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On an even deeper philosophical level, we can never be certain about the future anyway. Just because something’s always happened in the past doesn’t mean it will definitely happen in the future.
Psychology was officially born in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) opened the first recognized laboratory for the study of human behaviour in Leipzig, Germany.
Aristotle that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa (“clean slate”).
“Libido” is often used today to mean “sex drive”, but this is a corruption or, at least, over-simplification of Freud’s meaning. It is the INBORN ENERGY
Sublimation is the name given to Displacement that’s “healthy” – getting rid of stress or anger
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour due to experience.
The fact remains that even the world’s largest computer is still extremely limited compared to any human brain!
In order to reach Self-Actualization, we have to satisfy lower “needs” that exist at different levels.
Carl Rogers (1902-87) developed a theory of Self Actualization that is very similar to Maslow’s. It also emphasizes an innate drive towards achieving one’s potential. However, there are subtle differences: Rogers prefers to see the process as being ongoing – hence, his preference for the term Self Actualizing, rather than Maslow’s Self Actualization.
Roger Sperry (1964) found that the two hemispheres seem to work independently if the corpus callosum is cut. Sperry’s experiments on animals were subsequently tried on humans with epilepsy – to try stopping their sudden damaging “brain storms” that travel from one side to the other. This seemed to help reduce the devastating effects of epileptic fits in such “Split Brain” patients. But sometimes they behaved bizarrely, as though possessing two separate minds.
The brain consists of about 15 billion neurons that can each be connected to hundreds of others.
Acetylcholine (or ACh) excites and may be responsible for memory.
the endocrine system (meaning, “inside secretions”) works through endocrine “glands” that secrete special chemicals – hormones – into the blood system, affecting other glands or the body generally.
“testosterone” which is an “anabolic steroid”. “Anabolic” means “building up” – it builds muscle and breaks down fats.
Oestrogens are “catabolic steroids”. “Catabolic” means “breaking down” – they break down muscle and build fat. (They also cause water retention, hence the weight increases at certain times of the month.)
Male hormones are CONSTANT and SIMPLE (like a glass of spirits!) Female hormones are CYCLIC and COMPLEX (like a cocktail!)
the “Genome Project” is pooling the international findings of biologists in order to map every human gene. This has medical applications in identifying genes that cause diseases, e.g. Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy, Huntington’s Chorea, etc.
Some psychologists have used such results to argue that intelligence is, therefore, largely genetic. Hans Eysenck, for one, has notoriously claimed that about 80% of the variability is inborn.
Behaviour is influenced by the environment in the broadest sense – through the family, social class, caste, tribe, religion, country, and culture in general.
The tendency to use our own ethnic or cultural group’s norms and values to define what’s “natural” and “correct” is called “ethnocentrism”.
If there was too much recognition – if everything stayed the same – then life would be boring. If there was too much learning – i.e. constant newness – then life would be confusing.
Neurotic – only part of personality affected – person is aware e.g. phobias, obsessions, anxiety
Psychotic – whole personality affected – person is not aware e.g. schizophrenia
research shows that improving the environment can significantly improve IQ (Skeels, 1966).
