Other Influences in Psychology PDF

Chapter 7: Other influences Charles Darwin: Darwin’s theory of evolution significantly influenced psychology in the 19th century. Key impacts include: 1. Animal and Comparative Psychology: Darwin’s focus on species similarity led to studying animal behavior to understand human behavior....

Chapter 7: Other influences Charles Darwin: Darwin’s theory of evolution significantly influenced psychology in the 19th century. Key impacts include: 1. Animal and Comparative Psychology: Darwin’s focus on species similarity led to studying animal behavior to understand human behavior. 2. Function Over Structure: Emphasizing survival, Darwin inspired psychologists to focus on the functions of consciousness (Functionalism), rather than just its structure. 3. Interdisciplinary Methods: Darwin used data from various fields, encouraging psychology to integrate methods from areas like geology, archaeology, and biology. 4. Eclectic Research: Psychologists expanded their methods beyond introspection, incorporating observations and experiments, especially on animals. 5. Shift to Functionalism: Psychology moved from structuralism, focusing on the functions of consciousness and behavior rather than just their elements. Overall, Darwin helped shape psychology into a more scientifically diverse field, focusing on adaptation, individual differences, and empirical research methods. Ivan Pavlov:  Supervised Lab Experiments  From 1897 to 1936, nearly 150 researchers worked under Pavlov’s direction; 500 scientific papers  Humane approach towards animals subjects  Allowed women and Jews to work in the lab His most influential work can be the controlled environment experiments he used for his researches that eventually introduced to psychological concepts, like conditioning. John B Watson:  The Famous Experiment - Unconditional Emotional Response-Conditioned Emotional Response  Adult fears, anxieties, and phobias - simple conditioned emotional responses; established in infancy and childhood- stayed with us throughout our lives  Founder of behaviorism  Birth of behaviorism- psychic or mental concepts have no value for a science of psychology  Use of animal subjects in Psychology  Discard all mentalistic ideas and use only behavior concepts: S-R  Emphasized that personality can be understood in behavioral perspective by breaking it down into stimulus and response.  Behaviors governed by forces such as instincts could not be modified, whereas behaviors dependent on learning or training could.   Criticized child rearing practices of the time  Regulatory system of child rearing  Transformed American child rearing practices  At the end of his academic career, he joined Advertising Agency  Proposed laboratory studies of consumer behavior  Behavior of consumers could be predicted and controlled, just like the behavior of other machines  Lab studies for consumer behavior  Advertising messages - style is rather important than substance; celebrity endorsements  To make consumers dissatisfied with the products they were using and to instill the desire for new goods. Gestalt Psychology:  The Necker cube is an optical illusion that consists of a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional wire frame cube.  For the viewer, flip back and forth between equally possible perspectives of the object represented  Called ambiguous figures; a visual stimulus that gives rise to two or more interpretations of the identity structures  Change in content and Change in Perspective  Perceiver actively creates reasonable interpretations of the input based on past experience as well as biologically programmed processes.  Ambiguous images or reversible figures are optical illusion images which exploit graphical similarities and other properties of visual system interpretation between two or more distinct image forms  Responsible for multistable perception; occurrence of an image being able to provide multiple, although stable, perceptions Asch’s Experiment of Conformity. The Asch conformity experiment tested how individuals conformed to a majority opinion, even when it was clearly wrong. Participants were asked to match line lengths in a group, where all but one were confederates giving incorrect answers. The study found that people often conformed to the group's wrong answer due to peer pressure when the answers are given publically (public acceptance), with the highest conformity rates when the group was unanimous and larger. However, when there was a dissenting voice or answers were given privately (private acceptance), conformity decreased. According to Asch, we form first impressions based on central traits. These are key characteristics that influence how we perceive and interpret other people's behavior. For example, traits like "warm" or "cold" can significantly affect the overall impression we form about someone. Asch's studies showed that a single central trait can alter our perception of other traits, leading us to view a person more positively or negatively depending on the context of their initial characteristics. The Robbers Cave Experiment by Sherif involved 22 boys at a summer camp, divided into two groups. Initially, the groups were kept separate, fostering group identity and bonding. Then, they were introduced to competitive activities with rewards, which led to intense rivalry, hostility, and prejudice between the groups. The boys developed negative stereotypes about each other, exhibiting behaviors such as name-calling and physical aggression. Afterward, Sherif created situations where the groups had to cooperate to achieve a common goal, such as fixing a broken water supply. This cooperation reduced the tension, diminished prejudice, and improved relations, demonstrating that intergroup conflict and prejudice could be reduced by fostering shared goals. This refers to the concept of Superordinate goals; goals that can be achieved by cooperation b/w groups. After the final stage, Tension b/w groups gradually decreased, Cross-group friendship began to develop. This study helped in development of Social identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) Kurt Lewin:  Lippitt, White and Lewin (1939) carried out studies relating to the effects of three different leadership styles on outcomes of boys' activity groups.  Autocratic leader - more dissatisfaction and behaviours became either more aggressive or apathetic  Democratic leader- more co-operation and enjoyment  Laissez-faire - no particular dissatisfaction, though they were not particularly productive either. Fredric Bartlett:  Emphasized on a descriptive, or case study, approach over more statistical techniques  1932 book, Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology  Introduced a very different tradition for studying memory  Ebbinghaus - emphasized on careful control and measurement of memory in rather unnatural conditions.  Bartlett’s methods were casual, almost anecdotal  Tested people under fairly relaxed conditions and his ‘data’ consisted largely of verbal reports with which he sprinkled his writing.  Devised two methods to study remembering: repeated reproduction and serial reproduction  Serial Reproduction is Like the children’s game of rumor or telephone  One person hears the material and recalls it after a set period.  This person’s recollections are then read to a second person, who recalls it in turn.  The changes in recall across repeated tests using the serial reproduction method are much greater than those in repeated reproduction  Schema is a general organization of a story of a typical event  Perceiving, remembering, and all of thinking involve the individual as part and parcel of the cognitive process.  It involves all three components like rationalization, persistence and schemata.