Lecture 1 - Basic terminology, methodological issues Flashcards
Why does the human psyche/mind belong to the world’s wonders?
The wonders of the world
* Natural
* Artistic
* Technological
* Existential
Existential wonders:
things, life, psyche and the mind
* Nonorganic matter: out-of-nothing (ex nihilo)?
* Organic life: out of nonorganic matter?
* Psyche (awareness) & mind (consciousness): out of what?
Psychology – a study of one of the existential wonders: the psyche and the
mind of the person capable of:
- initiating, controlling, and freely, consciously choosing the meaningful
actions
- insightful introspection in the mental reality (thoughts, feelings,
desires, selfhood)
- insightful orientation in the mental qualities of other people (empathy,
compassion)
- contemplating the transcendent dimensions of human existence.
.
Historically, psychology focused
not only on behavior
but also: self-awareness, insight into others,
empathy, compassion, and consciousness
* Awareness of physical environment, oneself and others
* Conscious introspection and contemplation of oneself as a
distinct person with unique past, presence and future
* Empathy and insight into others
* Contemplation of transcendent meaning of existence
.
Historicism, Presentism; Major factors influencing the interpretation of historical facts and concepts: Reason for studying history
Nomothetic : human being in general, not specific unique person
-the discipline of psychology as a science
-The nomothetic view of a human person provides a description and analysis
of human beings in general, e.g. Freudian description of people suffering
from conversion hysteria
Idiographic: the unique person…. Characters in books, patients of psychologists…
-the professional practice of psychology
-The idiographic view of a human person provides a description and analysis
of a unique, specific individual, e.g. Lady Macbeth, Don Quixote or Ms. Anna
O. who suffered from conversion hysteria (as presented in Dr. S. Freud’s
anamnesis).
Facts and interpretations
Narrative descriptions and interpretations might be:
- dogmatic (based on myths, prejudices, ideology)
or
- paradigmatic (based on knowledge, axioms, and
theoretical preferences)
.
As with any history, it describes facts, events, concepts and their contextual
interpretation. The interpretations are prone to biases of:
- assumed paradigm (a set of axioms accepted in a preferred theory)
- ideological indoctrination, political correctness, conformism, auto-
censorship
- assumed dogma (a set of beliefs based on authority)
- false myths and irrational prejudices
- presentism*#
*# Presentism is a bias, a tendency to interpret and judge past events or
concepts
from the point of view popular and accepted presently (here and
now).
-with reference to (political, social,
artistic or intellectual) values
respected here and now
Ex: thinking other systems that weren’t democracy back then were ‘’wrong’’ or ‘’bad’’…. Influenced by our current democratic society
*# Historicism is suggested as a way of viewing and interpreting past
events and
concepts in their historical context (Zeitgeist & Ortgeist: then and
there).
-with reference to (political, social,
artistic or intellectual) values
respected then (Zeitgeist)
-tolerate the concepts as they emerged IN THEIR CONTEXT
Scientists often say historicism is a better approach than presentism
Why study the history ?
* Professional identity: pride, roots, belongingness
* Avoiding repetition of errors
* Humility and healthy skepticism
* Understanding the present based on the past
(in the historical analysis and in clinical anamnesis)
- To learn from the past and avoid repeating the same errors
- To respect our roots and protect the sense of belonging (identity)
- To understand the transient preliminary value of a theory or concept
- To avoid arrogance based on presentism
- To preserve a respectful attitude towards the ancestral views and
traditions
History of the written term “psychology”
Not Aristotle. ‘’de anima’’ ‘’psyche’’ but not ‘’psychology’’
-Marko Marulic, Christian monk (1450-1524)… 16th century
‘’Psichologia (in greek) de ratione animae humanae (in latin)’’
Psychology of rational human soul
Book disappeared, but his friend wrote his biography with those words
Psuche = soul, logia = study, logos = word or teaching
The term “psychology” used also in the
Latin essays of XVI c. German scholars:
-German humanist Johannes Thomas Freigius: ”Ciceronianus” (16th century)
-German humanist Rudolph Goclenius (Goeckel) (16th century)
” Ψυχήλογία: hoc est, de hominis perfectione,
anima et in primus ortu huius ”
Psychology, i.e. on human perfection, the soul and its origin
Questioned when human existence begins (conception? Pregnancy? Birth?)
Used the term psychology in Greek and rest of title in latin
- The term “psychology” was replaced by “pneumology” in the 17th c. : “breath of life”
-“Psychology” re-appears 200 years later (18th century)
in Christian Wolff’s books:
Psychologia empirica 1732 and
Psychologia rationalis 1734.
-Psychology - a branch of philosophy
until 1879
1879 Wilhelm Wundt
psychology - an autonomous
domain of science, not a branch of philosophy
- 1913 John Watson tries to replace “psychology” with “behaviourism”
radical behaviourism,
rejection of mental mechanisms
psychology as “behaviourism”
(reductio ad absurdum - 1970 Albert Bandura restores psychology as a science of mental
processes
His social cognitive theory
restores the mental mechanisms
back in psychology
Emerging out of:
ancestral thoughts on mechanisms of action (anthropomorphism, animism, magic), mythology, arts, religion,
philosophy, anthropology, archaeology,
medicine, physiology, and neuroscience
psychology became:
- a professional practice (idiographic approach) &
- a discipline of science (nomothetic approach)
-
Zeitgeist/Ortgeist, Special-Person and Cyclic concepts in historical interpretations
Zeitgeist, Ortgeist approach:
Zeitgeist: Spirit (mentality) of the times
Ortgeist: Spirit (mentality) of the place
.Ex: context was already happening; Hitler took advantage of it and rest of history happened. But could’ve been anyone, was bound to happen
Special-Person approach:
An extraordinary individual who makes
history unique
Ex: Martin Luther, Napoleon; Newton, Einstein;
Freud, Skinner
Ex: Hitler is what made it happen, would’ve never happened without him. If Darwin hadn’t been born, we wouldn’t know about evolution… etc. Probably not
.
Cyclical Repetitions approach
History repeats itself:
the political, economic, social, and artistic trends
as well as
the philosophical and scientific concepts
reappear
in a new form or under a new label
-The cycles of history appearing, disappearing and re-appearing
Randomness approach
Political, social, artistic, and scientific events
happen by chance:
cannot be predicted
Nothing and nobody makes history,
”history makes itself”
.
.
Major axioms and the objectives of science
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS (axioms) in all sciences:
1) There is a real universe
(Ontology)
2) The elements and events in the universe are lawfully coherent & interdependent
(Determinism)
3) The universe is knowable and we have the cognitive abilities to learn it
(Epistemology)
SCIENCE Latin “Scientia” attaining knowledge
Endless process of
* Collecting the data
* Investigating the relationships
* Formulating the conclusions: hypotheses & models
* Verifying and modifying them
“ Science is not a body of truth that will be revealed to us
when the errors are stripped away…
We gradually learn how to understand
nature in new ways”. (R.C. Bolles 1993, The Story of Psychology).
Closer to but never reaching the absolute truth
(like the asymptotic line)
Approaching the truth
Why we never reach absolute truth… because reality also changes
OBJECTIVES OF SCIENCE
* To describe
* To predict
* To control
* To explain? determinism? cause-effect?
-most difficult objective
-endless cycle of ‘’why?’’
Rationalism/Rationality of science
Conclusions based on different epistemologies:
A priori = prior experience, in advance, you already know (closed eyes)
A posteriori = make conclusion after seeing, experiencing, collecting observations (open eyes)
Á priori conclusion based on:
- inborn ideas (nativism)
- intuitive illuminations (mysticism)
- faith (religion)
- deductive reasoning (rationalism)
Á posteriori conclusion based on:
- sensory observations (empiricism)
- practical actions (pragmatism)
- inductive reasoning (rationalism)
Rational comes from reason, respecting specific rules of logic
Rationalism – as an epistemological way
of attaining knowledge and making conclusions
Rational inductive or deductive reasoning
versus
empirical, pragmatic, intuitive, or mystic reasoning
Rational – as a norm of discussing and listening to
arguments and reasons (the ratio)
versus
Irrational - ignoring logical arguments and practical
evident facts, using false analogies, personal prejudices
and argumentum ad hominum
Are scientists always rational?
Paradigmatic or para-dogmatic?
A paradigm: a set of assumptions, values and methods
that provide the framework
within which scientists work.
e.g. Newtonian physics,
Darwinian naturalism,
Watsonian behaviorism,
Freudian pansexualism
Components of a paradigm
- Disciplinary matrix (unquestionable assumptions)
and
- Shared exemplars & methods
Determinism, multifactorial approach in philosophy and psychology
Generalized statements:
Observational: descriptions of non-measurable
coincidences or contingencies
Correlational: statistically inferred coincidences
between measurable variables
Causal: experimentally produced
effects of controlled factor
Attention! The observational or correlational statements are not about the
cause, but only coincidences
THE QUESTIONS OF DETERMINISM
* Is the causal (cause-effect) explanation possible?
* Is there only one cause or many independent
causes leading to the same effect?
* What about multiple factors contributing to the final
effect?
Newtonian style of making science
* Isaac NEWTON (1642 - 1727):
“Hypotheses non fingo” (I do not feign hypotheses).
Scientific laws as mathematical summaries of observations
* August COMPTE (1798 - 1857)
Methodological positivism:
focus on measurable facts and
avoid the temptation to formulate a causal
explanation.
A single “cause” or many causes?
- Aristotelian list of causes (material, formal, efficient, and final)
Antecedent conditions:
1. Material cause : a type of material
2. Formal cause : the shape of its pieces
Immediate conditions:
3. Efficient cause :an impact of a piece onto another
Teleological conditions:
4. Final cause : a purpose, an intention - The multifactorial approach in psychology (R as a single reaction
depending on many cofactors: S, A, V, P versus B as a behavioural
style depending on personality traits).
R as a single reaction R¹ = f (S, A, V, P)
S - stimulus or a single situation
A - antecedent experience
V - visceroception
P - personality
B as a behavioral style B = f (P)
f = a function of… or dependent on…
Philosophical and methodological issues: ontology, epistemology and ethics
Domains & questions
psychology shares with philosophy
Ontology: What does exist? What is reality?
Epistemology: How do we know the reality?
-how do we know what exists?
Ethics: How to behave?
Ontology:
What is the nature of reality: matter, energy, idea, name, memory, image, spirit, psyche, mind? Do they all exist?
Is there one or several realities? How do they co-exist?
Ontological monism:
*Materialism: only material world is real
-atomism (Democritus)
-behaviourism (Watson)
-epiphenomenalism (Titchener)
*Idealism: only spiritual world is real
-theory of pure forms#ideas (Plato)
-subjective empiricism (Berkeley, Kant)
-monadology (Leibniz)
*Double aspectism (not the same as dualism!): material=spiritual (Spinoza)
Does sensory perception make sense? Is it ‘’a proof’’ of an existence?
See slide with the x-rays image
We only see a very small amount of rays… we don’t see the full spectrum of light! Doesn’t mean it isn’t there
May seem like fiction
Ontological pluralism
Dualism:
Rene Descartes: matter (res extensa)
and spirit (res cogitans)
= Interactionism (pineal gland)
Nicolas Malebranche: Interventionism (God)
Edward Titchener: Psycho-physical parallelism
–both body and mind exist in parallel
Emergentism: new thing emerges from combination
-human psyche would be a combination of brain processes and the system of meaning (language)… leading to new thing = self-awareness
Attributive pluralism: -attribute it a name, then it exists
-as many realities as there are names
EPISTEMOLOGY (detailed descriptions, see the next classes)
1. Sensory observations
2. Pragmatic (practical) actions
3. Inductive reasoning
4. Deductive reasoning
5. Intuitive insight into inborn ideas (heuresis)
6. Subconscious emotional intuition
7. Meditative illumination (henosis)
8. Mystic and religious revelation (numinous instruction)
Inborn ideas: Inborn soul (Socrates), Inborn categories of mind (Kant)
instincts (Freud)… (Biologists invented the concept of instincts but Freud applied it to psychology), archetypes (Jung)
Intuitive illumination: Intellectual insight (Plato) (= eureka!),
Henosis, immersion in the cosmic wisdom (Plotinus),
Numinous answer (Numinous = instructions or knowledge from the divinity) or instruction (Bergson),
Message from the Collective unconscious (Jung)
Faith: Mystic revelation from God (Augustine)
Reasoning: Inductive and deductive thinking (Descartes, Kant)
Empirical observations: Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, J. Locke
Summary
Psychology – a study of one of the existential wonders: the psyche and the
mind of the person capable of:
- initiating, controlling, and freely, consciously choosing the meaningful
actions
- insightful introspection in the mental reality (thoughts, feelings,
desires, selfhood)
- insightful orientation in the mental qualities of other people (empathy,
compassion)
- contemplating the transcendent dimensions of human existence.
Idiographic versus nomothetic view of the human person
The idiographic view of a human person provides a description and analysis
of a unique, specific individual, e.g. Lady Macbeth, Don Quixote or Ms. Anna
O. who suffered from conversion hysteria (as presented in Dr. S. Freud’s
anamnesis).
The nomothetic view of a human person provides a description and analysis
of human beings in general, e.g. Freudian description of people suffering
from conversion hysteria.
History of Psychology
As with any history, it describes facts, events, concepts and their contextual
interpretation. The interpretations are prone to biases of:
- assumed paradigm (a set of axioms accepted in a preferred theory)
- ideological indoctrination, political correctness, conformism, auto-
censorship
- assumed dogma (a set of beliefs based on authority)
- false myths and irrational prejudices
- presentism*#
*# Presentism is a bias, a tendency to interpret and judge past events or
concepts
from the point of view popular and accepted presently (here and
now). Instead, the
Historicism is suggested as a way of viewing and interpreting past
events and
concepts in their historical context (Zeitgeist & Ortgeist: then and
there).
Who or what makes historical facts, events or concepts happen?
- Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, climate of opinion, mentality of the
epoch
- Ortgeist, the spirit of the place, region, country, community
- A special person, e.g. Martin Luther, Napoleon; Newton, Einstein;
Freud, Skinner
- The cycles of history: appearing, disappearing and re-appearing
- Random, unpredictable historical events and concepts
Why do we need the knowledge of history?
- To learn from the past and avoid repeating the same errors
- To respect our roots and protect the sense of belonging (identity)
- To understand the transient preliminary value of a theory or concept
- To avoid arrogance based on presentism
- To preserve a respectful attitude towards the ancestral views and
traditions
Who wrote the term “psychology” for the first time, and who was the
next?
- Christian monk from Split, Croatia, Marko Marulič (16th century).
- German humanist Johannes Thomas Freigius (16th c.)
- German humanist Rudolph Goclenius or Goeckel (16th c.)
- The term “psychology” was replaced by “pneumology” in the 17th c.
- “Psychology” was re-introduced by Christian Wolff in 18th c.
- 1879 Wilhelm Wundt: psychology as an independent discipline of
science
- 1913 John Watson tries to replace “psychology” with “behaviourism”
- 1970 Albert Bandura restores psychology as a science of mental
processes
The historical roots of psychological concepts
- Ancestral thoughts on mechanisms of action (anthropomorphism,
animism, magic)
- Mythology
- Religion
- Philosophy
- Anthropology, archaeology
- Medical discoveries and neuroscience
Psychology as a science (and professional practice)
Basic axioms:
- There is a real universe
- The elements of the universe are lawfully and coherently
interdependent
- The universe is knowable
Scientific discoveries – like an asymptotic curve - are a never-ending process
of improving our understanding of the universe.
The objectives of scientific inquiry: describe, predict, control, and (perhaps?)
explain.
Attention! The observational or correlational statements are not about the
cause, but only coincidences.
A single “cause” or many causes?
- Aristotelian list of causes (material, formal, efficient, and final)
- The multifactorial approach in psychology (R as a single reaction
depending on many cofactors: S, A, V, P versus B as a behavioural
style depending on personality traits).
What questions does psychology share with philosophy?
- Ontological questions: What does exist? Is the soul, psyche, and mind
real?
- Epistemological questions: How do we know, and learn an object of
cognition?
- Ethical questions: How should we behave to be happy, respected and
loved?
ONTOLOGY
Ontological monism:
- materialism (atomism, behaviourism, epiphenomenalism)
- idealism (theory of pure forms, subjective empiricism, monadology)
- double aspectism
Ontological pluralism: dualism, emergentism, attributive pluralism
EPISTEMOLOGY (detailed descriptions, see the next classes)
1. Sensory observations
2. Pragmatic (practical) actions
3. Inductive reasoning
4. Deductive reasoning
5. Intuitive insight into inborn ideas (heuresis)
6. Subconscious emotional intuition
7. Meditative illumination (henosis)
8. Mystic and religious revelation (numinous instruction)
Two ways of concluding:
- A posteriori: first the observation, then the conclusion. (1,2, and 3)
- A priori: first the conclusion, then the observation. (4,5,6,7, and 8)
