Psychology - 1st Canadian Edition PDF

Psychology - 1st Canadian Edition Psychology - 1st Canadian Edition by Sally Walters is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA license, you are free to copy, redistribute, modify or adapt this book as long as you provide attribution. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. Additionally, if you redistribute this textbook, in whole or in part, in either a print or digital format, then you must retain on every physical and/or electronic page the following attribution: Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition by Sally Walters is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. This book was produced with Pressbooks (https://pressbooks.com) and rendered with Prince. Contents About the Book ix Approach and Pedagogy x Charles Stangor Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1. Introducing Psychology 1.0 Introduction 17 1.1 Psychology as a Science 19 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions 27 1.3 Psychologists at Work 44 1.4 Psychology in Everyday Life 47 Chapter 2. Psychological Science 2.0 Introduction 53 2.1 Psychologists Use the Scientific Method to Guide Their Research 54 2.2 Research Designs in Psychology 60 2.3 Descriptive and Inferential Statistics 72 2.4 Conducting Ethical Research 79 Chapter 3. Brains, Biology, and Behaviour 3.0 Introduction 89 3.1 Neurons, Neurotransmitters, and Hormones 92 3.2 Our Brains Control Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviour 101 3.3 Psychologists Study the Brain Using Many Different Methods 114 3.4 Putting It All Together: The Nervous System and the Endocrine System 124 3.5 Evolution and Psychology 133 3.6 Genes and Environments: Nature and Nurture 145 Chapter 4. States of Consciousness 4.0 Introduction 159 4.1 Sleeping and Dreaming Revitalize Us for Action 162 4.2 Altering Consciousness With Psychoactive Drugs 176 4.3 Altering Consciousness Without Drugs 191 Chapter 5. Sensing and Perceiving 5.0 Introduction 203 5.1 Sensation and Perception 204 5.2 Seeing 215 5.3 Hearing 236 5.4 Tasting, Smelling, and Touching 244 5.5 Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Perception 251 Chapter 6. Learning 6.0 Introduction 263 6.1 Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning 265 6.2 Changing Behaviour Through Reinforcement and Punishment: Operant Conditioning 273 6.3 Learning by Insight and Observation 281 6.4 Using the Principles of Learning in Everyday Life 288 Chapter 7. Psychology in Our Social Lives 7.0 Introduction 297 7.1 Social Cognition: Making Sense of Ourselves and Others 299 7.2 Interacting With Others: Helping, Hurting, and Conforming 317 7.3 Working With Others: The Costs and Benefits of Social Groups 336 Chapter 8. Cognition 8.0 Introduction 353 8.1 The Elements of Cognition 354 8.2 Problem-Solving: Heuristics and Algorithms 370 8.3 Cognitive Processes That May Lead to Inaccuracy 374 Chapter 9. Intelligence and Language 9.0 Introduction 385 9.1 Defining and Measuring Intelligence 388 9.2 Individual Differences in Intelligence 405 9.3 Communicating With Others: Development and Use of Language 414 Chapter 10. Memory 10.0 Introduction 439 10.1 Memory Models and Systems 443 10.2 Long-Term Memory: Categories and Structure 451 10.3 Long-Term Memory: Encoding and Storage 458 10.4 Biology of Memory 468 10.5 Forgetting 474 10.6 When Memory Is Wrong 478 Chapter 11. Emotions and Motivations 11.0 Introduction 487 11.1 The Experience of Emotion 491 11.2 Theories of Motivation 504 11.3 Motivation: Food and Sex 515 Chapter 12. Happiness and Stress 12.0 Introduction 537 12.1 The History of Positive Psychology 538 12.2 The Science of Happiness 549 12.3 Understanding Stress 562 12.4 Stressors 574 12.5 Promoting Wellness 583 Chapter 13. Lifespan Development 13.0 Introduction 601 13.1 Conception and Prenatal Development 604 13.2 Infancy and Childhood: Exploring, Learning, and Relating 609 13.3 Development of Gender 630 13.4 Adolescence: Developing Independence and Identity 643 13.5 Early and Middle Adulthood: Building Effective Lives 658 13.6 Late Adulthood: Aging, Retiring, and Bereavement 664 Chapter 14. Personality 14.0 Introduction 685 14.1 Personality Measurement 687 14.2 Personality as Traits 697 14.3 Psychodynamic Origins of Personality 713 14.4 Behaviourist and Social-Cognitive Perspectives on Personality 722 14.5 Genetic and Environmental Influences on Personality 730 14.6 Personality and Culture 734 Chapter 15. Psychological Disorders 15.0 Introduction 741 15.1 Psychological Disorder: The Challenges of Definition 742 15.2 Insanity: A History of Mental Illness 748 15.3 Anxiety and Related Disorders 757 15.4 Dissociative Disorders 774 15.5 Mood Disorders 783 15.6 Schizophrenia: The Edge of Reality 795 15.7 Personality Disorders 811 Chapter 16. Treating Psychological Disorders 16.0 Introduction 821 16.1 Reducing Disorder by Confronting It: Psychotherapy 825 16.2 Psychopharmacology and Brain-Based Therapies 843 16.3 Reducing Disorder by Changing the Social Situation 861 16.4 Evaluating Treatment and Prevention: What Works? 867 About the Authors 877 Versioning History 879 About the Book Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition is an adaptation by Sally Walters of Charles Stangor and Jennifer Walinga’s textbook, Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition. For information about what was changed in this adaptation, refer to the Copyright statement at the bottom of the home page. This edition has an explicitly Canadian focus. The previous edition has been streamlined and chapters have been added on Cognition, Memory, and Happiness and Stress. The coverage of evolutionary theory and genetics in Chapter 3 has been expanded. Wherever possible, Canadian statistics have been updated. Liberal use has been made of other open access materials, most notably, NOBA and Openstax. Thompson Rivers University open textbooks are openly licensed using a Creative Commons license, and are offered in various e-book formats free of charge. Readers are also able to print this textbook (or parts of this textbook), if that is their preference. About the Book | ix Approach and Pedagogy CHARLES STANGOR How to use this book Welcome to psychology – the diverse and complex study of us. If you have any interest in people and what makes them tick, and want to learn what the evidence says about human nature, this is the field for you. Before you dive into the material, here is a bit of background on the way this book is structured, and how to learn the material effectively. Introductory psychology is usually split into two courses, because of the amount of material to cover. For example, about half of the chapters in this book would be used in the first introductory psychology course, with the other half in the second. The specific division of the course into topics varies between institutions. Many instructors cover the foundational material in Chapters 1 and 2 in both courses. Introductory psychology as a topic is studied by an enormously diverse group of students; many will go on to degrees and careers in other areas, while some will pursue psychology. Some students take their courses in traditional classrooms, while an increasing number are studying online. Demographically, introductory psychology students are adults of all ages, walks of life, and cultural backgrounds. The intent of this textbook is to use plain language as much as possible, avoid jargon, provide up-to-date information on some of the main topics in psychology, and provide a Canadian focus. As you will see, this textbook contains chapters that appear to be stand-alone – for example, Sensation and Perception is a separate topic from Lifespan Development. Each of the chapters, for the most part, represents a separate area of research and/or practice within psychology; all of these areas have psychologists who specialize in researching and teaching these topics. In this textbook, you are getting a snapshot of a number of specialized topics in an extremely diverse field, and you will get an understanding of how these topics relate to the history of psychology, and of how and what has evolved as the “critical” perspectives in the study human nature. There are things that link all of the chapters together, and these are discussed in Chapters 1 and 2. All psychologists, for example, use the scientific method in their research and teaching. As you work your way through the textbook, remind yourself of the foundational material in Chapters 1 and 2, and reflect on how it applies to the topics discussed in each chapter. The textbook chapters contain: 1. Chapter openers — These showcase an interesting real-world example of the material in each chapter and create an interest in learning about the topic. 2. Psychology in everyday life — These features are designed to link the principles from the chapter to real-world applications in business, environment, health, law, learning, and other relevant domains. 3. Research focus — These are well-articulated and specific examples of research within the content area, each including a summary of the hypotheses, methods, results, and interpretations. This feature provides a continuous thread that reminds students of the importance of empirical research and also emphasizes the fact that findings are not always predictable ahead of time (dispelling the myth of hindsight bias). In addition, to help students organize the material, each chapter contains learning objectives, key takeaways, and exercises and critical thinking activities. x | Approach and Pedagogy Reading and active learning The first time you read a chapter, focus on these organizational prompts and skim through the chapter to see what it includes and how it is organized. This initial reading will then help you to understand what you will be learning. Your second reading of the chapter should be more thorough and will take a lot longer. In your second reading, you should take notes as you go. relying on reading alone to learn something is not a very effective strategy. It is much better to put material into your own words, link it to your personal experiences, and actively think about and reflect on what you are reading. This is why highlighting as you read is not a good way to learn something – everything gets highlighted and nothing gets retained. Figure 0.1 Taking notes increases retention. It may take you more than hour to read and take notes on one chapter. This is not unusual. However, it is a good idea to work for about 45 minutes and then take a 15-minute break. This brings us to an important point: remove your cell phone from your work area and confine your interactions with it to your 15-minute break. Multitasking impedes learning. If you read while allowing your phone to send you social media notifications (and let’s face it – who doesn’t check them?) then you might as well not be reading at all. Your brain cannot process the material you need to learn in the chapter if you keep distracting it with Instagram or any other media. It will take longer, will increase stress, and you will make more mistakes. Instead, reward your 45 minutes of good, solid focus with a 15-minute phone break, and then repeat. Incidentally, the people who think they are good at multitasking actually perform worse than people who don’t think this. Do yourself a favour, and learn to study without your phone, tablet, or distracting electronic device. After your second reading of the chapter, review your notes, and test yourself. Construct a few questions about the chapter material and see if you can give an answer without referring to your notes. The last part is important – students often underestimate their level of knowledge because they don’t test themselves without looking at the material. After you have completed this process for every chapter as you encounter it you will be in good shape for revising before the exam. Do not leave this process until the exam because it will likely overwhelm you and be very stressful. As well, it is unlikely that you will have time to cram; each chapter will take several hours. Approach and Pedagogy | xi Notetaking Not all students learn how to take notes in high school. Indeed, you may be coming back to higher education after many years since high school! Here are a few tips on notetaking. First – you might experiment with taking notes by hand versus on a laptop or similar. Many of us are now unused to handwriting, however, the act of writing things out by hand – which can slow down your thought processes – can also facilitate learning because of this deliberation and time for reflection. Second, don’t write out what the textbook says verbatim (i.e., word for word). Instead, put it into your own words, and don’t use complete sentences. Don’t waste your time; use bullet points. Keep all of the information about one topic together. Draw a picture that helps to explain a concept or jog your memory – drawing is a great way to increase your memory. Use colour; for example, draw a pink circle around all of the points related to one topic, and then do the same for the next one in another colour. If you come across words you don’t understand, find and write a definition into your notes. Do not proceed unless you understand the point you are taking notes on. Your notes may be handwritten, include drawings, have colour, and so on. Here is an example of what your notes might look like for the first part of Chapter 1: Create your own study notes example July 15 Finally, as you work through the chapters you will note that there are no chapter summaries. This is intentional. It is a much better learning strategy for you to construct your own chapter summary if you wish. You should be able to do this easily after your second reading of the chapter when you make notes. However, it is not essential. Chapter summaries really only give you the “headlines” without too much of the content. They are easily learned and can give a false impression of the depth and breadth of one’s understanding of the chapter material. I hope you enjoy learning about psychology! Image Attributions Figure 0.1: Two Gray Pencils on Yellow Surface by Joanna Kosinska is used under the Unsplash license. xii | Approach and Pedagogy Acknowledgments From Sally Walters, Adapting Author I would like to thank Marie Bartlett, who helped with the adaptation, and Justin Frudd, who edited the entire work — it was a pleasure to work with both of you! Thompson Rivers University supported the adaptation by providing Marie and Justin with the time and resources to contribute, as well as providing copyright support. I also thank TRU for the ZedCred grant that was received in support of this adaptation. I am very appreciative of the open-licensed work from Noba and OpenStax that we were able to incorporate in this adaptation. I would also like to give an enormous thank you to the original author, Charles Stangor, for writing the original book, openly licensing his work, and allowing others to adapt it. From the Original Author The development of Introduction to Psychology was made possible through the combined efforts of many people, each of whom brought special skills to the project. One important resource was an advisory board of instructors from across the country. Their thoughtful and insightful feedback throughout development was invaluable in creating this first edition. I am deeply grateful to the following people for their time and effort: M. Janelle Cambron-Mellott, University of Alabama; Birmingham Southern College Celeste Doerr, Florida State University Jerry Green, Tarrant County College–NW Campus Richard Hass, University of Delaware Adam Hutcheson, University of South Carolina Matthew I. Isaak, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Kerry Jordan, Utah State University Jerwen Jou, University of Texas–Pan American Peggy Norwood, Community College of Aurora Karen Rhines, Northampton Community College Eva Szeli, Arizona State University Anton Villado, Rice University Introduction to Psychology also benefited from reviews at various stages of the book’s development. Many thanks to the following reviewers for their contributions: Eileen J. Achorn, The University of Texas at San Antonio Mara Aruguete, Lincoln University David Carlston, Midwestern State University Jenel T. Cavazos, Cameron University Stephanie B. Ding, Del Mar College Gaithri A. Fernando, California State University, Los Angeles William Goggin, University of Southern Mississippi Acknowledgments | xiii Karla A. Lassonde, Minnesota State University, Mankato Greg Loviscky, Pennsylvania State University Michael A. Mangan, University of New Hampshire, Durham Anne Moyer, SUNY at Stony Brook Todd Nelson, California State University, Stanislaus Bridgette J. Peteet, University of Cincinnati Brad Pinter, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona Steven V. Rouse, Pepperdine University Glenda S. Williams, Lone Star College, North Harris Thanks also to Maren Voss, Hagerstown (MD) Community College, for her research and writing assistance; to Matthew I. Isaak, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for his work on the accompanying Test Item File and PowerPoint slides; and to Chrissy Chimi and Stacy Claxton of Scribe, Inc., who expertly handled the many details of the production process. Special thanks to the team at Flat World Knowledge. Completion of the book and supplements required the attention of many people, including Michael Boezi, who signed the book and supported my efforts from beginning to end; Pam Hersperger, who managed the book through development; and Gina Huck Siegert, who worked closely with me on all aspects of the project. xiv | Acknowledgments CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCING PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 1. Introducing Psychology | 15 1.0 Introduction Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behaviour. The word psychology comes from the Greek words “psyche,” meaning life, and “logos,” meaning explanation. Psychology is a popular major for students, a popular topic in the public media, and a part of our everyday lives. Psychology is a broad discipline, covering all aspects of the human condition, such as child development, social behaviour, emotions such as happiness and grief, eyewitness memory, how we think, how to change behaviour, and so on. Psychology is most commonly associated with mental illness and therapy, but this is only one aspect of this diverse and fascinating discipline. Psychologists work in a variety of settings. While clinical psychologists diagnose and treat mental health difficulties and disorders, psychologists also teach and do research at universities and colleges, and work in organizations, schools, forensic settings, and more. Most psychologists have a doctorate degree (PhD or PsyD) as well as a master’s degree (MA or MSc) and bachelor’s degree (BA or BSc). Psychology as a discipline is governed by adherence to the scientific method. Psychology is built upon empirical evidence, and this distinguishes it from pop psychology or pseudoscience, which may sound scientific but lacks evidence and depends more on belief, intuition, and common sense. This chapter provides an introduction to the broad field of psychology and the many approaches that psychologists take to understanding human behaviour. We will consider how psychologists conduct scientific research, with an overview of some of the most important approaches used and topics studied by psychologists, and also consider the variety of fields in which psychologists work and the careers that are available to people with psychology degrees. It is likely that at least some of your preconceptions about psychology will be challenged and changed, and you will learn that psychology is a field that will provide you with new ways of thinking about your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. 1.0 Introduction | 17 Figure 1.1. Psychology is, in part, the study of behaviour. Why do you think these people are behaving the way they are? [Long description] Image Attributions Figure 1.1. US Navy Physical Therapist by the United States Navy is in the public domain; Friendly smoking by Valentin Ottone is used under a CC BY 2.0 license; Bar Trek and Friends by James Hennigan is used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license; At the Beach by Julian Schüngel is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license; Couple Yelling at Each Other by Vic is used under a CC BY 2.0 license. Long Descriptions Figure 1.1. Man in hospital bed with broken leg, and a soldier is lifting his leg as is if to give physical therapy (top left); young girl smoking a cigarette (top right); one man and four women dressed up like Star Trek characters and aliens (bottom right); a man doing a hand stand on a beach with sun setting in background (bottom left); a man and woman yelling at each other with their heads touching (centre). [Return to Figure 1.1] 18 | 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Psychology as a Science Learning Objectives 1. Explain why using our intuition about everyday behaviour is insufficient for a complete understanding of the causes of behaviour. 2. Describe the difference between values and facts and explain how the scientific method is used to differentiate between the two. Despite the differences in their interests, areas of study, and approaches, all psychologists have one thing in common: they rely on scientific methods. Research psychologists use scientific methods to create new knowledge about the causes of behaviour, whereas psychologist-practitioners, such as clinical, counselling, industrial-organizational, and school psychologists, use existing research to enhance the everyday life of others. The science of psychology is important for both researchers and practitioners. Of all of the sciences, psychology is probably the one that most non-scientists feel they know the most about. Because psychology is concerned with people and why they do what they do, we are all “intuitive’ or “naive” psychologists. We rely on common sense, experience, and intuition in understanding why people do what they do. We all have an interest in asking and answering questions about our world, and in making sense of ourselves and other people. We want to know why things happen, when and if they are likely to happen again, and how to reproduce or change them. Such knowledge enables us to predict our own behaviour and that of others. We may even collect data (i.e., any information collected through formal observation or measurement) to aid us in this undertaking. It has been argued that people are “everyday scientists” who conduct research projects to answer questions about behaviour (Nisbett & Ross, 1980). When we perform poorly on an important test, we try to understand what caused our failure to remember or understand the material and what might help us do better the next time. When our good friends Monisha and Charlie break up, despite the fact that they appeared to have a relationship made in heaven, we try to determine what happened. When we contemplate the rise of terrorist acts around the world, we try to investigate the causes of this problem by looking at the terrorists themselves, the situation around them, and others’ responses to them. The problem of intuition The results of these “everyday” research projects teaches us about human behaviour. We learn through experience what happens when we give someone bad news, that some people develop depression, and that aggressive behaviour occurs frequently in our society. We develop theories to explain all of these occurrences; however, it is important to remember that everyone’s experiences are somewhat unique. My theory about why people suffer from depression may be completely different to yours, yet we both feel as though we are “right.” The obvious problem here is that we cannot generalize from one person’s experiences to people in general. We might both be wrong! 1.1 Psychology as a Science | 19 The problem with the way people collect and interpret data in their everyday lives is that they are not always particularly thorough or accurate. Often, when one explanation for an event seems right, we adopt that explanation as the truth even when other explanations are possible and potentially more accurate. Furthermore, we fall victim to confirmation bias; that is, we tend to seek information that confirms our beliefs regardless of the accuracy of those beliefs and discount any evidence to the contrary. Psychologists have found a variety of cognitive and motivational biases that frequently influence our perceptions and lead us to draw erroneous conclusions (Fiske & Taylor, 2007; Hsee & Hastie, 2006; Kahneman, 2011). Even feeling confident about our beliefs is not an indicator of their accuracy. For example, eyewitnesses to violent crimes are often extremely confident in their identifications of the perpetrators of these crimes, but research finds that eyewitnesses are no less confident in their identifications when they are incorrect than when they are correct (Cutler & Wells, 2009; Wells & Hasel, 2008). In summary, accepting explanations without empirical evidence may lead us to faulty thinking and erroneous conclusions. Our faulty thinking is not limited to the present; it also occurs when we try to make sense of the past. We have a tendency to tell ourselves “I knew it all along” when making sense of past events; this is known as hindsight bias (Kahneman, 2011). Thus, one of the goals of psychology education is to make people become better thinkers, better consumers of ideas, and better at understanding how our own biases get in the way of true knowledge. Why psychologists rely on empirical methods All scientists, whether they are physicists, chemists, biologists, sociologists, or psychologists, use empirical methods to study the topics that interest them. Empirical methods include the processes of collecting and organizing data and drawing conclusions about those data. The empirical methods used by scientists have developed over many years and provide a basis for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data within a common framework in which information can be shared. We can label the scientific method as the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to conduct empirical research. Although scientific research is an important method of studying human behaviour, not all questions can be answered using scientific approaches. Statements that cannot be objectively measured or objectively determined to be true or false are not within the domain of scientific inquiry. Scientists therefore draw a distinction between values and facts. Values are personal statements such as “Abortion should not be permitted in this country,” “I will go to heaven when I die,” or “It is important to study psychology.” Facts are objective statements determined to be accurate through empirical study. Examples are “The homicide rate in Canada has been generally declining over the past 45 years” or “Research demonstrates that individuals who are exposed to highly stressful situations over long periods of time develop more health problems than those who are not.” When we try to find new facts, we express our prediction about what we believe to be true in a hypothesis. An example of a hypothesis would be “People who eat fruits and vegetables daily have better health than people who never eat fruits and vegetables.” For this to become fact, we must test this hypothesis in research and show the evidence that supports it. This is a testable hypothesis, because it would be possible to do the research. It is also falsifiable, meaning that if our prediction is wrong, and eating fruits and vegetables daily does not lead to better health, we will have the data to show us that we are wrong. Ideas or values are not always testable or falsifiable: science can neither prove nor disprove them. For example, the famous Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, believed that the unconscious part of our mind is ultimately responsible when we experience anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. He thought that emotional conflicts and adverse childhood experiences became lodged in the unconscious because consciously acknowledging them was threatening to our sense of wellbeing. This theory is built on a largely untestable idea: the existence of an unconscious. Given that by definition we cannot describe it, it is difficult to see how we could prove its 20 | 1.1 Psychology as a Science existence or its role in our lives. That does not mean that the unconscious does not exist, but as we’ll see, we need to find a way to look for its existence using testable and falsifiable hypotheses. Although scientists use research to help establish facts, the distinction between values or opinions and facts is not always clear-cut. Sometimes statements that scientists consider to be factual turn out later, on the basis of further research, to be partially or even entirely incorrect. Although scientific procedures do not necessarily guarantee that the answers to questions will be objective and unbiased, science is still the best method for drawing objective conclusions about the world around us. When old facts are discarded, they are replaced with new facts based on new and correct data. Although science is not perfect, the requirements of empiricism and objectivity result in a much greater chance of producing an accurate understanding of human behaviour than is available through other approaches. Levels of explanation in psychology The study of psychology spans many different topics at many different levels of explanation. Lower levels of explanation are more closely tied to biological influences, such as genes, neurons, neurotransmitters, and hormones, whereas the middle levels of explanation refer to the abilities and characteristics of individual people, and the highest levels of explanation relate to social groups, organizations, and cultures (Cacioppo, Berntson, Sheridan, & McClintock, 2000). The same topic can be studied within psychology at different levels of explanation, as shown in the table below. For instance, the psychological disorder known as depression affects millions of people worldwide and is known to be caused by biological, social, and cultural factors. Studying and helping alleviate depression can be accomplished at low levels of explanation by investigating how chemicals in the brain influence the experience of depression. This approach has allowed psychologists to develop and prescribe drugs, such as Prozac, which may decrease depression in many individuals (Williams, Simpson, Simpson, & Nahas, 2009). At the middle levels of explanation, psychological therapy is directed at helping individuals cope with negative life experiences that may cause depression. At the highest level, psychologists study differences in the prevalence of depression between men and women and across cultures. The occurrence of psychological disorders, including depression, is substantially higher for women than for men, and it is also higher in Western cultures, such as in Canada, the United States, and Europe, than in Eastern cultures, such as in India, China, and Japan (Chen, Wang, Poland, & Lin, 2009; Seedat et al., 2009). These sex and cultural differences provide insight into the factors that cause depression. The study of depression in psychology helps remind us that no one level of explanation can explain everything. All levels of explanation, from biological to personal to cultural, are essential for a better understanding of human behaviour. 1.1 Psychology as a Science | 21 Table 1.1. Levels of explanation Level of Underlying Examples Explanation Process Depression is, in part, genetically influenced. Lower Biological Depression is influenced by the action of neurotransmitters in the brain. People who are depressed may interpret the events that occur to them too Middle Interpersonal negatively. Psychotherapy can be used to help people talk about and combat depression. Women experience more depression than do men. Higher Cultural and social The prevalence of depression varies across cultures and historical time periods. Critical thinking in psychology Rational, objective thinking is a hallmark of science. Scientists need to be able to critically think about a problem or issue from a variety of perspectives, but it is not just scientists who need to be good thinkers. Critical thinking skills allow you to be a good consumer of ideas. Before deciding to buy a car, most people would spend some time evaluating what they wanted to buy, how much money they have to spend, what kind of car has a good safety record, and so on. The same thinking processes can be applied to ideas. These critical thinking processes are not necessarily intuitive. The good thing is that we can be taught what they are and how to use them. Thus, learning to think critically is a skill we can acquire with practise. Carole Wade (1995) outlined eight processes that are used in critical thinking: 1. Ask questions and be willing to wonder — Curiosity precedes all scientific discoveries and is the basis for acquiring knowledge. For example, suppose you are interested in whether physical exercise is important for mood. Questions you might be wondering about could include: Does getting exercise change your mood? Do people who work out daily feel happier than people who don’t get any exercise? Does the kind of exercise matter? How much exercise makes a difference? How do you measure mood anyway? 2. Define the problem — We need to think about exactly what we want to know about the connection between exercise and mood. There are many ways to define exercise: it might mean walking every day to some people or lifting weights or doing yoga to others. Similarly, some people might interpret mood to be something fairly fleeting, while other people might think mood refers to clinical depression. We need to define the issue or question we are interested in. 3. Examine the evidence — Empirical evidence is the kind of support that critical thinkers seek. While you may be aware that a friend or relative felt better when they started running every day, that kind of evidence is anecdotal — it relates to one person, and we don’t know if it would apply to other people. To look for evidence, we should turn to properly conducted studies. In psychology, these are most easily found in a searchable database called PsycINFO that is available through university libraries. PsycINFO contains a vast index of all of the scholarly work published in psychology. Users can often download the original research articles straight from the PsycINFO website. 4. Analyze assumptions and biases — Whenever we are reasoning about an idea, we are bound to begin with certain assumptions. For example, we might assume that exercise is good for mood because we usually assume that there is no downside to exercise. It helps if we can identify how we feel or think about an idea. All people are prone to some degree to confirmation bias, which is the tendency to look for evidence that supports your belief, while at 22 | 1.1 Psychology as a Science the same time, discounting any that disconfirms it. This type of bias might be reflected in the social media accounts we follow — we follow people who think like us and do not follow people who might have opposing, although possible valid, points of view. 5. Avoid emotional reasoning — This process is related to the previous one. It is hard to think about anything in a completely objective manner. Having a vested interest in an issue, or personal knowledge about it, often creates an emotional bias that we may not even be well aware of. Feeling strongly about something does not make us think rationally; in fact, it can be a barrier to rational thinking. Consider any issue you feel strongly about. How easy is it to separate your emotions from your objectivity? 6. Avoid oversimplification — Simplicity is comfortable, but it may not be accurate. We often strive for simple explanations for events because we don’t have access to all of the information we need to fully understand the issue. This process relates to the need to ask questions. We should be asking ourselves “What don’t I know about this issue?” Sometimes issues are so complex that we can only address one little part. For example, there are likely to be many things that affect mood; while we might be able to understand the connection to some types of physical exercise, we are not addressing any of the myriad other social, cognitive, and biological factors that may be important. 7. Consider other interpretations — Whenever you hear a news story telling you that something is good for you, it is wise to dig a little deeper. For example, many news stories report on research concerning the effects of alcohol. They may report that small amounts of alcohol have some positive health effects, that abstaining completely from alcohol is not good for you, and so on. A critical thinker would want to know more about how those studies were done, and they might suggest that perhaps moderate social drinkers differ from abstainers in a variety of lifestyle habits. Perhaps there are other interpretations for the link between alcohol consumption and health. 8. Tolerate uncertainty — Uncertainty is uncomfortable. We want to know why things happen for good reasons. We are always trying to make sense of the world, and we look for explanations. However, sometimes things are complicated and uncertain, or we don’t yet have an explanation for it. Sometimes we just have to accept that we don’t yet have a full picture of why something happens or what causes what. We need to remain open to more information. It is helpful to be able to point out what we don’t know, as well as what we do. Psychology and pseudoscience It is important to understand both what psychology is and what it is not. Psychology is a science because it uses and relies on the scientific method as a way to acquire knowledge. Science is an open activity, meaning that results are shared and published. Many scientists conduct research on the same topic, although perhaps from slightly different angles. You can think of scientific knowledge as a snowball — the more knowledge we have, the bigger the snowball, and if it carries on rolling, scientists carry on conducting research at an issue from multiple angles and perspectives. Thus, science is essentially a collaborative process, with all aspects of process and results thrown open to the wider community for consideration and analysis. In science, your conclusions have to be based on empirical evidence, and the merits of the conclusions will have to be judged by peers before they are published. This process is called peer review, and it ensures that what gets published has been reviewed for its adherence to scientific methods and for the accuracy of its conclusions. Occasionally, we may read a news story or see an advertisement purporting to have information that will change our lives. Such stories often allude to evidence but fail to show where to find it, or they rely on anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. They sometimes use celebrity endorsements and claim that if we do not act immediately to buy their information or product, we will lose out. Typically, these claims are targeted at significant concerns such as weight loss, unhappiness, unspecified pain, and the like — often the very areas that psychologists are attempting to learn more about. Pseudoscience is the term often used to describe such claims; equivalent terms are “bad science” or “junk science.” 1.1 Psychology as a Science | 23 Fortunately, we can use the critical thinking processes outlined above to evaluate the veracity of claims that seem too good to be true. Research Focus Pseudoscience alert: Your handwriting does not reveal your character One of the common beliefs that people have about personality is that it is revealed in one’s handwriting. Graphology is a pseudoscience that purports to show that aspects of our handwriting reflect aspects of our character. Reader’s Digest (LaBianca & Gibson, 2020) claims to explain the meaning of handwriting characteristics, such as spacing, size of characters, and how you cross your t’s. “If you dot your i’s high on the page, you likely have an active imagination, according to handwriting analysis experts. A closely dotted i is the mark of an organized and detail-oriented mind. If you dot your i’s to the left, you might be a procrastinator, and if you dot your i’s with a circle, you likely have playful and childlike qualities” (LaBianca & Gibson, 2020, “How do you dot your i’s?”). Graphology has a long history (e.g., Münsterberg, 1915; Downey, 1919) and is related to many other attempts to explain people’s character based on aspects of physical appearance, such as the shape of one’s face, size of one’s hands, or bumps on one’s head (i.e., phrenology). People have always been interested in personality and how to measure, describe, and explain it. Unfortunately, this attempt to understand people’s personality or career prospects by reading their handwriting has no empirical evidence to support it (Dazzi & Pedrabissi, 2009; Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010). Even though graphology was debunked several decades ago, the Reader’s Digest article on their website in 2020 shows that the belief persists. 24 | 1.1 Psychology as a Science Key Takeaways Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behaviour. Commonsense thinking is not always correct. We are not always aware of the errors in reasoning that we make. People are frequently unaware of the causes of their own behaviours. Psychologists use the scientific method to collect, analyze, and interpret evidence. Employing the scientific method allows the scientist to collect empirical data objectively, which adds to the accumulation of scientific knowledge. Psychological phenomena are complex, and making predictions about them is difficult because of individual differences and because they are multiply determined at different levels of explanation. Critical thinking involves a number of processes that can be specified and practised. Pseudoscience often involves claims about topics that psychologists are interested in; students should be able to evaluate pseudoscientific claims using critical thinking. Exercises and Critical Thinking 1. Can you think of a time when you used your intuition to analyze an outcome, only to be surprised later to find that your explanation was completely incorrect? Did this surprise help you understand how intuition may sometimes lead us astray? 2. Describe the scientific method in a way that someone who knows nothing about science could understand it. 3. Consider a behaviour that you find to be important and think about its potential causes at different levels of explanation. How do you think psychologists would study this behaviour? 4. Using the eight processes of critical thinking, evaluate a common proverb or myth, such as “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” or “We only use 10% of our brain.” 5. Find a claim online for a weight loss pill and use the critical thinking processes to decide if it is an example of pseudoscience. 1.1 Psychology as a Science | 25 References Cacioppo, J. T., Berntson, G. G., Sheridan, J. F., & McClintock, M. K. (2000). Multilevel integrative analyses of human behavior: Social neuroscience and the complementing nature of social and biological approaches. Psychological Bulletin, 126(6), 829–843. Chen, P.-Y., Wang, S.-C., Poland, R. E., & Lin, K.-M. (2009). Biological variations in depression and anxiety between East and West. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, 15(3), 283–294. Cutler, B. L., & Wells, G. L. (2009). Expert testimony regarding eyewitness identification. In J. L. Skeem, S. O. Lilienfeld, & K. S. Douglas (Eds.), Psychological science in the courtroom: Consensus and controversy (pp. 100–123). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Dazzi, C., & Pedrabissi, L. (2009). Graphology and personality: An empirical study on validity of handwriting analysis. Psychological Reports, 105(3 Pt2), 1255–1268. Downey, J. E. (1919). Graphology and the psychology of handwriting. Baltimore, MD: Warwick & York. Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (2007). Social cognition: From brains to culture. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Hsee, C. K., & Hastie, R. (2006). Decision and experience: Why don’t we choose what makes us happy? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(1), 31–37. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Toronto, ON: Random House. LaBianca, J., & Gibson, B. (2020). Here’s what your handwriting says about you. Reader’s Digest. Retrieved from https://www.rd.com/advice/work-career/handwriting-analysis Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Ruscio, J., & Beyerstein, B. L. (2010). 50 Great myths of popular psychology: Shattering widespread misconceptions about human behaviour. Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell. Münsterberg, H. (1915). Business psychology. Chicago, IL: LaSalle Extension University. Nisbett, R. E., & Ross, L. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Seedat, S., Scott, K. M., Angermeyer, M. C., Berglund, P., Bromet, E. J., Brugha, T. S., & Kessler, R. C. (2009). Cross- national associations between gender and mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(7), 785–795. Wade, C. (1995). Using writing to develop and assess critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 24–28. Wells, G. L., & Hasel, L. E. (2008). Eyewitness identification: Issues in common knowledge and generalization. In E. Borgida & S. T. Fiske (Eds.), Beyond common sense: Psychological science in the courtroom (pp. 159–176). Malden, NJ: Blackwell. Williams, N., Simpson, A. N., Simpson, K., & Nahas, Z. (2009). Relapse rates with long-term antidepressant drug therapy: A meta-analysis. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 24(5), 401–408. 26 | 1.1 Psychology as a Science 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions Learning Objectives 1. Explain how psychology changed from a philosophical to a scientific discipline. 2. List some of the most important questions that concern psychologists. 3. Outline the basic schools of psychology and how each school has contributed to psychology. In this section we will review the history of psychology with a focus on some of the major approaches to psychological inquiry. The approaches that psychologists have used to assess the issues that interest them have changed dramatically over the history of psychology. Perhaps most importantly, the field has moved steadily from speculation about behaviour toward a more objective and scientific approach as the technology available to study human behaviour has improved (Benjamin & Baker, 2004). As you will see, psychology contains a diverse set of approaches both historically and now. Some psychologists adhere to one approach or perspective, while others are eclectic and use several approaches to inform their research. It is important to note that we have not covered all of the approaches in this section — to do so would require an entire book. Before we talk about different psychological perspectives, it is important to make note of some biases. Most of the earliest psychologists were men, but women have steadily entered psychology, and by the mid-1980s, half of the doctorates in psychology were awarded to women. In fact, there are now more women than men achieving doctoral degrees in psychology (American Psychological Association, 2006). The gradual integration of women into the field opened the door for greater diversity in the areas of research and teaching to include those more historically related to the lives of girls and women, and also to greater interest in all aspects of psychology related to so-called minority interests, such as cross-cultural issues, ethnic identity, and LGBTQ+ lives. Some female milestones in Canadian psychology include: 1968: Mary Jean Wright became the first woman president of the Canadian Psychological Association. 1970: Virginia Douglas became the second woman president of the Canadian Psychological Association. 1972: The Underground Symposium was held at the Canadian Psychological Association Convention. After having their individual papers and then a symposium rejected by the Program Committee, a group of six graduate students and non-tenured faculty, including Sandra Pyke and Esther Greenglass, held an independent research symposium that showcased work being done in the field of the psychology of women. 1975: The Task Force on the Status of Women in Canadian Psychology by the Canadian Psychological Association in response to the United Nations 1975 International Year of Women led to the establishment of a Canadian Psychological Association Section on Women and Psychology (SWAP): “a community of researchers, teachers, and practitioners interested in the psychology of women and feminist psychology, to advance the status of women in psychology, to promote equity for women in general, and to educate psychologists and the public on topics 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 27 relevant to women and girls” (Canadian Psychological Association, n.d., para. 1). 1980: Canadian Psychological Association adopted Guidelines for Therapy and Counselling with Women. Another bias relates to culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. North American psychology has traditionally been the domain of white, middle-class researchers and research subjects. We will see how this approach has been broadened in this section and the next, but it’s important to keep in mind that the research that has been conducted, especially by the early psychologists, did not do a very good job at representing other populations. Early psychologists The earliest psychologists that we know about are the Greek philosophers Plato (428–347 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC). These philosophers (see Figure 1.2) asked many of the same questions that today’s psychologists ask; for instance, they questioned the distinction between nature and nurture and the existence of free will. In terms of the former, Plato argued on the nature side, believing that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn, whereas Aristotle was more on the nurture side, believing that each child is born as an “empty slate” (in Latin, tabula rasa) and that knowledge is primarily acquired through learning and experience. Figure 1.2. The earliest psychologists were the Greek philosophers Plato (left) and Aristotle (right). Plato believed that much knowledge was innate, whereas Aristotle thought that each child was born as an “empty slate” and that knowledge was primarily acquired through learning and experience. European philosophers continued to ask these fundamental questions during the Renaissance. For instance, the French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) also considered the issue of free will, arguing in its favour and believing that the mind controls the body through the pineal gland in the brain, an idea that made some sense at the time but was later proved incorrect. Descartes also believed in the existence of innate natural abilities. A scientist as well as a philosopher, Descartes dissected animals and was among the first to understand that the nerves controlled the muscles. 28 | 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions He also addressed the relationship between mind (i.e., the mental aspects of life) and body (i.e., the physical aspects of life). Descartes believed in the principle of dualism: that the mind is fundamentally different from the mechanical body. Other European philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), also weighed in on these issues. The fundamental problem that these philosophers faced was that they had few methods for settling their claims. Most philosophers didn’t conduct any research on these questions, partly because they didn’t yet know how to do it and partly because they weren’t sure it was even possible to objectively study human experience. However, dramatic changes came during the 1800s with the help of the first two research psychologists: the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), who developed a psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, and the American psychologist William James (1842–1910), who founded a psychology laboratory at Harvard University. Structuralism: Introspection and the awareness of subjective experience Wundt’s research in his laboratory in Leipzig focused on the nature of consciousness itself. Wundt and his students believed that it was possible to analyze the basic elements of the mind and to classify our conscious experiences scientifically. Wundt began the field known as structuralism, a school of psychology whose goal was to identify the basic elements or structures of psychological experience. Its goal was to create a periodic table of the elements of sensations, similar to the periodic table of elements that had recently been created in chemistry. Structuralists used the method of introspection to attempt to create a map of the elements of consciousness. Introspection involves asking research participants to describe exactly what they experience as they work on mental tasks, such as viewing colours, reading a page in a book, or performing a math problem. A participant who is reading a book might report, for instance, that he saw some black and coloured straight and curved marks on a white background. In other studies, the structuralists used newly invented reaction time instruments to systematically assess not only what the participants were thinking but how long it took them to do so. Wundt discovered that it took people longer to report what sound they had just heard than to simply respond that they had heard the sound. These studies marked the first time researchers realized that there is a difference between the sensation of a stimulus and the perception of that stimulus, and the idea of using reaction times to study mental events has now become a mainstay of cognitive psychology. Perhaps the best known of the structuralists was Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927). Titchener was a student of Wundt’s who came to the United States in the late 1800s and founded a laboratory at Cornell University (see Figure 1.3). Titchener was later rejected by McGill University in 1903. Perhaps he was ahead of his time; Brenda Milner did not open the Montreal Neurological Institute until 1950. In his research using introspection, Titchener and his students claimed to have identified more than 40,000 sensations, including those relating to vision, hearing, and taste. An important aspect of the structuralist approach was that it was rigorous and scientific. The research marked the beginning of psychology as a science because it demonstrated that mental events could be quantified, but the structuralists also discovered the limitations of introspection. Even highly trained research participants were often unable to report on their subjective experiences. When the participants were asked to do simple math problems, they could easily do them, but they could not easily answer how they did them. Furthermore, once you can describe the experience of eating chocolate, for example, what can you do with that knowledge? Structuralism was constrained in moving forward in understanding human psychology because it relied on introspection. The structuralists realized that many important aspects of human psychology occur outside our conscious awareness, that reporting on experiences in the here-and-now had limited generalizability, that research participants are unable to accurately report on all of their experiences, and that there are numerous individual differences in experiences that further limit generalizability to all humans. 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 29 Figure 1.3. Wilhelm Wundt (seated at left) and Edward Titchener (right) helped create the structuralist school of psychology. Their goal was to classify the elements of sensation through introspection. Functionalism and evolutionary psychology In contrast to Wundt, who attempted to understand the nature of consciousness, William James and the other members of the school of functionalism aimed to understand why animals and humans have developed the particular psychological aspects that they currently possess (Hunt, 1993). For James, one’s thinking was relevant only to one’s behaviour. As he put it in his psychology textbook, “My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing” (James, 1890, p. 333). James believed that people have a collection of instincts, and that these instincts were part of our evolved nature. Thus, James saw certain psychological characteristics such as fear, curiosity, or sexual passion as instincts. James and the other members of the functionalist school (see Figure 1.4) were influenced by Charles Darwin’s (1809–1882) theory of natural selection, which proposed that the physical characteristics of animals and humans evolved because they were useful (i.e., functional). The functionalists believed that Darwin’s theory applied to psychological characteristics as well. Just as some animals have developed strong muscles to allow them to run fast, the human brain, so functionalists thought, must have adapted to serve a particular function in human experience. 30 | 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions Figure 1.4. The functionalist school of psychology, founded by the American psychologist William James (left), was influenced by the work of Charles Darwin (right). Although functionalism no longer exists as a school of psychology, its basic principles have been absorbed into psychology and continue to influence it in many ways. The work of the functionalists has developed into the field of evolutionary psychology, a branch of psychology that applies the Darwinian theory of natural selection to human and animal behaviour (Dennett, 1995; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). Evolutionary psychology accepts the functionalists’ basic assumption, namely that many human psychological systems, including memory, emotion, and personality, serve key adaptive functions. As we will see in the chapters to come, evolutionary psychologists use evolutionary theory to understand the pshcological processeses underlying many different behaviours, including romantic attraction, stereotypes and prejudice, and even the causes of many psychological disorders. Evolution by natural selection is the process that resulted in universal human design. Over evolutionary time, all of the features that were passed on from parent to child that conferred survival and reproductive benefits were selected for. This means that if there were a number of genetic variations in the design for a human organ like the kidneys, for example, the design that allowed people to live longer and have slightly more children would be passed on with greater frequency. Over long evolutionary time, that genetic variation would become universal, and all of the other variations would not be passed on. Eventually, the entire population would have the same design for kidneys, unless some other novel genetic mutation popped up that increased reproductive success even more, and if so, the process would begin again. While this is a simplification, this is a good example for how to think about evolutionary psychology. Over long evolutionary time, our brains have also been subject to natural selection, both in structure and function. It makes sense to wonder what psychological adaptations have been selected for and are now part of our universal human design. The phrase “survival of the fittest” is often misapplied when we are looking for evolutionary explanations. The common understanding of this phrase is that it means only the strongest survive. A more accurate way to look at it is in terms of reproductive success: only those with the genetic means to greater reproductive success will survive. As you might imagine, reproductive success depends on the environment. It might require strength, but it is equally likely that it might require spatial reasoning, language skills, or the ability to feel love and empathy for one’s children. The environment of human evolutionary history is varied and occurred over millions of years. For example, the ability to walk on two legs like a human and not on all fours like an ape is an ancient adaptation that occurred over four 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 31 million years ago. One thing is certain: for virtually all of our evolutionary history, humans have lived a nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle, and it is to this way of life that all of our adaptations evolved. Our preference for high caloric food would have served us well when we didn’t have fast food and grocery stores, but in the contemporary world, this adaptation can result in obesity and disease. It is relatively easy to think about human physical adaptations, but it is more difficult to think of psychological ones — perhaps because they are so obvious to us that we don’t think of them as such. For example, the capacity for love, empathy, and attachments have ensured that people look after their close relatives, especially their children. Are these adaptations? We will consider this later. What about fear and anxiety? The ability to feel fear and for fear to propel us unthinkingly into action is called the flight or fight response. This adaptation, which we share with many other creatures, helped keep us alive. When we feel fear now, it is not always to something that is objectively threatening or imminent; the flight or fight response can be “over-activated,” leaving us feeling anxious, stressed, and worn out. Evolutionary psychology has some limitations. One problem is that many of its predictions are extremely difficult to test. Unlike the fossils that are used to learn about the physical evolution of species, we cannot know which psychological characteristics our ancestors possessed or did not possess; we can only make guesses about this. We have to make predictions about what adaptations should have evolved, and then look for evidence that they exist. Because it is difficult to directly test evolutionary theories, it is always possible that the explanations we apply are made up after the fact to account for observed data (Gould & Lewontin, 1979). Nevertheless, the evolutionary approach is important to psychology because it provides logical explanations for why we have many psychological characteristics. Psychodynamic psychology Perhaps the school of psychology that is most familiar to the general public is the psychodynamic approach to understanding behaviour, which was started by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) with his invention of psychoanalysis and taken up by his followers. Psychodynamic psychology is an approach to understanding human behaviour that focuses on the role of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories. Psychodynamics is grounded in psychoanalysis, but it includes other approaches that are not purely Freudian. Freud (see Figure 1.5) developed his theories about behaviour through extensive analysis of the patients that he treated in his private clinical practice. Freud believed that many of the problems that his patients experienced — including anxiety, depression, and sexual dysfunction — were the result of the effects of painful childhood experiences that they could no longer remember. 32 | 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions Figure 1.5. Sigmund Freud and the other psychodynamic psychologists believed that many of our thoughts and emotions are unconscious. Psychotherapy was designed to help patients recover and confront their “lost” memories. Freud’s ideas were extended by other psychologists whom he influenced, including Carl Jung (1875–1961), Alfred Adler (1870–1937), Karen Horney (1855–1952), and Erik Erikson (1902–1994). These and others who follow the psychodynamic approach believe that it is possible to help the patient if the unconscious drives can be remembered, particularly through a deep and thorough exploration of the person’s early sexual experiences and current sexual desires. These explorations are revealed through talk therapy and dream analysis in a process called psychoanalysis. The founders of the psychodynamic approach were primarily practitioners who worked with individuals to help them understand and confront their psychological symptoms. Although they did not conduct much research on their ideas, and although later, more sophisticated tests of their theories have not always supported their proposals, psychodynamics has nevertheless had substantial impact on the field of psychology and indeed on thinking about human behaviour more generally (Moore & Fine, 1995). The importance of the unconscious in human behaviour, the idea that early childhood experiences are critical, and the concept of therapy as a way of improving human lives are all ideas that are derived from the psychodynamic approach and that remain central to psychology. Behaviourism Although they differed in approach, both structuralism and functionalism were essentially studies of the mind, as was psychoanalysis. On the other hand, the psychologists associated with the school of behaviourism were reacting, in part, 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 33 to the difficulties psychologists encountered when they tried to understand the mind — the mind is not easy to observe. Behaviourism is a school of psychology that is based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind; therefore, psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself. Behaviourists believe that the human mind is like a black box into which stimuli are sent and from which responses are received. They argue that there is no point in trying to determine what happens in the box because we can successfully predict behaviour without knowing what happens inside the mind. Furthermore, behaviourists believe that it is possible to develop laws of learning that can explain all behaviours. The early American behavioural psychologist John Watson (1878–1958) was influenced in large part by the work of the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), who had discovered that dogs would salivate at the sound of a tone that had previously been associated with the presentation of food. Watson and the other behaviourists began to use these ideas to explain how events that people and other organisms experienced in their environment (i.e., stimuli) could produce specific behaviours (i.e., responses). For instance, in Pavlov’s research, the stimulus — either the food or, after learning, the tone — would produce the response of salivation in the dogs. In his research, Watson found that systematically exposing a child to fearful stimuli in the presence of objects that did not themselves elicit fear could lead the child to respond with a fearful behaviour to the presence of the objects (Watson & Rayner, 1920; Beck, Levinson, & Irons, 2009). In the best known of his studies, an eight-month-old boy named Little Albert was used as the subject. Here is a summary of the findings: The boy was placed in the middle of a room; a white laboratory rat was placed near him, and he was allowed to play with it. The child showed no fear of the rat. In later trials, the researchers made a loud sound behind Albert’s back by striking a steel bar with a hammer whenever the baby touched the rat. The child cried when he heard the noise. After several such pairings of the two stimuli, the child was again shown the rat. Now, however, he cried and tried to move away from the rat. In line with the behaviourist approach, the boy had learned to associate the white rat with the loud noise, resulting in crying. The most famous behaviourist was Burrhus Frederick Skinner (1904–1990), who expanded the principles of behaviourism and also brought them to the attention of the public at large. Skinner (see Figure 1.6) used the ideas of stimulus and response, along with the application of rewards, known as reinforcements, to train pigeons and other animals. He used the general principles of behaviourism to develop theories about how best to teach children and how to create societies that were peaceful and productive. Skinner even developed a method for studying thoughts and feelings using the behaviourist approach (Skinner, 1957, 1972). 34 | 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions Figure 1.6. B. F. Skinner was a member of the behaviourist school of psychology. He argued that free will is an illusion and that all behaviour is determined by environmental factors. The behavioural perspective — or learning perspective, as it is often called — has enormous practical application in the treatment of some disorders such as phobias. Behaviour modification, a system for changing problematic behaviours, has grown to include cognition (i.e., thinking) in its application, giving rise to cognitive-behavioural therapy. We will return to this later when we discuss effective treatments for disorders such as depression. The behavioural perspective places much emphasis on employing testable, falsifiable hypotheses in research. Behaviourists would argue that looking for evidence of Freudian constructs like the id — that is, an unconscious part of our personality that develops early and is responsible for seeking gratification — is a waste of time, and we should focus on using science to understand what environmental conditions reliably produce or extinguish behaviours that are objectively observable. Behaviourists have made and continue to make substantial contributions to psychology by identifying principles of learning. Although the behaviourists were incorrect in their beliefs that it was not possible to measure thoughts and feelings, behaviourism is fundamental to psychology and helps us better understand the role of environments and previous experiences in shaping our thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Humanism Imagine that you are interested in psychology and that the main perspectives are either psychoanalysis or behaviourism. On the one hand, you must make the assumption that people’s motivations are often lost to them because they are in the unconscious, that childhood experiences are critical for the one’s happiness and functioning later in life, and that sexuality is a key motivator for a range of human behaviour — all assumptions of psychoanalysis. On the other hand, you can apply the tenets of behaviourism to accept that the study of psychology should focus on observable and measurable 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 35 behaviour. You might be excused for thinking “Is that all there is?” Neither psychoanalysis nor behaviourism accounted for the rich inner life that people experience, for the striving for self-betterment, on human needs and motivation, or for the belief that we control our own destinies. Out of this disagreement with psychoanalysis and behaviourism, humanism was born. Humanist psychology arose with an optimistic and positive view of human nature. Humanists argued that we are not victims of our childhood experiences or at the mercy of unconscious motivation. Humanist psychologists, such as Abraham Maslow (1908–1970), argued that people strive to reach their full potential and have self-determination. They argued that we should be concerned with human qualities like courage and determination, not just with measurable behaviours that may ignore the full picture of what it means to be human. You may note that this view of people is in keeping with a cornerstone of the 20th-century “American dream” — the promise of freedom and a better life. Humanism is no longer a dominant force in psychology; however, it is evident in the blossoming of the self-help movement and in the new science of positive psychology (e.g., Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), which aims to apply scientific study to topics related to human happiness, mindfulness, and potential. It is also evident in some forms of therapy, such as client-centred therapy, which is a widely used approach developed by Carl Rogers (1902–1987). The cognitive approach and cognitive neuroscience Science is always influenced by the technology that surrounds it, and psychology is no exception. Thus, it is no surprise that beginning in the 1960s, growing numbers of psychologists began to think about the brain and about human behaviour in terms of the computer, which was being developed and becoming publicly available at that time. The analogy between the brain and the computer, although by no means perfect, provided part of the impetus for a new approach to psychology called cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is a field of psychology that studies mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgment. These actions correspond well to the processes that computers perform. Although cognitive psychology began in earnest in the 1960s, earlier psychologists had also taken a cognitive orientation. Some of the important contributors to cognitive psychology include the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909), who studied the ability of people to remember lists of words under different conditions, and the English psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett (1886–1969), who studied the cognitive and social processes of remembering. Bartlett created short stories that were in some ways logical, but they also contained some very unusual and unexpected events. Bartlett discovered that people found it very difficult to recall the stories exactly, even after being allowed to study them repeatedly, and he hypothesized that the stories were difficult to remember because they did not fit the participants’ expectations about how stories should go. The idea that our memory is influenced by what we already know was also a major idea behind the cognitive-developmental stage model of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Other important cognitive psychologists include Donald E. Broadbent (1926–1993), Daniel Kahneman (1934–), George Miller (1920–2012), Eleanor Rosch (1938–), and Amos Tversky (1937–1996). 36 | 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions Research Focus The War of the Ghosts The War of the Ghosts is a story that was used by Sir Frederic Bartlett to test the influence of prior expectations on memory. Bartlett found that even when his British research participants were allowed to read the story many times, they still could not remember it well, and he believed this was because it did not fit with their prior knowledge. One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals, and while they were there it became foggy and calm. Then they heard war-cries, and they thought: “Maybe this is a war-party.” They escaped to the shore, and hid behind a log. Now canoes came up, and they heard the noise of paddles and saw one canoe coming up to them. There were five men in the canoe, and they said: “What do you think? We wish to take you along. We are going up the river to make war on the people.” One of the young men said, “I have no arrows.” “Arrows are in the canoe,” they said. “I will not go along. I might be killed. My relatives do not know where I have gone. But you,” he said, turning to the other, “may go with them.” So one of the young men went, but the other returned home. And the warriors went on up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama. The people came down to the water and they began to fight, and many were killed. But presently the young man heard one of the warriors say, “Quick, let us go home: that Indian has been hit.” Now he thought: “Oh, they are ghosts.” He did not feel sick, but they said he had been shot. So the canoes went back to Egulac and the young man went ashore to his house and made a fire. And he told everybody and said: “Behold I accompanied the ghosts, and we went to fight. Many of our fellows were killed, and many of those who attacked us were killed. They said I was hit, and I did not feel sick.” He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose he fell down. Something black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and cried. He was dead. (Bartlett, 1932, p. 65) In its argument that our thinking has a powerful influence on behaviour, the cognitive approach provided a distinct alternative to behaviourism. According to cognitive psychologists, ignoring the mind will never be sufficient in explaininig behaviour because people interpret the stimuli that they experience. For instance, when a boy turns to a girl on a date and says “You are so beautiful,” a behaviourist would probably see that as a reinforcing (i.e., positive) stimulus. Yet, the girl might not be so easily fooled. She might try to understand why the boy is making this particular statement at this particular time and wonder if he might be attempting to influence her through the comment. Cognitive psychologists maintain that when we take into consideration how stimuli are evaluated and interpreted, we understand behaviour more deeply. It is important to point out that many of the processes of cognition, such as reasoning and some forms of problem-solving, are not part of our conscious awareness. Thus, cognitive psychologists focus on information processing in its broadest sense. Cognitive psychology remains enormously influential today, and it has guided research in such varied fields as language, problem solving, memory, intelligence, education, human development, social psychology, and psychotherapy. The cognitive revolution has been given even more life over the past decade as the result of recent advances in our ability 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 37 to see the brain in action using neuroimaging techniques. Neuroimaging is the use of various techniques to provide pictures of the structure and function of the living brain (Ilardi & Feldman, 2001). These images are used to diagnose brain disease and injury, but they also allow researchers to view information processing as it occurs in the brain because the processing causes the involved area of the brain to increase metabolism and show up on the scan. We will discuss the use of neuroimaging techniques in many areas of psychology in the chapters to follow. Notably, these are part of a broader biological perspective in psychology, which is concerned not just with the structure and function of the brain, but also with how other aspects of our physiology, genetics, and hormones intersect with topics of interest to psychologists. Social-cultural psychology A final approach, which takes a higher level of analysis, is social-cultural psychology, which is the study of how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence thinking and behaviour. People are often described as “social animals.” Indeed, we are embedded in social roles (e.g., mother, daughter, sister, etc.) and in social worlds where we encounter and interact with people, both by choice and necessity. Social relationships and how we feel about other people affect our thinking, our emotions, and our behaviours, both consciously and unconsciously. These relationships work the other way as well; for example, our mood can affect whom we are attracted to! Social-cultural psychologists are particularly concerned with how people perceive themselves and others and how people influence each other’s behaviour. For instance, social psychologists have found that we are attracted to others who are similar to us in terms of attitudes and interests (Byrne, 1969), that we develop our own beliefs and attitudes by comparing our opinions to those of others (Festinger, 1954), and that we frequently change our beliefs and behaviours to be similar to those of the people we care about — a process known as conformity. An important aspect of social-cultural psychology are social norms, which are the ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate (Asch, 1952; Cialdini, 1993). Norms include customs, traditions, standards, and rules as well as the general values of the group. In addition, our social worlds by definition involve culture. Different cultures around the world have different cultural rules or expectations. Psychologists have a responsibility to consider the role of culture in their research and in their interpretations of what makes people “tick.” Traditionally, psychologists in North America based their research on samples of participants that were not socially or culturally diverse: white, middle-class males. Feminist psychology was influential in opening our eyes to the lack of women in psychology, and this imbalance has been corrected somewhat; in some places, there are more women than men studying psychology. For an in-depth exploration of the feminist voice in psychology and its impact on the discipline, see the website for Psychology’s Feminist Voices (Psychology’s Feminist Voices Project, n.d.). However, we still have a long way to go to integrate cultural diversity into our understanding of human behaviour, emotions, and cognition. Many of the most important social norms are determined by the culture in which we live, and these cultures are studied by cross-cultural psychologists. A culture represents the common set of social norms, including religious and family values and other moral beliefs, shared by the people who live in a geographical region (Fiske, Kitayama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998; Markus, Kitayama, & Heiman, 1996; Matsumoto, 2001). Cultures influence every aspect of our lives, and it is not inappropriate to say that our culture defines our lives just as much as does our evolutionary experience (Mesoudi, 2009). Psychologists have found that there is a fundamental difference in social norms between Western cultures — including those in Canada, the United States, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand — and East Asian cultures — including those in China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia. Norms in Western cultures are primarily oriented toward individualism, which is about valuing the self and one’s independence from others. Children in Western cultures are taught to develop and to value a sense of their personal self and to see themselves in large part as separate from the other people around them. Children in Western cultures feel special about themselves; they 38 | 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions enjoy getting gold stars on their projects and the best grade in the class. Adults in Western cultures are oriented toward promoting their own individual success, frequently in comparison to, or even at the expense of, others. Norms in the East Asian culture, on the other hand, are oriented toward interdependence or collectivism. In these cultures, children are taught to focus on developing harmonious social relationships with others. The predominant norms relate to group togetherness and connectedness as well as to duty and responsibility to one’s family and other groups. When asked to describe themselves, the members of East Asian cultures are more likely than those from Western cultures to indicate that they are particularly concerned about the interests of others, including their close friends and their colleagues (see Figure 1.7). Figure 1.7. In Western cultures, social norms promote a focus on the self (i.e., individualism), whereas in Eastern cultures, the focus is more on families and social groups (i.e., collectivism). Another important cultural difference is the extent to which people in different cultures are bound by social norms and customs, rather than being free to express their own individuality without considering social norms (Chan, Gelfand, Triandis, & Tzeng, 1996). Cultures also differ in terms of personal space, such as how closely individuals stand to each other when talking, as well as the communication styles they employ. It is important to be aware of cultures and cultural differences because people with different cultural backgrounds increasingly come into contact with each other as a result of increased travel and immigration and the development of the Internet and other forms of communication. In Canada, for instance, there are many different ethnic groups, and the proportion of the population that comes from minority (i.e., non-caucasian) groups is increasing from year to year. The social-cultural approach reminds us of the difficulty in making broad generalizations about human nature. Different people experience things differently, and they experience them differently in different cultures. 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 39 Table 1.2. Some important approaches in psychology School of Description Psychology Used the method of introspection to identify the basic elements or “structures” of psychological experience. Structuralism No longer used. Attempted to understand the function of behaviour or thought. No longer used, but revisited in evolutionary Functionalism psychology, which is concerned with finding evidence for psychological adaptations and their role in contemporary environments. Focuses on the role of our unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories and our early childhood experiences Psychodynamic in determining behaviour and personality. Based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind and, therefore, that psychologists Behaviourism should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself. Rejected psychoanalysis and behaviourism as deterministic and pessimistic; focused on human potential and Humanism free will. The study of conscious and unconscious mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and Cognitive judgments. Social-Cultural The study of how social situations and cultures influence thinking and behaviour. Key Takeaways The first psychologists were philosophers, but the field became more empirical and objective as more sophisticated scientific approaches were developed and employed. The structuralists attempted to analyze the nature of consciousness using introspection. The functionalists based their ideas on the work of Darwin, and their approaches led to the field of evolutionary psychology. Psychodynamic psychology focuses on unconscious drives and the potential to improve lives through psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. The behaviourists explained behaviour in terms of stimulus, response, and reinforcement, while denying the presence of free will. Humanists rejected psychoanalysis and behaviourism as deterministic and pessimistic; they focused on human potential and free will. Cognitive psychologists study how people perceive, process, and remember information. The social-cultural approach focuses on the social situation, including how cultures and social norms influence our behaviour. 40 | 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions Exercises and Critical Thinking 1. What type of questions can psychologists answer that philosophers might not be able to answer as completely or as accurately? Explain why you think psychologists can answer these questions better than philosophers can. 2. Choose two of the fields of psychology discussed in this section and explain how they differ in their approaches to understanding behaviour and the level of explanation at which they are focused. 3. Think about the role of culture in psychology. How does culture affect what psychologists study and how they explain behaviour? Image Attributions Figure 1.2. Plato (Capitoline Museums) by Marie-Lan Nguyen is used under a CC BY 2.5 license; Aristotle (National Roman Museum, Ludovisi Collection) by Marie-Lan Nguyen is in the public domain. Figure 1.3. Wundt Research Group by unknown author has no known copyright restrictions; Edward B. Titchener by unknown author has no known copyright restrictions. Figure 1.4. William James by unknown author has no known copyright restrictions; Charles Darwin by George Richmond has no known copyright restrictions. Figure 1.5. Sigmund Freud by Max Halberstadt has no known copyright restrictions. Figure 1.6. B.F. Skinner at Harvard by Silly rabbit is used under a CC BY 3.0 license. Figure 1.7. Family Playing a Board Game by Bill Branson is in the public domain; West Wittering Wonderful as Always by Gareth Williams is used under a CC BY 2.0 license. References American Psychological Association. (2006). Women in the American Psychological Association. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/committee/wapa-2006.pdf Asch, S. E. (1952). Social Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions | 41 Beck, H. P., Levinson, S., & Irons, G. (2009). Finding Little Albert: A journey to John B. Watson’s infant laboratory. American Psychologist, 64(7), 605–614. Benjamin, L. T., Jr., & Baker, D. B. (2004). From seance to science: A history of the profession of psychology in America. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson. Byrne, D. (1969). Attitudes and attraction. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 35–89). New York, NY: Academic Press. Canadian Psychological Association. (n.d.). Section on women and psychology. Retrieved from https://cpa.ca/sections/ swap Chan, D. K. S., Gelfand, M. J., Triandis, H. C., & Tzeng, O. (1996). Tightness-looseness revisited: Some preliminary analyses in Japan and the United States. International Journal of Psychology, 31, 1–12. Cialdini, R. B. (1993). Influence: Science and practice (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Harper Collins College. Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin’s dangerous idea: Evolution and the meanings of life. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140. Fiske, A., Kitayama, S., Markus, H., & Nisbett, R. (1998). The cultural matrix of social psychology. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 915–981). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Gould, S. J., & Lewontin, R. C. (1979). The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Series B), 205, 581–598. Hunt, M. (1993). The story of psychology. New York, NY: Anchor Books. Ilardi, S. S., & Feldman, D. (2001). The cognitive neuroscience paradigm: A unifying metatheoretical framework for the science and practice of clinical psychology. Journal of Clinical Ps

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