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1 CONCEPT MAP Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour The boundari...

1 CONCEPT MAP Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour The boundaries and borders of psychology Psychology is the scientific investigation of mental processes Biopsychology examines the physical basis of psychological (thinking, remembering and feeling) and behaviour. Understanding phenomena such as motivation, emotion and stress. a person requires attention to the individual’s biology, Cross-cultural psychology tries to distinguish universal psychological experience and cultural context. psychological processes from those that are specific to particular cultures. History of psychology Philosophical roots of psychological questions From philosophical speculation to scientific Free will or determinism: do we freely choose our actions or investigation is our behaviour caused — determined — by things outside our Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory control? in 1879. Mind–body problem: the question of how mental and physical Two prominent early schools of thought were structuralism events interact. (uncover the basic elements of consciousness through introspection) and functionalism (explain psychological processes in terms of the role, or function, they serve). Edward Titchener initiated the school of thought known as structuralism; William James was one of the founders of functionalism. Psychology in Australia and New Zealand Education and training to become a psychologist Major subdisciplines in psychology Currently, a registered psychologist in Australia has completed Within the broad discipline of psychology there are many fields of a minimum of six years study in an APS-accredited psychology specialisation, including developmental, social, clinical, cognitive, program. To practise as a psychologist in Australia, there is a health, forensic and sport psychology, among others. legal requirement that you be registered with the Australian Different psychologists adopt different perspectives in their Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, which works in approach to the study of human behaviour. conjunction with the Psychology Board of Australia to provide a single registration scheme enabling registered psychologists to practise anywhere in Australia. How to study effectively In New Zealand, psychologists working in the public sector must be registered with the New Zealand Psychologists Board, Managing your time effectively is extremely important if you are which also involves a period of supervision on top of university to be successful in your studies. Set up a weekly schedule filled training. with specific study tasks (e.g., lectures, tutorials, assignments and exams) to help you stay on track with your studies. It is important that you learn how to get the most out of your study by becoming an active learner. Effectively preparing for the final exam involves setting up a revision timetable and applying a systematic approach to answering questions in an exam. Careers in psychology Professional associations for psychologists There are a wide range of career options available to Both Australia and New Zealand also have peak bodies that psychologists. Psychologists may work in private practice. represent the profession and its members — the Australian They may also gain employment in many other government Psychological Society (APS), established in 1944, and the and private sector organisations. New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) established There is a predicted strong employment growth within the next in 1967. five years. 2 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition  Perspectives in psychology The psychodynamic perspective The behaviourist perspective The psychodynamic perspective relies on several key The behaviourist perspective focuses on the way objects or premises. events in the environment come to control behaviour through 1. People’s actions are determined by the way thoughts, learning. feelings and wishes are connected in their minds. B. F. Skinner observed that behaviour can be controlled by 2. Many of these mental events occur outside conscious environmental consequences that either increase (reinforce) or awareness. decrease (punish) their likelihood of occurring. 3. These mental processes may conflict with one another, leading to compromises among competing motives. 4. Sigmund Freud emphasised unconscious mental forces in his psychoanalytic theory. 5. According to psychoanalytic theory, many of the associations between feelings and behaviours or situations that guide our behaviour are expressed unconsciously. The cognitive perspective The cognitive perspective focuses on the way people perceive, The humanistic perspective process and retrieve information. René Descartes’ early philosophical questions led many The humanistic perspective focuses on the uniqueness of the cognitive psychologists to emphasise the role of reason in individual — it assumes that people are motivated to become creating knowledge. self-actualised (reach their full potential). Modern-day cognitive psychologists use experimental Carl Rogers’ client-centred therapy emphasised conscious, goal-directed procedures to infer the underlying mental processes in choices and the need for individuals to realise their true potential — to operation. self-actualise. The evolutionary perspective The evolutionary perspective argues that many behavioural tendencies in humans, from the need to eat to concern for our children, evolved because they helped our ancestors survive and rear healthy offspring. Evolutionary psychologists support Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection — the most adaptive behavioural traits are those that helped our ancestors adjust and survive in their environment. Cent r al ques t ions: f ac t s, t he or ies and p er sp e c t ives in ps yc holo g y ◆◆ The way psychologists and other scientists understand any phenomenon depends on their interpretation of the whole — on their perspectives. ◆◆ Although the different perspectives offer radically different ways of approaching psychology, each has made distinctive contributions. CHAPTER 1 | Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour 3  F or much of its history, psychology has focused on the darker side of human nature — mental illness rather than mental health, pathology rather than subjective wellbeing (Lopez, 2009; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Psychology has tended to view people as deficient rather than as humans possessing remarkable character strengths that allow them to per- severe and flourish. Many people view the practice of psychology through the prism of ­abnormality — as a science that is only used to ‘fix’ someone who is suffering from a mental illness or disorder of some kind. But in recent years, a new subdiscipline of psychology has begun viewing the practice through a different prism, in what has become known as the positive psychology approach. This sub- discipline does not view psychology as something only to be used to treat a problem. Rather, it is a proactive approach to help people live happier, more fulfilling and joyful lives. The focus is on ­understanding and harnessing positive emotions, and actively stimulating the conditions that help people flourish. The positive psychology movement looks at topics such as hope, optimism, creativity, forgiveness, gratitude, wisdom, happiness, self-determination and resilience, to name a few. As sum- marised by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2000), two of the leaders of the positive psychology movement: The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well- being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present). At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits; the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom. At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic (p. 5). Positivity was certainly something that Brisbane woman Hailey Bartholomew did not feel back in 2008. With a loving husband and two young children, the then 28-year-old photographer was living what seemed like the idyllic suburban life. But despite having no precise reason for being down, Hailey simply felt depressed and unhappy. That sense of being out of sorts with life lingered and festered. The unlikely source of her rescue from this depression was an elderly Catholic nun who was also a life coach and counsellor. Her solution for Hailey was not to dwell on the down side of her life, but rather to reflect on the small things that she could be grateful for each day. Hailey took her advice — and was soon shocked by how many wonderful things she had in her life that she had been overlooking each day. Hailey decided to take a photo every day of something she should be grateful for — and so the 365 Grateful Project was born. Hailey ended up taking one photo a day for an entire year of the joyful things in her life. The physical result was a marvellous collection of photos stored in red leather-clad albums that tell the tale of her life, focusing on its positive aspects. The photos were also shared online via Flickr. The emotional result was just as impressive. Hailey says that looking for the things to be grateful for in life helped reprogram her brain, dragging her out of her depressive state into a much happier place. She said: I couldn’t believe how much gratitude affected my life. Seeing and celebrating the good in my life affected not only the way I felt spiritually and physically but it improved my relationships with others too (The original 365 grateful project, 2012). Hailey Bartholomew’s story has now gone viral and inspired people all over the world to undertake their own version of the 356 Grateful Project. Her story is also a perfect example of positive psy- chology in action — directing energy at stimulating happiness, not focusing on an illness or problem needing treatment. Psychology seeks to answer questions about why we do the things we do. In trying to understand why things happen, we must be cautious not to be too quick in looking for a single cause of behav- iour or an event. Humans are complex creatures whose psychological experience lies at the inter- section of biology and culture. To paraphrase one theorist, Erik Erikson (1963), psychologists must practise ‘triple bookkeeping’ to understand an individual at any given time, simultaneously tracking biological events, psychological experience, and the cultural and historical context. 4 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition  Psychology lies at the intersection of biology and culture. Psychology is the scientific investigation of mental processes (thinking, remembering and feeling) and behaviour. All psychological processes occur through the interaction of cells in the nervous system, and all human action occurs in the con- text of cultural beliefs and values that render it meaningful. Psychological understanding requires a constant movement between the micro-level of biology and the macro-level of culture. This chapter begins by exploring the biological and cultural boundaries and borders that frame human psychology. We then examine the theoretical perspectives that have focused, and often divided, the attention of the scientific community for more than a century. The chapter closes by looking at psychology as a discipline in the twenty-first century. We will examine the major subdis- ciplines in psychology and consider the various career options for psychology graduates in Australia and New Zealand. Importantly, the issue of ‘how to study effectively’ is introduced, to help put you on the pathway to success with your psychology studies. INTERIM SUMMARY Psychology is the scientific investigation of mental processes (thinking, remembering and feeling) and behaviour. Understanding a person requires attention to the individual’s biology, psychological experience and cultural context. Positive psychology focuses on understanding and harnessing positive emotions and actively stimulating conditions that produce valued, subjective experiences that help people flourish. Cent r al ques t ions ◆◆ How does our theoretical perspective influence the way we interpret the world? ◆◆ Can we dispense with theory and simply look at the facts? The boundaries and borders of psychology Biology and culture establish both the possibilities and the constraints within which people think, feel and act. On the one hand, the structure of the brain sets the parameters, or limits, of human potential. Most 10-year-olds cannot solve algebra problems because the neural circuitry essential for abstract thought has not yet matured. Similarly, the capacity for love has its roots in the innate tendency of infants to develop an emotional attachment to their caretakers. These are biological givens. On the other hand, most adults throughout human history would find algebra problems as mysti- fying as would a preschooler because their culture never provided the groundwork for this kind of ­reasoning. And though love may be a basic potential, the way people love depends on the values, beliefs and practices of their society. In some cultures, people seek and expect romance in their mar- riages, whereas in others, they do not select a spouse based on affection or attraction at all. The study of psychological phenomena in other cultures by observing people in their natural settings is u­ ndertaken by psychological anthropologists; and cross-cultural psychology involves testing ­psychological hypotheses in different cultures. FROM BR A IN T O B E H AV IO U R The boundary with biology The biological boundary of psychology is the province of biopsychology (or behavioural ­neuroscience), which investigates the physical basis of psychological phenomena such as memory, emotion and stress. Instead of studying thoughts, feelings or fears, behavioural neuroscientists (some of whom are doctors or biologists rather than psychologists) investigate the electrical and chemical processes in the nervous system that underlie these mental events. Their aim is to link mind and body, psyche and brain. CHAPTER 1 | Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour 5  The connection between brain and behaviour became increasingly clear during the nineteenth cen- tury, when doctors began observing patients with severe head injuries. These patients often showed deficits in language and memory, or dramatic changes in their personality. For example, following a severe blow to the head, a genteel, socially adept businessman and devoted father could suddenly become lewd, cantankerous and unable to care about the people he had loved just days earlier. Such observations led researchers to experiment by producing lesions surgically in animals in different neural regions to observe the effects on behaviour. This method is still used in contem- porary science, as in research on emotion (Machado, Kazama, & Bachevalier, 2009). Recently, Agustín-Pavón et al. (in press) created lesions in brain structures hypothesised to be involved when primates learned to fear aversive stimuli. When a lesion altered the emotional display of the primates, the researchers knew that the damaged area was involved in the production of fear and anxiety. In fact, since its origins in the nineteenth century, one of the major issues in behavioural neuroscience has been localisation of function, or the extent to which different parts of the brain control different aspects of functioning. In 1836, a doctor named Marc Dax presented a paper suggesting that lesions on the left side of the brain were associated with aphasia, or language disorders. The notion that lan- guage was localised to the left side of the brain (the left hemisphere) developed momentum, with new ­discoveries linking specific language functions to specific regions of the left hemisphere. Paul Broca (1824–1880) discovered that brain-injured people with lesions in the front section of the left hemi- sphere were often unable to speak fluently but could comprehend language. Carl Wernicke (1848–1904) showed that damage to an area a few centimetres behind the section Broca had discovered could lead to another kind of aphasia. These individuals can speak fluently and follow rules of grammar, but they can neither understand language nor speak in a way that is comprehensible to others (figure 1.1). Individuals with this form of aphasia might speak fluently, apparently following rules of grammar, but their words make little sense (e.g., ‘I saw the bats and cuticles as the dog lifted the hoof, the pauser.’). Broca’s area Wernicke’s area MAKING CONNECTIONS Patients with damage to circuits in the brain linking thoughts with feelings may ‘know’ something is risky but do it anyway. They cannot seem to connect actions with their emotional consequences (a) (b) (chapters 3 and 10). FIGURE 1.1 Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas. (a) Broca’s aphasia involves difficulty producing speech, whereas Wernicke’s aphasia typically involves difficulty comprehending language. (b) Positron emission tomography (PET) is a computerised imaging technique that allows researchers to study the functioning of the brain as the person responds to stimuli. The PET scan here shows activity in Wernicke’s area (right), Broca’s area (left) and a motor region producing speech, during an exercise in which the participant was asked to repeat words. Contemporary neuroscientists no longer believe that complex psychological functions ‘happen’ exclusively in a single localised part of the brain. Rather, the circuits for psychological events, such as emotions or thoughts, are distributed throughout the brain, with each part contributing to the total experience. A man who sustains lesions to one area may be unable consciously to ­distinguish his wife’s face from the face of any other woman — a disabling condition indeed — but may react physio­ logically to her face with a higher heart rate or pulse (Bruyer, 1991; Young, 1994). Technological advances over the last two decades have allowed researchers to pinpoint lesions precisely, and even to watch computerised portraits of the brain light up with activity (or fail to light up, in cases of neural damage) as people perform psychological tasks (chapter 2). In large part as a result of these techno- logical advances, psychology has become increasingly biological over the last decade, as behavioural neuroscience has extended into virtually all areas of psychology. 6 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition  INTERIM SUMMARY Biopsychology (or behavioural neuroscience) examines the physical basis of psychological phen­ omena such as motivation, emotion and stress. Although different neural regions perform different functions, the neural circuits that underlie psychological events are distributed throughout the brain and cannot be ‘found’ in one location. At another boundary of psychology, cross-cultural investigation tries to distinguish universal psychological processes from those that are specific to particular cultures. History of psychology Questions about human nature, such as whether psychological attributes are the same everywhere, were once the province of philosophy. Early in the twentieth century, however, philosophers entered a period of intense self-doubt, wrestling with the limitations of what they could know about topics such as morality, justice and the nature of knowledge. At the same time, psychologists began to apply the methods and technologies of natural science to psychological questions. They reasoned that if physi- cists could discover the atom and industrialists could mass produce cars, psychological scientists could uncover basic laws of human and animal behaviour. Philosophical roots of psychological questions The fact that psychology grew out of philosophy is important. Many issues at the heart of contem- porary psychological research and controversy are classic philosophical questions. One of these is whether human action is the product of free will or determinism; that is, do we freely choose our actions or is our behaviour caused — determined — by things outside our control? Champions of free will follow in the footsteps of seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650), who contended that human action follows from human intention — that people choose a course of action and act on it. Proponents of determinism, from the Greek philosopher Democritus onwards, assert that behaviour follows lawful patterns like every- thing else in the universe, from falling rocks to orbiting planets. Psychological determinists believe that physical forces determine the actions of humans and other animals — internally by genetic processes and externally by environmental events. This debate has no easy resolution. Subjectively, we have the experience of free will. We could choose to stop writing — or you to stop reading — right now. Yet here we are, con- tinuing into the next sentence. Why? What determined our decision to forge ahead? And how can mental processes exercise control over physical processes such as moving a pen or turning a page? Humans are part of nature, like birds, plants and water. When we choose to move, our limbs exert a force that counters gravity and disturbs molecules of air. How can a non-material force — will — displace material forces? No-one has ever proposed a satisfactory solution to the mind–body problem, the question of how mental and physical events interact. However, psychological phenomena put the mind–body problem in a new light by drawing attention to the way psychological meaning can be transformed into mechanism (physiological events). Psychologists do not tackle philosophical issues such as free will directly, but classic philosophical questions reverberate through many contemporary psychological discussions. Research into the genetics of personality and personality disturbances provides an intriguing, if disquieting, example. People with antisocial personality disorder have minimal conscience and a tendency towards aggressive or criminal behaviour. In an initial psychiatric evaluation one man boasted that he had terrorised his former girlfriend for an hour by brandishing a Philosopher René Descartes contended human action knife and telling her in exquisite detail the ways he intended to slice her flesh. This man follows on from human intention; that is, people could undoubtedly have exercised his free will to continue or discontinue his behaviour at choose a course of action and act on it. any moment and hence was morally (and legally) responsible for his acts. He knew what he was doing, he was not hearing voices commanding him to behave aggressively and he thoroughly enjoyed his victim’s terror. A determinist, however, could offer an equally c­ompelling case. Like many violent men, he was the son of violent, alcoholic parents who had beaten him severely as a CHAPTER 1 | Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour 7  child. Both physical abuse in childhood and parental alcoholism (which can exert both genetic and environmental influences) render an individual more likely to develop antisocial personality disorder APPLY ✚ (see Blair, Peschardt, Budhani, Mitchell, & Pine, 2006; Martens, 2000; Shi, Bureau, Easterbrooks, DISCUS S Zhao, & Lyons-Ruth, 2012). In the immediate moment, perhaps, he had free will, but over the long In 1996, Martin Bryant shot run, he may have had no choice but to be the person he was. dead 35 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania. Mental health Other philosophical questions frame contemporary psychological theory and research. Many, such professionals who evaluated as free will versus determinism, take the apparent form of choices between polar opposites, neither of Bryant testified that he was of which can be entirely true. Does human behaviour reflect nature (biology) or nurture (environmental limited intellectual ability, had influence)? Does knowledge come from observing the world or from thinking about it? Several of severe developmental problems these fundamental questions are summarised in table 1.1. and suffered a significant personality disorder. In 2012, TABLE 1.1 Philosophical issues and psychological questions James Holmes allegedly shot Examples of contemporary psychological dead 12 people and wounded Philosophical issue questions 58 others at the midnight screening of the new Batman film Free will versus determinism: Do people make free What causes patients with antisocial personality disorder to at a cinema in Colorado in the choices or are their actions determined by forces outside produce criminal behaviour? United States. He was described their control? variously as intellectually gifted Nature versus nurture: To what extent do psychological To what extent is intelligence inherited, and how do and socially isolated in media processes reflect biological or environmental influences? genes and environment interact to influence intellectual reports at the time. He won a functioning? university scholarship to complete his undergraduate degree in Rationalism versus empiricism: To what extent does How do children come to understand that other people neuroscience, although was knowledge about the world come from observation and have thoughts and feelings? withdrawing from his doctoral experience or from logic and reasoning? studies when he undertook the Reason versus emotion: To what extent are people guided Should people choose their mates based on ‘gut’ feelings, attack. A psychiatrist who had by their knowledge or by their feelings (and to what extent or should they carefully weigh a potential partner’s costs recently treated him had reported should they be)? and benefits if they want to have a happy, to police that he was dangerous long-lasting marriage? approximately one month prior to the attacks. Continuity versus discontinuity with other animals: To To what degree can studying fear responses in primates what extent are humans similar to other animals (that is, inform psychologists about the nature of human emotions? Were Bryant and Holmes to what extent is human psychology continuous with the responsible for their actions? psychology of other animals)? Was one any less responsible Individualism versus relationality: To what extent are Do people ever really help others without any benefit to than the other? humans fundamentally self-interested or oriented towards themselves or are they motivated by other considerations, Was either more responsible relating to and helping other people? such as desires to feel good about themselves or than a person who has a avoid guilt? heart attack while driving Conscious versus unconscious: To what extent are people Can people describe themselves accurately or are they and consequently kills a conscious of the contents of their mind and the causes of unaware of many aspects of their personality? pedestrian? If so, why? their behaviour? Mental versus physical: To what extent can we understand How many kinds of memory are there? When we hold a psychological events independent of their neural basis? phone number in mind briefly as we reach for the phone, are we using different neural ‘hardware’ than when we store that number ‘for keeps’? From philosophical speculation to scientific investigation Philosophical questions have been around throughout human history — they were the province of religion and, later, philosophy. They have survived because they allowed people to better understand themselves. Philosophical arguments have set the agenda for many issues confronting psychologists. The emergence of psychology as a science has provided a new means for answering these long-asked questions. Its roots in philosophy, however, have profoundly influenced the discipline. Philosophers searched for answers to questions about the nature of thought, feeling and behaviour in their minds, using logic and argumentation. By the late nineteenth century an alternative approach emerged: to understand the mind and behaviour, we should investigate it scientifically, just as physicists study the nature of light or gravity through systematic observation and experimentation. Thus, in 1879, Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), often described as the ‘father of psychology’, founded the first psycho- logical laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. 8 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition Wundt’s scientific psychology Wundt hoped to use scientific methods to uncover the elementary units of human consciousness that combine to form more complex ideas, much as atoms combine into molecules in chemistry. Foremost among his methods was introspection, the process of looking inward and reporting on one’s con- scious experience. This introspection, however, was nothing like the introspection of philosophers, who speculated freely on their experiences and observations. Instead, Wundt trained observers to report verbally everything that went through their minds when presented with a stimulus or task. By varying the objects presented, he concluded that the basic elements of consciousness are sensations (such as colours) and feelings. These elements combine into more meaningful perceptions (such as of a face or a cat), which can be combined into still more complex ideas by focusing attention on them and mentally manipulating them. Wundt never identified experimentation as the only route to psychological knowledge. He con- sidered it essential for studying the basic elements of the mind, but other methods — such as the study of myths, religion and language in various cultures — were essential for understanding higher mental processes. The next generation of experimental psychologists took a different view, motivated by their wish to divorce themselves from philosophical speculation and establish a fully scientific psychology. Wilhelm Wundt is often called the father of psychology for his pioneering Structuralism and functionalism laboratory research. This portrait was painted in Leipzig, where he founded the Wundt’s student, Edward Titchener (1867–1927), advocated using introspection in experiments with first psychological laboratory. the hope of devising a periodic table of the elements of human consciousness, much like the periodic table developed by chemists. Because of this interest in the structure of consciousness, the school of thought Titchener initiated was known as structuralism. Unlike Wundt, Titchener believed that experimentation was the only appropriate method for a science of psychology and that concepts such as ‘attention’ implied too much free will to be scientifically useful. The generation of experimental psychologists who followed Titchener went even further, viewing the study of consciousness itself as unscientific because the data — sensations and feelings — could not be observed by anyone except the person reporting them. Structuralism was one of two schools of thought that dominated psychology in its earliest years. The other was functionalism. Instead of focusing on the contents of the mind, functionalism emphasised the role — or function — of psychological processes in helping individuals adapt to their environ- ment. Functionalists would not be content with the idea that running comes into consciousness in the presence of a snake raising its head to strike. They would advocate that it is no accident that this particular idea enters consciousness when a person sees a snake but not when they see a flower. A founder of functionalism, Harvard psychologist William James (1842–1910), penned the first textbook in psychology in 1890. (If you think this one is long, try reading James’s 1400-page, two- volume set.) James believed that knowledge about human psychology could come from many sources, including introspection and experimentation but also the study of children, other animals (whose introspective reports may not be very useful) and people whose minds do not function adequately (such as the mentally ill). James thought the structuralists’ efforts to catalogue the elements of con- sciousness were not only misguided but profoundly boring! Consciousness exists because it serves a function, and the task of the psychologist is to understand that function. James was interested in explaining, not simply describing, the mind’s contents. As we will see, functionalism bore the imprint of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory, which has again come to play a central role in psychological thought a century later. Structuralism and functionalism were two early ‘camps’ in psychology that attracted passionate advocates and opponents. But they were not the last. INTERIM SUMMARY Although many contemporary psychological questions derive from age-old philosophical ques- tions, by the end of the nineteenth century psychology emerged as a discipline that aimed to answer questions about human nature through scientific investigation. Two prominent early schools of thought were structuralism and functionalism. Structuralism attempted to uncover the basic elements of consciousness through introspection. Functionalism attempted to explain psychological processes in terms of the role, or function, they serve. CHAPTER 1 | Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour 9  Perspectives in psychology Philosopher Thomas Kuhn studied the history of science and found some remarkable convergences in the way schools of thought come and go and knowledge is generated. Kuhn (1970) observed that science does not progress, as many believe, primarily through the accumulation of ‘facts’. Rather, scientific progress depends as much, or more, on the development of better and better paradigms. A paradigm is a broad system of theoretical assumptions that a scientific community uses to make sense of its domain of study. A paradigm has several components. First, it includes a set of theoretical assertions that provide a model, or an abstract picture, of the object of study. Chemists, for example, have models of the way atoms combine to form molecules — something the structuralists hoped to emulate, by identifying basic ‘elements’ of consciousness and how they combined into thoughts and perceptions. Second, a paradigm includes a set of shared metaphors that compare the subject to something else that is readily apprehended (such as ‘the mind is like a computer’). Third, a paradigm includes a set of methods that scientists agree will produce valid and useful data. Astronomers, for example, agree that telescopic investigation provides a window to events in space. According to Kuhn, the social sciences and psychology differ from the older natural sciences (such as physics and biology) because they lack an accepted paradigm upon which most members of the scientific community agree. Instead, he proposes, these young sciences are still splintered into several schools of thought, or what we will call perspectives. In this chapter and throughout the book, we examine five perspectives that guide current psycho- APPLY ✚ logical thinking, offering sometimes competing and sometimes complementary points of view. These DISCUS S perspectives offer the same kind of broad, orienting approach as a scientific paradigm, and they share To what extent has its three essential features. Focusing on these perspectives does not mean that other less comprehen­ integration between sive approaches have not contributed to psychological knowledge, or that nothing can be studied the different theoretical without them. A researcher interested in a specific question — such as the recent controversial debate perspectives occurred? about whether same-sex parenting affects children in a different way to heterosexual parenting What are the main benefits of (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010; Meezan & Rauch, 2005; Tasker, 2010) — does not need to employ a broader an approach that accepts many outlook. But perspectives generally guide psychological investigations and therapeutic interventions. behaviourist principles but also emphasises the role of thought In the following sections we examine the psychodynamic, behaviourist, humanistic, cognitive and processes in learning? evolutionary perspectives. In many respects, these perspectives have evolved independently, and at the centre of each are phenomena the others tend to ignore. INTERIM SUMMARY A paradigm is a broad system of theoretical assumptions employed by a scientific community that includes shared models, metaphors and methods. Psychology lacks a unified paradigm but has a number of schools of thought, or perspectives, that can be used to understand psychological events. The psychodynamic perspective A friend has been going out with a man for five months and has even jokingly tossed around the idea of marriage. Suddenly, her boyfriend tells her he has found someone else. She is shocked and cries uncontrollably but a day later declares that ‘he didn’t mean that much to me anyway’. When you con- sole her about the rejection she must be feeling, she says, ‘Rejection? Hey, I don’t know why I put up with him for as long as I did’, and jokes that ‘bad character is a genetic abnormality carried on the Y chromosome’ (more on that later). You know she really cared about him, and you conclude that she is being defensive — that she really feels rejected. You draw these conclusions because you have grown up in a culture influenced by the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud. In the late nineteenth century, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), a Viennese physician, developed a theory of mental life and behaviour and an approach to treating psychological disorders known as psychoanalysis. Since then, many psychologists have continued Freud’s emphasis on ­psychodynamics, or the dynamic interplay of mental forces. The psychodynamic perspective rests on three key prem- ises. First, people’s actions are determined by the way thoughts, feelings and wishes are connected in their minds. Second, many of these mental events occur outside of conscious awareness. And third, these mental processes may conflict with one another, leading to compromises among c­ompeting 10 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition motives. Thus, people are unlikely to know precisely the chain of psychological events that leads to their conscious thoughts, inten- tions, feelings or behaviours. As we will see, Freud and many of his followers failed to take seriously the importance of using scientific methods to test and refine their hypotheses. As a result, many psychodynamic concepts, such as ideas about unconscious processes, remained outside the mainstream of psychology until brought into the laboratory by contemporary researchers (Westen, 1998; Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000). In this book, we will emphasise those aspects of psychodynamic thinking for which the scientific evidence is strongest. Origins of the psychodynamic perspective Freud originated his theory in response to patients whose symptoms, although real, were not based on physiological malfunctioning. At the The Couch! Sigmund Freud’s signature time, scientific thinking could not explain patients who were preoccupied with irrational guilt after therapy procedure was to have patients lie on a couch and say whatever came the death of a parent or were so paralysed with fear that they could not leave their homes. Freud made to mind, while he took notes behind a deceptively simple deduction that changed the face of intellectual history: if the symptoms were not them. This wax recreation has been consciously created and maintained, and had no physical basis, only one possibility remained — their displayed at museums. basis must be unconscious. Freud argued that just as people have conscious motives or wishes, they also have powerful uncon- scious motives that underlie their intentions. Many of us have had the infuriating experience of being stuck in a traffic crawl on the highway, only to find that nothing was blocking the road — just an accident in the opposite lane. Why do people slow down to gawk at accidents on the highway? Are they concerned? Perhaps. Freud would suggest that people feel an unconscious excitement, or at least satisfy a morbid curiosity, from viewing a gruesome scene, even though they may deny such socially unacceptable feelings. Many have likened the relationship between conscious awareness and unconscious mental forces to the visible tip of an iceberg and the vast hulk that lies out of sight beneath the water. For example, an economics student went to see a psychologist because of a pattern of failing to hand in assignments. She would spend hours researching, write two-thirds of the assignment, and then suddenly find herself APPLY ✚ unable to finish. She was perplexed by her own behaviour because she consciously wanted to succeed. DISCUS S So what lay beneath the surface? The patient came from a very traditional working-class family Experimental research finds that expected girls to get married, not to develop a career. She had always outshone her brothers in that homophobic men — school but hid her successes because of the discomfort this caused in the family. When she showed men who report particularly her report card, her mother would glance anxiously around to make sure her brothers did not see it. negative attitudes towards homosexuality — show more Eventually she learned to keep her grades to herself. sexual arousal when viewing Years later, succeeding in a largely male course put her back in a familiar position, although she photos of homosexual intercourse had not realised the link. The closer she came to success, the more difficulty she had finishing her than do their less homophobic assignments. She was caught in a conflict between her conscious desire to succeed and her uncon- peers (Adams, Wright, & scious association of discomfort with success. Research confirms that most psychological processes Lohr, 1996). occur outside of awareness and that many of the associations between feelings and behaviours or How might a psychodynamic situations that guide our behaviour are expressed implicitly or unconsciously (Combs, Krippner, & psychologist explain this? Taylor, 2010; Westen, 1998). Methods and data of the psychodynamic perspective The methods used by psychodynamic psychologists flow from their aims. Psychodynamic under- standing seeks to interpret meanings — to infer underlying wishes, fears and patterns of thought from an individual’s conscious, verbalised thought and behaviour. Accordingly, a psychodynamic clin­ ician observes a patient’s dreams, fantasies, posture and subtle behaviour towards the therapist. The psychodynamic perspective thus relies substantially on the case study method, which entails in-depth observation of a small number of people (chapter 2). The most important legacy of the psychodynamic perspective is its emphasis on unconscious pro- cesses. The data of psychoanalysis can be thoughts, feelings and actions that occur anywhere, from a CEO jockeying for power in a corporate boardroom to a young child biting his brother for refusing to share a toy. Using any and all forms of information about a person reflects the psychodynamic CHAPTER 1 | Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour 11  assumption that people reveal themselves in everything they do (which is why psychoanalysts may not always be welcome at dinner parties). Psychodynamic psychologists have typically relied primarily on clinical data to support their theor­ies. Because clinical observations are open to many interpretations, many psychologists have been sceptical about psychodynamic ideas. In recent years, however, a number of researchers who are both committed to scientific method and interested in psychodynamic concepts have been sub- jecting psychodynamic ideas to experimental tests and trying to integrate them with the body of scientific knowledge in psychology (see Cohen, Milman, Venturyera, & Falissard, 2011; Slipp, 2000; Westen & Gabbard, 1999). For example, several studies have documented that people who avoid con- scious awareness of their negative feelings are at increased risk for a range of health problems such as asthma, heart disease and cancer (Andrew & Dulin, 2007; Singh & Mishra, 2011; Weinberger, 1990). Similarly, psychodynamic explanations have been offered and tested for their relevance to binge drinking (Blandt, 2002); attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Rafalovich, 2001); and creativity (Esquivel, 2003). Criticisms of psychodynamic theory Although elements of psychodynamic theory surround us, no theory has been criticised more fer- vently. The criticisms have been so resounding that many question why the theory attracts any atten- tion in textbooks and courses. Indeed, behaviourist John B. Watson referred to psychodynamic theory as ‘voodooism’. Psychodynamic theory’s lack of scientific grounding, its violation of the falsifiability criterion, and its reliance on retrospective accounts are just a few of its criticisms. Psychodynamic theorists argue, however, that its lack of reliance on empirical methods is one of its redeeming features. Rather than investigating specific variables that reflect only a fraction of an indi- vidual’s personality or behaviour, psychodynamic theorists focus on the entire person (Westen, 1998) and the whole of human experience. In addition, by not relying on empirical methods, ­psychodynamic theorists study phenomena not amenable to more traditional experimental methods. For example, a psychodynamic theorist might study why certain people are drawn to horror stories and movies (Tavris & Wade, 2001). INTERIM SUMMARY The psychodynamic perspective proposes that people’s actions reflect the way thoughts, feel- ings and wishes are associated in their minds; that many of these processes are unconscious; and that mental processes can conflict with one another, leading to compromises among competing motives. Although their primary method has been the analysis of case studies, reflecting the goal of interpreting the meanings hypothesised to underlie people’s actions, psychodynamic psychol­ ogists are increasingly using experimental methods to integrate psychodynamic thinking with ­scientific psychology. This should alleviate the criticism that has traditionally been levelled against psychodynamic theorists for being non-empirical, for violating the falsifiability criterion, and for using unreliable measures and approaches. The behaviourist perspective You are enjoying an intimate dinner at a little Italian place on Main Street when your partner springs an unexpected piece of news: the relationship is over. Your stomach turns and you leave in tears. One evening a year or two later, your new partner suggests dining at that same restaurant. Just as before, your stomach turns and your appetite disappears. The second broad perspective that developed in psychology early in the twentieth century, behav- iourism, argues that the aversion to that restaurant, like many reactions, is the result of learning — changes in behaviour based on experience. Whereas the psychodynamic perspective emphasises internal mental events, the behaviourist (or behavioural) perspective, also called behaviourism, focuses on the way objects or events in the environment (stimuli) come to control behaviour through learning. Thus, the behaviourist perspective focuses on the relationship between external (environ- mental) events and observable behaviours. Indeed, John Watson (1878–1958), a pioneer of American behaviourism, considered mental events entirely outside the province of a scientific psychology, and 12 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), who developed behaviourism into a fully fledged perspective years later, stated, ‘There is no place in a scientific analysis of behaviour for a mind or self’ (1990, p. 1209). Origins of the behaviourist perspective At the same time that Freud was developing psychoanalytic theory, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) was conducting experiments on the digestive system of dogs. During these experi- ments, Pavlov made an important and quite accidental discovery. Once his dogs became accustomed to hearing a particular sound at mealtime, they began to salivate automatically whenever they heard it, much as they would if food was presented. The process that had shaped this new response was learning. Behaviourists argue that human and animal behaviours — from salivation in Pavlov’s lab- oratory to losing one’s appetite upon hearing the name of a restaurant associated with rejection — are largely acquired by learning. Indeed, psychologists today have begun to identify biochemical changes in brain cells and neural circuits involved in learning (Martinez & Derrick, 1996), often through the use of Pavlovian-type animal experiments. For example, researchers have demonstrated that injecting rats with a substance that activates glucocorticoid receptors — resulting in a natural bio- logical stress response — enhances the rats’ memories of the affective components when they are learning ­responses to cues (Zorawski & Killcross, 2003). Research has also progressed to the point where interventions focused on neural and behavioural signals involved in re-learning old skills lost after a brain injury are now becoming possible (Kleim, 2011). Behaviourists asserted that the behaviour of humans, like other animals, can be understood entirely without reference to internal states such as thoughts and feelings. They therefore attempted to counter Cartesian dualism (the doctrine of dual spheres of mind and body) by demonstrating that human con- duct follows laws of behaviour, just as the law of gravity explains why things fall down instead of up. The task for behaviourists was to discover how environmental events, or stimuli, control behav- iour. John Locke (1632–1704), a seventeenth-century British philosopher, had contended that at birth the mind is a tabula rasa, or blank slate, upon which experience writes itself. In a similar vein, John Watson later claimed that if he were given 12 healthy infants at birth, he could turn them into what- ever he wanted, doctors or thieves, regardless of any innate dispositions or talents, simply by control- ling their environments (Watson, 1925). The environment and behaviour The dramatic progress of the natural sciences in the nineteenth century led many psychologists to believe that the time had come to wrest the study of human nature away from philosophers and put it into the hands of scientists. For behaviourists, psychology is the science of behaviour, and the proper procedure for conducting psychological research should be the same as for other sciences — rigorous application of the scientific method, particularly experimentation. Scientists can directly observe a rat running through a maze, a baby sucking on a plastic nipple to make a mobile turn, and even the increase in a rat’s heart rate at the sound of a bell that has previously preceded a painful electric shock. But no-one can directly observe unconscious motives. Science, behaviourists argued, entails making observations on a reliable and calibrated instrument that others can use to make precisely the same observations. If two observers can view the same data differently, as often occurs with psychodynamic inferences, how can a scientist test a hypothesis? According to behaviourists, psychologists cannot even study conscious thoughts in a scientific way because no-one has access to them except the person reporting them. Structuralists such as Titchener had used introspection to understand the way conscious sensations, feelings and images fit together. But behaviourists such as Watson questioned the scientific value of this research, since the observ- ations on which it relied could not be independently verified. They proposed an alternative to psycho­ dynamic and introspective methods: study observable behaviours and environmental events and build Psychologist B. F. Skinner developed a science around the way people and animals behave. Hence the term behaviourism. Today, many behaviourism as a fully fledged behaviourists acknowledge the existence of mental events but do not believe these events play a causal perspective during the twentieth century. role in human affairs. Rather, from the behaviourist perspective, mental processes are ­by-­products of environmental events. Probably the most systematic behaviourist approach was developed by B. F. Skinner. Building on the work of earlier behaviourists, Skinner observed that the behaviour of organisms can be controlled by environmental consequences that either increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) their likelihood of occurring. Subtle alterations in these conditions, such as the timing of an aversive consequence, CHAPTER 1 | Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour 13  can have dramatic effects on behaviour. Most dog owners can attest that swatting a dog with a rolled- up newspaper after it grabs a piece of steak from the dinner table can be very useful in suppressing the dog’s unwanted behaviour, but not if the punishment comes an hour later. Behaviourist researchers have discovered that this kind of learning can help control some very unlikely behaviours in humans. For example, by giving people feedback on their biological or physio- logical processes (biofeedback), psychologists can help them to learn to control ‘behaviours’ such as headaches, chronic pain and blood pressure (Kapitza, Passie, Bernateck, & Karst, 2010; Nestoriuc, Martin, Rief, & Andrasik, 2008; Palomba et al., 2011) Metaphors, methods and data of behaviourism A primary metaphor of behaviourism is that humans and other animals are like machines. Just as pushing a button starts the coffee maker, presenting food triggered an automatic response in P ­ avlov’s dogs. Similarly, opening this book probably triggered the learned ­behaviour of underlining and note taking. Some behaviourists also view the mind as a ‘black box’ whose m ­ echanisms can never be observed. A stimulus enters the box, and a response comes out; what happens inside is not the behaviourist’s business. Other behaviourists are interested in what might occur in that box but are not convinced that it is ­accessible to scientific investigation with current technologies. Consequently, they prefer to study what can be observed — the relationship between what goes in and what comes out. The primary method of behaviourism is experimental. The experimental method entails framing a hypothesis, or prediction, about the way certain environmental events will affect behaviour and then creating a laboratory situation to test that hypothesis. Consider two rats placed in simple mazes shaped like the letter T, as shown in figure 1.2. The two mazes are identical in all respects but one: pellets of food lie at the end of the left arm of the first rat’s maze but not of the second. After a few trials (efforts at running through the maze), the rat that obtains the reward will be more likely to turn to the left and run the maze faster. The experimenter can now systematically modify the situation, again observing the results over several trials. What happens if the rat is rewarded only every third time? Every fourth time? Will it run faster or slower? Because these data can be measured quantitatively, experimenters FIGURE 1.2 A standard T-maze from a behaviourist can test the accuracy of their predictions and they can apply them to practical questions, such as how experiment. The experimenter controls an employer can maximise the rate at which employees produce a product. the rat’s behaviour by giving or Behaviourism was the dominant perspective in psychology, particularly in North America, from eliminating rewards in one arm or the the 1920s to the 1960s. Pure behaviourism has lost favour in the last two decades as psychology other of the T. has once again become concerned with the study of mental processes. Many psychologists believe that thoughts about the environment are just as important in controlling behaviour as the environ- ment itself (­Bandura, 1977a, 1977b, 1999; Mischel, 1990; Mischel & Shoda, 1995; Rotter, 1966, 1990). Some contemporary behaviourists even define behaviour broadly to include thoughts as private behaviours (see Calkin, 2002, for a review). Nevertheless, traditional behaviourist theory continues to have widespread applications, from helping people to quit smoking to enhancing children’s learning in school. Two contributions of the behaviourist perspective to psychology cannot be overestimated. The first is its focus on learning and its postulation of a mechanism for many kinds of learning: reward and punishment. Behaviourists offer a fundamental insight into the psychology of humans and other ani- mals that can be summarised in a simple but remarkably important formula: behaviour follows its consequences. The notion that the consequences of our actions shape the way we behave has a long philosophical history, but the behaviourists were the first to develop a sophisticated, scientifically based set of principles that describe the way environmental events shape behaviour. The second major contribution of the behaviourist approach is its emphasis on empiricism — the belief that the path to scientific knowledge is systematic observation and, ideally, experimental observation. INTERIM SUMMARY The behaviourist perspective focuses on learning and studies the way environmental events con- trol behaviour. Behaviourists reject the concept of ‘mind’, viewing mental events as the contents of a black box that cannot be known or studied scientifically. Scientific knowledge comes from using experimental methods to study the relationship between environmental events and behaviour. 14 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition The humanistic perspective Humanistic theories focus on the uniqueness of the individual. Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–1987) are two key figures in humanistic psychology. They both emphasised self-actualisation — the idea that people are motivated to reach their full potential. The humanistic ­perspective represents an optimistic view of human experience. It assumes that people are innately good and will almost always choose adaptive, goal- directed and self-actualising behaviours. Origins of the humanistic perspective During the 1950s and especially the 1960s, an approach to personality emerged as an alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviourism. Unlike these approaches, humanistic approaches focus on aspects of personality that are Abraham Maslow, a key figure in distinctly human, not shared by other animals. How do people find meaning in life? How can they humanistic psychology, emphasised the idea that people are motivated to reach remain true to themselves amidst lifelong pressures to accommodate other people’s wishes and pre- their full potential. conceptions? Many humanistic psychologists argue that scientific methods borrowed from the natural sciences are inappropriate for studying people, whose actions, unlike those of fish or asteroids, reflect the way they understand and experience themselves and the world. Metaphors, methods and data of the humanistic perspective A humanistic metaphor is that life is like a bottle of milk — the cream always rises to the top. Imagine a young man growing up in a poverty-stricken home environment. He longs to study at university but does not have any financial support or resources to assist him. The young man enjoys studying and does well in school, despite the barriers presented by his home environment. He longs to attend university, to fulfil his lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer to help underprivileged chil- dren. Why will this man strive hard to realise his goals and ambitions? According to humanistic theory, he will strive to become a self-fulfilled individual and reach his full potential. He is driven by a desire to achieve all that he is capable of — it does not matter that he comes from a disadvantaged home environment. The humanistic approach focuses on the individual’s unique perspective and experience. Human- istic theorists believe that people are not powerless victims of external forces but have an innate desire to improve themselves and fulfil their own potential. The goals people set for themselves are influenced by their own personal and subjective experiences. They can be chosen consciously as people strive to self-actualise. As a result, humanistic methods typically centre on helping individuals to understand their unique frame of reference and work towards achieving their desire to be the ‘best’ that they can be. The humanistic approach is very much person-centred and relies on the therapist showing empathy. The idea is to treat people with respect and warmth, stressing every indi- vidual’s freedom to make their own choices. Helping people to consciously and deliberately set self-­ actualisation goals modifies their behaviour. The data of humanistic theory include the thoughts, motives and actions that reflect a person’s inner drive to realise their full potential. Humanists assume that people will act in ways that help them to achieve their life goals. They emphasise the central role of consciousness in shaping our behaviours, assuming that personal experience is a powerful medium for people to become more self-aware and self-directed. The humanistic perspective emphasises the uniqueness of individuals and their potential for per- sonal growth. Both Rogers (1959) and Maslow (1962) asserted that the prime motivator of all human behaviour is self-actualisation — an innate tendency that we have towards fulfilling our potential. According to this perspective, behaviour is determined by the way in which people per- ceive their own worlds. Humanistic theorists believe that people experience problems when there is a discrepancy between our self-concept and the ideal self. This can occur when our expec- tations exceed our achievements. The humanistic approach readily lends itself to therapy because it focuses on the person’s immediate experience. However, some critics have viewed this perspective as naive because it assumes that people are basically ‘good’ and will grow if given the opportunity. The number of people in jails all around the world is one argument that people do not always act this way. CHAPTER 1 | Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviour 15  INTERIM SUMMARY The humanistic perspective emphasises the uniqueness of the individual and focuses on the person’s immediate experience. Humanistic theorists assert that people have free will — the freedom to make choices so that they can fulfil their potential. According to this perspective, people are motivated to achieve personal goals so that they can fulfil their true potential. The cognitive perspective MAKING In the past 30 years, psychology has undergone a ‘cognitive revolution’. Today the study of ­cognition, CONNECTIONS or thought, dominates psychology in the same way that the study of behaviour dominated in the middle of the twentieth century. When chairpersons of psychology departments were asked to rank the 10 most important contemporary psychologists, eight were cognitive psy- chologists (Korn, Davis, & Davis, 1991). Indeed, the history of psychology could be viewed as a series of shifts: from the ‘philosophy of the mind’ of the Western philosophers, to the ‘science of the mind’ in the work of the structuralists, to the ‘science of behaviour’ in the research of the behaviourists, to the ‘science of behav- iour and mental processes’ in contemporary, cognitively informed psychology. The humanistic approach of the 1950s and 1960s was a shift away from the ‘science’ of psychology towards a focus on the unique experiences of each individual. The cognitive perspective focuses on the way people perceive, process and retrieve information. Cognitive psychology has roots in experiments conducted by Wundt and others in the late nineteenth century that examined phenomena such as the influence of attention on perception and the ability to remember lists of words. How do people recognise Gestalt psychology, too, was arguably a cognitive psychology, in its focus on the way people organise this abstract object as a sensory information into meaningful units. dog? According to cognitive psychologists, people In large measure, though, the cognitive perspective owes its contemporary form to a technological categorise an object that development — the computer. Many cognitive psychologists use the metaphor of the computer to resembles a dog by comparing understand and model the way the mind works. From this perspective, thinking is information it to examples of dogs, ­processing: the environment provides inputs, which are transformed, stored and retrieved using generalised knowledge about various mental ‘programs’, leading to specific response outputs. Just as the computer database of dogs, or defining features a bookstore codes its inventory according to topic, title, author and so on, human memory systems of dogs stored in memory encode information in order to store and retrieve it. The coding systems we use affect how easily we (chapter 8). can later access information. Thus, most people would find it hard to name the tenth prime minister of Australia (but easy to name the prime minister responsible for introducing the carbon tax) because 875 they do not typically code prime ministers numerically. To test hypotheses about memory, researchers need ways of measuring it. One way is simple: ask Response time (msec) 850 a question like, ‘Do you remember seeing this object?’ A second method is more indirect: see how quickly people can name an object they saw some time ago. Our memory system evolved to place 825 frequently used and more recent information at the front of our memory ‘files’ so that we can get to 800 it faster. This makes sense, since dusty old information is less likely to tell us about our immediate environment. Thus, response time is a useful measure of memory. 775 For example, one investigator used both direct questions and response time to test memory for Old New pictures pictures objects seen weeks or months before (Cave, 1997). Initially, she rapidly flashed more than 100 draw- ings on a computer screen and asked participants to name them as quickly as they could. That was FIGURE 1.3 Response time in naming drawings the participants’ only exposure to the pictures. In a second session, weeks or months later, she mixed 48 weeks after initial exposure. some of the drawings in with others the students had not seen and asked them either to tell her This graph shows the length of time whether they recognised them from the earlier session or to name them. participants took to name drawings they When asked directly, participants were able to distinguish the old pictures from new ones with saw 48 weeks earlier (‘old’ drawings) versus similar drawings they were better-than-chance accuracy as many as 48 weeks later; that is, they correctly identified which draw- seeing for the first time. Response ings they had seen previously more than half the time. Perhaps more striking, as figure 1.3 shows, time was measured in milliseconds almost a year later they were also faster at naming the pictures they had seen previously than those (thousandths of a second). As can be they had not seen. Thus, exposure to a visual image appears to keep it towards the front of our mental seen, at 48 weeks — nearly a year — participants were faster at naming files for a very long time. previously seen pictures. The cognitive perspective is useful not only in examining memory but also in understanding pro- Source: Cave (1997). cesses such as decision making. When people enter a car showroom, they have a set of attributes in 16 Psychology | 4th Australian and New Zealand Edition their minds: for example, smooth ride, sleek look, good fuel economy, affordable price. They must also process a great deal of new information (the salesman’s description of one car as a ‘real steal’, APPLY ✚ for instance) and match it with stored linguistic knowledge. This allows them to comprehend the DISCUS S meaning of the dealer’s speech, such as the connotation of ‘real steal’ (from both his viewpoint and A four-year-old is about to grab theirs). In deciding which car to buy, they must somehow integrate information about multiple attri- a lolly off the shelf at a shop, and butes and weigh their importance. As we will see, some of these processes are conscious or explicit, his older sister says, ‘No, don’t whereas others happen through the silent whirring of our neural ‘engines’. take that. That would be stealing’. How would a psychologist Origins of the cognitive perspective from a behaviourist perspective The philosophical roots of the cognitive perspective lie in a series of questions about where explain both children’s ­knowledge comes from that were first raised by the ancient Greek philosophers and pondered by behaviour? How did their British and European philosophers over the last four centuries (see Gardner, 1985). Descartes, like learning history shape their actions? Plato, reflected on the remarkable truths of arithmetic and geometry and noted that the purest and How would a psychologist from most useful a­ bstractions — such as a hypotenuse, pi or a square root — could never be observed a cognitive perspective explain by the senses. Rather, this kind of knowledge appeared to be generated by the mind itself. Other their behaviour? What made philosophers, beginning with Aristotle, emphasised the role of experience in generating knowledge. the four-year-old think that Locke proposed that complex ideas arise from the mental manipulation of simple ideas and that these inside this lolly wrapper would simple ideas are products of the senses, of observation. be something tasty? How did The behaviourists roundly rejected Descartes’ view of an active, reasoning mind that can arrive at the older child learn to resist knowledge independently of experience. Cognitive psychologists, in contrast, are interested in many such temptations and to view of the questions raised by Descartes and other rationalist philosophers, who emphasised the role stealing as wrong? of reason in creating knowledge. For example, cognitive psychologists have studied the way people form abstract concepts or categories. These concepts are derived in part from experience, but they often differ from any particular instance the person has ever perceived, which means that they must be mentally constructed (Medin & Heit, 1999; Smith, 1995). Children can recognise that a bulldog is a dog, even if they have never seen one before, because they have formed an abstract concept of ‘dog’ that goes beyond the details of any specific dogs they have seen. Metaphors, methods and data of cognitive psychology Both the cognitive and behaviourist perspectives view organisms as machines that respond to environ- mental input with predictable output. Some cognitive theories even propose that a stimulus evokes a series of mini-responses inside the head, much like the responses that behaviourists study outside List A List B the head (Anderson, 1983). However, most cognitive psychologists rely on different metaphors than Longreach Albury their behaviourist colleagues. When the cognitive perspective emerged, perhaps what differentiated it Ballarat Fremantle most was that it filled the black box of the behaviourists with software — mental programs that pro- duce output. Mackay Dalby Many cognitive psychologists use the brain itself as a metaphor for the mind (e.g., Burgess & Hitch, Newcastle Launceston 1999; McClelland, 1995; Rumelhart, McClelland, & The PDP Research Group, 1986). According to this view, an idea can be conceived as a network of brain cells that are activated together. Thus, Bathurst Charleville whenever a person thinks of the concept ‘bird’, a certain set of nerve cells becomes active. When Caloundra Lismore confronted with a stimulus that resembles a bird, part of the network is activated; if enough of the net- work becomes active, the person concludes that the animal is a bird. A person is likely to recognise a Woomera Nambour sparrow as a bird quickly because it resembles most other birds and hence immediately activates most Tamworth Warwick of the ‘bird’ network. Correctly classifying a penguin takes longer because it is less typically ‘bird- like’ and activates less of the network. Emerald Winton As with behaviourism, the primary method of the cognitive perspective is experimental, albeit Cessnock with one important difference. Cognitive psychologists use experimental procedures to infer mental ­processes at work. For example, when people try to retrieve information from a list (such as the names FIGURE 1.4 of cities or towns), do they scan all the relevant information in memory until they hit the right item? Two lists of words used in a study of memory scanning. Giving participants One way psychologists have explored this question is by presenting subjects with a series of word in a study two lists of city names lists of varying lengths to memorise, such as those in figure 1.4. Then they ask the participants in the provides a test of the memory-scanning study if particular words were on the lists. If participants take longer to recognise that a word was hypothesis. Dubbo is not on either not on a longer list — which they do — they must be scanning the lists sequentially (that is, item by list. If an experimenter asks whether Dubbo was on the list, participants take item), because additional words on the list take additional time to scan (Lalor, 2002; Sternberg, 1975).