Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was unexpectedly asked for the position of naturalist on board of the ship the H.M.S. Beagle. Darwin would support the captain with geological, mineralogical and biological observations, but would also accompany the captain for the next five years in his room. Upon his return, Darwin was known as a talented and respected geologist and collector of biological samples. He had made a number of important observations, which were the beginning of his development of the theory of evolution through natural selection: a revolutionary biological theory with immeasurable implications for psychology.
Darwin came from a rich and respected family. His father was a doctor, his mother was from a famous family that produced Chinese tableware, and his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (1731- 1802), was one of the most famous intellectual figures of his time. From early on in his live, Darwin possessed two important qualities. First of all, he was very curious and had a love for nature. He was also a warm and sympathetic man, which made him loved with almost everyone he met.
Darwin was sent to a medical school where he learned taxidermy. He didn’t think medications was interesting enough and he had bad memories of this school period. His father therefore placed him at the University of Cambridge, where Darwin was prepped to become an Anglican pastor. Here he became a member of a club called the Gourmet Club. This club was known for their hunt for birds and beasts, which were previously unknown to the taste buds of man. However, this came to an early end when they tried to eat a brown one owl.
Darwin liked geometry, but nevertheless had 'an argument' with binomial theory. Instead, he liked nature, and especially collecting beetles provided him with a lot of fun. He called this his "proof of my zeal." Darwin's enthusiasm for natural history and his friendly personality drew the attention from Cambridge's more scientifically oriented faculty. These people were mainly John Stevens Henslow (1796-1861) and Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873), professors in botany and geology. Darwin went on one of their excursions to the countryside and spent a lot of time with Henslow. After graduating in 1831, he went to the north of Wales for a summer for a geological tour with Sedgwick.
Darwin's journey on the Beagle began in December 1831. Darwin devised a sample bag, which he dragged behind the ship and in which he caught thousands of sea creatures he subsequently examined and classified. He read about geology, geography and biology. He kept a detailed diary in which he described his observations and thoughts. The crew called him 'the philosopher'. After two years, they had only investigated the east coast of South America, after which the Beagle went on for two more years along the west coast before they embarked on their long journey towards the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. The journey lasted a total of 5 years.
During the first months at sea, Darwin read the 'Principles of Geology', written by Charles Lyell. This book promoted a theory called uniformitarianism: the most important characteristics of the earth are the result of gradual processes, which took place over an immeasurable one amount of time. And in the present it happens just as much as in the past. Lyell disputed the, then predominant, alternative theory of catastrophism, which stated that geological features arise as a result of a few relatively sudden and enormous natural disasters or catastrophes on the earth’s surface. Part of the attraction of catastrophism was the compatibility of it with a literal interpretation of the Bible. For instance, the great flood represents the main geological natural disaster, such as a tsunami. Catastrophism also corresponded well with the, then generally accepted, estimate of the age of the earth as only about 6,000 years, such as calculated by the Irish archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). He did this by adding up the ages of the patriarchs from the Old Testament after Adam and Eve, as given in the Bible. Uniformitarianism required an immensely longer period of time for gradual processes that mountains have formed and cause other cumulative effects.
Before the departure of Darwin, Henslow and Sedgwick encouraged him to read Lyell's book the reading and thinking about it, but not believing in it. Still, Darwin became increasingly involved the impression. For example, he found fossils of sea animals high in the Andes region and an earthquake Chile caused parts of the coast to suddenly be a few feet higher than the sea level than before. Comparative events were more common over an immeasurable period in the time, as described by uniformitarianism. Darwin wrote these findings and sent them his work to Lyell and other geologists. This gave him the reputation in England as an influential geological observer and led to a scientific opinion in favour of it uniformitarianism. Darwin also assumed that the earth was already very old, what a necessary condition for his later evolution theory.
Darwin found, among other things, the megatherium. This fossil had the skeleton of a modern sloth, but the size of a modern elephant. A strange creature of rhinoceros format, but then without horns, he called a toxodon. This and other strange fossils also fascinated the English naturalists. Fossils were important for the uniformitarianism-catastrophism discussion, and the question became how and when the fossils had ended up in the stone. Darwin also collected thousands of living plant and animal species, most of which still unknown among scientists.
While reflecting on his biological findings, he adopted two general lines of thought. Firstly, he regularly asked himself what the possible functions of the found animal properties could be. The changing colour of an octopus to the colour of the background was clear to him. Where other observers saw the behaviour of a certain animal as 'slow' and called it 'stupid', Darwin searched for the use. The sensitivity for the functional adaptation of all biological phenomena later helped him to come to his theory of evolution. His second major thought line started almost accidentally when Darwin began to notice geographical distribution of species. He saw that animals on both sides of the Andes were often totally different each other, despite that the climate and other conditions were generally the same. The giant turtles, for example, showed small but characteristic differences in the forms of their shield, what told an experienced observer informed on which island they were born. Several populations of the common brown finch differed only in the size and shape of their beaks. These standard observations later proved to be of great importance to Darwin when he thought about the possible origin of different animal species.
Darwin wanted to return home in October 1835, especially because he was curious after his family had told him that he was already well known in scientific circles. The samples he sent had remained well preserved, and Henslow had made extracts from passages of his letters and these were published by the Cambridge Philosophical Society: Darwin's first scientific publication.
His book 'Journal of Researches in Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Seen during the Voyages of the H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain FitzRoy, R.N. ', from 1832 to 1836, became an immediate bestseller and established Darwin as a forerunner in his field, and a popular naturalist and traveling writer. In 1837, Darwin began writing down his line of thought. In one of his notebooks he specifically addressed one of the most difficult and controversial questions in biology (sometimes called 'the mystery of the Mysteries'). This question was about how the millions of different animal species who inhabit the earth originally had come to be.
The answer to this question that at that time was accepted was that all types were created at one and the same moment, as one complete and unchangeable entity. Holders of this traditional view argued that the theory is confirmed by the first chapter of Genesis, which states that on the fifth day, God had created "every moving, living being" on earth. The more scientific term for this was the 'argument of design'. This term originally comes from the philosopher / theologian William Paley (1743-1805). According to Paley, the amazingly complicated organs of different animal species are so perfectly constructed and adapted to their function that they must be designed by some kind of powerful and expert designer, or rather 'the hand of God'.
Darwin knew that a similar theory of gradual evolution had already been promoted by his grandfather Erasmus Darwin. In addition, in 1809, the zoologist Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744- 1829), had suggested that species evolved and changed as a result of inherited physical changes, which arose from voluntary training or just no longer using certain organs. For example, the giraffe used to have a shorter neck, which meant that he often had to stretch to get to the leaves. Slowly but surely the muscles stretched further with each generation, which eventually led to the modern giraffe we know now, according to Lamarck.
But despite Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin’s thoughts on the idea of evolution, the theory was by no means accepted among the scientific attention. Erasmus had proposed no way in which this evolution could take even happen and the Lamarck theory did not explain how non-voluntary characteristics (such as camouflage) would occur. In addition, the evolution was also contradictory with the literal description in Genesis of the creation of all species, which was strongly advocated by the Anglican church. So, when Charles Darwin returned from his journey, the idea of evolution was still seen as not respectable and had not yet taken any kind of shape that it could be seriously considered as an alternative to the existing design.
In the months after his return, Darwin concluded that the idea of evolution, or "Transmutation", of species had to be taken seriously. The staggering number of different species in nature, though often only subtly different from each other, seemed to point more on a long existing and still ongoing process over many generations of species, rather than on a single, separate creation of all species. In addition, he personally had observed extinct fossil species that resembled modern species in everything except in size. In addition, there were the Galapagos finches whose distinctly different beak structures suggested that gradual changes and developments across generations were indeed possible. Darwin knew that breeders had managed to create different varieties or breeds of pets, by careful selection of preferential characteristics over many generations. Sheepdogs are an example of such a carefully bred breed.
In the fall of 1838, Darwin suddenly devised a plausible mechanism for the gradual evolving of countless stable species in a natural state, after reading the book "For amusement" by Thomas Malthus. Malthus believed that most people are destined to live in poverty, because their possibilities to enlarge the population are much better than their possibilities to increase food production. Malthus therefore stated that ultimately the population size will exceed food production, which will lead to a general state of scarcity and poverty. This theory took hold of Darwin's imagination. Every species will, left over generations, produce an innumerable amount of individuals. Only a part of them, however, will survive the hardships of their environment and will be capable to breed and continue the species. Those who survive will generally be those individuals who are best adapted to the dangers that occur in the environment. If their adaptive characteristics are hereditary, their offspring will also have these characteristics and survive and procreate in greater numbers than their less advantaged comrades. Darwin had thus finally found a plausible mechanism for the theory of evolution species.
Think of the beaks of the finches. One can assume that one group ended up on an island rich in nuts and seeds, but with a lack of insects hidden in crevices. The finches that are here the greatest chance of survival, had a relatively strong and thick beaks, that were good for the opening and eating of the seeds. This caused that more finches with such a beak survived to breed, which caused a second generation with an average slightly thicker beak than the first generation. After many generations in which this process continued, a stable population of birds with broad and strong beaks evolved. The second group of finches, who had ended up on an island with an environment poor in seeds and nuts, but richer in insects, underwent an opposite process. Darwin therefore suggested that different environments inevitably and constantly impose a natural selection on their inhabitants, making the survival and reproduction of their species disproportionately favoured to certain individuals. The "nature", or the environment, will constantly select the individuals that survive the best and allow those to reproduce. These selective effects of nature are ruthless and can go for countless generations (very different from the animal breeder), leading to the creation of a stable, species as a whole, instead of a short-lived breed or variety.
Darwin thus did not only see ‘nature' (that is, the presence or absence of food, competitors, predators and the other ever-changing requirements of the environment) as a restriction to the unlimited growth of a population. He also saw nature as the power that selects which individuals, with which hereditary characteristics, have the greatest chance of survival and reproduction. Looking at the enormously long time (where the new geological uniformity theory suggests a period of at least millions of years instead of thousands years), changes and variations in the natural environment were localized, countless changes in selection must have been produced. This would lead to the gradual evolution of countless different species. So the natural selection provides the 'motor', or the mechanism, that is theoretically needed to support an evolutionary process.
Darwin knew that his theory would not be accepted so quickly, partly because it was a theory that brought disturbing assumptions about the role of man in nature. The Bible sees man in a separate category from the animals, but Darwin saw anatomical similarities with many animals and placed man in the ecological system. In 1842 and 1844, he wrote summaries of the theory, but did not publish them. He told only a handful of reliable friends, including the geologist Lyell and botanist Joseph Hooker (1817-1911), about his belief in evolution. Not until 1856, eighteen years after his first inspiration, Darwin found that he had enough evidence for his theory to publish it. He started working on a work titled 'Natural Selection', which he expected to contain about 3,000 pages.
However, in 1858 Darwin was brutally disturbed by a letter and a manuscript from the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. While Wallace was recovering from malaria, he had thought of a new evolution theory, and wrote about it to Darwin. Shocked, Darwin read the letter Wallace sent him about a theory that was originally his. He did not know how to respond to this and forwarded the manuscript to Lyell and Hooker, who had insisted on it before that he had to publish his theory before anyone else did. His friends arranged one honourable compromise. Excerpts from the unpublished summary of Darwin from 1844 and the Wallace's new paper would both be read, in the absence of both authors, on the next meeting of the Linnean Society. This is a reputable organization dedicated to researching and classifying plants and animals. Because of this the development of the evolution theory of natural selection was officially shared in July 1858 by Darwin and Wallace. Ironically, however, little attention was paid to it and even in the official report stated that nothing important had been discovered that year.
Darwin wanted to support his theory with a lot of evidence. Now his 'secret theory', however, was unveiled, he wanted to quickly publicize the theory publicly. This did not necessarily have to be with his thousands of pages of 'Natural Selection', but a long enough work to illustrate the strength of the theory. That is why he spent a year writing 'On the Origin of Species by Means or Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life '. This book, with 490 pages, was published in 1859 and became the most influential book of the century. Although the book is mainly about plants and animals, a debate arose as to whether or not people stood separate from this development and were a special creation from God, or actually were "descendants of the apes."
The kind Darwin himself refrained from the polemics (a 'written war'), but found a particularly strong supporter in Thomas Henry Huxley. Huxley was an expert in it the anatomy of primates and wrote Darwin with conviction right after he had read 'Origin of Species'. He was called the "Darwin’s Bulldog" after he, among other things, defended the natural selection in a debate in 1860 against Samual Wilberforce, the bishop of Oxford.
A year later, two new scientific discoveries were made. First, fossils of the extinct archeopteryx were found, the oldest bird ever to have existed. This being had 'fingers' on it his wings and vertebrae and a tail like a reptile. Darwin had previously speculated that the birds had evolved from the reptiles, so with this discovery his theory was supported. Then, in1861, an African discoverer restored the skulls and stuffed the bodies of gorillas. The gorilla turned out to be anatomically very similar to humans. These discoveries 'proved' nothing for the evolution and related species but that it did provide clues that supported the credibility of the theory really helped. Further evidence followed quickly, and within a few years, the arguments of the Origin were generally accepted by an overwhelming majority of expert researchers.
In 'Origin of Species' Darwin added a short and prophetic paragraph in which he suggested that the human mental qualities can ultimately be seen as the result of evolution. In the next decade, he left the elaboration of this idea to others, including his cousin Francis Galton (1822-1911), which is discussed more in the next chapter. Darwin did not pay much attention to psychology, but in 1870 he published 'The Descent of Man', in 1871 'Selection in Relation to Sex', in 1872 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals' and in 1877 'A Biographical Sketch of an Infant'.
In the end, Darwin described in 'The Descent of Man' that people are the descendants of animal ancestors. He opened this argument with the structural similarities between people and the higher class of animals, for example similarities in bones, muscles, blood vessels, intestines, nerves and "the most important of all organs", the brain. All these features place homo sapiens very likely in the domain of physically evolving species. Hereafter, Darwin wanted show that there is no fundamental difference between humans and higher mammals in mental abilities such as courage and kindness. For example, he stated that dogs show much of the same range of emotions as people, such as jealousy, pride, shame and even a form of humour. Animals show memory, attention and curiosity and because dogs can also dream, visible in their running and wagging while they sleep, also can be stated that they have the ability of imagination. In addition, Darwin stated that animals show the basic principles of reason, the only characteristic of the soul that Descartes had exclusively attributed to mankind. They benefit from learning from experience, communicate with each other through sound and gestures and appreciate 'beauty', clearly sporting preferences for different body markings and embellishments. After having considered many of these examples, Darwin concluded categorically: "The difference in spirit between humans and higher mammals, however large it is, there is clearly one of gradations and not of kind ".
The Victorian century in Great Britain is known for the extreme differences in attitudes and beliefs about race and the causes of ethnic differences. One of the extremes was the polygenists, who argued that the non-European, "wild" people clearly are a different kind of beings. The monogenists, on the other hand, believed in the shared origin and kinship of all human groups, although they also observed widely varying theories for to explain the racial or ethnic differences among themselves. Some, for example, attributed these differences mainly to the environment and to cultural variables, while others believed the African groups descended from the Biblical Ham, the son of Noah. They state that their offspring are cursed by God and condemned to slavery by the offspring of Noah's other sons.
Darwin was a strong supporter of the monogenist position. According to Darwin, there existed also no doubt that the environmental and educational variables were very important the production of individual differences between people and that mainly slavery had had a terrible effect on its victims. During his journey aboard the Beagle Darwin was appalled by the relations between masters and slaves on Brazilian plantations. He concluded that the character of the slaves was generally superior to that of their white ones masters, who he called the 'polished barbarians' as they oppressed and belittled their slaves. Darwin saw skin colour as a natural adaptation to different exposures to direct sunlight.
The full title of Darwin's book was "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex." The last part of this title contains the controversial topic: the issue of differences between men and women. In his book, he called this sexual selection: the gradual selection and evolution of characteristics that are particularly beneficial for reproductive success. To pass on genetic material, one must not only physically survive but also form couples in order to reproduce. Men and women are a preference for a certain kind of life partner, creating a pressure for a certain type of beauty to evolve. Darwin believed that sexual selection also influenced human evolution, resulting in a number characteristic mental and physical differences between the sexes. Darwin's faith in the different emotional dispositions of men and women reflect his acceptance of the Victorian idea of complementarity of the sexes. This was the belief that men and women evolved and had different, but complementary, psychological characteristics. Women had a greater chance to be sensitive and caring, and men were competitive and ambitious. Despite his impartiality in attributing positive mental qualities to women, Darwin was unambiguous when it came to intellectual qualities. He assumed a general male intellectual superiority. Darwin argued that men have changed more through evolution than women and as a result show more mutual variation. According to this variation hypothesis for example, the range of men of different lengths are greater than in women, when you measure the length of populations of adult men and women. Darwin wrote that the cause of this greater variation among men was unknown. He did not fit this idea explicitly on the intellectual differences between men and women. Others, however, did, claiming that in a large population of men there are more cases of extremely high intelligence, compared with a comparable group of women.
In 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals', Darwin wrote that human emotional expressions are possibly hereditary and evolved properties, which can best be described as the direct or indirect consequences or reactions that have an adaptive or survival value. Some emotional expressions seemed obvious, like someone making big eyes when they are surprised can help with the more complete and clear vision of the surprising object. The adaptive the value of other expressions is less clearly distinguishable, as these expressions probably arose because they are the direct opposite of an evolutionary useful response. Darwin concluded that the three general principles (direct usability of expression, opposites, and direct activation of the nervous system) can apply to all emotional expressions in animals and people.
An important goal of the book was to show that while some human reactions do not have a clear survival function anymore, they did in the past. Blushing, for example, was the result of multiple collaborative but perfectly understandable animal reactions, which possibly has to do with more striking body parts that come under conscious attention. This is an example of how this book assumed that people possess many residual properties of animals. Darwin also described that all known human groups have similar emotional expressions.
Five years after 'The Expression of the Emotions' Darwin remembered a detailed log that he had kept track of his firstborn child. Thirty - seven years later, he looked at his notes on the many reflexes of his son and published a rewritten piece of ten pages. Nowadays this work is still seen as a milestone in the history of child psychology. This paper also dealt with the role that instinctive reflexes, habits, emotions play in adapting to a child’s surroundings. Darwin saw the development of his son as the gradual strengthening, an increase of complexity, and a fusion of the originally simple and isolated actions. Take language for example: only after hearing and understanding words for a certain period of time would his son be able to form and invent new meaningful words. He suggested that the development of an individual is roughly along the same lines as the evolution of the species what this individual belongs to. While learning language, his son accelerated through the same phases where pre-human ancestors presumably went through. That is why Darwin suggest that each individual, in one way or another, still finds the remains within them of the principles of their long evolutionary past. This was also another element of his general argument for evolution.
Darwin became a rich man, and in his comfortable study, he wrote a number of important books, especially about plants. Each book helped to strengthen his theory of evolution. However, he became seriously ill, and no one knew what the diagnosis was, so he did not go out anymore. He eventually died of heart disease.
Shortly after Darwin's death, social Darwinism was founded. However, despite having Darwin's name for the movement, credit was just as much due to the productive philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820- 1903). They also held a number of ideas that Darwin did not support. Spencer was already a supporter of Lamarck's theory of evolution, even before Darwin’s Origin written, and wrote 'Principles of Psychology' in 1855. In the ambitious "synthetic philosophy" program, Spencer made an effort to classify of the various disciplines of biology, psychology, sociology and anthropology under one principle evolutionary view. He stated that individual organisms, species, political systems and entire societies are the same in the concept that they all have a tendency to evolve from relatively simple and homogeneous entities into more complex and heterogeneous entities. He believed that such evolution produced a very popular "progress", assuming that by the unrestrained competition among individuals, only the strongest survived. The strongest could then maintain the species. Progress of all animal species should be maximized by societies and governments that allowed free competition. Darwin was somewhat reluctant towards Spencer and his synthetic philosophy.
Within the developing discipline of psychology, Darwin had a more permanent and positive influence. Just before his death he gave his younger friend George J. Romanes (1848-1894) full access to his notes on animal behaviour. Romanes added these notes to his own research and published two ground breaking books: 'Animal Intelligence' (1882) and 'Mental Evolution in Animals' (1883). Romanes described his work as comparative psychology, a name that was chosen as an analogy of the established discipline of comparative anatomy. Romanes argued that the research on the similarities and differences between multiple animal / psychological functions might shed light on their human counterparts, on the same way that the research on physical structures did. Within the human psychology, Darwin's theory demanded that the mind and behaviour, in general, no longer could be viewed as a static, "given" fact. Both could only be described and analysed.
Christine Ladd-Franklin introduced work within the field of visual sensation (from chapter 5) with a Darwinian perspective by stating that the different "components" of colour perception occurs at various points in evolutionary development: first black and white, then blue-yellow and finally red-green. After Darwin, the human psychology became more focused on variability and differences between people, instead of their generality and similarities.
The American Paul Ekman states that there are actually universal emotion expressions, namely the facial expressions that show fear, anger, envy, sadness and pleasure. Nowadays, the central question is whether evolution goes gradually, as Darwin believed, or suddenly and in dramatic "leaps". The explanation of unselfish (altruistic) behaviour led to a different debate between evolutionary theorists. When individuals risk their own lives for another, logically this can be seen as a selective disadvantage compared to completely egocentric individuals. That is why the question arises why altruism, a seemingly "non-adaptive" characteristic, does not disappear due to natural selection. A possible explanation is that what that evolves is the group as a whole and not the individual. Another explanation is that the genes of someone who shows altruistic behaviour and the person to whom this is shown, strong have similar genes, so these genes are not 'exterminated'. This last idea comes among others from E.O. Wilson's 'Socio-biology: The New Synthesis' in 1975 and from the bestseller of Richard Dawkins 'The Selfish Gene' in 1976. This basic approach, which tries to explain social behavioural characteristics as a result of individual but interacting genes that replicate itself through successive generations, is described as socio-biology.
The field known as evolutionary psychology was developed. The practitioners of this psychology go beyond that of socio-biology, they freely use all aspects of the modern evolutionary theory to think up empirically researchable hypotheses about human behaviour. In drawing up these hypotheses, they take the idea that the environment in which we life now differs greatly from the environment our ancestors lived in. This idea infers that some human behavioural and psychological characteristics may have been necessary in the past, even though they are no longer useful now. In 1992, the book 'The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture’ was written, and in 1997 came the book "How the Mind Works'. The evolutionary perspective remains an essential and vivid aspect of the modern psychological investigations and in the development of theories.
Introduction to the book Pioneers of Psychology - Pioneers of Psychology - Fancher & Rutherford Historiography is the official term for the concept of writing about history, but it is difficult to determine when 'the history of psychology' exactly begun. Psychology, as a field of study, did not become an independent department within universities until the mid-nineteenth century, yet it was not uncommon for man to give thought to the mind and behaviour. General psychological and philosophical theories already arose in ancient times and these ancient theories can also be relevant for modern psychology still.
Over the last century, psychology has become one of the largest scientific studies there is. Within its stream, many sub-disciplines have arisen, some of which are related to each other. Every one of these branches has its own history, but it is sadly impossible to fully treat all of these different histories in a book.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Francis Galton (1822-1911) and B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) have not only each left behind their well-known, published works, but also a lot of unpublished data. These unpublished works included background stories and information about their private lives that influenced their scientific work. This interaction between biographical and theoretical factors led to a greater appreciation and understanding of the abstract work and thinking they performed.
This is why this book contains a more personalistic way of writing. The goal is to give an accurate representation or important psychological ideas, which get more meaning when viewed in the context of the scientists' lives. In result, it will become clear how modern ideas have come about. The theories that we know now of as incorrect can become more understandable when seen in the view point of the researcher and it will be made clear how these theories have led to progress.
The pioneers in this book had to fulfil three criteria. Firstly, they must have been important for the development or psychological thinking. Secondly, because the ideas in this book are presented in the context of the life of the researcher, biographical information must also be available. In addition, the pioneers needed to have contributed to the broad field of psychology in a meaningful way.
For instance, Plato, known for his nativist conception of the brain, and Aristotle, known for his empirical view and observations, are not addressed in this book due to a severe lack of biographical information. Therefore, our starting point will be René Descartes, at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Though excluded, Aristotle and Plato do return in René Descartes’ work, thus giving an overview of the important ideas of the ancient Greeks. Chapter one will portray his theories about body
.....read more Why does one study history of psychology? – Chapter 0Studying history offers the opportunity to take a step outside the internal mechanisms of the discipline of psychology. This can help you to see how all the elements have evolved in relation to specific problems.
A second advantage of studying history is seeing how ideas that we see as old or incorrect today, actually seem logical within their original context. This can help to better evaluate current psychological findings. This historical awareness can also contribute to your personal ability to critically evaluate contemporary ideas.
A third reason is that it helps us to appreciate the 'reflexive' nature of the field. Reflexivity refers to the human ability to become aware of and reflect on your own activities. This reflection can lead to changes in the understanding of yourself.
Psychologists have always been interested in studying their own history. One of the first American texts on the history of psychology appeared in 1912: Founders of Modern Psychology, by G. Stanley Hall. Another early text was A History of Experimental Psychology, published in 1929 by Boring. He wanted to strengthen the status of psychology as an experimental science.
It is clear that the history of psychology has the interest of psychologists for various reasons. In the US, John Watson was very influential. He was trained as a clinical psychologist but decided in 1959 to dedicate himself solely to the history of psychology. He published an article titled History of Psychology: A Neglected Area, resulting that in 1965, a department of the APA arose that devoted itself to history: division 26.
Historiography is the technical term for writing about history, but it can also refer to historical work. Some historians solely focus on the development of important ideas and their intellectual and disciplinary contexts, neglecting the social and political factors that played a role in them.
This distinction is called internalism versus externalism. Most historians try to find a balance between these two positions. Some adopt what they call the 'Great Man Approach', in which history is told by the contributions of important people in the field. In this case, external factors are often ignored. The Zeitgeist approach takes into account the fact that the ‘spirit of time’ can influence someone's ideas. In this book, a balance is maintained between the internalistic and externalist stand point, and between the Great Man and the Zeitgeist approach.
Some historians use presentism, which means they try to view a subject from the present and explain current circumstances by emphasizing that we have made progress thanks to our ancestors. Others adopt the perspective of historicism and try to see
.....read more Foundational ideas from the Antiquity - Chapter 1
Plato (424-347 BC) came from a wealthy family in Athens and was schooled mainly by sophists. Plato, however, wanted a modest teacher and found Socrates (470-399 BC). Socrates claimed that his only special wisdom was that he was aware of much he didn’t know. He wanted his students to appreciate what was true and permanent instead of temporary and popular.
He did this by conducting dialogues with his students, to discover their inner capacities of finding truths. The fact that Plato chose Socrates and, therefore, philosophy still has consequences to this day. Socrates didn’t leave any written documents of his thoughts because, according to him, trusting in writing weakened the faculties of memory and serious thinking. Plato, however, made many written accounts of him: the Socratic dialogues. These emphasize the importance of the higher capacities of rational thinking and mathematical reasoning.
The dialogues became the source of nativism - in which the innate is important, opposite to acquired qualities - and of rationalism, in which reason is emphasized. When Plato was 30, he founded the Academy, a place where pupils of different ages and interests could pursue their intellectual goals.
In 367 BC, Aristotle (384-322 BC) arrived at said Academy and became a top student. At the age of 37, he left again. Aristotle placed much more emphasis than Plato on the systematic observation of the natural, empirical world of the senses. He became the first supporter of empiricism - the notion that true knowledge is obtained from sensory experiences of the external world.
400 years before Plato's time, settlers from Greece spread and collected writings from wealthy Greek-speaking colonies. These colonies were developed very differently and had founded different types of governments. The Greeks, however, were all very proud of their language, and thought of all who spoke a language other than Greek as barbarians.
Shortly before Socrates began teaching, Protagoras (490-420 BC) claimed that it was useless to speculate on big questions such as the ultimate nature and layout of the universe. He was a sophist and focused on purely human experiences and behaviour. The sophists tried to understand people.
Hippocrates (460-370 BC) is often mentioned as a pre-Socratic, and, like Protagoras and the Sophists, he dealt with everyday human concerns. However, Hippocrates was mainly a physicist. He attracted a school of students and followers, called the Hippocrats, who together produced many medical writings known as the Hippocratic Corpus. In this, diseases were described as natural phenomena, instead of the result of demons or supernatural influences. The Hippocrats had a ‘humoral’ theory to explain health and viewed disease as the result of the disbalance or four prominent fluids in the human body: blood, yellow bile, black
.....read more Philosophy of the mind: what are the thoughts of Descartes, Locke and Leibniz? - Chapter 2René Descartes moved Paris in 1615, in the midst of an identity crisis. He did not think of his elite education as valuable because it had been too focused on the past. He also found it depressing that philosophy had never produced anything that was doubtful or uncertain. He became one of the first influential thinkers to have fully mechanical explanations for the traditional functions of the sensitive psyche or soul of Aristotle. Descartes described the human mind and body as two cooperating, yet different entities. According to him, both need their own analysis and explanation.
Descartes (1596-1650) was born in La Haye in France. He grew up with his grandmother. His father was a wealthy lawyer, but Descartes had little close ties with his family. His intelligence was noticed by his father, after which he sent his son to the most progressive school in France.
Young Descartes learned about a science which was dominated by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). The Aristotelian view of the universe placed the earth in the middle, surrounded by a number of rotating crystalline globes, namely the planets in our solar system, the moon, the sun and the stars. The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) published a book in 1543, in which he assumed that not the earth, but the sun was the centre of the system. His view was not taken seriously, however.
Descartes convinced his teachers that he could think best if he meditated in bed, allowing him to stay in bed all morning while other students were already working. When he left La Flèche at age 16, he was the best student of the best school in the country. He then migrated to Paris, and got influenced by Marin Mersenne, a French monk who offered Descartes intellectual and personal support. In 1618, he went into the army to see if the practical experiences of the "real world" would provide more satisfactory knowledge. The actual war had not started yet, so Descartes experienced seven months of boredom and learned quickly that the military had no more useful knowledge than scholars did.
A turning point for Descartes was when he met Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637) in the Netherlands, a physician and internationally known mathematician. He became a mentor to Descartes and helped him to get back his intellectual interest. With his support, Descartes wrote his first scholarly work, an essay about music. When Beeckman had to leave Breda, Descartes went with him, and during the trip to the south he got two insights. According to a legend, the inspiration came when he saw a fly humming in the corner of his room. He suddenly realized that the position of the fly at any time can be exactly determined by
.....read more Physiologists of the mind: which important scientists examined the brain in the period between Gall and Penfield? - Chapter 3Nowadays, we see the brain as the organ responsible for our intelligence and higher mental possibilities. However, it took about 200 years before this concept was accepted. Aristotle could hardly believe how a bloodless, numb and generally not impressive-looking organ could be the source of the highest human faculties. He supposed these functions were to be contributed to the heart. Descartes saw a number of important functions in the brain, however attributed the greatest functions to the rational soul.
Locke's teacher, Thomas Willis (1621-1675), paid more attention to the brain and was in 1664 the first to accurately publish a detailed work about it, named 'Anatomy of the Brain'. Willis saw that the brain tissue was not undifferentiated, as Aristotle thought, but consisted of two kinds of substances. Firstly, there is a fleshy, grey mass that forms the outer layer, also know as the cortex, (the inner part of the spinal cord and several discrete centres within the brain). Secondly, there is a fibrous white mass in the other areas. He speculated that this white mass consisted of narrow channels whose function is to distribute the "souls" that are created in the grey mass. In addition, he also accurately described the blood vessels in the brain, which proved that the brain is not a bloodless organ. Other doctors discovered that strokes can occur in the brain, and that, in case of injuries on one side of the brain, there are often paralysis or loss of feeling on the other side of the body. However, the brain only really became a topic of interest around 1800, in which the German physiologist Franz Josef Gall (1758-1828) played a big part.
Gall confirmed and developed many of Willis' basic ideas about the grey and white matter. He showed that the two halves of the brain are linked by stems of white matter that are called commissures and that other, narrower pieces of white fibres connect the two halves of the brain to the opposite sides of the spinal cord. This helped explain why damage on one side of the brain can lead to paralysis on the other side of it body. He also showed that the brain is in fact the centre for higher mental activity (by describing that animals with a larger brain tend to be more complex, more flexible and display more intelligent behaviour). Gall's anatomical findings were the basis for the later discovery that the brain and spinal cord consist of billions of neurons. Neurons are connected by dendrites, which receive signals from other neurons via axons. Axons tend to cluster together and thus form the white matter, while the cell bodies and dendrites form the grey matter.
Gall was also
.....read more The sensing and perceptive spirit: which developments took place in this area in the period between Kant and the Gestalt psychologists? - Chapter 4The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) became known because of what he called 'my dogmatic slumbers'. He was trained in the Leibnizian tradition and had written before on subjects such as the origin of God and the difference between absolute and relative space. He was stimulated by one of John Locke's successors to start thinking about 'critical philosophy’, which ultimately led to subtle but crucial changes in how Germany, until then, thought about humanity and nature.
It was the Scotsman David Hume who caused Kant to become inspired to bring empiricism and associationism to an extreme. In addition, he started the logical status of the causal connection (the intuitive belief that certain events are directly 'caused' by certain other prior events).
They started from a cause, which implied a necessary consecutive relationship between certain preconditions and subsequent events. It also suggests that when we observe events, we immediately attribute causality to them. Hume brought this assumption, however, in doubt. He states that 'causality' is nothing more than that we expect events that took place in a certain way in the past, will occur in the same way in the future. The supposed connection between the events is never directly observed, so causality only has a probable rather than an absolute base.
From a practical point of view, these considerations make no difference. People thrive best in the real world by anticipating regularities in nature, whether or not this causality is genuine or assumed. For a philosopher like Kant, who dealt with the essential nature of human knowledge, this matter was crucial. Kant responded to this challenge with a simple but revolutionary variant of the nativist argument. He argued that even though causality could not be proven to exist in the external world, it nevertheless seemed to be an inevitable part of our experience. Therefore, according to him, it will be an innate quality in our minds.
He assumed two separate domains of reality, one complete within the human mind and one complete out there. The external or noumenal world consists of things-in-itself: objects in a pure state of independence of human experience. Despite that assuming that a certain object exists and that it interacts with the human mind, the noumenal world can never directly being seen. When this object encounters the human spirit, said spirit transforms the object into the inner or phenomenal world. The term phenomenal comes from the Greek phainomenon, meaning 'appearance', and reflects Kant’s argument that people never directly experience the true reality of things-in-themselves. Instead they experience a number of 'apparitions' or 'phenomena', which are the creation of an active mind who experiences the noumenal world.
To create this phenomenal world, the Kantian spirit inevitably follows a certain amount
.....read more How did Wundt develop experimental psychology? - Chapter 5The German Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) developed a "Thought-meter" to test the assumed assumption that, when two different stimuli reach our senses at the same moment (for example, when we hear someone speak and at the same time see his lips moving), we also become aware of both stimuli at the same time. On page 174 is his 'thought-meter' with an explanation. When Wundt tested himself, he concluded that he had not consciously experienced visual and visual stimuli at the same time, despite the fact that they took place simultaneously. Instead separate moments of attention were needed. Wundt acknowledged that, like Herman Helmholtz and Gustav Fechner, that he now had a clear psychological process subject to experimentally study, while Kant had implied that this was impossible. Wundt therefore suggested that there was sufficient ground for setting up a new field of experimental psychology. This possibility he introduced in his book from 1862, ‘Contributions to the Theory of Sensory Perception’. He is still seen as the father of modern academic and experimental psychology today.
Wundt was born in a small village in Germany, where his father was a pastor. The family had good academic connections. As a child, Wilhelm got malaria, after which his parents decided to move to Heidelberg, with a healthier climate. He grew up as an only child and was often picked on. Wilhelm was a real daydreamer, and his first year in high school became a complete failure. Wundt's parents sent him to Heidelberg to live with his aunt and brother Ludwig. Here he found more connection with peers. However, he did not receive a scholarship to the University. Under the supervision of his uncle Arnold, professor of anatomy and physiology he did, however, have academic success.
Wundt's first experiment was led by the German chemist Robbert Bunsen (1811- 1899), and in 1854 he won a gold medal from the university for examining the effect of the nervus vagus on the breathing. Years later, Wundt worked as an assistant to Helmholtz. The 'thought-meter' was very similar to Helmholtz's work on the speed of nerve impulses. Astronomers had problems with the reaction speed for years. According to Helmholtz personal comparisons and differences arise because there are individual differences in the length of a person's sensory and motor nerves, or in the speed in which the nerves send impulses. It is also possible that the differences arise due to the speed of the central processing in the brain. He could demonstrate this with his thought-meter.
Wundt believed that his discovery, that stimuli are first registered in consciousness responded to it, supported the general philosophical tradition of Leibniz. This is a psychology that explains the receptive and creative qualities of the mind itself, beyond the influence of external stimuli in creating
.....read more The evolving mind: what psychological developments did Darwin bring? - Chapter 6Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was unexpectedly asked for the position of naturalist on board of the ship the H.M.S. Beagle. Darwin would support the captain with geological, mineralogical and biological observations, but would also accompany the captain for the next five years in his room. Upon his return, Darwin was known as a talented and respected geologist and collector of biological samples. He had made a number of important observations, which were the beginning of his development of the theory of evolution through natural selection: a revolutionary biological theory with immeasurable implications for psychology.
Darwin came from a rich and respected family. His father was a doctor, his mother was from a famous family that produced Chinese tableware, and his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (1731- 1802), was one of the most famous intellectual figures of his time. From early on in his live, Darwin possessed two important qualities. First of all, he was very curious and had a love for nature. He was also a warm and sympathetic man, which made him loved with almost everyone he met.
Darwin was sent to a medical school where he learned taxidermy. He didn’t think medications was interesting enough and he had bad memories of this school period. His father therefore placed him at the University of Cambridge, where Darwin was prepped to become an Anglican pastor. Here he became a member of a club called the Gourmet Club. This club was known for their hunt for birds and beasts, which were previously unknown to the taste buds of man. However, this came to an early end when they tried to eat a brown one owl.
Darwin liked geometry, but nevertheless had 'an argument' with binomial theory. Instead, he liked nature, and especially collecting beetles provided him with a lot of fun. He called this his "proof of my zeal." Darwin's enthusiasm for natural history and his friendly personality drew the attention from Cambridge's more scientifically oriented faculty. These people were mainly John Stevens Henslow (1796-1861) and Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873), professors in botany and geology. Darwin went on one of their excursions to the countryside and spent a lot of time with Henslow. After graduating in 1831, he went to the north of Wales for a summer for a geological tour with Sedgwick.
Darwin's journey on the Beagle began in December 1831. Darwin devised a sample bag, which he dragged behind the ship and in which he caught thousands of sea creatures he subsequently examined and classified. He read about geology, geography and biology. He kept
.....read more Measuring the mind: what are Galton's thoughts about individual differences? - Chapter 7London's International Health Exhibition of 1884 was characterized by a remarkable exhibition called the anthropometric laboratory that drew many spectators. These spectators became test subjects in this laboratory and eventually received some comparative information about themselves. The devices in it laboratory tested the test subjects different ways and gave them their score and the average score of the previous test subjects.
At that time, these tests were seen as mental tests to measure aspects of intelligence. Today, we see that intelligence uses "higher" mental processes, such as thinking, reasoning and logic. Nevertheless, the creator of these tests, Francis Galton, argued that the people with the highest intellectual possibilities, logically also had the most powerful and most efficient nervous systems and brains. He thought that the powers of one's brain was possibly in relation to its size. So the first test to measure the supposed intelligence of a person was to measure size of one’s head.
He also thought that someone's neurological effectiveness should be related to the speed in which this person can respond to something, therefore there was also a test of response time. He believed in two incorrect, but then generally accepted prejudices, which according to him proved a major correlation between sensory acuteness and intelligence. The first prejudice was that people with intellectual disabilities have both a sensory and intellectual disability. The second bias stated that women were generally less intelligent than men and that they can perceive things less vividly.
Fechner's psychophysics had studied the limitations of sensory discrimination and the Wundtian mental chronometry experiments had carefully measured the reaction time. But these previous studies only focused on established, general psychological principles that apply to all people, while individual differences in sharpness of mind or response time were avoided or rejected. The founder of the Anthropometric Laboratory assumed a Darwinian framework in which variability and adaptation were included. Individual differences in sharpness and reaction time were not "errors" or "irregularities" that were to be avoided but instead were the basic mechanism of evolution and therefore an important subject of interest. The anthropometric laboratory led to the development of the psychology of individual differences. This is a discipline that focuses on measuring variations between people at certain psychological characteristics.
Francis Galton (1822-1911) was the younger cousin and friend of Charles Darwin. He was a curious person and was discoverer, geographer, meteorologist and a biological researcher before he turned his attention to measuring intelligence and other psychological attributions. Many of his psychological ideas (such as his theory of measuring intelligence) were found to be incorrect and too simple. He was, however, the pioneer who came up with the idea that tests can be used to measure psychological differences between people. In
.....read more American pioneers: what are the thoughts of James, Hall, Calkins and Thorndike? - Chapter 8It became clear at the conference in Munich in 1896 that psychology was slowly becoming a respected scientific and academic discipline. The two professors who were responsible for this, were sadly not there: Wilhelm Wundt and William James (1842-1910). Ironic enough, despite the contribution of both professors to the creation of an intellectual climate, both the professors did not appreciate each other's work. Wundt thought that there was little new information or original content in James’s writing, except for his style, which Wundt called personal and informal (he thought it was beautiful literature, but that it did not fall under psychology). Another reason that Wundt was not all that enthusiastic about James' work, for one was because James also criticized the work of Wundt. The reason for this was in the fact that it took James twelve years old to write his book "The Principles of Psychology ". The two professors each had their own style and stood behind different ones psychology, yet they were two of the most influential professors of their time.
William James was born in New York. He was the eldest child and came from a rich family. During his childhood and adolescence, he regularly moved with his family around in Europe and America. His father, Henry James Sr., had suffered a restless life and experienced regular anxiety attacks. After he had recovered, he focused on teaching his children and he searched for the best place to do so. Despite that he never actually found this perfect place, all four children remained highly motivated to study.
James had a talent for drawing and art, but because the subject was rejected by his father, he was sent to Harvard in 1861 to study chemistry. At Harvard, he shifted his attention from chemistry to physiology and in 1864 he registered himself at the medical school. A year later ,he interrupted his studies to go on an expedition, supervised by Louis Agassiz (1807- 1873). Agassiz was a biologist and one of the most outspoken critics of Darwin's book 'Origin or Species'. During this trip, James found out that biology was not suitable for him anyway and he returned home.
James convinced his father in 1867 to let him go to Germany, for the mineral baths that were good for his back among other reasons. But after a series of events in 1870, he experienced his first anxiety attack as well and he had trouble recovering from it. Until he read an article about free will in 1870, written by the French philosopher Charles Renouvier (1815-1903). Because of this he started to believe in free will. Also an article about customs ('habits') written by the philosopher and psychologist Alexander
.....read more Psychology as behavioural science: how is this area affected by Pavlov, Watson and Skinner? - Chapter 9Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) was interested in the congenital and reflexive saliva reactions in dogs, which he first called psychic secretions. It was about this saliva that arose automatically and involuntarily once there food was nearby. Pavlov saw that when dogs had become accustomed to the routine of the laboratory, they already started to drool as soon as they entered the research room came in. The dogs had associated the research room with food. These reactions were clearly learned and the result of experience and not of innate reflexes.
Pavlov saw himself as a physiologist and did not want to be associated with 'soft' psychology. After reading Sechenov's book, he became inspired enough to define his research into pure define physiological terminology. He called the psychic secretion conditioned reflexes and he called innate reflexes unconditioned reflexes. The relationship between the two could be examined in the laboratory and interpreted in physiological terms. Although Pavlov hated psychology, psychologists were interested showed for his work. One of those interested was Watson. He claimed the subject of psychology was the objective, observable behaviour, not the traditional mind and its subjective awareness. Inspired by the conditioned reflex of Pavlov, he became the founder of behaviourism.
As a poor, but gifted student, Pavlov started to study physiology at the University of St. Petersburg. There he focused on the new mechanistic physiology and soon he was known as an exceptionally accurate researcher who even helped doctoral students to get their degree, even before he got his own degree in 1883. Not that he could get started right away: jobs in conducting research were rare. Only after he was forty did he become a professor the St. Petersburg military medical academy, where he set up his own laboratory to carry out his dream: an experimental study into the physiology of the digestion.
Pavlov was known for having two different sides, depending on his environment. In his personal life he was known as naïve, but in the laboratory he was the complete opposite. There he was strict: his animals had to be well fed and the laboratory always had to be well stocked and taken care of. The remarkable thing about his laboratory was its organization. Although he had difficulty organizing his personal life, he succeeded in keeping his laboratory in order very well. Experiments were systematically performed and repeated. New employees were never assigned to a new or independent project, but always had to test existing experiments again. If the new and the old results matched, the new employee could start a new project. Systematic work was something that Pavlov gotten a strain on early on, and that was what he learned to others: working systematically at the gathering of knowledge.
In his laboratory he started studying
.....read more Social psychology: how did this psychology develop in the period after Mesmer? - Chapter 10Johann Joseph Gassner (1727-1779) was a priest who claimed that he could cure disease through exorcism. A lot of patients reported improvement after treatment, but many others thought he was going too far and applied it carelessly. That is why the Viennese physicist Franzz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was asked to investigate the treatments of Gassner. Mesmer could try to cure patients in a similar way, but then through magnetism rather than of supernatural exorcism. Mesmer duplicated the effects of Gassner and stated that the effects were the result of a strong magnetic force. He explained Gassner's results in a naturalistic and scientific way. Gassner was banished and was not allowed to perform any more exorcisms. Mesmer did a number important discoveries about the phenomenon of hypnotism and has made an attempt to explain this scientifically. He also researched the social influence processes.
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was able to cure patients in the same way as Gassner, but he did also provoke a natural force as a therapeutic mechanism, instead of a so-called supernatural exorcism. He healed many patients and explained that this was due to a strong magnetic force that was concentrated in his own body. So he delivered a naturalistic and 'scientific' explanation. Gassner was then exiled and was not allowed to exercise exorcisms any longer. Mesmer made important discoveries about hypnosis, the process creating a mental concentration that leads to a state of high influenceability and tried to explain this in a scientific way. He also did important research in the field of social influence, which have led to many developments in the social psychology.
Of his life before 1766, little is known. In 1766 Mesmer got his doctorate in medicine. Much of his dissertation he had taken over from someone else, but one of the parts that he had not copied was about a force he called animal gravity. He argued that magnetism was caused by a group of invisible and mysterious liquids such as electricity, gravity and gases such as helium. His plagiarism remained unnoticed. He married a rich widow and became an active socialist. He was also a good amateur musician and became friends with Mozart. In 1773, Mesmer began to treat a patient who suffered from periodic seizures consisting of symptoms such as convulsions, vomiting and inflammation. He let his patient swallow some pieces of iron and placed magnets on different parts of her body. Then she felt a certain force through her body,
.....read more The mind in conflict: what does Freud's psychoanalysis mean? - Chapter 11Joseph Breuer and Bertha Pappenheim came up with the "cathartic method" as treatment. In that method. Breuer hypnotized Breuer Pappenheim and asked her to go back to the first times she had experienced a specific physical sensation (such as her symptoms). Hypnotizing made it easier to reach forgotten memories (but only high emotion memories, associated with symptoms). By recovering the forgotten memory, she can release the oppressed emotions. This way the symptoms could disappear.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), friends with Breuer, remembered the method years later tried it out. He found out that it works better than direct hypnosis. Together with Breuer, he wrote the book "Studies on Hysteria", which became the starting point for Freud's new field. He called this field psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis played an important role in the history of the Mental Hygiene Movement and the Child Guidance Clinics. In the book, different cases they showed and brought on the general hypothesis that patients with hysteria suffered this because of their repressed memories. It was not about normal memories, but memories about emotion-laden experiences that were stored in the unconscious, which turned them into a disease ("pathogenic ideas"). Without access to normal consciousness, the emotional energy that accompanies the pathogenic ideas is not expressed in the normal way and thus cannot be released. The stimulus that normally aroused the memories was now used to the pinched emotional energy, causing the hysterical symptoms. The hysterical symptoms were conversions (the transition of emotional information into physical energy). With hypnosis, people can consciously gain access to the pathogenesis ideas, allowing the normal expression of their pinched energy to take place. This is because the cause of the symptoms is directly addressed. One downside is that the "cathartic method" is only applicable to people who can be deeply hypnotized.
Freud grew up as the oldest child in his family, but with half-brothers who were as old as his mother and a nephew (grandson of Freud's father) who was older than he. By this unusual family composition Freud may have become susceptible to family relationships, which he later emphasizes in his theories. When Freud studied at the University of Vienna, he met the philosopher Franz Brentano, who became his inspiration. In 1874, Brentano published a book, "Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint". In his book, he emphasized the Act psychology, in which he put the essential nature of the subjects within psychology and those within the physical sciences directly opposed to each other. The physical sciences studied objects, while for Brentano, the basic units of psychological analyses were previously actions, which always referred to the contents of an object. For example, where the basic unit of physical analysis was probably an atom, the psychological base unit was an action like thinking about an atom or believing it that a certain atom exists. So all mental phenomena have a component that indicates what they are "about", a way in which the object is involved or implied in the consciousness. This, Brentano called intentionality.
Brentano also believed that each psychological theory must be dynamic, or able to take into account the influence of
.....read more Personality psychology: what are the thoughts of Allport and Maslow? - Chapter 12As discussed earlier, Titchener was involved in a new scientific approach of psychology, namely structuralism. He had tried to scientifically analyse experiences, but in the form of the most elementary sensations and feelings. Titchener was the opponent of Freud. The invitation that Gordon W. Allport (1897-1967) received for the conference "Society of Experimentalists", set up by Titchener, was probably one of the biggest mistakes he’s made, considering Allport was more focused on the subject of personality. Titchener responded negatively to Allport and belittled him during the conference. The disappointment in Allport was temporary, however, because he was the first to teach at the university in personality psychology.
Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970) also could not find himself in Titchener's model. Allport and Maslow were similar to each other in the fact that they are both regularly the limits of psychology and searched for, but that was also just about it. Allport was interested in personality psychology, in which the subjects varied from individual case studies to statistical analysis of mutual relationships on a large scale. Maslow was interested in which factors caused people to be "normal" or "healthy". He formulated an influential theory on human motives, as they are in a hierarchy and became a supporter of humanistic psychology. Both theories formulated by Maslow and Allport were an important part of the development and evolution of modern psychology as we know it today.
Allport became fascinated by his teacher Munsterberg at Harvard, who felt that there were two fundamentally different types of psychology: Firstly, psychology is causal and objective, and is aimed at emphasizing deterministic and mechanistic relationships between specific stimuli and the reactions they produce. The other kind of psychology is purposeful and subjective, which requires psychologists to gain insight into certain thinking processes and perspectives of the participants and to share these insights.
After graduating, Allport became an English and Sociology teacher at a small school in Turkey. Later on he returned to Harvard for a PhD in psychology. He always had great admiration for the psychoanalysis and promoted this to academic psychologists. As an assistant to Floyd, he learned a lot about new developments in psychology. One of these topics was personality. Some psychologists were interested in measuring non-intellectual characteristics with personality tests. The corresponding concept of personality studies, according to Allport, was the focus on individual differences in properties. They suggested a model for of personality, consisting of four groups: intelligence, temperament, self-expression and sociality. In Hamburg, Allport met the professor William Stern (1871-1938), an advocate of the personalistic psychology, where
.....read more The developed spirit: how have Binet and Piaget contributed to the study of intelligence? - Chapter 13During the late 1880s Binet studied the behaviour of his daughters. He also tried new psychological tests on them. Some tests were about reaction time and sensory discrimination. He discovered that his daughters, without developed intellect, it did about as well as adults. He did not think the measurements were good indicators of intelligence. He wanted tests that were about higher and more complex functions, such as language and abstract reason. He was not the only pioneer in testing intelligence, Piaget did this too. He discovered that children have no concept of objects as stable and permanent, and as separate from yourself and your perception. The hypothesis the result is that the intelligence of a child is not is less than that of an adult, but qualitatively different is. There are different development stages.
Alfred Binet (1857-1911) was born in France. Binet graduated in law but then went to the medical school. However, he did not like this either. He read a lot of books in the library of Paris at the age of 22. He discovered books about experimental psychology and was instantly inspired by this. In 1880, he had his first scientific publication. He also became enthusiastic about the association psychology of John Stuart Mill. According to Binet, intelligence also works through the law of association. Then Binet became Charcot's assistant, and this remained the case for over a year. He published three books and more than 20 articles on various topics.
Eventually Binet found out that he had had too much faith in Charcot's name and prestige and had not been critical enough. Binet began to do experiments with his daughters at home. He was very aware of the individuality of everyone's intelligence. Deeply impressed by the individuality of man, he decided to work with his colleague Victor Henri in 1895 to set up a program that they called individual psychology (not too confuse with Alfred Adler's approach). They were looking for a series of short tests that would take less than 2 hours and could be carried out with each person. With the help of such tests, one was able to obtain as much information as you could with years of observations and interviews.
Binet anticipated many projective tests. He was looking for a combination of several long-term tests that could serve as a replacement for the extensive case study, but unfortunately he did not find it. He had confirmed his conviction with the help of the direct testing that the higher, complex mental functions, the significant intellectual differences could be measured.
Together with Theodore Simon (1873-1961) Binet decided to develop a test with
.....read more What does cognitive psychology entail? - Chapter 14There are three issues at the heart of this chapter. First, Hobbes was busy with analysing the properties and processes that underlie human reason. Hobbes was concerned with how the mind receives and acquires knowledge. His answer led to a second point. He suggested that mathematical calculations and logical reasoning are the same. Thirdly, since the use of Indo-Arabic numbers, mathematics had become a routine process through it apply a few simple rules.
Blaise Pascal's machine (1623-1662) was the first in a series of theoretical and technological innovations to create a mechanical likeness of the human mind. The Pascaline stands known as one of the first machines specially built for artificial intelligence (AI). After the "Pascaline", Leibniz came up with a new mechanism, which he called the "stepped cylinder". This could also carry out multiplications and divisions.
Leibniz began by constructing a new universal language for philosophy, the signs of which would function in the same way as the mathematical symbols. He imagined that different words would contain a different word, and that there was a logical hierarchy. An example is: the concept of "human" is included in the concept of "animal", and the concept "animal" is back in the concept of a "living thing". When the new universal language would be complete, all concepts would be given a rating that reflects the exact degree of inclusiveness in relation to each other. People would go out with the help of the new language different languages and cultures can not only communicate with each other, but also be able to calculate solutions for the problems that divided them. However, the dream of Leibniz didn’t ever come true. Logical statements could not be reduced to arithmetic. Classic logic and traditional arithmetic was seen as an example of general symbolic logic. Leibniz also came up with the idea of binary arithmetic - the representation of all figures through of ones and zeros.
Charles Babbage (1792-1871) designed a mechanical calculator that was very accurate in generating arithmetic tables and calculate polynomial functions. This machine he called the "difference engine" because it would use the "method of difference" to calculate things. He also came up with the analytical machine (or the "programmable computer"), with which he practically could perform all kinds of calculations. The machine consisted of five main components: An input system for the data and instructions. "The mill" to be able to carry out the calculations. This part was similar to the "difference engine". A controller to receive instructions from the input
.....read more What does the applied psychology mean? - Chapter 15Hugo Munsterberg (1863-1916) was known for his articles about how psychological knowledge could be applied in daily life. He felt that scientific psychology is superior to the normal human brain and that the methods had to be used to improve the way people judge others and the world around them. Munsterberg also showed interest in the influence of emotion, suggestion and dissociation on perception. He felt that these processes had consequences for the psychology of testimony and detecting deceit. That's why he thought that psychological expertise also applied had to be in court.
Munsterberg was eventually seen as the father of applied psychology. One of the first publications of Munsterberg was a report, in which he challenged Wundt, his teacher, about the subject of "will". He felt that the concept of will was actually the experiencing of one’s internal motor process when it is in response to a stimulus. After Munsterberg permanently established himself at Harvard, his interest grew towards applied psychology. Areas where he wanted to introduce applied psychology were legal testimony and individual psychotherapy. In the period in which psychotherapists assigned themselves the task to heal the mind, Munsterberg saw himself as an objective, scientific outsider. Every therapy that simply just assumed the existence of the unconscious (just like Freud had introduced), he saw as unscientific. The techniques used by Munsterberg were in stark contrast to those of psychoanalysis and were more functional in nature. In the approach that Munsterberg used, Clients were trained to forget their problems and deviant behaviors suppress. One of the interests of Munsterberg was the application of psychology in the business and industry. This approach was called psychotechnology.
To deal with the rapidly growing urbanization and industrial expansion, Frederick Winslow Taylor (1865-1915) designed a system, which he named scientific management. The purpose of this system was to increase the efficiency and productivity of the factories by applying scientific methods. One of the changes that Taylor encouraged was applying standardized tasks through careful analysis of industrial work. The emphasis was on increasing production by an increase of efficiency, or in other words: let employees do more work in a shorter time, by providing them with fast, repetitive tasks that were easier to do. Munsterberg quite like the approach that Taylor had.
Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972) and her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868-1924) together developed the complex motion studies to identify the most efficient way to get a task done. By using a camera, which registered the necessary movements made when performing of a task, the Gilbreths analysed different types of work and activities. As a result, they identified 18 basic hand movements, which they called "therbligs". They felt that efficiency could reduce fatigue. They also thought that the motion studies were able
.....read more What does clinical psychology mean? - Chapter 16Paul Meehl, wrote a book 'Clinical Versus Statistical Prediction: A Theoretical Analysis and a Review of the Evidence, in which he emphasizes the superiority of empirical data above clinical assessment when predicting behaviour described. He was a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist. The 1950s are also called the Golden Century for psychoanalysis in the US. Since then, the clinical psychology began to take shape.
After World War II, there was a shortage of professionals who had mental health problems treatment, especially the trauma. Psychologists were increasingly asked for psychiatrists to fill in. Molly Harrower (1906-1999) was a psychologist with a private practice in New York. Until then, this kind of privilege had only been reserved for psychiatrists. She was probably the first psychologist with a private practice in New York. She studied the psychological effects of operations and worked with neurosurgeon Penfield. Harrower looked at reactions from patients. She was also interested in the Rorschach projective technique, also known as the ink stain test, discovered by Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922). Rorschach was interested in the effects of mental states on perception. His test consisted of a series of unstructured stimuli - symmetrical ink stains. The tester shows the ink blot and asks: what could this be? Patients may then each give an answer. Rorschach found not the content but the perceptual processes of the answers important, and how this related to mental states or neurological conditions. The tester also looks at which determinants (color, shape, texture or movement) patients used when replying. Rorschach wanted to use it for diagnostics, but criticism was that the test was not properly validated. Harrower combined her interest in the Rorschach test with her interest in the psychological effects of operations. She discovered that the answers to the test of patients with brain tumours differed from patients without tumours. Harrower made it clear that diagnosing mental disorders is only one small task of a psychologist. Psychologists must have one overall picture of someone. According to Harrower, this is the distinction between psychiatrists and psychologists.
There was therefore a need for more clinical psychologists, and because of this the National Mental Health Act passed in 1946. David Shakow was chosen to participate in the 'Committee on Training'. He was prominent in designing a standardized graduation program for clinical psychology. He was trained as a researcher, just like Harrower. He became a professor in psychiatry at the University of Illionois Medical School, and psychology professor in Chicago.
There was tension within the APA between 'pure' experimentalists and applied psychologists. Psychologists also received external opposition from psychiatrists
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