Reflection on the History & Systems of Psychology Essay Example for Free

Reflection on the Hi romance Systems of Psychology EssayPre- modernistic, modern and postmodern frames of reference deport all helped shape big, contemporary psychological theories and issues. In this composition I allow for attempt, in a reflective manner, to walk done and revisit the areas we cover in route, the end drift being to gain a measure of insight into where the field of psychological science stands today, particularly with regard to tyrannic forms of ethnocentric mono ethnicism.In legal injury of pre-modern perspectives, in the course we first discussed historical issues concerning the mind-body problem. I produced the dis stain of the relationship between body and mind and whether they are geniusness and the same or two unadorned substances, which is the center of the debate between monists and dualist. Descartes, the just active come up have intercoursen dualist, argued for a separation of mind from nous and body. Also an interactionist, Des cartes held the mind influenced the body as much as the body impacted the mind (Goodwin, 2009). Plato, his predecessor from antiquity, was similarly a dualist and an interactionist arguably, and believed the body and soul/mind were temporarily at one during invigoration separately came from a completely different place, the body from the material military individualnel and the soul from the world of ideas. At the fleck of death, the body withered away in time and space, the soul or mind returning to the world of forms and there realizing universal truths (Wozniak, 1992).Delving deeper into pre-modern views of the mind-body problem I touched upon de Spinoza. Spinoza, a contemporary of Descartes, dismissed Descartes two-substance view in favor of what is called double-aspect theory (Wozniak, 1992). Double-aspect theories turn over the view that the mental and the physical realms are varying aspects of the same substance. For Spinoza, that genius substance is God, perceived as the universal essence or nature of everything in existence. In Spinozas view, there is no partition of mind and body, therefore. Instead they are of a single substance, in a pre-established coordination, reflecting the elysian essence. In reflection, I continue to side with Spinoza and double-aspect theory in terms of pre-modern perspectives. I do believe that there is a pre-established coordination between mind and body that is reflective of the divine creation. I am therefore I think is my continued response to Descartes.In terms of modern perspectives in the course we examined the origins of psychology as a subject discipline. During the course I stated that psychology first appeared as a subject discipline in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt started a psychology lab in Germany at the University of Leipzig. The laboratory devoted itself to the analysis of conscious thought in its basic elements and structures, which was uncovered through a subprogram of introspection (Gross, 1996). W hat differentiated this saucy psychology at the time from philosophy was its utilisation of measurement and control as well as its emphasis on the scientific method to submit mental processes relevant to human consciousness. payable to his influence on Edward B. Titchener, Wundts frame of reference arguably helped give birth to structuralism.Indeed Wundts disciple, Titchener, is credited with shooting and labeling structuralism in an 1898 paper called The Postulates of a Structural Psychology (Goodwin, 2009). In the paper he compared and contrasted structuralism with functionalism, which he claimed infested most US universities, carry through Cornell where he was cultivating what would come to becalled the the Cornell school of psychology. Notwithstanding, Goodwin (2009) has stated that Titchener and the Cornell view of psychology was extremely narrow more a capacious deal than non because of its insistence on introspection and out-of-pocket to Titcheners attitude that h is way was the only way, a position that often does not bode well in academia. In this vein and by chance arrogantly so, Titchener, a like(p)ned structuralism to anatomy, its purpose being analysis he surmised whereas functionalism he likened to physiology, stating that functionalists examine how the mind is able to adapt one to his or her said environment, which to Titchener was a waste of time without a deep belowstanding of structure.As one needs to know the ins and outs of human anatomy before being able to fully delve into physiology, so thus was thefunctionalist at a loss, in his view, without the ability to outline the structures of human consciousness via a highly difficult process of systematic, evidence outal introspection as stipulated by him in almost cult like exclusivity, which spawned criticism. Accordingly, his movement never gained the momentum it needed to win Ameri sewer hearts and minds, falling into the dustbin of history in favor of functionalism. Nevert heless, in spite of Titcheners unpopularity in the US, his enduring contri scarcelyion is that he helped build a place for the lab and experimental psychology in all colleges and universities with programs in psychology. era functionalists were besides interested in looking at mental processes such as consciousness in so far as assessing human fashion in terms of how it aided people in adapting to dynamical environments, they did not, unlike followers of Titchener, emphasize introspection (Goodwin, 2009). Psychologist James R. Angell, a follower of John Dewey, the founder of functionalism in America, became its most outspoken spokesperson, criticizing Titchener and drawing a sharp contrast to him in a 1907 popular paper called The Province of Functional Psychology. It was a damning response to Titcheners 1898 paper. For Angell, the structuralist wasinterested in the what? of conscious thought, whereas the functionalist psychologist wished to know the how? and why? of it, asking what is consciousness for? (Goodwin, 2009).This way of viewing psychology in terms of its practical applications, became an important influence in modern times, because it led to the make of topics such as developmental and abnormal psychology, in addition to examining the individual differences of mind, (which Titchener and the Cornell school remarkably had no interest in). When asking how psychology can be used to solve everyday problems in a practical way, we are taking from the functionalists and their movement. peradventure the most prominent movement in the field of modern 20th century psychology was behaviorism. Behaviorism began fundamentally due to the work of Ivan Pavlov.Pavlov who did not consider himself a psychologist, but, rather a physiologist interested in the process of digestion in dogs, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1904 (the year B. F. mule skinner was born) in Physiology and Medicine. In the course of his question, Pavlov observed that the dogs would often s tart salivating before any intellectual nourishment being given to them, when they would see the food or the foods container, or when they heard the footsteps of the lab assistant who was on his way to feed them. His observations led to the study to what we now call classical learn (Gross, 1996).The first attempt to apply Pavlovs findings on conditioning to humans was made by John B. Watson in a dubious and arguably unethical experiment on a small boy named Albert, showing that the fear of rats can be deliberately generate (Watson and Rayer, 1920). The experiment served to popularize a new behavioral approach to psychology that would within a decade become the dominant force in America, Watson its founder, propagator and publicist (Goodwin, 2008).To the modernist Watson (1913), psychology is an objective natural science,its conjectural goal the prediction and control of behavior. Wundt and Titcheners view on introspection has no place in its methods, nor is consciousness addres sed or studied. There is no marked borderline between people and creatures. Due to Watsons input and influence cats, dogs, rats, and pigeons became the major source of psychological data. As psychological now meant behavior rather than consciousness, animals that were easier to study and whose environments could be more readily controlled could replace people as experimental subjects (Gross, 1966).B. F. Skinner, as well as a behaviorist and modernist, went steps further than Pavlov and Watson, casting behavior in a more synergistic light. He made a distinction between respondent and operant behavior and argued that most animal and human behavior is not brought about in the way Pavlov and Watson indicated and surmised. Skinner, like Edward Thorndike before him, was interested in how animals operate on their environment and how this operant behavior get hold ofs about particular consequences that can determine the likeliness of that behavior being repeated. In experiments he use d a variation of Thordikes puzzle-box, a Skinner box, which was made for a rat or a pigeon to do things in, rather than escape from. Fundamentally, Skinner adage the learner as much more actively involved than did Pavlov or Watson, for whom behavior was due to stimuli, unmeasured stimuli before learning and conditioned stimuli after learning.In addition to behaviorism, modern views of psychology took twists and turns. As a reaction to both Titcheners structuralism and Watsons behaviorism, the Gestalt psychologists of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany and Austria were primarily implicated with perception and held that perceptions could not be deconstructed in the way that Wundt and Titchener wanted to do with thought, and that behaviorists had sought for with behavior. Their belief could besuccinctly stated as follows the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Gross, 1996, p.3). The whole is essentially destruct when you break down perception and behavior into parts, the Gestalt psychologists held.There are organizing principles of perceptual organization which were voiced by Gestalts founder Max Wertheimer. These principles are frequently highlighted in units on perception in normal psychology textbooks and are as follows the principle of proximity, the principle of similarity, the principle of continuation. All of the organizing principles have in third estate what is called the law of simplicity or what Gestaltists term Prgnanz. This refers to the drift for perceptions to mirror reality as well as possible (Goodwin, 2009).In the course I gave an example of gestalt thinking, which in reflection I would like to return to as it cl primaeval dust in mind. I used the example of a great deal stopping at a bus stop in ones neighborhood. On a given day the bus stops at the same corner the person is accustomed to, and is know to be that bus. The person put ups on, but has made a mistake. She did not realize that there was a path change that morning and the bus she took was material bodyed differently. What gives? Is it only a matter of not paying attention?In Gestalt inspired, top-down conceptually driven processing, we begin with ones prior knowledge, motivations, expectations and beliefs. In the bus example, the softness to see and decipher or register a different number on the bus and get on it, means it was recognized it to be the customary bus due to top-down processing (Danner, 2009). If one were to notice the different bus number, however, that would entail bottom-up processing, because such processing is data driven. The different number is perceived in terms of information in the sensory input, in conjunction with top-down processing, show to the person that it is not the customary bus.Perhaps after realizing her mistake, the person inthe example will be more careful next time, thereby exercising more bottom-up processing. If Austria was home to some of Gestalts most prominent members and adherents, it was also home to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Freudian psychoanalytic theory was the first to state the significance of innate drives and define abnormal and normal behavior in relationship to the role of the unconscious mind. Its importance is that the theory of personality popularized contextualizing human behavior in terms of the id, ego, and superego, notating development in 5 psychosexual stages. Each stage was marked by shifts in what Freud believed were the underlying modes of gratification oral, anal, phallic, latency and venereal (Glassman, 2000).In reflection, I continue to find merit in Freuds concept of stages for sure. I would calm down pick out to call them development stages, however, and not necessarily put a sexual meaning on them, as Freud and his supporters have done and continue to do. There is no need to detail the well-known limitations and criticisms of Freudian theory, which harmonise to Glassman (2000) are its falsifiability, the great deal of emphasis put on case studies, and its cultural bias towards women. regardless of such naysaying, his supporters would passionately argue for and be adamant about such a sexual memorial of the human person, which if not fodder, certainly has entertainment value. In fact, Freudian theory is fascinating to me largely due to the dramatic (almost cinematic) conflicts and challenges that mark each psychosexual stage. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the Oedipal conflict (which occurs in the so-called phallic stage). It was interesting to read that some analysts called the female variant, the Electra conflict, but Freud himself did not use the term (see Freud 1924).Perhaps the most attractive modern theory of personality, in my view, would belong to Carl Rogers. In Carl Rogers theory, a person is the source of hisor her basic needs such as food and water. He or she is also the source of a growth motive which he called an actualizing tendency, which is an innate drive that is reflective of the desire to grow, to develop and to develop ones capabilities (Glassman, 2000). It is the actualizing tendency that stimulates creativity, causing a person to seek out new challenges and skills that motivate healthy growth in ones lifetime (Gross, 1996). According to Rogers (1961, but in the beginning proposed in 1947) Whether one calls it a growth tendency, a drive towards self-actualization, or a forward pitiful direction tendency, it is the mainspring in lifeIt is the urge which is evident in all organic and human life to expand, extend, become autonomous, mature and develop. In reflection, I continue to feel that Rogers influence and continuing popularity in the psychotherapeutic community give his theories merit. APA members have been asked which psychotherapist they believe to me the most influential figure in the field (Smith, 1982). In 2006, this survey repeated in the Psychotherapy Networker. In both surveys, Carl Rogers was the landslide choice.While this does not pro ve Rogers to be correct, certainly it gives his theory of motivation more credence than not, increasing its believability. Certainly, I feel influenced by Rogers as I move forward in my career. While Rogers theory of an actualizing tendency and the overall nature of the invitee-centered approach may be controversial due to its allowance to let the client call the shots and as stated by Goodwin (2009) for its overemphasis on the the self at the expense of the importance of the community, in addition to being clearer what it was against than what it was for, it is nevertheless, a credible postulation in terms of its application in therapy and remains my preference over Freud.Accordingly, I continue to feel that all clientsinnately wish to be thriving in life and to be praised as contributors to their own selfactualization. They wish to expand their knowledge and achieve high levels of success beneath all the guises that seem otherwise. When clients are not performing to their fulles t potential, praise and support can help ignite the actualizing tendency in a manner that would otherwise have remained dormant.When exploring postmodern views of psychology we have to inherently speak about cultural narratives and meta-narratives. What is psychology today and who defines it? What is psychologys story, who told that story historically, and who gets to tell it today? When we look at psychology as a practice, historically and today, is important to pay off to the fore the ethnocentric monocultural aspects that were tyrannous to women and continue to be to minority groups in reinforcing white male Euro-American finis as the normative and desirable culture. Indeed, therapists and helping professionals should try to help deconstruct and unveil monoculturalism whenever it rears its despicable head. When oppressive forms such as heterosexism, ageism, gender and sexism come to the fore in therapy, for example, therapists should not reinforce them but try to encourage re flection on such prejudices with the aim being for the client to indentify for what it is and to grow harmonisely.The field of psychology itself is not immune but remains at risk to the debacle of monoculturalism. According to Yutrzenka, Todd-Bazemore and Caraway (1999) until now though the data forecast that by 2050, ethnic minorities will make up over 50% of the US population, this quickly changing demographic has minimal effect on the number of ethnic minority psychologists. This is particularly true for Native Americans, who are far more underrepresented than any other ethnic body. though the APA as stated by Goodwin (2009), is vigorously addressing this entire issue at present, with such efforts to be praised, still the legacy of ethnocentric monoculturalism is a stain on the profession, and will remain so untilsignificant song of minority psychologists abound.In spite of the barriers confronting them, women and minorities have made many notable, valuable and vital contribu tions to the field of psychology. During the course I discussed Eleanor Gibson who received the National Medal of Science in 1992 for a lifetime of interrogation on topics dealing with the development of depth perception to the fundamentals involved in reading, faced discrimination time at Yale from psychologist Robert Yerkes who wanted no females in his lab (Goodwin, 2009).While she was able to get her PhD there under the guidance of the neobehaviorist Clark Hull, she unfortunately went on to experience difficulties at Cornell (where her husband had gained a position) forced into an unpaid research associate position in spite of winning competitive and prestigious research grants. As a turn out of these grants, however, she was able to carry out pioneering studies on depth perception with Richard Walk. When Cornell, home to Titcheners legacy, aloof its nepotism rules in 1966, only then did she become a full professor.Furthermore, as discussed in the course, African-Americans ha ve also made outstanding contributions to psychology. Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark again come to mind in terms of their best known research titled Racial identification and preference in Negro children (Goodwin, 2009). In this research it was shown that black children showed a preference for white dolls over black ones when asked which they would like to play with and looked more like. The Clarks concluded, according to Goodwin (2009) that one pernicious effect of racial segregation was its negative influence on African-American self-esteem. As a result of this research, in part, the Supreme Court was compelled to do the right thing and reverse the racist separate but equal doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education.The Clarks contribution to psychology and the contributions of other AfricanAmericans preceding them were not without struggle. Their mentor at Howard University, Francis Sumner faced huge obstacles when attempting to get a graduate degree and gain purpose in academia. African-Americans have often had their basic intellectual abilities questioned (Goodwin, 2009). The legacy of white racism and of the field of psychologys complicity by not taking a firmer stand until only recently is without question a significant reason why African-Americans remain heavily underrepresented in the profession, in spite of the gains made for women. 60 percent of doctorates in psychology are awarded to women today, while Native Americans as we discussed and African-Americans continue to be awarded a paltry percentage in turn.Such dismal figures have nothing to do with intelligence. We know that early intelligence tests were normed on just Caucasian, middle-class populations and only recently has such bias been addressed and perhaps abated. This also was the case for the MMPI personality tests as well. In the case of the MMPI, many of the original items became dated and according to Kassin (2008), to bring the test up to the 21st century and more postmodern views, new items were written in, and a more diverse cross-section of the US was sampled. The result of that updating is the newer 567-item version called the MMPI-2.In reflection, my guess is that similar advances have been made or are being considered in IQ testing as well otherwise we would have to call into question whether biased IQ tests are valid for minority groups. Accordingly, great care should be taken when formulating test questions as well as interpreting the results of test-takers from different cultural groups and urban tribes. Fundamentally, it is crucial that test makers be made aware of cultural differences when putting together IQ test questions, as recommended for the MMPI (Church 2001). Exercising caution does not meanminority groups are treated with minor gloves, but rather that a lens of understanding is in place and that can come about as a result of the test makers and assessors informing themselves. Otherwise an IQ tests validity for minority groups is at issue.Pre- modern, modern and postmodern frames of reference have all helped shape important, contemporary psychological theories and issues. Accordingly, I have attempted in a reflective manner to revisit the areas of psychologys history we covered in course. If psychology as a profession is to continue to grow and develop, it will occur through a similar process of reflection, followed by action. It is important for psychology to know its origins, its history and respective story. However, in realization of the depth of ethnocentric monoculturalism, its leadership, particularly in the APA, must act on the call to bring about the inclusion of more minorities. Otherwise, the oppressive stain of monoculturalism shall abound and continue to blemish the profession we hold dear.ReferencesAngell, J.R. (1904). Psychology. New York Holt.Church, A.T. (2001). Personality measurement in cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Personality, 69, 979-1006.Danner, N. (2011). Psychology ORG5001 survey of psych ology I. capital of Massachusetts Pearson Learning Solutions.Freud, S. (1924) A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. New York Washington Square Press (reprinted 1952).Glassman, W (Ed.). (2000) Approaches to psychology. Philadelphia turn over University Press. Goodwin, C.J. (2009) A history of modern psychology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ Wiley. Gross, R. (Ed.). (1996) Psychology, the study of mind and behavior. London Hodder Stoughton.Kassin, S., (2008). Psychology in Modules ORG 5002 Survey of psychology II. New York Pearson Custom Publishing.Rogers, C.R. (1961) On becoming a person. Boston Houghton Mifflin. Smith, D. (1982) Trends in discuss and psychology. American Psychologist, 37, 802809. Watson, J.B. (1913) Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 15877. Watson, J.B. Rayneer, R. (1920) Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14.Wozniak,R. (1992) nous and body Ren Descartes to William James. Retrieved from http//www. qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter%206%20MindBody/DUALISM.htm.Yutrzenka, B.A., Todd-Bazemore, E., Caraway, S.J. (1999). Four winds The evolution of culturally inclusive clinical psychology training for Native Americans. internationalist Review of Psychiatry, 11, 129- 135. ProQuest 43479524.