Because he believed that objective analysis of the mind was impossible, Watson preferred to focus directly on observable behavior and try to bring that behavior under control.
Watson was a major proponent of shifting the focus of psychology from the mind to behavior, and this approach of observing and controlling behavior came to be known as behaviorism. A major object of study by behaviorists was learned behavior and its interaction with inborn qualities of the organism.
Behaviorism commonly used animals in experiments under the assumption that what was learned using animal models could, to some degree, be applied to human behavior. Behaviorism is largely responsible for establishing psychology as a scientific discipline through its objective methods and especially experimentation.
In addition, it is used in behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavior modification is commonly used in classroom settings. Behaviorism has also led to research on environmental influences on human behavior. Skinner — was an American psychologist [link]. Like Watson, Skinner was a behaviorist, and he concentrated on how behavior was affected by its consequences.
Therefore, Skinner spoke of reinforcement and punishment as major factors in driving behavior. As a part of his research, Skinner developed a chamber that allowed the careful study of the principles of modifying behavior through reinforcement and punishment.
Skinner is famous for his research on operant conditioning. The Skinner box is a chamber that isolates the subject from the external environment and has a behavior indicator such as a lever or a button. When the animal pushes the button or lever, the box is able to deliver a positive reinforcement of the behavior such as food or a punishment such as a noise or a token conditioner such as a light that is correlated with either the positive reinforcement or punishment.
Despite this, conditioned learning is still used in human behavioral modification. During the early 20th century, American psychology was dominated by behaviorism and psychoanalysis. However, some psychologists were uncomfortable with what they viewed as limited perspectives being so influential to the field. They objected to the pessimism and determinism all actions driven by the unconscious of Freud. They also disliked the reductionism, or simplifying nature, of behaviorism.
Behaviorism is also deterministic at its core, because it sees human behavior as entirely determined by a combination of genetics and environment. Thus, humanism emerged. Humanism is a perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans. Abraham Maslow — was an American psychologist who is best known for proposing a hierarchy of human needs in motivating behavior [link].
Although this concept will be discussed in more detail in a later chapter, a brief overview will be provided here. Maslow asserted that so long as basic needs necessary for survival were met e. According to Maslow, the highest-level needs relate to self-actualization, a process by which we achieve our full potential.
Beginning with Maslow and Rogers, there was an insistence on a humanistic research program. This program has been largely qualitative not measurement-based , but there exist a number of quantitative research strains within humanistic psychology, including research on happiness, self-concept, meditation, and the outcomes of humanistic psychotherapy Friedman, Carl Rogers — was also an American psychologist who, like Maslow, emphasized the potential for good that exists within all people [link].
Rogers used a therapeutic technique known as client-centered therapy in helping his clients deal with problematic issues that resulted in their seeking psychotherapy. Unlike a psychoanalytic approach in which the therapist plays an important role in interpreting what conscious behavior reveals about the unconscious mind, client-centered therapy involves the patient taking a lead role in the therapy session.
Rogers believed that a therapist needed to display three features to maximize the effectiveness of this particular approach: unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy. Unconditional positive regard refers to the fact that the therapist accepts their client for who they are, no matter what he or she might say. Humanism has been influential to psychology as a whole. Both Maslow and Rogers are well-known names among students of psychology you will read more about both men later in this text , and their ideas have influenced many scholars.
View a brief video of Carl Rogers describing his therapeutic approach. The early work of the humanistic psychologists redirected attention to the individual human as a whole, and as a conscious and self-aware being.
By the s, new disciplinary perspectives in linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science were emerging, and these areas revived interest in the mind as a focus of scientific inquiry. This particular perspective has come to be known as the cognitive revolution Miller, Although no one person is entirely responsible for starting the cognitive revolution, Noam Chomsky was very influential in the early days of this movement [link].
Chomsky — , an American linguist, was dissatisfied with the influence that behaviorism had had on psychology. Noam Chomsky was very influential in beginning the cognitive revolution. In , this mural honoring him was put up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
European psychology had never really been as influenced by behaviorism as had American psychology; and thus, the cognitive revolution helped reestablish lines of communication between European psychologists and their American counterparts. Furthermore, psychologists began to cooperate with scientists in other fields, like anthropology, linguistics, computer science, and neuroscience, among others. This interdisciplinary approach often was referred to as the cognitive sciences, and the influence and prominence of this particular perspective resonates in modern-day psychology Miller, The science of psychology has had an impact on human wellbeing, both positive and negative.
The dominant influence of Western, white, and male academics in the early history of psychology meant that psychology developed with the biases inherent in those individuals, which often had negative consequences for members of society that were not white or male. Women, members of ethnic minorities in both the United States and other countries, and individuals with sexual orientations other than heterosexual had difficulties entering the field of psychology and therefore influencing its development.
From approximately to BC, Greek philosophers explored a wide range of topics relating to what we now consider psychology. Socrates and his followers, Plato and Aristotle, wrote about such topics as pleasure, pain, knowledge, motivation, and rationality. They theorized about whether human traits are innate or the product of experience, which continues to be a topic of debate in psychology today.
They also considered the origins of mental illness, with both Socrates and Plato focusing on psychological forces as the root of such illnesses.
Plato and Aristotle : Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek philosophers examined a wide range of topics relating to what we now consider psychology. According to dualism, the body is a physical entity with scientifically measurable behavior, while the mind is a spiritual entity that cannot be measured because it transcends the material world.
Descartes believed that the two interacted only through a tiny structure at the base of the brain called the pineal gland. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were English philosophers from the 17th century who disagreed with the concept of dualism.
They argued that all human experiences are physical processes occurring within the brain and nervous system. Thus, their argument was that sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings are all valid subjects of study. As this view holds that the mind and body are one and the same, it later became known as monism.
Today, most psychologists reject a rigid dualist position: many years of research indicate that the physical and mental aspects of human experience are deeply intertwined.
The fields of psychoneuroimmunology and behavioral medicine explicitly focus on this interconnection.
The term did not come into popular usage until the German idealist philosopher Christian Wolff used it in his Psychologia empirica and Psychologia rationalis — The late 19th century marked the start of psychology as a scientific enterprise. Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental study began in , when German scientist Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig.
Often considered the father of psychology, Wundt was the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist and wrote the first textbook on psychology, entitled Principles of Physiological Psychology.
Wundt believed that the study of conscious thoughts would be the key to understanding the mind. His approach to the study of the mind was groundbreaking in that it was based on systematic and rigorous observation, laying the foundation for modern psychological experimentation.
He systematically studied topics such as attention span, reaction time, vision, emotion, and time perception. This approach is still used today in modern neuroscience research; however, many scientists criticize the use of introspection for its lack of objectivity. Wilhelm Wundt is considered by many to be the founder of psychology. He laid the groundwork for what would later become the theory of structuralism. Edward B. This theory attempted to understand the mind as the sum of different underlying parts, and focused on three things: 1 the individual elements of consciousness; 2 how these elements are organized into more complex experiences; and 3 how these mental phenomena correlate with physical events.
Titchener attempted to classify the structures of the mind much like the elements of nature are classified in the periodic table—which is not surprising, given that researchers were making great advancements in the field of chemistry during his time. He believed that if the basic components of the mind could be defined and categorized, then the structure of mental processes and higher thinking could be determined. Like Wundt, Titchener used introspection to try to determine the different components of consciousness; however, his method used very strict guidelines for the reporting of an introspective analysis.
Structuralism was criticized because its subject of interest—the conscious experience—was not easily studied with controlled experimentation. Critics argued that self-analysis is not feasible, and that introspection could yield different results depending on the subject. As structuralism struggled to survive the scrutiny of the scientific method, new approaches to studying the mind were sought.
One important alternative was functionalism, founded by William James in the late 19th century. In functionalism, the brain is believed to have evolved for the purpose of bettering the survival chances of its carrier by acting as an information processor: its role is essentially to execute functions similar to the way a computer does.
Psychology —Wundt and James: structuralism and functionalism : Here, the foundations of structuralism and functionalism are contrasted. Debates and controversies in psychology have spanned the decades and continue to change over time. Psychological debates have spanned the decades and continue to change over time.
With the release of the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-5 , psychologists continue to debate controversial issues in their field. While Titchener and his followers adhered to a structural psychology, others in America were pursuing different approaches.
William James, G. An interest in functionalism opened the way for the study of a wide range of approaches, including animal and comparative psychology Benjamin, William James — is regarded as writing perhaps the most influential and important book in the field of psychology, Principles of Psychology, published in Opposed to the reductionist ideas of Titchener, James proposed that consciousness is ongoing and continuous; it cannot be isolated and reduced to elements.
For James, consciousness helped us adapt to our environment in such ways as allowing us to make choices and have personal responsibility over those choices. At Harvard, James occupied a position of authority and respect in psychology and philosophy. Through his teaching and writing, he influenced psychology for generations. One of his students, Mary Whiton Calkins — , faced many of the challenges that confronted Margaret Floy Washburn and other women interested in pursuing graduate education in psychology.
With much persistence, Calkins was able to study with James at Harvard. She eventually completed all the requirements for the doctoral degree, but Harvard refused to grant her a diploma because she was a woman.
Stanley Hall — made substantial and lasting contributions to the establishment of psychology in the United States. At Johns Hopkins University, he founded the first psychological laboratory in America in In , he created the first journal of psychology in America, American Journal of Psychology.
Influenced by evolutionary theory, Hall was interested in the process of adaptation and human development. Using surveys and questionnaires to study children, Hall wrote extensively on child development and education.
James McKeen Cattell — received his Ph. Like Galton, he believed society was better served by identifying those with superior intelligence and supported efforts to encourage them to reproduce. Such beliefs were associated with eugenics the promotion of selective breeding and fueled early debates about the contributions of heredity and environment in defining who we are.
At Columbia University, Cattell developed a department of psychology that became world famous also promoting psychological science through advocacy and as a publisher of scientific journals and reference works Fancher, ; Sokal, Throughout the first half of the 20th century, psychology continued to grow and flourish in America.
It was large enough to accommodate varying points of view on the nature of mind and behavior. Gestalt psychology is a good example. The Gestalt movement began in Germany with the work of Max Wertheimer — Consider that a melody is an additional element beyond the collection of notes that comprise it.
The Gestalt psychologists proposed that the mind often processes information simultaneously rather than sequentially.
For instance, when you look at a photograph, you see a whole image, not just a collection of pixels of color. Using Gestalt principles, Wertheimer and his colleagues also explored the nature of learning and thinking.
Most of the German Gestalt psychologists were Jewish and were forced to flee the Nazi regime due to the threats posed on both academic and personal freedoms. In America, they were able to introduce a new audience to the Gestalt perspective, demonstrating how it could be applied to perception and learning Wertheimer, In many ways, the work of the Gestalt psychologists served as a precursor to the rise of cognitive psychology in America Benjamin, Behaviorism emerged early in the 20th century and became a major force in American psychology.
Championed by psychologists such as John B. Watson — and B. Skinner — , behaviorism rejected any reference to mind and viewed overt and observable behavior as the proper subject matter of psychology. Through the scientific study of behavior, it was hoped that laws of learning could be derived that would promote the prediction and control of behavior.
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov — influenced early behaviorism in America. His work on conditioned learning, popularly referred to as classical conditioning, provided support for the notion that learning and behavior were controlled by events in the environment and could be explained with no reference to mind or consciousness Fancher, For decades, behaviorism dominated American psychology.
By the s, psychologists began to recognize that behaviorism was unable to fully explain human behavior because it neglected mental processes. The turn toward a cognitive psychology was not new.
In the s, British psychologist Frederic C. Bartlett — explored the idea of the constructive mind, recognizing that people use their past experiences to construct frameworks in which to understand new experiences. Some of the major pioneers in American cognitive psychology include Jerome Bruner — , Roger Brown — , and George Miller — In the s, Bruner conducted pioneering studies on cognitive aspects of sensation and perception.
Around the same time, the study of computer science was growing and was used as an analogy to explore and understand how the mind works. The work of Miller and others in the s and s has inspired tremendous interest in cognition and neuroscience, both of which dominate much of contemporary American psychology.
In America, there has always been an interest in the application of psychology to everyday life. Mental testing is an important example. Modern intelligence tests were developed by the French psychologist Alfred Binet —
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