Psychology

Psychology
Chapter One Psychology started as a speculation and has evolved into science over years. . It was born as an independent discipline. The discovery began in 1870 by a small number of scholars. The founders are disciplines of philosophy and physiology which share an interest in the mysteries of the mind. In 1832- 1920 Wilhelm Wundt changed the view, he created the first laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig Germany. He mounted a campaign to make psychology and independent discipline rather then a stepchild of philosophy or physiology. Wundt argued that psychology should be the scientific study of consciousness- the awareness of immediate experience. One of Wundt student G. Stanley Hall (1864- 1924) played a big part as one of the contributor in psychology in North American in the late 19th century. In 1892 he main person involved and helped with the creation of the American Psychological Association better know as (APA) he was also elected the first president.

Structuralism relies on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related. Introspection is the careful systematic self-observation of one’s own conscious experience. It requires training to make the subject or the person being studied more objective and more aware. Functionalism is based on the theory that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness rather than its structure. William James 1842-1910 is a brilliant American scholar that believed that psychology should focus on the purpose and adaptive functions of consciousness. This left a more enduring imprint on psychology.

Sigmund Freud 1856-1939 believes that the conscious contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but nonetheless exert great influence on behavior. His psychoanalytic theory attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinates of behavior. Freud believes that people are not masters of their minds, he proposed that behavior is greatly influenced by how people cope with their sexuality urges. His controversial ideas were met with resistance in academic psychology and more psychologists developed an interest in personality, motivation and abnormal behavior.

John B. Watson 1878-1958 directed us through the channels of behaviorism, which is a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior. He believed that behavior refers to overt observation response or activity by an organism. Watson argued that each is made, not born. The behavioral approach is often referred to as stimulus-response (S-R) psychology.

B. F. Skinner 1904-1990 a behaviorist who was influence by Watson believed that organisms tent to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes, and they tend not to repeat responses that lead neutral or negative outcomes. He also asserted that all behavior is fully governed by external stimuli. Skinner stated that free will is an illusion.

Since both behaviorism and psychoanalytic are not acceptable, advocates of humanism is a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth. It takes as optimistic view of human nature. Carl Rogers 1902-1987 and Abraham Maslow 1908-1970 believed that people have a basic need to continue to evolve as human beings and to fulfill their potentials. to fully understand people’s behavior psychologist must take into account the fundamental human drive toward personal growth.

In the 1950’s is when psychology became a profession. Psychologists applied psychology the branch of psychology concerned with everyday problems. Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders. However in the 1950 and 1960 the study advanced into the study of cognitive processes and the physiological based of behavior. It renewed the interest in cognition and physiology. The cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge. It points to out a perspective view that people manipulations of mental images surely influence how they behave. It also takes into account that biological perspective maintain that much of human and animals behavior can be explained in terms of the bodily structures and biochemical processes that allow organisms to behave.

By the 1980 in the Western psychologists developed a great interest in how cultural factors influence thoughts, feeling and behavior. It relies on the ethnocentrism the tendency to view one’s own group as superior to others and as the standard for judging the worth of foreign ways. They strived to understand the unique experiences of culturally diverse people from the point of view of those people. These new trends spread to other part of the country growing global interdependence and by increased cultural diversity in the Western societies.

By the mid 1990’s the emergence of a new theoretical perspective called evolutionary psychology. This examines the behavioral processes in the terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations. Psychology uses the positive psychology that is a theory and research to better understand the positive adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence. It focuses on the positive subjective experiences, or positive emotions, such as happiness, love, gratitude, contentment, and hope. They also focus on positive an individual trait that is personal strengths and virtues. Such as positive institutions and communities and how societies can foster civil discourse, strong families, healthy work environments and supportive neighborhood communities.

Contemporary psychology is the science that studies behavior and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie it, and it is the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders. There are seven key ideas that are unifying themes of psychology 1. psychology empirical, 2. psychology theoretically diverse, 3. Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context, 4. behavior is determined by multiple causes, 5. behavior is shaped by cultural heritage, 6. heredity and environment jointly influence behavior, and 7. people experience of the world is highly subjective.