L5 - Rethinking psychology

Question 1

What is a key criticism of how the history of psychology is written?

Answer 1

History writing is selective and never a neutral overview of people and/or events.
(un)conscious decisions are made about what to include, what’s investigated, etc.

Question 2

What are some characteristics of ‘old history’ in psychology?

Answer 2

Old history is
* internalist: doesn’t focus on context, only the details within a discipline
* presentist: an explicit attempt is often made to interpret past work in light of present knowledge
* a whig conception of history: psychology only progresses and gets better with time.
* Old history often takes a particular angle in which one movement must be right, and thus other movements are wrong.

It often focuses on details within a discipline, interprets past work in light of present knowledge, and assumes psychology progresses over time.

Question 3

What is an example of Old history?

Answer 3

Edwin Boring’s ‘History of Experimental Psychology’
As his name is, shit was boring, and had all the bads of old history

Question 4

What defines the ‘new history’ of psychology?

Answer 4

New history is critical, contextual, and inclusive, going beyond the study of ‘great men’.

It seeks to understand issues as they appeared in their historical context.

Question 5

True or False: The first half of the FP course can be seen as ‘old history’.

Answer 5

True

However, the second half is considered more in line with ‘new history’.

Question 6

Prepare thyself for the ultimate yappa yappa

Can the history of psychology be taught by psychologists?

Answer 6

Yes, and no.
There are different kinds of history (old vs new history of psychology) so yes it can be taught, but each is only one of the possible stories of the history of psychology.

Additionally, book authors and lecturers might have vested interests, which bias the coverage of history, e.g. the attitude of a lecturer to towards science in general will influence their attitude towards psychology.

Question 7

What is the dominant paradigm in psychology over history?

Answer 7

An objective, quantitative, empirical, experimental psychology that adheres to ‘the scientific method’.

Question 8

Do people disagree with this paradigm?

Answer 8

Yes, over time, there have been several groups that were critical of this conceptualization of psychology.

We will discuss these groups much later on as they aren’t too central.

Question 9

What is the one of the main reasons for people disagreeing with the paradigm of psychology?

Answer 9

The reciprocal interaction between psychological science and society -

Psychology is closely linked to society, unlike physics and chemistry, where results take longer to be integrated.

Question 10

What are the 3 core points of interaction between psychological science society?

Answer 10

1. Changing our conception of ourselves: diagnostic categories
2. Scientifically based societal regulation: the psychological test
3. Political values in psychological science

We will go into each of these now

Question 11

1. Changing our conception of ourselves: Diagnostic categories

What is a significant diagnostic category that has become prevalent among millennials?
When was it first noticed?

Answer 11

Burn-out

It was first observed among employees in human services and has been noticed in other professions in recent decades.

The term was first used by Freudenberger in the 1970s

Question 12

Is burn-out a contemporary disease?

Answer 12

Historical factors for its rise include
- Lack of reciprocity
- Experts don’t receive the same respect from people they work for.
- Erosion of traditional communities
- Rise of the me-culture
- We are responsible for our own successes and failures
- Rise in burn-out because its more on us

This seems confusing, the ai ignored it completely, but its like steps

Question 13

What is Neurasthenia ?

Answer 13

It is a 19th-century disease of fatigue, linked to a fast-paced modern society.

It’s similar to burn-out.

Question 14

What’s one thing you need to be aware of when thinking about psychological categories and history?

Answer 14

That they aren’t static.

We talk about different symptoms of burn-out, and some people might relate, and some might not.
The categories change over time because of many things (Our knowledge of the disorder, the cultural and social influences, etc.)

Question 15

What does Ian Hacking’s concept of ‘looping’ refer to?

Answer 15

The idea that ‘social kinds’ can start as arbitrary but acquire causal power in society and change over time.

Psychological categories often do this because they become part of people conceptualizing their own identity

Question 16

What example illustrates the looping effect in psychology?

Answer 16

The definition of autism has changed over time, expanding to include factors like deficits in communication and social interaction.

The category is not a neutral thing but susceptible to change.

Question 17

What is one of Foucault’s views on mental illness?

Michel Foucault (1926 -1984) is a cool philosopher that makes a lot of interesting points

Answer 17

Mental illness can be a means to exercise power and outcast individuals from society.

This is because since scientific categories order society, they are political as well.

e.g. in the past, Drapetomania was psychiatric diagnosis for “runaway slave syndrome”, and even now, to receive medication or help from insurance, you need to get a diagnosis.

Question 18

2. Scientifically based societal regulation: The psychological test

What was the original purpose of the psychological test invented by Binet?

Answer 18

To help teachers identify students who needed extra help.

Question 19

What controversial use did psychological tests have in the USA?

Answer 19

They were used to determine who among immigrants were ‘good enough’ for society and to assess soldiers’ mental stability during WWI.

Additionally, they were used as a way to structure this ‘new country’
- A meritocracy - The ideal was to set up a new social order: one that is based on (genetic) ability, not on factors like status or religion

Question 20

Who was Lewis Terman and what was his controversial stance?

Answer 20

He argued that psychological tests reflect intelligence and that different groups would score differently because of differences in intelligence, not biases in the test.
This led to discrimination.

Question 21

What does Gould’s ‘The Mismeasure of Man’ critique?

Answer 21

Biological determinism and the reification of intelligence as a fixed measure rather than finding intelligence first.

It emphasizes the harm done by equating a measure with intelligence.

Question 22

Why are educational tests so important in psychology and society?

Answer 22

Educational tests are among the most influential inventions of psychology.
However, they are controversial in their use and implementation, and the fairness of tests vs human judgement is still debated.

An example is the CITO test in the Netherlands.

Question 23

What important point does Foucault raise about psychological tests and power?

Answer 23

Foucault says
- Psychological tests legitimize exercising power
- Educational tests stand in the service of meritocracy
- In our society, discriminating based on race or gender is unacceptable
- But discriminating based on ability is just and ok…. hmmmmm

Question 24

3. Politics and psychology

What is the ‘value-free ideal’ in scientific research?

Answer 24

The notion that moral values should not influence scientific reasoning, which should be based solely on epistemic values (clarity, precision, simplicity).

Question 25

What are values that psychologists tend to have/display?

Answer 25

• relatively left-wing or liberally oriented
• Scepticism regarding religion
• Much attention for stereotype thinking, healthcare, wellness, fairness
• Perhaps less attention for more conservative themes (safety, criminality, immigration, the role of the family or religion)
• Less attention for themes that are uncomfortable or controversial for our left-wing values.

Question 26

So should we try and be value-free?

Answer 26

Actually we shouldn’t.
This is since most of us naturally have the values listed before, even if we try to be neutral, we will always be influenced by them, so our research will be skewed in that direction.
So use your values a lil bit, and even consider the other side.

Question 27

A criticism on psychology

Answer 27

Psychology and society seem to be intertwined on different levels.
Our research doesn’t just mirror reality, but can affect reality as well.
So, is the way we are practicing psychological research appropriate for our objective?

Question 28

Who are notable people/groups that critically reflect on psychology?

Answer 28

There are multiple groups that spoke out against how psychology currently is.
- Wilhelm Dilthey
- Feminist psychology
- Critical psychology

Question 29

Who was Wilhelm Dilthey and what was his view on psychology?

Answer 29

Dilthey argued psychology should belong to the human sciences (Geisteswissenschaften), which focuses on understanding human and historical life, rather then the natural sciences (Naturwissenschaften) which focuses on law-based causal explanations.

Question 30

Which four elements does Dilthey say psychology should focus on?

Answer 30

Psychology should focus on being
- Content-based, not form-based
- The human experience in its totality
- Context
- Understanding, not explaining

important to remember, that we’re not saying psychology has to be this way, but Dilthey believes that this is the best for psychology.

Question 31

What is feminist psychology?

Answer 31

• Movement that aims at understanding women
• Is concerning with the way in which women are treated in mainstream psychology
  
  • Men have ignored the role of female contributions
  • Women were excluded from participating

Some feminists see the scientific method as a classic white male approach, without much space for other voices.

Question 32

Who is Carol Gilligan and what does she criticize?

Answer 32

She is a prominent feminist psychologist and she criticized Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning by saying

• Girls would supposedly have a lower level of moral development than boys
• Gilligan showed that the scoring method tended to favour a particular way of reasoning more common to boys.
  
  • E.g. Kohlberg focused more on justice and autonomy, less on care and responsibility.

Question 33

What is the Critical psychology movement?

Answer 33

Originates in the 1960-1970s: a response against traditional focus on the individual
Critical psychology challenges traditional psychology’s focus on individuals by emphasizing social, cultural, and political contexts

Question 34

According to the book, what are the tenets of critical psychology?

Answer 34

• Idealism instead of realism (knowledge does not refer to an outside reality)
• Science is a social construction
• Psychologists have a moral responsibility

Question 35

What does Erica Burman criticize?

Answer 35

• Erica Burman challenges conventional narratives about childhood and development, integrating feminist and post-structuralist perspectives in her book “Deconstructing developmental psychology”
  
  • Challenges conceptions about gender, culture, and pathology.

Question 36

How does criticism of experimental psychology indirectly influence mainstream research?

Answer 36

Through unconscious plagiarism: term used by Bornstein to indicate how the scientific and the hermeneutic approach in psychology have influenced each other without the proponents being aware of it

Question 37

What is the link between critical psychology and critical history?

Answer 37

both aim to challenge the unquestioned assumptions in a discipline.

Question 38

Mentioned in ch. 10 briefly

What is postcolonial psychology?

Answer 38

It is a movement in psychology that is addressing the issues of racism and the ways in which dominant groups treat other groups.

Question 39

What do these movements call for?
What should we do?

Answer 39

These movements call for a different conceptualisation of psychology
- More attention for socio-political factors (context)
- Focus on understanding, rather than explaining
- Less focus on the scientific method and objectivity, more on subjectivity and reflexivity.
- More focus on oppressed or marginalized groups
- More focus on the shaping effect of our discipline on society.

Question 40

What is a conclusion regarding the influence of psychology on society?

Answer 40

Psychology has profoundly influenced society and is reactive rather than simply a natural science.

Question 41

topic change to Ch 10, now we go to reasons why psychology is a science

What two pillars was psychology (as an academic discipline/science) founded on?

Answer 41

1. Psych is the continuation of the tradition of mental and moral philosophy that goes back to aristotle
2. The scientific method would be applied to the study of the human mind, and thus a bridge to the natural sciences was made.

Question 42

What is the main thing that defines ‘Science’?

Answer 42

That is is defined by its method rather than by its subject matter.
Anything studied with the scientific method is a science.

Question 43

What has the obsession with appearing as a science done to psychology?

Answer 43

Because we are so obsessed with being empirical and following the scientific method, we have fallen into methodolatry.
We try so hard to be good scientists that we cater research to the scientific method rather then research to psychology.

One way to say it, is that we are stuck in the shadow of positivism.

Question 44

What is methodolatry?

Answer 44

It is the tendency to see methodological rigour as the only requirement for scientific research, at the expense of theory formation.

Question 45

Whats another reason why we love the scientific method?

Answer 45

It hasn’t really let us down, we keep learning new things.
It also makes sure that our findings…
- are done with the use of well-defined methods
- have clarity
- have predictive ability
- and that the knowledge is revisable.

Question 46

What is pseudoscience?
Why does it show that psychology is a science?

Answer 46

A branch of knowledge that pretends to be scientific but that violates the scientific method on essential aspects, such as lack of openness to testing by others and reliance on confirmation rather than falsification

It supports psychology being a science because pseudoscience pretends to be scientific but violates the scientific method in many ways, whereas psychology doesn’t, so its a science yaknowwhatimean

Question 47

Is psychology well related to other sciences?

Answer 47

Yes, it is very well linked with the other sciences, one study showed that psychology is one of the seven major areas of scientific research, and has strong links to two other major areas.

Question 48

What are some reasons why psychology is not seen as a science?

It yaps about a bunch of weird shit, so im just gonna summarize the important bits, and if it isn’t self-explanatory I’ll explain it on a diff flashcard.

Answer 48

• There is little overlap between the stereotypical view of a scientist and the stereotypical view of a psychologist
  
  • Scientists are crazy loners, psychologists are the kind therapist.
  • But this means that society doesn’t see psychologists as scientists
• Professional psychologists (practitioners) largely outnumber psychology researchers
  
  • These practitioners often forget their scientific education
• Unlike scientific results, psychological findings are easy to understand
  
  • This makes them seem less scientific cus science is perceived as difficult.

Question 49

Ways society has influenced psychology

What was one of the first factors in the growth of psychology?

Answer 49

The decline of the impact of religion and the increase of scientific thinking in Western society.

Question 50

What did society provide psychologists throughout its growth.

Answer 50

Society provided topics and metaphors to the psych researchers.

Metaphors are analogies that help psychologists to better understand the phenomena they are investigating (e.g. the mind as a computer)

Question 51

Do socio-political values affect/bias the ideas psychologists have?

Answer 51

Yes, especially in the rise of psychology (1900s onwards), socio-political values biased a lot of things.
The ones talked about in the chapter are
- racist/different views on intelligence testing (Lewis Terman: Mega racist)
- The changing roles of social and biological factors in gender identity (there’s been a shift towards social factors playing a bigger role)

Question 52

How has society influenced the daily practice of psychologists?

Answer 52

There is more interest in ethical issues and to an increased use of psychological tests in courts.

Question 53

Have psychologists been used in power games in society?

Answer 53

Yeah, it yaps a lot about Foucault and his work. Look at figure 1 for a summary of his yap.

Psych findings have also been used by companies and pseudoscientists and not in a good way (they’re evil, and mix factual stuff with fake stuff)

Question 54

How else has psychological knowledge been influenced by society (in unintended purposes)?

Answer 54

It might have been used against prisoners of war (the CIA did bad stuff)
It might also not have been used correctly, some authors say that psychology has a pretty shit basis as a science)

Question 55

Ways psychology has influenced society

What two phenomena does the ‘psychologization of society’ refer to?

Answer 55

1. To the fact that individuals have become seen as persons with their own thoughts and emotions
2. To the growing impact of psychology on the way people interact.

Question 56

How have labels introduced by psychology affected society?

Answer 56

They have become social realities because
- they influenced the way people saw themselves and others (think about how ‘depression’ and ‘intelligence’ are relatively recent terms.
- Society adapted itself to the new labels, despite the fact that they were to some extent arbitrary (society now uses intelligence, but it can be operationalized in so many ways, so the current view of it is arbitrary)

Question 57

What did psychologists try to do in general?

Answer 57

Increase power, because to have a job, you need to be important in life.
So to ensure psychology’s survival, they did many things to increase power and prominence (we will get into them now)

Question 58

Who did psychologists make friends with?

Answer 58

They tried making alliances with established groups (e.g. natural sciences) and new upcoming groups, (educationists)

Question 59

Did psychology only try and solve existing problems, or did they create new ones?

Answer 59

They did both, but especially created new needs
This is because they can claim to have solutions for these problems.
(e.g. antidepressants, therapy, etc.)
They also export these ideas and values to the rest of the world
(e.g. rise of antidepressants in japan due to marketing)

Question 60

As said before, are psychologists politically neutral?

Answer 60

Definitely not, they promote liberal values.
This isn’t good as it reduces the help they can give to people with conservative values.

(this is now yap cus i find it interesting)
it also manifests in tons of areas, like psych departments in unis don’t accept ppl w conservative values in their applications because its seen as bad.
Also research and all that jazz is focused on liberal stuff, so no transfer ygm??

Question 61

Which side is psychology on in the humanities vs science debate?

Answer 61

Its on the science side cus it viewed it as more powerful than humanities.

It also struggled to endorse religion as a provider of meaning (for like life n stuff)

Question 62

Why is there a discrepancy between the degree to which western society has become psychologized and the impact of psychologists?

Answer 62

Because psychologization of society is driven to a larger extent by the popular image of psychology than by what happens in psychological research itself.

Question 63

Have psychologists been able to change the negative image of mental disorders?

Answer 63

No, because of the discrepancy mentioned on the last flashcard.
Additionally, the knowledge of psychology/mental disorders is driven by the media.

Question 64

What is the issue with media being the main source of information for psychology/mental disorders?

Answer 64

Because media often brings a simplified and sensationalised story in line with popular beliefs and social biases.
This is seen particularly in the depiction of people with mental disorders, as its usually fucky wucky.