Lecture 1: Introduction Flashcards
You should be able to define: The science vs Art debate, Behavioural genetics (what it's about) Reductionism vs Holism
What are cognitive psychologists?
Study cognitive appraisal, judgements, and inferences underlying a felt emotion
What are social psychologists
Study communicative and relational functions of emotion expressions
What are Clinical Psychologists
Study mental health implications of emotional states and emotional regulation
What are Developmental psychologists?
Study which emotions develop when and how
What do different schools of thought have?
Different fields of inquiry may study the same phenomena for different reasons and may offer explanations that complement each other
- Contrasting views about the nature of human mind and behaviour
- Develop different frameworks for explaining psychological phenomena
- May also emphasise different phenomena than do other schools
What do psychologists offer society?
- They contribute knowledge that may benefit a variety of sectors in society as well as individuals
- Clinical psychologists help with mental health issues
- occupational psychologists help select the best candiate for a job
- sport psychologists help athletes improve their performance
- Use of psychology require ethical considerations (BPS code of ethic and conduct)
Ethical condsiderations reflect timely issues
- USA, Spann (2022) outlines ethical considerations for psychologists addressing racial trauma experienced by Black Americans
- Chenneville, et al (2020) spelled out ethical considerations for psychologists at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
Ethics to note
- Moral judgments are made with particular sociocultural contexts
- Perceptions of what is ethical and unethical change over time
- The same scientific knowledge can be used for good or bad (intentionally or unintentionally)
History of Philosophy
- The ancient Greeks devestated about the nature of human mind, personality and behaviour
- centuries of philosophing about the mind have followed
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
- french philospher, formulated positivism
- Pointed out the absudity of the mind trying to observe itself –> Modern psychology has aspired to this ideal
Late 19th century: Birth(s) of modern psychology
- Psychology spilt from Philosophy –> Wundt founded the first experiemental laboratory in 1879
- Psychiatry (including psychoanalysis) developed as a branch of medicine
- Psychologists and neurologists studied behaviour, temperament and more –> Pavlov’s experiments
The ‘science vs art’ debate
The debate: Should psychology be designated to the arts (humanities) or to the natural sciences?
Outcome: Psychology is established as a natural science, closely related to biology
21st century: Reverberations of the debate have persisted in different forms
Psychology in all its variants is an empirical discipline
- Psychology as an art priorities insight, interpretation, and understanding
- Psychology as a science priorities description, classification, experimentation, and causal explantation
Some schools of thought are incompatible with eachother: Psychoanalysis vs Behaviourism
Behaviourism:
- observable behaviour
- The case of Little Albert (Watson) –> A phobia is accquired in accordance with learning principles
Psychoanalysis:
- Hidden parts of the mind
- The case of Little Hans (Freud). –> A phobia reflects conflicts in the depths of the psyche
Freud 1905: Little Hans
- A 5 year old boy was afraid of horses
- Hans transferred his unconsious fear of his father (castration anxiety) to horses
- This demonstates the Oedipus Complex
Limitations of Little Hans
- Freud’s conclusions wasn’t validated through a procedure that eliminated other explantations for the child’s fear of horses
- Freud’s hypothesis doesn’t really explain typical childhood fears such as fear of being in the dark, being alone, heights
- It’s not scientific- scientific discoveries rest on deductive reasoning
Induction
Proceeds from an initial explanation of some observations to its confirmation by collecting further examples
Deductive
Proceeds from an initial theory to predicting what else must be true if it is
Popper 1958 - Falsification
A theory generates specific hypotheses which are formulated in a way that allows for their falsification
Little Albert: Watson and Rayner (1920)
Watson and Rayner (1920) sought to demonstate scientfically that a phobia develops through classical conditioning
Some research fields follow parallel inquires into the same phenomena
- Psychoanalytic: Inner conflicts
- Evolutionary: survival advantage
- Biological: Hormonal imbalances
- Behavioural: learning principles
Different explanations for aggression
- Biological:
–> Testosterone: a steroid hormone linked to aggression in human and nonhuman animals
- Cognitive: It’s role in human aggression is not straightforward
–> Chance et al (2000) In boys aged 5-11 years, higher IQ correlated with higher cognitive skills, suggesting better ability to control aggressive tendencies associated with high testosterone levels
- Social learning: social learning through observation and imitation
—> Bandura 1960s, bobo doll experiment
What is Reductionism?
- An epistemological position that simplifies a complex phenomenon by isolating independent and dependent variables and examining their interrelation
- non-experimental research manipulates variables through sample selection
Holism
- An epistemological standpoint emphasising the irreducible complexity of phenomena
- The whole is different from the sum of its parts, because it includes their interrelations
- Therefore adding up ‘factors’ doesn’t lead to knowledge of the whole
Example of reductionism
- Behavioural genetics
–> A biometric approach concerned with isolating genetic vs enviromental sources of individual differences in intelligence, personality or proneness to mental illness
–> Applies statistical methods to investigate G x E interactions on various aspects of human development
- Source of infomation
–> Twins seperated at birth and reared apart
–> Adoptees and their biological parents
Maccoby (2000) on reading and misreading behavioural genetics
There is evidence that parents influence children and that children’s genetic makeup influences how they are treated by parents
- knowing only the strength of genetic factors is not enough for estimating enviromental factors
- Children’s genetic predispositions and parents’ childrearing regimes should be viewed as closely interwoven
Example of Holism
- Little Sam
Erik Erikson opened his book Childhood and society with this case
Psychology is…
- The scientific study of mind and behaviour
- Also a set of practises in the community and wider society
- Centred on the individual
- Characterised by a plurality of perspectives and fields of inquiry
–> Some schools of thought are incompatible with eachother
–> some research fields follow alternative lines of inquires into the same phenomena
- An empirical discipline in all its variants
