Hergenhahn's An Introduction to the History of Psychology - Chapter 20 PDF

Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology Eighth Edition Chapter 20 Psychology Today © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Learning Objectives (1 of 2) After reading and discussing Chapter 20, studen...

Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology Eighth Edition Chapter 20 Psychology Today © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Learning Objectives (1 of 2) After reading and discussing Chapter 20, students should: Be aware of the diversity of contemporary psychology. Be familiar with the uneasy relationship between pure scientific and applied psychology. Be acquainted with the controversy concerning the training of clinical psychologists. Be aware of psychology’s two cultures. Be aware of the concern over psychology’s status as a science. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Learning Objectives (2 of 2) Know what postmodernism is and understand its influence on psychology. Be aware of new topics in psychology. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. Divisions of the American Psychological Association American Psychological Association (APA) – Founded in 1892 with a handful of charter members. – Today there are 54 divisions representing diverse areas of interests and specialties.  (See Table 20.1 in the text.) © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Basic and Applied Psychology (1 of 8) Science versus Application – From psychology’s inception as a science there was tension between those wanting psychology to be a pure science (such as Wundt) and those wanting psychological principles to be applied to practical matters (such as Hall, Cattell, and Münsterberg). – The founding of the APA did not decrease this tension. – The tension resulted in Titchener refusing to participate in any of its activities and he created his own organization, The Experimentalists. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Basic and Applied Psychology (2 of 8) History – While scientific psychology continued to progress strongly, applied psychology and particularly clinical psychology evolved slowly.  World War I produced the necessity to evaluate the incoming recruits and various tests, particularly the Army Alpha and Beta tests were developed.  Following the war testing continued to develop. – In 1925, the APA created a membership category for those who did little research but did applied work. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. Basic and Applied Psychology (3 of 8) – In 1944, APA organized into 18 divisions and changed its stated purpose to include psychology as a profession and a means of promoting human welfare. – After World War II, the need for psychotherapy increased dramatically.  As the need increased, so did the number of different types of psychotherapies. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Basic and Applied Psychology (4 of 8) Clinical Psychology – When clinical psychologists began engaging in psychotherapy, they began competing with psychiatrists.  Thus, they engaged in battles for the kinds of services they could provide. – The only battle they had lost up to this point was the ability to prescribe medicine. – However, state psychological associations are working toward legislation to gain these privileges. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Basic and Applied Psychology (5 of 8) Training clinical psychologists – Witmer established the tradition that clinical psychology would be closely aligned with scientific psychology.  The tradition of scientist-practitioner model was reconfirmed at the Boulder conference. – A few years later a new professional degree, the doctor of psychology (PsyD.), was instituted for those who were trained as applied clinicians without the research training. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Basic and Applied Psychology (6 of 8) Split between clinicians and scientific practitioners – APA continued to evolve into an organization in which the applied members began to outnumber the research-oriented psychologists. – In 1959, a group of scientific psychologists left the APA and formed their own organization  The Psychonomic Society – Later, another group was organized to form the American Psychological Society (APS), which is now called the Association for Psychological Science. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Basic and Applied Psychology (7 of 8) Psychology’s two cultures – Characteristics of the Cultures  William James argued that philosophers could be divided into two groups: o The tender-minded » Snow observed that the tender-minded temperament characterizes members of the humanities o The tough-minded » Snow observed that the tough-minded temperament characterizes scientists o Communication between the two groups are thus all but impossible. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Basic and Applied Psychology (8 of 8)  Research conducted by Kimble found that experimental psychologists tend to be tough-minded and humanistic psychologists and psychotherapists tend to be tender-minded. Role of Personality – Apparently, psychology’s history and the Zeitgeist have combined to create a psychological smorgasbord  It is the psychologist’s personality that determines which items in that smorgasbord are appealing. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. Psychology’s Status as a Science (1 of 2) Is it a science? – Koch concludes that psychology is several disciplines, some of which are scientific, some of which are not – Koch believed that it would be more realistic to refer to our discipline as psychological studies rather than as the science of psychology. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved. Psychology’s Status as a Science (2 of 2) Unification of psychology – A question is “Can psychology ever be unified?”  Again, the answer is based on the individual’s view of “unified” and the question remains: should it be unified? Diversity in psychology – Most would agree that psychology is still a collection of different facts, theories, assumptions, methodologies, and goals. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Postmodernism (1 of 6) History – Premodernism refers to the belief that all things, including human behavior, can be explained in terms of Church dogma.  Prevalent during the middle ages – Church authority began to be questioned and more objective modes of inquiry developed. – The enlightenment ensued; experience and reason were emphasized in the quest for knowledge. – The terms modernism and enlightenment are used synonymously. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Postmodernism (2 of 6) Detractors against enlightenment – Ideas of the enlightenment began to be attacked by such philosophers as Hume and Kant and later by romanticism and existentialism. Contemporary view – Postmodernism, also called social constructionism, began its attack on enlightenment ideals in the mid- 1960s. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Postmodernism (3 of 6) – Postmodernism believes that “reality” is created by individuals and groups within various personal, historical and cultural contexts. – What postmodernism shares with the Sophists, skeptics, romantics, existentialists, and humanist psychologists, is the belief that “truth” is always relative to cultural, group, and personal perspectives. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Postmodernism (4 of 6) Wittgenstein’s language games – According to Wittgenstein, language is a tool used by members of a community to communicate with one another. – Each community creates its own language games, which in turn create its own “form of life.” – To understand a community is to understand its language games. – According to Wittgenstein, most if not all disputes among philosophers and psychologists could be resolved by understanding that different philosophical and psychological paradigms reflect their own language games. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Postmodernism (5 of 6) Family resemblance – Philosophers in the past believed that to be a member of a category required the possession of some defining characteristic. – Wittgenstein rejected this argument.  He believed the search for essences or universals is doomed to failure. o Thus he replaced the traditional concept of essence or universal with that of family resemblance. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Postmodernism (6 of 6) The debate between modernists and postmodernists continues in psychology – Modernists believe that science can unveil the truth about human nature – Postmodernists believe that science is one approach among many to understand human nature © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Is There Anything New in Psychology? (1 of 2) Still addressing basic questions? – Throughout psychology’s history, emphases have changed and research tools have improved  However, it seems that psychology is still addressing the same questions it has addressed since its inception. – Some of these questions are:  What is the nature of human nature?  How are the mind and body related?  To what extent, if any, is human behavior freely chosen as opposed to completely determined? © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.  Is There Anything New in Psychology? (2 of 2) Ambiguity within Psychology – Psychology is not a place for people with a low tolerance for ambiguity. There is growing recognition that psychology must be as diverse as the humans whose behavior it attempts to explain. © 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.