English Readings in Psychology PDF

English Readings in Psychology  Chapter 1: Theories of Psychology psychologists are unlikely to agree on a single definition of the word psychology, but today the word most accurately describes “the science of mind and behavior.” Wilhelm Wundt: The founding of the world’s first laborat...

English Readings in Psychology  Chapter 1: Theories of Psychology psychologists are unlikely to agree on a single definition of the word psychology, but today the word most accurately describes “the science of mind and behavior.” Wilhelm Wundt: The founding of the world’s first laboratory of experimental psychology in 1879 he marked the recognition of psychology as a truly scientific subject. During the 20th century, psychology blossomed; all its major branches and movements evolved. Ivan Pavlov in the 1890s conducted experiments that were to prove critical to the development of psychology in both Europe and the US. He proved that animals could be conditioned to produce a response, an idea that developed into a new movement known as behaviorism. The behaviorists began to design experiments that could be conducted under controlled conditions, at first on animals, to gain an insight into human psychology, and later humans. John Watson: The “stimulus–response” theory became well known through his work Sigmund Freud A young neurologist in Vienna He started to develop a theory of mind that was to overturn contemporary thinking and inspire a quite different approach. Based on observation of patients and case histories rather than laboratory experiments. He was interested in memories, childhood development, and interpersonal relationships, and emphasized the importance of the unconscious in determining behavior. His psychoanalytic theory marked a return to the study of subjective experience. his ideas were revolutionary at the time, they were quickly and widely adopted, and the notion of a “talking cure” continues within the various forms of psychotherapy today. The begging of cognitive psychology In the mid-20th century, both behaviorism and psychoanalysis fell out of favor, with a return to the scientific study of mental processes. → a movement with its roots in the comprehensive approach of Gestalt psychologists, who were interested in studying perception. They used the model of information processing to develop theories to explain our methods of attention, perception, memory and forgetting, language and language acquisition, problem-solving and decision-making, and motivation. Cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy emerged as alternatives to psychoanalysis, leading to movements such as humanist psychology focused on the unique qualities to human life. These therapists turned their attention from healing the sick to guiding healthy people toward living more meaningful lives. Psychology is a huge subject In one form or another, it informs many decisions made in government, business and industry, advertising, and the mass media. It affects us as groups and as individuals, contributing as much to public debate about the ways our societies are or might be structured as it does to diagnosing and treating mental disorders. The ideas and theories of psychologists have become part of our everyday culture, to the extent that many of their findings about behavior and mental processes are now viewed simply as “common sense.” psychologists have often shocked and outraged the public when their findings have shaken conventional, long-standing beliefs. chapter 3: Psycholinguistics: (Brain, Behavior, and Language) The psychology of language deals with the mental processes that engage in language use. Three sets of processes are of primary interest: language comprehension (how we perceive and understand speech and written language) language production (how we construct an utterance) and how people use language. It is our most valuable tool in communicating our thoughts and feelings to each other Most young people develop jargon that is more meaningful to those of the same age than to older or younger individuals. The diversity of how we use language is daunting for psychologists who wish to study language → An important consideration is that although language is intrinsically a social phenomenon, psychology is principally the study of individuals. The brain is composed of two hemispheres: 1- The right hemisphere (supervises left side of the body) which does better in pattern matching tasks and spatial orientation. 2- The left hemisphere (supervises the right side of the body) which is superior for language rhythmic and mathematical thinking skills. (BBC Brain story) The human brain is divided into two hemispheres The left hemisphere is the "logical brain" and participates in language and analysis the right hemisphere is the "creative brain," involved in daydreaming and imagination. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body while the right hemisphere controls the left side. Research and many other studies have shown that language centers on the left side of the brain have two principal areas there which are: 1- Broca's area which leads to speech utterance. 2- Wernicke’s area whose key role is to decode speech. Wernicke’s area It is named like that because of Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist who discovered that the area is related to how words and syllables are uttered. It is an area in the cerebral cortex related to speech and involved in both spoken and written languages. Broca's area also, an area in the frontal lobe of the brain which is related to the production of speech. It is labeled like this because of Pierre Paul Broca who noticed an impaired ability to produce speech in two patients who had continuous injury to that area. Ardila argues that Broca’s complex is not a language-specific area, and it becomes active during some non-language activities, such as mental imagery of grasping movements. Thompson-Schill analyzed the different deficits observed in cases of damage in Broca’s area: Articulation syntax selection verbal working memory suggesting that there may be more than a single function of Broca’s area.