Psychology

Assignment 1 1. Define psychology. Briefly describe the evolution of modern psychology. Just as the universe is awed at for its infinite size, wonders, contents and energy, the comparatively small brain has been awed at for its contents, complexity, and infinite potential. Since centuries thinkers and philosophers have wondered about the mental processes of the brain. The name of this field of understanding the mind and its working is Psychology. The discipline of understanding and explaining these mental processes and the actions that result from these mental processes is psychology. Gerrig and Zimbardo have adequately defined psychology in Psychology and Life. Psychology is technically defined as the scientific study of behaviour of individuals and their mental processes. Scientific study involves an objective and orderly collection of data and analyses of the data to reach error free and reliable conclusions. Behaviour is the action and means by which a living being adjusts and interacts with the environment. Mental processes are the private, internal events that occur within the mind, an example being thinking. Psychology became a formal subject to be studied towards the end of the 19th century (Gerrig, Zimbardo,9). Research for the first time in this field was carried out in laboratories using techniques from physics and physiology. The first laboratory was built by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany. Many students trained here went on to expand the field of psychology. Laboratories started to spring up in North America and by 1900 there were 40 psychological laboratories. Edward Titchener was the first US psychologist trained in Leipzig. William James was another important figure and wrote a two volume book, the Principles of Psychology, an important book even today. Around the same period, the American Psychological Association was formed. Discussions were held as to what constitutes an appropriate subject matter for this new field. Two broad divisions were structuralism and functionalism. The people who started these divisions, both believed that consciousness was the basics of philosophy. Structuralism was study of the structure of mind and behaviour. As per this the mental process could be divided into elements. By identifying these elements, the structure of the mind and mental experiences can be explained. This approach was started by Titchener. The consciousness was studied by introspection. Participants analysed their own thoughts and feelings about specific sensory (elements) experiences. The results of these specific sensory experiences (or elements) could then be added to understand the complex mind and its processes. Many psychologists complained that structuralism reduced mental experience to sensations, instead of studying the behaviour directly elements are studied to form the whole picture and that it cannot be used to study preverbal children and animals. Functionalism too studied the conscious mind, but instead of reducing mental experiences to elements, it studied the purpose of behaviour. This approach was developed by James and Dewey. The belief is that the consciousness allows individuals to adapt to their environment. This adaptation is basically processing the environment in the mind, thinking and processing of how to adapt, and then acting to adapt. This action is behaviour and hence the behaviour is a way of achieving the purpose of adapting. While structuralism divided mental processes and behaviour into elements with the purpose understanding mental process and behaviour, functionalism tries to find the purpose or aim that a mental process or behaviour is trying to achieve. Today both forms, structuralism and functionalism are used. It is understood that only when the mind and mental process has a structure, that the structure is used to form the thoughts (mental process), thoughts which generate behaviour, with the aim of achieving a purpose. This purpose being adapting to the environment. Hence the study of both structuralism and functionalism are important. In addition to these forms, seven major perspectives of psychological analysis have evolved. These are: - Psychodynamic- here behaviour is the result of instincts, biological need, conflict between personal needs and society needs. - Behaviourist- here behaviour is influenced by the environment. - Humanistic- behaviour is influenced by the minds ability to make choices that from the individuals perspective leads to personal development. - Cognitive- behaviour is a result of an individuals ability to think, analyse and come up with novel ideas. - Biological - analyses the intricate workings of the brain and correlates it to mental processes and behaviour. - Evolutionary- studies how behaviour has evolved giving due consideration to evolution of mankind. It tries to explain the present general behaviours of specific living beings based on what that being had to go through with passage of time and changes in environment to reach their present state. -Sociocultural - this studies the effects of different cultures on generally common behaviours of individuals belonging to that culture. As can be seen, although the workings of the mind has been wondered at for a long time, a formal study into it started only over a century ago. Yet the evolution of this subject has been substantial in a short time. While formal studies of subjects like physics, chemistry, biology have been going on for centuries, the discipline of psychology has evolved in a very short time. This can be attributed to the viewing of psychology as a science , usage of scientific methods, and laboratory experiments. Psychology has evolved enough to fairly define its extent of subject matter and also to identify the various perspectives from which the subject can be treated. To name a few, the findings of this discipline are used to improve life, the way we think, to treat mental illnesses, selection of employees for a job, and to develop and effectively educate children. In short psychology has become a very important subject today. And explain their major functions.