Introducing Psychology: A Graphic Guide

by Nigel C. Benson

“Psychology” comes from two words: psyche and logos. The word psyche (pronounced “sigh-key”) is from the Greek word Ψυχη – meaning “breath of life”, i.e. “soul or spirit”, loosely translated as MIND.

The Greek letter Ψ (spelled “psi”, and pronounced “sigh”) is now used as the international symbol for Psychology.

Another difficulty is the practical problem – some say “impossibility”! – of studying the “mind” directly. Indeed, even trying to define “mind” is very difficult. Some Psychologists have avoided this completely, especially the Behaviourists, like B. F. Skinner and J. B. Watson.

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behaviour of humans and animals.

There are also differences in the methods used. In Psychology, there is emphasis on experiments, but in Sociology that method is not usually possible – for practical and ethical reasons – so observations and surveys are more commonly used.

We shall look at the 6 main approaches or perspectives within Psychology: PSYCHODYNAMIC; BEHAVIOURISM; COGNITIVE (including Gestalt); HUMANISTIC; BIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL; SOCIAL-CULTURAL

A Psychologist studies all human behavior – normal and abnormal. A Psychiatrist is a DOCTOR who specializes in abnormal behavior – “mental disorders”. Psychiatrists have a Medical Degree, plus a Psychiatric Qualification, and belong to a Medical Association. (Only they have the authority to prescribe drugs.) But some Psychologists also specialize, with extra training, in helping people with mental disorders – they are Clinical Psychologists.

The first Social Psychology experiment was by Triplett (1898) who tested the hypothesis (prediction) that boys would wind fishing reels more quickly in pairs than alone.

A lot of information can be gained by observing behaviour, especially in more “natural” environments: home, school playgrounds, nursery. McIntyre (1972) observed children, aged 2-4 yrs, measuring aggression (according to predetermined ratings). Some of the results were:

Wellings and others conducted the “National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles”, published as Sexual Behaviour in Britain (1994). One of the statements was: “Companionship and affection are more important than sex in a marriage or relationship.”

This is a highly detailed account of an individual (or small group, e.g. a family). Oliver Sacks (1970) published the “Dr. P.” case, about a cultured and popular musician. Tragically, he could no longer recognize people or objects, due to adulthood brain damage.

This is a measurement of the relationship between two (or more) variables. There are three types: Positive, None (Zero), and Negative. They can be shown as scattergrams.

addition to deciding which method to use, Psychologists have to check that the sample selected is appropriate (in both quantity and quality), and that data collected is reliable and valid.

When a reliable test is used, it gives similar results in similar circumstances. (This

Validity means the test or measurement used is actually measuring what’s intended, e.g. that an IQ test measures “intelligence” (sometimes debatable!).

Karl Popper (1902-94) set up a criterion: THEORIES can be divided into those that are SCIENTIFIC (i.e. disprovable) and those that are NON-SCIENTIFIC (i.e. not disprovable). NON-SCIENTIFIC THEORIES include: most religious ideas (e.g. The Existence of God), many political ideas (Marxism, Capitalism), Freudian ideas (e.g. the contents of the Unconscious Mind), and daily horoscopes found in newspapers.

Psychologists use a variety of statistical tests – t-test, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney, Chi-squared, etc. – depending on the circumstances.

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.

Wundt used INTROSPECTION – the examination of one’s own mental state – training people to introspect using strict rules: (1) observers must be able to determine when the process is to be introduced. (2) they must be in a state of readiness or strained attention. (3) it must be possible to repeat the observation several times. (4) the experimental conditions must be capable of variation in terms of the controlled manipulation of the stimuli.

The Philosopher who most directly contributed to Psychology was René Descartes (1596-1650). Descartes tackled the Mind-Body Problem in Discourse on Method (1637) and The Meditations (1641). Before Descartes it was mainly believed that the Mind and Body are distinct (Platonic Dualism), with the Mind influencing the Body BUT NOT the other way round.

“Derived ideas arise from external stimuli on the senses – the sound of a bell, the sight of a tree.” “Innate ideas come from the mind or consciousness – the self, perfection, infinity, God…” This led to the Nature-Nurture Debate – whether certain behaviour is mainly inborn or learned. People believing more in “Nature” explanations became “Nativists” (although this term is not used much nowadays). On the other hand, some people emphasized Learning or “Nurture”.

John Locke (1632-1704), in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), rejected Descartes’ innate ideas and agreed with Aristotle that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa (“clean slate”).

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) turned Hume’s Associationism on its head, saying already existing (i.e. “a priori”) concepts of “cause” enable us to have objective experiences. Kant also argued that innate reason alone cannot explain what does or doesn’t exist, which disagreed with Descartes’ Rationalism. Consequently, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1781) presents the case for combining new experiences with existing ideas, i.e. “synthetic a priori propositions”.

Richard Dawkins has used it (with important modifications) to explain altruism – helping others without apparent personal benefit – so the genes survive (The Selfish Gene, Dawkins, 1976). Dawkins is also often misunderstood!

Francis Galton (1822-1911), Darwin’s cousin, was keen on evolution and heredity. He founded “Individual Differences” and discovered the uniqueness of finger-prints (1892).

Galton published Correlations (1888) which illustrated relationships graphically – for instance, that tall men are not as tall as their fathers and short men are taller than their fathers.

Structuralism lasted about 25 years, then ended when Titchener died, but it was on its way out anyway. The immediate opposition came from Functionalism. As it suggests, this concerned the way the mind FUNCTIONS.

William James (1842-1910) taught America’s first Psychology course in 1875. However, he wasn’t keen on experiments! He was interested in consciousness as a product of the brain’s activities, coining the phrase “Stream of Consciousness” to describe the continuous, flowing process (not elements).

Education was also a major interest of John Dewey (1859-1952)* who published America’s first textbook, Psychology in 1886, soon eclipsed by James’. He disliked “dichotomies” – he wouldn’t separate mind-body, means-ends, fact-value, thought-action, individual-society.

Functionalism finally ended when it lost the need to fight: in a sense, everyone became a “Functionalist”. (Although few call themselves that today.) Historically, Functionalism was an important bridge between Structuralism and Behaviourism – and the other current Perspectives.

But Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) started it all by coining the term Psychoanalysis (1896) to describe his theories and techniques for finding and curing the mental problems of his patients.

In strict Freudian terms, it’s wrong to say “Subconscious” when referring to the Unconscious. He was adamant that it’s totally unseen and unknown.

“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 we have that motivates and enables us to survive – sexual activity is one manifestation.

The Ego develops from about 2 years and operates by The Reality Principle. To survive, we must sometimes be realistic and plan for the future. Thus, the Id can’t always be allowed its own way, so the Ego often has to battle with it. (Id is Latin for it – Freud used the German “das es”, translated as Id.)

Freud described 5 stages we all pass through: Oral (0-2 yrs) Anal (2-3 yrs) Phallic (3-6 yrs) Latent (6-11 yrs) Genital (11 + yrs)

Forcing the child to “go” may cause reluctance about giving away ANYTHING. The person may become a hoarder or a miser – classic Anal Retention!

The Oedipus Complex Each boy, unconsciously, goes through a sequence of sub-stages: (a) Developing a strong desire for his mother.

After working closely with Freud, 1906-13, Jung decided there was too much emphasis on sex. So he split from Freud and produced his own “Jungian” concepts: introversion and extraversion, complexes, archetypes and the collective unconscious.

Regression means going back to an earlier stage. It’s natural to seek situations that give comfort, especially when under stress. Sucking a finger, thumb, pencil, sweet, cigarette, drink etc, is Oral Regression.

Pavlov’s Famous Experiment The dog was harnessed in a sound-proof, smell-proof cubicle, so it could not see, hear or smell the assistants(!). A sound was made when food was given, and the amount of salivation was measured. After several such pairings (trials), the sound was made WITHOUT food – but the dog STILL salivated!

Desensitization Therapy (Developed by J. WoIpe, 1958.) This is based on gradually reducing the bond between the STIMULUS (e.g. spider) and RESPONSE (e.g. fear) by slowly introducing the STIMULUS and getting the phobic to relax.

Sadism is sexual pleasure from inflicting physical or mental suffering, named after the Marquis De Sade (1740-1814) – who, eventually, could only get satisfaction by causing pain.

John B. Watson (1878-1958) crystallized contemporary trends and founded Behaviourism in Psychology as the Behavorist views it (1913). He was particularly keen on studying animal behaviour.

Watson believed infants show 3 basic emotions: fear – caused by loud noise, sudden loss of support rage – caused by restriction of body movement love – caused by caressing and rocking Other emotions are compounds of these.

Watson’s famous emotional study (1920) was of 11 month-old Albert who was shown a white rat, which he wasn’t afraid of, and given a loud noise from behind – by hitting a steel bar with a hammer.

However, some good things did come out of this. Mary Cover Jones (1896-1987), hearing about the Albert case, managed to “uncondition” an existing fear of rabbits in a boy named Peter. (Jones, 1924.)

Skinner invented an “Operant Conditioning Apparatus” (nicknamed the “Skinner Box” by Hull, 1933). The experiment: a hungry rat is placed in the box. Sooner or later, it accidentally presses the lever.

Skinner studied 4 types of situation. A pellet given: 1. Fixed Interval (FI) – e.g. once every minute 2. Variable Interval (VI) – e.g. after various intervals, averaging once a minute 3. Fixed Ratio (FR) – e.g. every 20 presses 4. Variable Ratio (VR) – e.g. after varying numbers of presses, averaging 20

Skinner found that the optimum period between response and reinforcement is about half a second, i.e. almost immediately. This is very important. For example, if a parent wants to reward or punish a child, then to be effective it should be done straight away. Wait until your father gets home!… Don’t you know? – Skinner said that delayed reinforcement is not effective! This also explains one reason why the penal system often doesn’t work.

Why Punishment is Often Ineffective