Hergenhahn's Introduction to the History of Psychology Textbook

Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology Eighth Edition Chapter 1 Introduction © 2019 Cengage.zAll rights © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserv...

Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology Eighth Edition Chapter 1 Introduction © 2019 Cengage.zAll rights © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. reserved.  Learning Objectives After reading and discussing Chapter 1, students should: Understand that there is no single definition of psychology that is accepted by all people. Be familiar with the various activities that contemporary psychologists do. Be acquainted with the idea of presentism and historicism and the approaches to writing history—zeitgeist approach, great-person approach, and historical development approach. Understand the reasons for studying the history of psychology. Be familiar with the discussion of “What is science”? Be acquainted with the views of scientific development of Popper and Kuhn. Understand the issues involved in the science of psychology. Be familiar with persistent questions in psychology © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. WRITING HISTORY © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Problems in Writing a History of Psychology Where to start? – Ancient man’s explanations – Early Greek philosophers—theories of cognitive processes – When psychology became a separate science—in the 19th century – The textbook starts with the ancient Greek philosophers © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Problems in Writing a History of Psychology What to include? – Presentism – Historicism – Amount of detail in presentation of the evolution of concepts and ideas – This textbook concentrates on individuals who contributed the most to the development of or who has become closely associated with an idea © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Problems in Writing a History of Psychology Choice of approach? – Zeitgeist (spirit of the times)  Zeitgeist (spirit of the times) approach emphasizes the influences of developments in other sciences, political climate, technological advancements, and economic conditions on the development of psychology – Great-person (personalistic)  emphasizes the works of individuals – Historical development (naturalistic)  Illustrates how individuals and/or events contributed to changes and development of ideas and concepts – Eclectic approach  combines these three approaches and is the approach used in the book © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. WHY STUDY HISTORY? © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Why Study the History of Psychology? Deeper understanding Recognition of fads and fashions in psychology Avoiding repetition of mistakes – “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”—George Santayana. A source of valuable ideas © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. WHAT IS SCIENCE? © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  What Is Science? Some, such as Galileo and Kant, have argued that psychology could never be a science because of its interest in subjective experience (mental events) Define science – empirical observation—direct observation of nature – Science has two major components: empirical observation and theory – Combination of rationalism and empiricism  Rationalism—mental operations or principles (rules of logic) must be employed to attain true knowledge.  Empiricism—the source of all knowledge is sensory observation.  Scientific theories are formulated.  Scientific theory has two main functions. o Organize empirical observations o Provides guide for future observations o Confirmable propositions © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  What Is Science? (3 of 3) – The search for laws  Law—consistently observed relationship between two or more classes of empirical events which is amenable to public observation and verification.  Two classes of scientific laws: o Correlational laws—how classes of events vary together. o Causal laws—how events are causally related.  Major goal of science—discover the cause of natural phenomena. – Assumption of determinism © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. TRADITIONAL VIEW OF SCIENCE © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Revisions in the Traditional Views of Science Traditional view – Empirical observations – Theory formulation, testing, and revision – Prediction and control – Search for lawful relationships – Assumption of determinism © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Revisions in the Traditional Views of Science Karl Popper – Science starts with recognition of a problem, which determines what observation are to be made. – Propose solutions (conjectures) and find fault with solutions (refutations). – Thus, science involves problems, theories (proposed solutions), and criticism. – A scientific theory must be refutable—principle of falsifiability – Theories must make risky predictions—predictions that run a risk of being incorrect – Postdiction—explaining phenomena after they have already occurred – All theories will eventually be replaced by more adequate theories. – Science is unending search for better solutions to problems or better explanations of phenomena. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Revisions in the Traditional Views of Science Thomas Kuhn – Correspondence theory of truth – Paradigm – Normal science is likened to puzzle solving and is guided by the restrictions of the paradigm. – Researchers become emotionally involved with their paradigm and it becomes very difficult to give up. – Paradigms change as observations cannot be explained by the current paradigm.  anomalies—persistent observations that a currently accepted paradigm cannot explain – Science progresses as scientists are forced to change their belief systems, which are very difficult to change. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Revisions in the Traditional Views of Science Stages of scientific development  Preparadigmatic stage o Many rival schools of explanation with random fact gathering. Eventually one school succeeds and becomes a paradigm and science continues.  Paradigmatic stage o Science occurs until a new paradigm displaces the old one.  Revolutionary stage o A new paradigm displaces another one. Paradigms and Psychology—a preparadigmatic discipline or a discipline with several coexisting paradigms? – Psychology has several competing views. – Some suggest that psychology needs to synthesize into one paradigm, others suggest that psychology will always have several coexisting paradigms. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. IS PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE? © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Is Psychology a Science? Researchers have observed lawful relationships between classes of environmental events and classes of behavior and devised rigorous, refutable theories. Determinism: All behavior has causal explanations. – Biological determinism  emphasizes importance of physiological conditions and/or genetic predispositions in explanation of behavior. – Environmental determinism  emphasizes importance of environmental stimuli as determinants of behavior. – Sociocultural determinism  emphasizes cultural or societal rules, regulations, customs, and beliefs that govern human behavior Common characteristic of these three determinisms is that the determinants are directly measurable (physical determinism). © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Is Psychology a Science?  Physical determinism—genes, environmental stimuli, and cultural customs are used to explain human behavior  Psychical determinism—mental causes, conscious or unconscious, of behavior Indeterminism and Nondeterminism – Uncertainty principle Heisenberg’s principle applied to psychology states that we can never learn at least some causes of behavior because in attempting to observe them we change them. – Human behavior may be determined, but the causes cannot be accurately measured. Indeterminism – Nondeterminism  Some researchers reject science as a way of studying humans.  Human behavior is freely chosen, self generated.  Humans have free will. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Is Psychology a Science? Determinism and responsibility – Free will leads to personal responsibility for behavior. – Hard determinism  Causes function in an automatic, mechanistic manner, thus the notion of personal responsibility is meaningless. – Soft determinism  Cognitive processes intervene between experience and production of behavior. Human behavior is result of thoughtful deliberation of options available; thus, a person is responsible for actions. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. PERSISTENT QUESTIONS???? © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology What is the nature of human nature? How are the mind and body related? Nativism versus empiricism Mechanism versus vitalism Rationalism versus irrationalism How are humans related to nonhuman animals? What is the origin of human knowledge? Objective versus subjective reality. The problem of the self Universalism versus relativism © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology Q1: What is nature of human nature? – Determine what is universally true about humans. Q2: How are the mind and body related? – Materialists  Matter is only reality, thus everything must be explained in terms of matter – Idealists  Attempt to explain everything in terms of consciousness – Monists  Believe in only one view: either materialist or idealist – Dualist  Believe that there are both physical events (materialism) and mental events (idealism). The question is, how are they related? © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. Persistent Questions in Psychology – Types of dualism  Interactionism o The mind and body interact.  Emergentism o Mental states emerge from brain states.  Epiphenomenalism o Mental processes are byproducts of brain processes.  Psychophysical parallelism o Environmental events cause both mental events and behavior simultaneously, which are independent of each other. – Double aspectism  Humans cannot be divided into mind and body; they are a unity of experience. Mind and body are aspects of the same person. o Some dualists propose a preestablished harmony between mind and that is coordinated by an external agent (i.e., God).  Occasionalism o This suggests that when a desire occurs in the mind, God causes the body to act; when events happen to the body, God causes the corresponding mental experience. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology Mechanism – Behavior of all organisms can be explained as machines in terms of parts and laws. Vitalism – Living things contain a force that does not exist in inanimate objects.  In ancient times, this was called the soul © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology Q3: Objective versus subjective reality Naïve realism posits that our subjective experience is exactly what is present in the physical world. Reification—A fallacy in which we tend to believe that because something has a name, it also has an independent existence © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology Q4: Rationalism versus Irrationalism – Rationalism  Emphasizes logical, systematic, and intelligent thought processes in explanations of behavior – Irrationalism  Emphasizes unconscious determinants of behavior which cannot be pondered rationally Q5: Nature versus Nurture – Nativism (nature)  Emphasizes role of inheritance – Empiricism (nurture)  Emphasizes role of experience. – Most psychologists take the position that human behavior is influenced by both nativism and empiricism. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology \ Q6: What is origin of human knowledge? – Epistemology  Study of the nature of knowledge – Radical empiricism  All knowledge comes from sensory experience. o Postulates the mind that passively takes in information – Rationalism  Agrees that sensory information is important, but that the mind then actively transforms the information in some way before knowledge is attained. (The mind is active.) – Nativists  Propose that some ideas are a natural part of the mind (examples: Plato and Descartes) © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology Q7: The problem of the self. – Often viewed as having a separate existence. – Often given attributes such as instigator and evaluator. – The self as an autonomous power creates problems that psychology still struggles with today. Q8: How are humans related to nonhuman animals? – If difference is quantitative (one of degree), studying animals can contribute to understanding human behavior – If difference is qualitative, studying animals can contribute nothing important to understanding human behavior © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Persistent Questions in Psychology Q9: Universalism versus relativism – Universalism  The goal is to describe general laws and principles that govern the world and our perception of it. o Universal truths are to be discovered. – Relativism  Universal truths either do not exist, or if they do, they cannot be known. o Humans influence what they observe, thus the search for universal truths independent of human existence is in vain. Truth is relative to the individual’s perspectives; there is no ultimate truth—just truths. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.