The Growth Of Psychology

The growth of psychology Psychology broke away from philosophy and physiology and emerged as a separate discipline just over 100 years ago. ln the past century, this Young and fertile discipline has undergone a series of expansions in both subject matter and research methods. The tremendaus grov. rth of psychology is perhaps best portrayed y examining a few of the major ideas about its fundamental nature as they have been elaborated over the years. or 12 dy to nextÇEge 1 . Psychology as the Psychology had its fo rience ig, Germany, where Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in 879.

Wundt is regarded as the first psychologist, as opposed to the philosopher or physiologist who was also interested in psychology. He stringently limited the subject matter ta the study of conscious experience. Wundt believed that all our conscious experiences are merely intricate combinations of elemental sensations- that is, intellectual towers made of sensory buildings blocks. Wundt attempted to use introspection to find the basic sensations. He trained people carefully in the technique of introspection, teaching them to observe and report the « content » r « elements » of awareness in a particular situation. n essence, Wundt’s approach to establishing a discipline of psychology was confined to analysing detailed descriptions of how people perceive things in the world, and psychology was formally defined as the study of conscious experience. conscious experiences were only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface, he belleved, lay primitive biological urges that seek expression but are in conflict With the requirements of society and morality. According to Freud, these unconscious thoughts and actions; they are thus responsible for much uman behavior, including many of the physical symptoms that troubled Freud’s patients.

Since unconscious processes could not be directly studied thraugh introspection, Freud employed an indirect method for their study. ln this technique, known as free association, a patient said everything that came to mind, making no attempt to produce logical, meaningful statements out of What seemed like absurd or irrelevant thoughts. Freud sat and listened, and then interpreted the associations. Free associatlons, Freud believed, reveal the operation of unconscious processes. He also elieved that dreams express primitive unconscious urges.

To learn more about these urges he developed dream analysis, an extension of free association in which the patient free-associated to his or her dreams (Freud, 1949). While working out his ideas, Freud took meticulous notes on his patients and treatment sessions. He used these records, or case studies, to develop and illustrate a comprehensive theory of personality. 3. Psychology as the study of individual differences A lasting impact on psychology came from a nineteenth-century Englishman’s concern With the way in which biology causes one erson’s abilities, character, and behavior to differ from those of others. n searching for the determinants of these individual differences, Sir Francis Galton (1869) traced the ancestry of varlous eminent is a hereditary 12 varlous eminent is a hereditary trait (a premature conclusion). He did not consider the possibility that the tendency of genius to appear in eminent families might well be a result of the exceptional environments and socioeconomic advantages that also tend to run in such families_ The data Galton used were bases on his study of biographies. Not content to limit his inquiry to indirect accounts.

Galton went on to invent procedures for testing human abilities and characteristics. These tests were the primitive forebears of the modern personality and intelligence tests that most people take at some time in their lives. Althoug Galton began his work before psychology emerged as an independent discipline, his theories and techniques quickly became central aspects of the new science. He is regarded as having defined the beginnings of individual psychology. Galton’s writing raised the issue of whether behavior is determined by eredity or environment- a subject matter that has remained a focus of heated controversy.

Alfred Binet (1857-1911) was a French psychologist who invented the first usable intelligence test, known at the time as the Binet test and today referred to as the IQ test. HIS prlncpal goal was to identify students who needed special helps in coping With the school curriculum. Along With his collaborator Theodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his intelligence scale in 1908 and 1911, the last appearing just before his death. 4. Psychology as the study of observable behavior A Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, charted a different course for psychological investigation.

Pavlov, who received the Noel Priz 19 different course for psychological investigation. Pavlov, who received the Noel Prize in 1904 for his early work on digestive secretions, conducted a series of studies With dogs that were to have a major influence on the development of psychology. ln one experiment, Pavlov (1927) set a metronome ticking each time he gave a dog some meat powder. At first the dog salivated the moment it saw the meat powder; after the procedure was epeated several times, the dog would salivate each time it heard the metronome, even if no food appeared.

The concept of the conditioned reflex that grew out of these studies gave psychologists a new tool With which to explore the development of behavior. By applying this concept, in which a response (salivatlon) is brought about y a stimulus (the metronome) different from the one that first produced it (food), psychologists could begin to account for behavior as the product of prior experience. This enabled them to explain certain behavior and certain differences among individuals as he result of learning.

Pavlov was part of a school of Russian neurophysiologists who rejected the introspective approach ta psychology in favour of a strictly objective, experimental approach that was to become the hallmark of behaviorism. Pavlov and his colleagues simply pursued this method of study; it was left for others to turn into a program for a new psychology. It is John B. Watson (1878-1958), an American psychologist, who is credited With founding behaviorism, the approach to psychology that limits its study to observable responses to specific stimuli- esponses that can be measured.

He contended that all behavior is the result of conditioning and that it occurs in 2 He contended that all behavior is the result of conditioning and that it occurs in response to an appropriate stimulus. Watson (1913) maintained that introspection, the subjective analysis of thoughts and emotions used by Wundt, was inappropriate in psychology. The province of psychology was behavior, and its goal was the prediction and control of that behavior. His emphasis on the mechanisms of learning and on the significance of the nvironment in developing and maintaining behavior were major contributions.

By using conditioned reflexes and other techniques for the study of learning processes, Watson also contributed ta the development of such areas of psychological investigation as learning, memory, and problem solving. Although it was Watson who defined and solidified the behaviorist position, it was B. E Skinner, the contemporary American psychologist, who refined and popularized it. Skinner both narrowed the specific predictive claims of behaviorism and broadened its social implications.

Skinner sought to show that the consequences of behavior provide the basic mechanism for predicting and shaping future behavior. Skinner exerted great influence on both the general public and the science of psychology. Skinner has been widely criticized, for many are convinced that « manpulative » conditioning could limit personal freedom; however, others have applauded him as a social visionary. Behaviorist-inspired techniques vie With traditional psychotherapy for primacy in the treatment of various psychological disorders.

The techniques of reinforcement, or ontrolling the consequences that follow behavior, have become increasingly popular in education, and Skinner’s teaching machine was the foreru PAGF s 9 behavior, have become increasingly popular in education, and Skinner’s teaching machine was the forerunner of modern programmed education. Trend studied Major theorist(s) Methods used Psychology as the study of conscious experience Wilhelm Wundt Introspection Psychology as the study of unconscious processes Sigmund Freud Free association Dream analysis Case studies Psychology as the study of individual differences Francis Galton Alfred Binet

Psychology as the study of observable behavior Ivan Pavlov John Watson BF. Skinner Objective/ Experimental approaches As we have seen, psychology has expanded from an infant discipline characterized y a focus on conscious experience to a vast modern science that embraces the study of all behavior. This brief survey is far from comprehensive, touching as it does on only a few of the most important contributions to the scope, substance, and methods of psychologlcal investigation. A look at the practice of psychology today Will give some further idea of the field’s expansion. PAGF 19