DEFINITION, SUBJECT MATTER AND ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Description: DEFINITION, SUBJECT MATTER AND ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY BY PROF. JHUMKI RATH PG DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY BJB (A) COLLEGE BHUBANESWAR Psychology as a discipline has generated a tremendous amount of interest not only among researchers but also in the
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slide1. DEFINITION, SUBJECT MATTER AND ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY BY PROF. JHUMKI RATH PG DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY BJB (A) COLLEGE BHUBANESWAR<br>
slide2. Psychology as a discipline has generated a tremendous amount of interest not only among researchers but also in the common man.
The moment one introduces oneself as a student of psychology, there’s a barrage of questions one is flooded with.
Questions such as “can you read my mind now?”, or “Do you know, I have OCD, or maybe I have bipolar disorder”, or that “mental health is hyped in society and that it is a consequence of weakness in personality” and so on and so forth.
However, psychology as an independent discipline today is broader in its scope than can be visualised by the common man.<br>
slide3. MODERN PSYCHOLOGY AND HOW IT ORIGINATED PSYCHOLOGY’S PARENTS : PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Psychology gradually emerged over the course of the 19th century.
By the late 19th century, many philosophers turned their attention to questions about the human mind.
Questions involving how we perceive the world around us, do people have free will, is human action determined by forces inside the body or outside it, what is the link between “mind” and “body”.
French philosopher Descarte suggested that mind and body are distinct entities interacting through the pineal gland, other philosophers suggested that mind and body can influence one another, known as ‘interactionism’.<br>
slide4. More importantly by the end of 19th century, philosophers concluded that questions about the human mind cannot be answered by solely reasoning but by careful observation.
This is where physiology entered the picture. Physiologists had been using the scientific method to answer questions about our nervous system and senses for years.
Subsequently research in physiology by Helmholtz and Fechner prompted philosophers to opine that questions of the human mind can be studied by empirical means which led to the possibility of a scientific field of psychology.
Once this idea took shape, the new field of psychology quickly developed in the 19th century.
By 1879, Wilhelm Wundt found the first psychological laboratory at the University of Lepzeig, Germany.
Because of this and other contributions Wundt is called the father of ‘experimental psychology’.<br>
slide5. SUBJECT MATTER OF PSYCHOLOGY Early battles on what psychology should study Wundt proposed that psychology should focus on analysing the contents of consciousness (structuralism). This task could be carried out by the method of “Introspection”.
Psychology moved to US from Germany, which led to hybridisation of psychology.
Wundt’s view was soon challenged by William James, who felt that the new subject should not focus on elements of consciousness but its functions, that how it helps human beings to cope with the challenging and changing world around them (functionalism).<br>
slide6. The works of both Wundt and James were consigned to the dustbin with the emergence of John B. Watson with another approach known as “Behaviourism”.
Watson argued passionately for the view that Psychology should not focus on consciousness but on behaviour - actions that can be observed and measured.
Researchers had slowly lost interest in studying the elements of consciousness and its functions, and Watson’s view gained acceptance.
Watson’s view that psychology should focus on observable behaviour dominated research for a couple of decades.<br>
slide7. Even as Watson’s view of focussing on overt behaviour was continuing, psychologists were listening with growing interest to the theories of a Viennese psychiatrist named Sigmund Freud.
Freud argued strongly for the role of the unconscious and other internal processes in human behaviour, known as the “psychodynamism”. Freud’s psychology focussed on the role of the inner, unconscious motives in behaviour and mental disorders.
Another challenge to behaviourism occurred in the 1950s, when humanistic psychologists argued that contrary to what behaviourists proposed, people do really have a free will-they do not simply repeat behaviours that lead to positive outcomes while avoiding behaviours that lead to negative outcomes.
Humanists also rejected Freud’s view that much of our behaviour stems from innate aggressive and sexual urges.<br>
slide8. The ultimate challenge to behaviourism came from what is described as cognitive revolution.
Psychologists quietly went about studying memory, reasoning, problem-solving and other cognitive processes.
By the 1960s the development of computers provided such researchers with important new tools for conducting their research.
These advances in research methods were soon followed by techniques for observing activity within the brains of fully awake people as they performed various cognitive tasks.
Thus, processes that behaviourists thought to be unobservable became observable, and the behaviourists objection to studying them faded away.
The study of cognitive processes is now the most vigorous area of research in psychology.
In short , modern psychology is the science of behaviour and cognitive processes.<br>
slide9. However, in the middle of 20th century a major shift took place.
The realisation that humans are cultural beings and science is also a socially embedded activity have led to the adoption of newer methods and conceptual models in psychology.
Adopting one cultural position and projecting the same as universal and treating others as deviants is ‘ethnocentrism’.
Indeed today’s psychology is an enterprise in plurality and multivocality. It adopts diverse approaches to study human behaviour and cognitive processes.<br>
slide10. GRAND ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGY In course of its development, the discipline of psychology has been addressing several grand issues - largescale questions and themes that crosscut the field.
Issue of stability vs. change –
To what extent we remain stable over time and to what extent do we change.
Nature - Nurture issue –
To what extent our behaviour is shaped by genetic inheritance, and to what extent are they learned.<br>
slide11. Irrationality vs. rationality
Have we ever underestimated the time we may take to complete an assignment.
Lashing out at one person not because of his fault but because one is in a rotten mood.
Psychologists are often fascinated by these and other illustrations of the fact that we are not always perfectly logical, because such behaviours often offer insights into how the mind works.<br>
slide12. MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Structuralism - Focuses on elements of consciousness.
Functionalism - Focuses on functions of conscious processes.
Behaviourism - Focuses on overt behaviour.
Psychodynamic - Focuses on role of hidden often unconscious processes.
Humanistic - Focuses on free will of the individual
Social and Cultural- Focuses on social and cultural factors that influence behaviour.<br>
slide13. SUMMARY Psychology developed over the 19th century.
Philosophy and Physiology served as parent disciplines for psychology.
Rationalism from Philosophy and Empericism from natural science.
There were early battles concerning what should be the subject matter of psychology.
In 1879, the first formal laboratory for research in psychology was founded by W. Wundt.<br>
slide14. Wundt is often regarded as the ‘father of experimental psychology’.
Wundt’s disciple Stanley Hall was instrumental in taking psychology to US.
By 1893, twenty-four US universities had established their own laboratories of Psychology.
The evolution of modern psychology went through various phases and culminated in what it is today i.e., The science of behaviour and cognitive processes.<br>
slide15. THANK YOU<br>
slide2. Psychology as a discipline has generated a tremendous amount of interest not only among researchers but also in the common man.
The moment one introduces oneself as a student of psychology, there’s a barrage of questions one is flooded with.
Questions such as “can you read my mind now?”, or “Do you know, I have OCD, or maybe I have bipolar disorder”, or that “mental health is hyped in society and that it is a consequence of weakness in personality” and so on and so forth.
However, psychology as an independent discipline today is broader in its scope than can be visualised by the common man.<br>
slide3. MODERN PSYCHOLOGY AND HOW IT ORIGINATED PSYCHOLOGY’S PARENTS : PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Psychology gradually emerged over the course of the 19th century.
By the late 19th century, many philosophers turned their attention to questions about the human mind.
Questions involving how we perceive the world around us, do people have free will, is human action determined by forces inside the body or outside it, what is the link between “mind” and “body”.
French philosopher Descarte suggested that mind and body are distinct entities interacting through the pineal gland, other philosophers suggested that mind and body can influence one another, known as ‘interactionism’.<br>
slide4. More importantly by the end of 19th century, philosophers concluded that questions about the human mind cannot be answered by solely reasoning but by careful observation.
This is where physiology entered the picture. Physiologists had been using the scientific method to answer questions about our nervous system and senses for years.
Subsequently research in physiology by Helmholtz and Fechner prompted philosophers to opine that questions of the human mind can be studied by empirical means which led to the possibility of a scientific field of psychology.
Once this idea took shape, the new field of psychology quickly developed in the 19th century.
By 1879, Wilhelm Wundt found the first psychological laboratory at the University of Lepzeig, Germany.
Because of this and other contributions Wundt is called the father of ‘experimental psychology’.<br>
slide5. SUBJECT MATTER OF PSYCHOLOGY Early battles on what psychology should study Wundt proposed that psychology should focus on analysing the contents of consciousness (structuralism). This task could be carried out by the method of “Introspection”.
Psychology moved to US from Germany, which led to hybridisation of psychology.
Wundt’s view was soon challenged by William James, who felt that the new subject should not focus on elements of consciousness but its functions, that how it helps human beings to cope with the challenging and changing world around them (functionalism).<br>
slide6. The works of both Wundt and James were consigned to the dustbin with the emergence of John B. Watson with another approach known as “Behaviourism”.
Watson argued passionately for the view that Psychology should not focus on consciousness but on behaviour - actions that can be observed and measured.
Researchers had slowly lost interest in studying the elements of consciousness and its functions, and Watson’s view gained acceptance.
Watson’s view that psychology should focus on observable behaviour dominated research for a couple of decades.<br>
slide7. Even as Watson’s view of focussing on overt behaviour was continuing, psychologists were listening with growing interest to the theories of a Viennese psychiatrist named Sigmund Freud.
Freud argued strongly for the role of the unconscious and other internal processes in human behaviour, known as the “psychodynamism”. Freud’s psychology focussed on the role of the inner, unconscious motives in behaviour and mental disorders.
Another challenge to behaviourism occurred in the 1950s, when humanistic psychologists argued that contrary to what behaviourists proposed, people do really have a free will-they do not simply repeat behaviours that lead to positive outcomes while avoiding behaviours that lead to negative outcomes.
Humanists also rejected Freud’s view that much of our behaviour stems from innate aggressive and sexual urges.<br>
slide8. The ultimate challenge to behaviourism came from what is described as cognitive revolution.
Psychologists quietly went about studying memory, reasoning, problem-solving and other cognitive processes.
By the 1960s the development of computers provided such researchers with important new tools for conducting their research.
These advances in research methods were soon followed by techniques for observing activity within the brains of fully awake people as they performed various cognitive tasks.
Thus, processes that behaviourists thought to be unobservable became observable, and the behaviourists objection to studying them faded away.
The study of cognitive processes is now the most vigorous area of research in psychology.
In short , modern psychology is the science of behaviour and cognitive processes.<br>
slide9. However, in the middle of 20th century a major shift took place.
The realisation that humans are cultural beings and science is also a socially embedded activity have led to the adoption of newer methods and conceptual models in psychology.
Adopting one cultural position and projecting the same as universal and treating others as deviants is ‘ethnocentrism’.
Indeed today’s psychology is an enterprise in plurality and multivocality. It adopts diverse approaches to study human behaviour and cognitive processes.<br>
slide10. GRAND ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGY In course of its development, the discipline of psychology has been addressing several grand issues - largescale questions and themes that crosscut the field.
Issue of stability vs. change –
To what extent we remain stable over time and to what extent do we change.
Nature - Nurture issue –
To what extent our behaviour is shaped by genetic inheritance, and to what extent are they learned.<br>
slide11. Irrationality vs. rationality
Have we ever underestimated the time we may take to complete an assignment.
Lashing out at one person not because of his fault but because one is in a rotten mood.
Psychologists are often fascinated by these and other illustrations of the fact that we are not always perfectly logical, because such behaviours often offer insights into how the mind works.<br>
slide12. MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Structuralism - Focuses on elements of consciousness.
Functionalism - Focuses on functions of conscious processes.
Behaviourism - Focuses on overt behaviour.
Psychodynamic - Focuses on role of hidden often unconscious processes.
Humanistic - Focuses on free will of the individual
Social and Cultural- Focuses on social and cultural factors that influence behaviour.<br>
slide13. SUMMARY Psychology developed over the 19th century.
Philosophy and Physiology served as parent disciplines for psychology.
Rationalism from Philosophy and Empericism from natural science.
There were early battles concerning what should be the subject matter of psychology.
In 1879, the first formal laboratory for research in psychology was founded by W. Wundt.<br>
slide14. Wundt is often regarded as the ‘father of experimental psychology’.
Wundt’s disciple Stanley Hall was instrumental in taking psychology to US.
By 1893, twenty-four US universities had established their own laboratories of Psychology.
The evolution of modern psychology went through various phases and culminated in what it is today i.e., The science of behaviour and cognitive processes.<br>
slide15. THANK YOU<br>