience and, like the ancient Hebrews, believed that the mind and body are connected. In the 1700s, the Frenchman René Descrates agreed with Socrates and Plato regarding the existence of inborn knowledge and the mind’s “being entirely distinct from the body” and thus able to survive its death. British philosopher John Locke argued that at birth the mind is a blank slate on which experience writes. This idea helped formed modern empiricism, the view that knowledge originates in experience and thus that science should rely on observation and experimentation. Early psychologists’ efforts to understand the structure and function of the mind. Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany. He sought to measure the fastest and simplest mental processes. His student Edward Titchener introduced structuralism, which used introspection to search for the basic elements of the mind. However, self-reports proved somewhat unreliable, varying from person to person and from situation to situation. William James thought it more fruitful to study how consciousness serves a purpose. Thus, functionalism focused on how mental and behavioral processes enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish. James developed a kindred philosophy of pragmatism, which tested truth by its practical consequences. He also wrote the first textbook for the new discipline of psychology. The nature and scope of contemporary psychology. Psychology developed from the more established fields of philosophy and biology. Its pioneers included Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, Austrian personality theorist Sigmund Freud, and Swiss biologist Jean Piaget. Like its pioneers, today’s psychologists are citizens of many lands. The discipline is growing and globalizing with 500,000 people having been trained as psychologists. Until the 1920s, psychology was defined as the science of mental life. From the 1920s through the 1960s, American psychologists, led by John Watson, redefined psychology as the science of observable behavior. In the 1960s psychology began to recapture its interest in mental processes, and today we define psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes. Contemporary Psychology Psychology’s concerns regarding stability and change, rationality and irrationality, and nature and nurture. The issue of stability versus change addresses the question of whether our individual traits persist or whether we become different people as we age. In short, to what extent does our past reach into the future? A second issue concerns human rationality and irrationality. In some ways, human capabilities outstrip the smartest computer. At the same time, we are prone to predictable error and bias. The nature-nurture debate concerns the relative contributions of biology and experience and is psychology’s most persistent issue. Darwin’s concept of natural selection, the organizing principle of biology, has become inportant in psychology as well. Today’s psychologists recognize that both biological and social factors direct our life courses and that their effects intertwine. Different perspectives for examining behavior and mental processes and explain their complementarity. The neuroscience perspective studies how the body and brain work to create emotions, memories, and sensory experiences. The evolutionary perspective considers how evolution influences behavior tendencies. The behavior genetics perspective considers how evolution influences behavior tendencies. The psychodynamic perspective views behavior as springing from unconscious drives and conflicts. The behavioral perspective examines how observable responses are acquired and changed. The cognitive perspective studies how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information. The social-cultural perspective examines how behavior and thinking vary with the situation and culture. Each perspective has its own purposes, questions, and limits; together, these complementary viewpoints provide a fuller understanding of mind and behavior. Basic and applied research subfields of psychology; The mental health professions of clinical psychology and psychiatry. Some psychologists conduct basic research. For example, biological psychologists explore the link between brain and behavior, developmental psychologists study our changing abilities from womb to tomb, and personality psychologists investigate our inner traits.