Activity 19 Great Ideas in the History of Psychology. Purpose

Transcription

1 Activity 19 Great Ideas in the History of Psychology Purpose This activity will involve you in a search for information about when and why some of the great questions of psychology were first addressed scientifically or professionally. Knowing about some of the milestones in the history of psychology will help you to understand why certain questions have remained central. Recognizing that the questions addressed by psychologists have changed or evolved over time will also help you to realize that you can, and should, creatively and independently ask questions important for your own life. Objectives 1. List four significant questions asked by individual psychologists from varied times in history. 2. Find information needed to fill in a scavenger hunt form (provided) for each of the four psychologists in your list. 3. Write at least two insights you gained from this historical information search. Criteria 1. Significant psychologists are listed. 2. All blanks in the Scavenger Hunt Form are accurately filled in for each psychology. 3. The reflection entry includes two insights plus evidence of understanding of the historical context of each of the psychologists chosen. Resources 1. handout The Story of Psychology: Perspectives, Theories, and Disciplines 2. lecture notes on the history of psychology (found at the end of this activity) 3. Table of Contents of this text (for various topics) and the Sattler & Shabatay reader (chapters refer to topics) 4. Internet websites, e.g., History and Philosophy of Psychology (start with apa.org) and/or psychology articles and books (use WebCat, ProQuest, etc. or browse in the psychology book section) 5. Scavenger Hunt forms (see pages 87 & 88) 6. Answers to Critical Thinking Questions Plan 1. Gather information from lecture notes, library resources, internet resources, and introduction sections of Sattler & Shabatay. 2. Complete the Critical Thinking Questions. 3. Compete the Objectives, including filling out the four scavenger hunt forms, and summarize results of work on objectives in an Activity Report Form (see pages 210 & 211). 4. Be prepared to give a brief summary of one of the psychologists you found for the scavenger hunt. 5. Complete the Journal Exercise. 85

2 Critical Thinking Questions 1. Define psychology and give a reason why it is a scientific discipline. 2. What are two historical influences that have caused changes in the focus of psychological scientists and/or professionals? 3. Give an example of a scientific tool that is used by psychologists. What are 2 ways that the availability of more reliable and valid measurement tools has changed the way topics are studied by psychologists? 4. What are three examples of how current media (e.g., the TV sitcom Frasier) and news (e.g., stories about mental health) present psychology and/or psychologists? 5. What are two topics that seem to have captured the interest of both psychologists and the public throughout the history of psychology? Why? Journal Exercise How do the perspectives or viewpoints of the psychologists you studied in order to complete the scavenger hunt seem to differ from yours about what the important questions are in life? As you have studied psychology in this course, how have your perspective changed about how to understand your and other s behavior? 86

3 Scavenger Hunt Form Great Questions in the History of Psychology 87

4 Scavenger Hunt Form Great Questions in the History of Psychology 88

5 Notes on the History of Psychology Psychological thinking and theorizing is natural for humans; examples can be analyzed from ancient religions and philosophies. Despite many variations across time and place, all make the assumption that it is valuable to understand what it means or what it is to be human. Cave dwellers from 17,000 years ago left impressive drawings that suggest the importance of animals in their lives; these people may have been highly oriented to small communities and more to what was important outside of themselves than to introspection. Other approaches were highly introspective, such as those of some ancient monks. To contemporary people many of these early documents and drawings seem quite exotic but they are understandable because many of the assumptions about being human are still shared. The Greek philosophers (especially those from about 300 to 400 B.C.), e.g., Plato, demonstrated the value and power of logical reasoning. Aristotle, another famous philosopher of that time period, showed the importance of careful observations to check the validity of conclusions gained through thinking. After many centuries the scientific model of research emerged. Ideas were more systematically researched on the basis of very carefully thought out hypotheses that could be tested with real data. Modern psychology emerged from two important sources: philosophy and physiology. Contemporary scientific psychology still uses guidance from the first source, philosophy, about the nature of valid knowledge and other broad questions but has generally moved to very specific investigations of behavior and mental processes. Some of the earliest psychological investigations involved the second source, physiology the study of bodily processes. In the middle of the 19 th century there was a large interest in how the organs of sensation work. It quickly became apparent that perception involves more than just the operation of the eyes, the ears, etc. People vary in their judgments about colors, the intensity of a stimulus, etc. Review information in the activities on sensation and perception for more detailed information. In 1859 Darwin published his book on evolution. This landmark insight remains the best way to integrate all of biological and psychological knowledge. All life evolves in highly varied ways to adapt to changes in the environment. Some psychologists, e.g. William James around 1892 in the first major textbook covering all of psychology, organized their ideas and evidence around the assumption that human abilities evolved for adaptive functions just as physical biological changes do. James called his theory functionalism. Later John Watson (in a famous 1913 paper) proposed that psychologists should study only behavior that is directly observable. He called his theory behaviorism. Sigmund Freud is another psychologist who was directly influenced by Darwin s theory of evolution. Freud, a physician who started in research, moved to a newly emerging field, psychiatry, partly because income was much better from treating patients than from doing research. He focused on the more negative aspects of human behavior with the assumption that individuals must somehow subjugate natural aggressive and sexual drives to the requirements of family and society. Each of the early psychological approaches has continued in some way into the present day. Behaviorism remained prominent, except for Gestalt theories in the 1920 s and 1930 s, until about 1960 when cognitive perspectives finally returned. Social learning theory is an example of how behaviorism and cognitive became integrated. Review the notes for the activity on Self-efficacy for more information. William James s theory of functionalism might be considered an earlier example of social learning theory although the available research was much more limited and some of his assumptions about how directly evolution influences human function proved incorrect. (Behavior is heavily influenced by current environmental conditions; biological influences such as genetics 89

6 are said to cause predispositions for some common patterns of temperament. ) Freud s approach remains influential among therapists because of its useful insights about ways that humans react with unconscious psychological defense mechanisms. Neo-Freudians tend to emphasize the development or maturing of the ego or self-determination aspects of personal functioning in contrast to Freud s more deterministic assumptions that the unconscious controls the majority of behavior. One of the offshoots of Freudian theory that is expanding today was Humanistic Psychology. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were two prominent humanistic researchers who proposed that humans have much more positive motives than Freud was assuming. During the past decade a new version of humanistic psychology, Positive Psychology, has emerged that uses much more scientific investigation. Cultural and cross-cultural psychology are very important today as globalism advances to decrease the significance of borders and distances between groups of people. Investigations of differences between peoples also helps to deepen the understanding of many psychological principles that can be seen to vary in more ways than original researchers may have expected. Consider the differences in use of humor across cultures and even within subgroups in a culture group. Current textbooks usually list the following as important contemporary perspectives in psychology: psychodynamic (related to Freud s theory), behaviorism, humanistic, psychobiological (related to evolution and biology), social learning, and cultural. Remember that these schools of psychology exist as the best ways to understand and deal with the complexity of behavior and mental processes. Over time, as research and theory progress there will probably be more unity in the understanding of psychology. One reason it may never achieve the unity of some of the natural sciences like chemistry and physics is that it involves humans studying themselves. 90