1. Introduction
2. Physiological
psychology
3. Psychoanalysis
4. Behaviourism
5. Gestalt
psychology
6 .Cognition
7. Tests and
Measurements
8. Development psychology
9. Social psychology
10. Psychiatry and
mental health
11. Forensic
psychology and criminology
12. Psychology,
religion and phenomenology
13. Parapsychology
14. Industrial Psychology
Vocabulary
Literature
1. Introduction
Psychology, scientific study of
behavior and experience—that is, the study of how human beings and animals
sense, think, learn, and know. Modern psychology is devoted to collecting facts
about behavior and experience and systematically organizing such facts into
psychological theories. These theories aid in understanding and explaining
people’s behavior and sometimes in predicting and influencing their future
behavior.
Psychology, historically, has been
divided into many subfields of study; these fields, however, are interrelated
and frequently overlap. Physiological psychologists, for instance, study the
functioning of the brain and the nervous system, and experimental psychologists
devise tests and conduct research to discover how people learn and remember.
Subfields of psychology may also be described in terms of areas of application.
Social psychologists, for example, are interested in the ways in which people
influence one another and the way they act in groups. Industrial psychologists
study the behavior of people at work and the effects of the work environment.
School psychologists help students make educational and career decisions.
Clinical psychologists assist those who have problems in daily life or who are
mentally ill.
History. The science of psychology developed from many diverse sources, but
its origins as a science may be traced to ancient Greece.
Philosophical Beginnings. Plato and
Aristotle, as well as other Greek philosophers, took up some of the basic
questions of psychology that are still under study: Are people born with
certain skills, abilities, and personality, or do all these develop as a result
of experience? How do people come to know the world? Are certain ideas and
feelings innate, or are they all learned?
Such questions were debated for many
centuries, but the roots of modern psychological theory are found in the 17th
century in the works of the French philosopher Ren Descartes and the British
philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Descartes argued that the bodies of
people are like clockwork machines, but that their minds (or souls) are
separate and unique. He maintained that minds have certain inborn, or innate,
ideas and that these ideas are crucial in organizing people’s experiencing of
the world. Hobbes and Locke, on the other hand, stressed the role of experience
as the source of human knowledge. Locke believed that all information about the
physical world comes through the senses and that all correct ideas can be
traced to the sensory information on which they are based.
Most modern psychology developed
along the lines of Locke’s view. Some European psychologists who studied
perception, however, held onto Descartes’s idea that some mental organization
is innate, and the concept still plays a role in theories of perception and
cognition.
Against this philosophical
background, the field that contributed most to the development of scientific
psychology was physiology—the study of the functions of the various organ
systems of the body. The German physiologist Johannes Miller tried to relate
sensory experience both to events in the nervous system and to events in the
organism’s physical environment. The first true experimental psychologists were
the German physicist Gustav Theodor Fechner and the German physiologist Wilhelm
Wundt. Fechner developed experimental methods for measuring sensations in terms
of the physical magnitude of the stimuli producing them. Wundt, who in 1879
founded the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Leipzig, Germany,
trained students from around the world in this new science.
Physicians who became concerned with
mental illness also contributed to the development of modern psychological
theories. Thus, the systematic classification of mental disorders developed by
the German psychiatric pioneer Emil Kraepelin remains the basis for methods of
classification that are now in use. Far better known, however, is the work of
Sigmund Freud, who devised the system of investigation and treatment known as
psychoanalysis. In his work, Freud called attention to instinctual drives and
unconscious motivational processes that determine people’s behavior. This
stress on the contents of thought, on the dynamics of motivation rather than
the nature of cognition in itself, exerted a strong influence on the course of
modern psychology.
Modern psychology still retains many
aspects of the fields and kinds of speculation from which it grew. Some
psychologists, for example, are primarily interested in physiological research,
others are medically oriented, and a few try to develop a more encompassing,
philosophical understanding of psychology as a whole. Although some
practitioners still insist that psychology should be concerned only with
behavior—and may even deny the meaningfulness of an inner, mental life—more and
more psychologists would now agree that mental life or experience is a valid
psychological concern.
The areas of modern psychology
range from the biological sciences to the social sciences.
2. Physiological
psychology
The study of underlying
physiological bases of psychological functions is known as physiological
psychology. The two major communication systems of the body—the nervous system
and the circulatory system—are the focus of most research in this area.
The nervous system consists of the
central nervous system (the brain and the spinal cord) and its outlying neural
network, the peripheral nervous system; the latter communicates with the glands
and muscles and includes the sensory receptors for seeing, hearing, smelling,
tasting, touching, feeling pain, and sensing stimuli within the body. The
circulatory system circulates the blood and also carries the important chemical
agents known as hormones from the glands to all parts of the body. Both these
communication systems are very important in overall human behavior.
The smallest unit of the nervous
system is the single nerve cell, or neuron. When a neuron is properly
stimulated, it transmits electrochemical signals from one place in the system
to another. The nervous system has 12.5 billion neurons, of which about 10
billion are in the brain itself.
One part of the peripheral nervous
system, the somatic system, transmits sensations into the central nervous
system and carries commands from the central system to the muscles involved in
movement. Another part of the peripheral nervous system, the autonomic system,
consists of two divisions that have opposing functions. The sympathetic
division arouses the body by speeding the heartbeat, dilating the pupils of the
eye, and releasing adrenaline into the blood. The parasympathetic division
operates to calm the body by reversing these processes.
A simple example of communication
within the nervous system is the spinal arc, which is seen in the knee-jerk
reflex. A tap on the patellar tendon, just below the kneecap, sends a signal to
the spinal cord via sensory neurons. This signal activates motor neurons that
trigger a contraction of the muscle attached to the tendon; the contraction, in
turn, causes the leg to jerk. Thus, a stimulus can lead to a response without
involving the brain, via a connection through the spinal cord.
Circulatory communication is
ordinarily slower than nervous-system communication. The hormones secreted by
the body’s endocrine glands circulate through the body, influencing both
structural and behavioral changes . The sex hormones, for example, that are
released during adolescence effect many changes in body growth and development
as well as changes in behavior, such as the emergence of specific sexual
activity and the increase of interest in the opposite sex. Other hormones may
have more direct, short-term effects; for instance, adrenaline, which is
secreted when a person faces an emergency, prepares the body for a quick
response—whether fighting or flight.
3. Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis, name applied to a
specific method of investigating unconscious mental processes and to a form of
psychotherapy. The term refers, as well, to the systematic structure of
psychoanalytic theory, which is based on the relation of conscious and
unconscious psychological processes.
Theory of
Psychoanalysis
The technique of psychoanalysis and much
of the psychoanalytic theory based on its application were developed by Sigmund
Freud. His work concerning the structure and the functioning of the human mind
had far-reaching significance, both practically and scientifically, and it
continues to influence contemporary thought.
The Unconscious
The first of Freud’s innovations was his
recognition of unconscious psychiatric processes that follow laws different
from those that govern conscious experience. Under the influence of the
unconscious, thoughts and feelings that belong together may be shifted or
displaced out of context; two disparate ideas or images may be condensed into
one; thoughts may be dramatized in the form of images rather than expressed as
abstract concepts; and certain objects may be represented symbolically by
images of other objects, although the resemblance between the symbol and the
original object may be vague or farfetched. The laws of logic, indispensable
for conscious thinking, do not apply to these unconscious mental productions.
Recognition of these modes of operation
in unconscious mental processes made possible the understanding of such
previously incomprehensible psychological phenomena as dreaming. Through
analysis of unconscious processes, Freud saw dreams as serving to protect sleep
against disturbing impulses arising from within and related to early life
experiences. Thus, unacceptable impulses and thoughts, called the latent dream
content, are transformed into a conscious, although no longer immediately comprehensible,
experience called the manifest dream. Knowledge of these unconscious mechanisms
permits the analyst to reverse the so-called dream work, that is, the process
by which the latent dream is transformed into the manifest dream, and through
dream interpretation, to recognize its underlying meaning.
Instinctual Drives
A basic assumption of Freudian theory is
that the unconscious conflicts involve instinctual impulses, or drives, that
originate in childhood. As these unconscious conflicts are recognized by the
patient through analysis, his or her adult mind can find solutions that were
unattainable to the immature mind of the child. This depiction of the role of
instinctual drives in human life is a unique feature of Freudian theory.
According to Freud’s doctrine of
infantile sexuality, adult sexuality is an end product of a complex process of
development, beginning in childhood, involving a variety of body functions or
areas (oral, anal, and genital zones), and corresponding to various stages in
the relation of the child to adults, especially to parents. Of crucial
importance is the so-called Oedipal period, occurring at about four to six
years of age, because at this stage of development the child for the first time
becomes capable of an emotional attachment to the parent of the opposite sex
that is similar to the adult’s relationship to a mate; the child simultaneously
reacts as a rival to the parent of the same sex. Physical immaturity dooms the
child’s desires to frustration and his or her first step toward adulthood to
failure. Intellectual immaturity further complicates the situation because it
makes children afraid of their own fantasies. The extent to which the child
overcomes these emotional upheavals and to which these attachments, fears, and
fantasies continue to live on in the unconscious greatly influences later life,
especially love relationships.
The conflicts occurring in the earlier
developmental stages are no less significant as a formative influence, because
these problems represent the earliest prototypes of such basic human situations
as dependency on others and relationship to authority. Also basic in molding
the personality of the individual is the behavior of the parents toward the
child during these stages of development. The fact that the child reacts, not
only to objective reality, but also to fantasy distortions of reality, however,
greatly complicates even the best-intentioned educational efforts.
Id, Ego, and Superego
The effort to clarify the bewildering
number of interrelated observations uncovered by psychoanalytic exploration led
to the development of a model of the structure of the psychic system. Three
functional systems are distinguished that are conveniently designated as the
id, ego, and superego.
The first system refers to the sexual and
aggressive tendencies that arise from the body, as distinguished from the mind.
Freud called these tendencies Triebe, which literally means “drives,”
but which is often inaccurately translated as “instincts” to indicate their
innate character. These inherent drives claim immediate satisfaction, which is
experienced as pleasurable; the id thus is dominated by the pleasure principle.
In his later writings, Freud tended more toward psychological rather than
biological conceptualization of the drives.
How the conditions for satisfaction are
to be brought about is the task of the second system, the ego, which is the
domain of such functions as perception, thinking, and motor control that can
accurately assess environmental conditions. In order to fulfill its function of
adaptation, or reality testing, the ego must be capable of enforcing the
postponement of satisfaction of the instinctual impulses originating in the id.
To defend itself against unacceptable impulses, the ego develops specific psychic
means, known as defense mechanisms. These include repression, the exclusion of
impulses from conscious awareness; projection, the process of ascribing to
others one’s own unacknowledged desires; and reaction formation, the
establishment of a pattern of behavior directly opposed to a strong unconscious
need. Such defense mechanisms are put into operation whenever anxiety signals a
danger that the original unacceptable impulses may reemerge.
An id impulse becomes unacceptable, not
only as a result of a temporary need for postponing its satisfaction until
suitable reality conditions can be found, but more often because of a
prohibition imposed on the individual by others, originally the parents. The
totality of these demands and prohibitions constitutes the major content of the
third system, the superego, the function of which is to control the ego in
accordance with the internalized standards of parental figures. If the demands
of the superego are not fulfilled, the person may feel shame or guilt. Because
the superego, in Freudian theory, originates in the struggle to overcome the
Oedipal conflict, it has a power akin to an instinctual drive, is in part
unconscious, and can give rise to feelings of guilt not justified by any
conscious transgression. The ego, having to mediate among the demands of the
id, the superego, and the outside world, may not be strong enough to reconcile
these conflicting forces. The more the ego is impeded in its development
because of being enmeshed in its earlier conflicts, called fixations or
complexes, or the more it reverts to earlier satisfactions and archaic modes of
functioning, known as regression, the greater is the likelihood of succumbing
to these pressures. Unable to function normally, it can maintain its limited
control and integrity only at the price of symptom formation, in which the
tensions are expressed in neurotic symptoms.
Anxiety
A cornerstone of modern psychoanalytic
theory and practice is the concept of anxiety, which institutes appropriate
mechanisms of defense against certain danger situations. These danger
situations, as described by Freud, are the fear of abandonment by or the loss
of the loved one (the object), the risk of losing the object’s love, the danger
of retaliation and punishment, and, finally, the hazard of reproach by the
superego. Thus, symptom formation, character and impulse disorders, and
perversions, as well as sublimations, represent compromise formations—different
forms of an adaptive integration that the ego tries to achieve through more or
less successfully reconciling the different conflicting forces in the mind.
Psychoanalytic
Schools
Various psychoanalytic schools have
adopted other names for their doctrines to indicate deviations from Freudian
theory.
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung, one of the earliest
pupils of Freud, eventually created a school that he preferred to call
analytical psychology. Like Freud, Jung used the concept of the libido;
however, to him it meant not only sexual drives, but a composite of all creative
instincts and impulses and the entire motivating force of human conduct.
According to his theories, the unconscious is composed of two parts; the
personal unconscious, which contains the results of the individual’s entire
experience, and the collective unconscious, the reservoir of the experience of
the human race. In the collective unconscious exist a number of primordial
images, or archetypes, common to all individuals of a given country or
historical era. Archetypes take the form of bits of intuitive knowledge or apprehension
and normally exist only in the collective unconscious of the individual. When
the conscious mind contains no images, however, as in sleep, or when the
consciousness is caught off guard, the archetypes commence to function.
Archetypes are primitive modes of thought and tend to personify natural
processes in terms of such mythological concepts as good and evil spirits,
fairies, and dragons. The mother and the father also serve as prominent
archetypes.
An important concept in Jung’s theory is
the existence of two basically different types of personality, mental attitude,
and function. When the libido and the individual’s general interest are turned
outward toward people and objects of the external world, he or she is said to
be extroverted. When the reverse is true, and libido and interest are centered
on the individual, he or she is said to be introverted. In a completely normal
individual these two tendencies alternate, neither dominating, but usually the
libido is directed mainly in one direction or the other; as a result, two
personality types are recognizable.
Jung rejected Freud’s distinction between
the ego and superego and recognized a portion of the personality, somewhat
similar to the superego, that he called the persona. The persona consists of
what a person appears to be to others, in contrast to what he or she actually
is. The persona is the role the individual chooses to play in life, the total
impression he or she wishes to make on the outside world.
Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler, another of Freud’s pupils,
differed from both Freud and Jung in stressing that the motivating force in
human life is the sense of inferiority, which begins as soon as an infant is
able to comprehend the existence of other people who are better able to care
for themselves and cope with their environment. From the moment the feeling of
inferiority is established, the child strives to overcome it. Because
inferiority is intolerable, the compensatory mechanisms set up by the mind may
get out of hand, resulting in self-centered neurotic attitudes,
overcompensations, and a retreat from the real world and its problems.
Adler laid particular stress on
inferiority feelings arising from what he regarded as the three most important
relationships: those between the individual and work, friends, and loved ones.
The avoidance of inferiority feelings in these relationships leads the
individual to adopt a life goal that is often not realistic and frequently is
expressed as an unreasoning will to power and dominance, leading to every type
of antisocial behavior from bullying and boasting to political tyranny. Adler
believed that analysis can foster a sane and rational “community feeling” that
is constructive rather than destructive.
Otto Rank
Another student of Freud, Otto Rank,
introduced a new theory of neurosis, attributing all neurotic disturbances to
the primary trauma of birth. In his later writings he described individual
development as a progression from complete dependence on the mother and family,
to a physical independence coupled with intellectual dependence on society, and
finally to complete intellectual and psychological emancipation. Rank also laid
great importance on the will, defined as “a positive guiding organization and
integration of self, which utilizes creatively as well as inhibits and controls
the instinctual drives.”
Other Psychoanalytic Schools
Later noteworthy modifications of
psychoanalytic theory include those of the American psychoanalysts Erich Fromm,
Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan. The theories of Fromm lay particular
emphasis on the concept that society and the individual are not separate and
opposing forces, that the nature of society is determined by its historic
background, and that the needs and desires of individuals are largely formed by
their society. As a result, Fromm believed, the fundamental problem of
psychoanalysis and psychology is not to resolve conflicts between fixed and
unchanging instinctive drives in the individual and the fixed demands and laws
of society, but to bring about harmony and an understanding of the relationship
between the individual and society. Fromm also stressed the importance to the
individual of developing the ability to fully use his or her mental, emotional,
and sensory powers.
Horney worked primarily in the field of
therapy and the nature of neuroses, which she defined as of two types:
situation neuroses and character neuroses. Situation neuroses arise from the
anxiety attendant on a single conflict, such as being faced with a difficult
decision. Although they may paralyze the individual temporarily, making it
impossible to think or act efficiently, such neuroses are not deeply rooted.
Character neuroses are characterized by a basic anxiety and a basic hostility
resulting from a lack of love and affection in childhood.
Sullivan believed that all development
can be described exclusively in terms of interpersonal relations. Character
types as well as neurotic symptoms are explained as results of the struggle
against anxiety arising from the individual’s relations with others and are a
security system, maintained for the purpose of allaying anxiety.
Melanie Klein
An important school of thought is based
on the teachings of the British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. Because most of
Klein’s followers worked with her in England, this has come to be known as the
English school. Its influence, nevertheless, is very strong throughout the
European continent and in South America. Its principal theories were derived
from observations made in the psychoanalysis of children. Klein posited the
existence of complex unconscious fantasies in children under the age of six
months. The principal source of anxiety arises from the threat to existence
posed by the death instinct. Depending on how concrete representations of the
destructive forces are dealt with in the unconscious fantasy life of the child,
two basic early mental attitudes result that Klein characterized as a
“depressive position” and a “paranoid position.” In the paranoid position, the
ego’s defense consists of projecting the dangerous internal object onto some
external representative, which is treated as a genuine threat emanating from
the external world. In the depressive position, the threatening object is
introjected and treated in fantasy as concretely retained within the person.
Depressive and hypochondriacal symptoms result. Although considerable doubt
exists that such complex unconscious fantasies operate in the minds of infants,
these observations have been of the utmost importance to the psychology of
unconscious fantasies, paranoid delusions, and theory concerning early object
relations.
4.
Behaviriourism
The literature of this school of
psychology is still awaiting its bibliographer. Though this interpretation of
human actions and reactions has been strongly criticized by other
psychologists, the leading figures - B.F.Skinner, J.B.Watson and E.C.Tolman -
have also been recognized and respected as great scholars. Skenner`s own
summary About behaviorism, 1974, contained numerous bibliographic references to
this important interpretation of man’s relationship to the world around him.
Strange compilation of references designed to show the errors of this school of
psychology was published by A.A.Roback in 1923 as part of his critical
discussion entitled Behaviorism and Psychology; it is now only of historical
interest.
We have already referred to Robert 1
Watson`s The history of psychology and behavioral sciences: a bibliographic
guide, 1978. in our discussion of the general background guides to psychology.
It suffices to note, here, that this work, though by one of the leading
scholars of the behaviorist school, is not, and does not pretend to be, a
bibliography of Behaviourism. In some respects the same can be said of
C.Heidenreich`s Dictionary of personality: behavior and adjustment terms,
which appeared in 1968. Both these books have been compiled by leading members
of this behaviorist school and unquestionably representative of the views of
that school. We have mentioned these works here for that reason, but stress that
these are scholarly and unbiased reference works which do not include or
misrepresent references to other interpretations of human behavior.
5. Gestalt
psychology
Gestalt Psychology, school of psychology that deals mainly with the processes of
perception. According to Gestalt psychology, images are perceived as a pattern
or a whole rather than merely as a sum of distinct component parts. The context
of an image plays a key role. For instance, in the context of a city silhouette
the shape of a spire is perceived as a church steeple. Gestalt psychology tries
to formulate the laws governing such perceptual processes.
Gestalt psychology began as a
protest. At the beginning of the 20th century, associationism
dominated psychology. The associationist view that stimuli are perceived as
parts and then built into images excluded as much as it sought to explain; for
instance, it allowed little room for such human concepts as meaning and value.
About 1910, German researchers Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka
rejected the prevailing order of scientific analysis in psychology. They did
not, however, reject science; rather they sought a scientific approach more
nearly related to the subject matter of psychology. They adopted that of field
theory, newly developed in physics. This model permitted them to look at
perception in terms other than the mechanistic atomism of the associationists.
Gestalt psychologists found
perception to be heavily influenced by the context or configuration of the
perceived elements. The word Gestalt can be translated from the German
approximately as “configuration.” The parts often derive their nature and
purpose from the whole and cannot be understood apart from it. Moreover, a
straightforward summation process of individual elements cannot account for the
whole. Activities within the total field of the whole govern the perceptual
processes.
The approach of Gestalt psychology
has been extended to research in areas as diverse as thinking, memory, and the
nature of aesthetics. Topics in social psychology have also been studied from
the structuralist Gestalt viewpoint, as in Kurt Lewin’s work on group dynamics.
It is in the area of perception, however, that Gestalt psychology has had its
greatest influence.
In addition, several contemporary
psychotherapies are termed Gestalt. These are constructed along lines similar
to Gestalt psychology’s approach to perception. Human beings respond
holistically to experience; according to Gestalt therapists, any separation of
mind and body is artificial. Accurate perception of one’s own needs and of the
world is vital in order to balance one’s experience and achieve “good
Gestalten.” Movement away from awareness breaks the holistic response, or
Gestalt. Gestalt therapists attempt to restore an individual’s natural,
harmonic balance by heightening awareness. The emphasis is on present
experience, rather than on recollections of infancy and early childhood as in
psychoanalysis. Direct confrontation with one’s fears is encouraged.
6.
Cognition psychology
Cognition, act or process of
knowing. Cognition includes attention, perception, memory, reasoning, judgment,
imagining, thinking, and speech. Attempts to explain the way in which cognition
works are as old as philosophy itself; the term, in fact, comes from the writings
of Plato and Aristotle. With the advent of psychology as a discipline separate
from philosophy, cognition has been investigated from several viewpoints.
An entire field—cognitive psychology—has
arisen since the 1950s. It studies cognition mainly from the standpoint of
information handling. Parallels are stressed between the functions of the human
brain and the computer concepts such as the coding, storing, retrieving, and
buffering of information. The actual physiology of cognition is of little
interest to cognitive psychologists, but their theoretical models of cognition
have deepened understanding of memory, psycholinguistics, and the development
of intelligence.
Social psychologists since the mid-1960s
have written extensively on the topic of cognitive consistency—that is, the
tendency of a person’s beliefs and actions to be logically consistent with one
another. When cognitive dissonance, or the lack of such consistency, arises,
the person unconsciously seeks to restore consistency by changing his or her
behavior, beliefs, or perceptions. The manner in which a particular individual
classifies cognitions in order to impose order has been termed cognitive style.
7. Tests and
Measurements
Many fields of psychology use tests
and measurement devices. The best-known psychological tool is intelligence
testing. Since the early 1900s psychologists have been measuring
intelligence—or, more accurately, the ability to succeed in schoolwork. Such
tests have proved useful in classifying students, assigning people to training
programs, and predicting success in many kinds of schooling. Special tests have
been developed to predict success in different occupations and to assess how
much knowledge people have about different kinds of specialties. In addition,
psychologists have constructed tests for measuring aspects of personality,
interests, and attitudes. Thousands of tests have been devised for measuring
different human traits.
A key problem in test construction,
however, is the development of a criterion—that is, some standard to which the
test is to be related. For intelligence tests, for example, the usual criterion
has been success in school, but intelligence tests have frequently been
attacked on the basis of cultural bias (that is, the test results may reflect a
child’s background as much as it does learning ability). For
vocational-interest tests, the standard generally has been persistence in an
occupation. One general difficulty with personality tests is the lack of
agreement among psychologists as to what standards should be used. Many
criteria have been proposed, but most are only indirectly related to the aspect
of personality that is being measured.
Very sophisticated statistical
models have been developed for tests, and a detailed technology underlies most
successful testing. Many psychologists have become adept at constructing
testing devices for special purposes and at devising measurements, once
agreement is reached as to what should be measured.
Types of Tests
Currently, a wide range of testing
procedures is used in the U.S. and elsewhere. Each type of procedure is
designed to carry out specific functions.
Achievement Tests . These tests are designed to assess current performance in an
academic area. Because achievement is viewed as an indicator of previous
learning, it is often used to predict future academic success. An achievement
test administered in a public school setting would typically include separate
measures of vocabulary, language skills and reading comprehension, arithmetic
computation and problem solving, science, and social studies. Individual
achievement is determined by comparison of results with average scores derived
from large representative national or local samples. Scores may be expressed in
terms of “grade-level equivalents”; for example, an advanced third-grade pupil
may be reading on a level equivalent to that of the average fourth-grade
student.
Aptitude Tests. These tests predict future performance in an area in which the
individual is not currently trained. Schools, businesses, and government
agencies often use aptitude tests when assigning individuals to specific
positions. Vocational guidance counseling may involve aptitude testing to help
clarify individual career goals. If a person’s score is similar to scores of
others already working in a given occupation, likelihood of success in that
field is predicted. Some aptitude tests cover a broad range of skills pertinent
to many different occupations. The General Aptitude Test Battery, for example,
not only measures general reasoning ability but also includes form perception,
clerical perception, motor coordination, and finger and manual dexterity. Other
tests may focus on a single area, such as art, engineering, or modern
languages.
Intelligence Tests. In contrast to tests of specific proficiencies or aptitudes,
intelligence tests measure the global capacity of an individual to cope with
the environment. Test scores are generally known as intelligence quotients, or
IQs, although the various tests are constructed quite differently. The
Stanford-Binet is heavily weighted with items involving verbal abilities; the
Wechsler scales consist of two separate verbal and performance subscales, each
with its own IQ. There are also specialized infant intelligence tests, tests
that do not require the use of language, and tests that are designed for group
administration.
The early intelligence scales yielded a
mental-age score, expressing the child’s ability to do as well as average
children who were older, younger, or equivalent in chronological age. The
deviation IQ used today expresses the individual’s position in comparison to a
representative group of people of the same age. The average IQ is set at 100;
about half of those who take the test achieve scores between 90 and 110. IQ
scores may vary according to testing conditions, and, thus, it is advisable to
understand results of the tests as falling within a certain range, such as
average or superior.
Interest Inventories. Self-report questionnaires on which the subject indicates personal
preferences among activities are called interest inventories. Because interests
may predict satisfaction with some area of employment or education, these
inventories are used primarily in guidance counseling. They are not intended to
predict success, but only to offer a framework for narrowing career
possibilities. For example, one frequently used interest inventory, the Kudor
Preference Record, includes ten clusters of occupational interests: outdoors,
mechanical, computational, scientific, persuasive, artistic, literary, musical,
social service, and clerical. For each item, the subject indicates which of
three activities is best or least liked. The total score indicates the
occupational clusters that include preferred activities.
Objective Personality Tests. These tests measure social and emotional adjustment and are used to
identify the need for psychological counseling. Items that briefly describe
feelings, attitudes, and behaviors are grouped into subscales, each
representing a separate personality or style, such as social extroversion or
depression. Taken together, the subscales provide a profile of the personality
as a whole. One of the most popular psychological tests is the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), constructed to aid in diagnosing
psychiatric patients. Research has shown that the MMPI may also be used to
describe differences among normal personality types.
Projective Techniques. Some personality tests are based on the phenomenon of projection, a
mental process described by Sigmund Freud as the tendency to attribute to
others personal feelings or characteristics that are too painful to
acknowledge. Because projective techniques are relatively unstructured and
offer minimal cues to aid in defining responses, they tend to elicit concerns
that are highly personal and significant. The best-known projective tests are
the Rorschach test, popularly known as the inkblot test, and the Thematic
Apperception Test; others include word-association techniques,
sentence-completion tests, and various drawing procedures. The psychologist’s
past experience provides the framework for evaluating individual responses.
Although the subjective nature of interpretation makes these tests particularly
vulnerable to criticism, in clinical settings they are part of the standard
battery of psychological tests.
Interpretation of Results
The most important aspect of
psychological testing involves the interpretation of test results.
Scoring. The
raw score is the simple numerical count of responses, such as the number of
correct answers on an intelligence test. The usefulness of the raw score is
limited, however, because it does not convey how well someone does in
comparison with others taking the same test. Percentile scores, standard
scores, and norms are all devices for making this comparison.
Percentile scoring expresses the rank
order of the scores in percentages. The percentile level of a person’s score
indicates the proportion of the group that scored above and below that
individual. When a score falls at the 50th percentile, for example,
half of the group scored higher and half scored lower; a score at the 80th
percentile indicates that 20 percent scored higher and 80 percent scored lower
than the person being evaluated.
Standard scores are derived from a
comparison of the individual raw score with the mean and standard deviation of
the group scores. The mean, or arithmetic average, is determined by adding the
scores and dividing by the total number of scores obtained. The standard
deviation measures the variation of the scores around the mean. Standard scores
are obtained by subtracting the mean from the raw score and then dividing by
the standard deviation.
Tables of norms are included in test
manuals to indicate the expected range of raw scores. Normative data are
derived from studies in which the test has been administered to a large,
representative group of people. The test manual should include a description of
the sample of people used to establish norms, including age, sex, geographical
location, and occupation. Norms based on a group of people whose major
characteristics are markedly dissimilar from those of the person being tested
do not provide a fair standard of comparison.
Validity. Interpretation
of test scores ultimately involves predictions about a subject’s behavior in a
specified situation. If a test is an accurate predictor, it is said to have
good validity. Before validity can be demonstrated, a test must first yield
consistent, reliable measurements. In addition to reliability, psychologists
recognize three main types of validity.
A test has content validity if the sample
of items in the test is representative of all the relevant items that might
have been used. Words included in a spelling test, for example, should cover a
wide range of difficulty.
Criterion-related validity refers to a
test’s accuracy in specifying a future or concurrent outcome. For example, an
art-aptitude test has predictive validity if high scores are achieved by those
who later do well in art school. The concurrent validity of a new intelligence
test may be demonstrated if its scores correlate closely with those of an
already well-established test.
Construct validity is generally
determined by investigating what psychological traits or qualities a test
measures; that is, by demonstrating that certain patterns of human behavior
account to some degree for performance on the test. A test measuring the trait
“need for achievement,” for instance, might be shown to predict that high
scorers work more independently, persist longer on problem-solving tasks, and
do better in competitive situations than low scores.
Controversies. The major psychological testing controversies stem from two
interrelated issues: technical shortcomings in test design and ethical problems
in interpretation and application of results. Some technical weaknesses exist
in all tests. Because of this, it is crucial that results be viewed as only one
kind of information about any individual. Most criticisms of testing arise from
the overvaluation of and inappropriate reliance on test results in making major
life decisions. These criticisms have been particularly relevant in the case of
intelligence testing. Psychologists generally agree that using tests to bar
youngsters from educational opportunities, without careful consideration of
past and present resources or motivation, is unethical. Because tests tend to
draw on those skills associated with white, middle-class functioning, they may
discriminate against disadvantaged and minority groups. As long as unequal
learning opportunities exist, they will continue to be reflected in test
results. In the U.S., therefore, some states have established laws that
carefully define the use of tests in public schools and agencies. The American
Psychological Association, meanwhile, continues to work actively to monitor and
refine ethical standards and public policy recommendations regarding the use of
psychological testing.
8. Development
psychology
Developmental Psychology study of
behavioral changes and continuity from infancy to old age. Much emphasis in
psychology has been given to the child and to the deviant personality.
Developmental psychology is particularly significant, then, in that it provides
for formal study of children and adults at every stage of development through
the life span.
Developmental psychology reflects
the view that human development and behavior throughout the life span is a
function of the interaction between biologically determined factors, such as
height or temperament, and environmental influences, such as family, schooling,
religion, and culture. Studies of these interactions focus on their
consequences for people at different age levels. For example, developmental
psychologists are interested in how children who were physically abused by
their parents behave when they themselves become parents. Studies, although
inconclusive, suggest that abused children often become abusive parents.
Other recent studies have focused on
the relationship between the aging process and intellectual competence;
contrary to the traditional notion that a person’s intellectual skills decline
rapidly after the age of 55, research indicates that the decline is gradual.
American studies of adulthood, building on the work of Erik Erikson, point to
stable periods with a duration of 5 to 7 years, during which energy is expended
on career, family, and social relationships, punctuated by “transitional”
periods lasting 3 to 5 years, during which assessment and reappraisal of major
life areas occurs. These transitional periods may be smooth or emotionally
stormy; the “midlife crisis” is an example of such a transition. Whether such
transitions are the same for men and women, and whether they a
currently under study.
9. Social psychology
Social Psychology branch of psychology
concerned with the scientific study of the behavior of individuals as
influenced, directly or indirectly, by social stimuli. Social psychologists are
interested in the thinking, emotions, desires, and judgments of individuals, as
well as in their overt behavior. An individual’s inner states can be inferred
only from some form of observable behavior. Research has also proved that
people are affected by social stimuli whether or not they are actually in the
presence of others and that virtually everything an individual does or
experiences is influenced to some extent by present or previous social
contacts.
Development of Theory. Social psychology is rooted in the earliest intellectual probes made
by individuals into their relations with society. Many of the major problems of
concern to contemporary social psychology were recognized as problems by social
philosophers long before psychological questions were joined to scientific
method. The questions posed by Aristotle, the Italian philosopher Niccol Machiavelli,
the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and others throughout history are still
asked, in altered form, in the work of present-day social psychologists.
The more recent history of social
psychology begins with the publication in 1908 of two textbooks—each having the
term social psychology in its title—that examine the impact of society on the
development and behavior of individuals. One of these was written by the
British psychologist William McDougall, and the other by the American
sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross. McDougall framed a controversial theory of
human instincts, conceived of as broad, purposive tendencies emerging from the
evolutionary process. Ross, on the other hand, was concerned with the
transmission of social behavior from person to person, such as the influence of
one person’s emotions on another’s in a crowd, or the following of fads and
fashions.
Another textbook on social
psychology, published in 1924 by the American psychologist Floyd H. Allport,
had an important influence on the development of social psychology as a
specialization of general psychology. Allport extended the principles of
associative learning to account for a wide range of social behavior. He thus
avoided reference either to such mysterious social forces as were proposed by
Ross or to the elaborate instinctive dispositions used by McDougall and his
followers to account for social behavior. Through the remainder of the decade,
the literature of social psychology continued to be devoted to similar
discussions and controversies about points of view, and little empirical work,
that is, work relying on experience or observation, of theoretical or practical
significance was done.
Early Experimentation. In the 1930s empirical research was first undertaken on such matters
as animal social behavior, group problem-solving, attitudes and persuasion,
national and ethnic stereotypes, rumor transmission, and leadership. The
German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin emphasized the necessity of doing
theoretical analysis before conducting research on a problem, the purpose of
the research being to clarify explanatory mechanisms hypothesized to underlie
the behavior being studied. The theory proposes an explanation of certain
behavior and allows the investigator to predict the specific conditions under
which the behavior will or will not occur. The investigator then designs
experiments in which the appropriate conditions are methodically varied and the
occurrence of the behavior can be observed and measured. The results allow
modifications and extensions of the theory to be made.
In 1939 Lewin together with two of
his doctoral students published the results of an experiment of significant
historical importance. The investigators had arranged to have the same adults
play different leadership roles while directing matched groups of children. The
adults attempted to establish particular climates—that is, social environmental
conditions—of democratic, autocratic, or completely laissez-faire leadership.
The reactions of the children in the groups were carefully observed, and
detailed notes were taken on the patterns of social interaction that emerged.
Although the experiment itself had many deficiencies, it demonstrated that
something as nebulous as a democratic social climate could be created under
controlled laboratory conditions.
The originality and success of this
research had a liberating effect on other investigators. By the end of World
War II, an outpouring of experimental research involving the manipulation of
temporary social environments through laboratory stagecraft began. At the same
time, important advances occurred in nonexperimental, or field, research in
social psychology. The objective rather than the speculative study of social
behavior is the current trend in social psychology.
Research Areas. Social psychology shares many concerns with other disciplines,
especially with sociology and cultural anthropology. The three sciences differ,
however, in that whereas the sociologist studies social groups and institutions
and the anthropologist studies human cultures, the social psychologist focuses
attention on how social groups, institutions, and cultures affect the behavior
of the individual. The major areas of research in social psychology are the
following.
Socialization. Social psychologists who study the phenomena of socialization,
meaning the process of being made fit or trained for a social environment, are
interested in how individuals learn the rules governing their behavior toward
other persons in society, the groups of which they are members, and individuals
with whom they come into contact. Questions dealing with how children learn
language, sex role, moral and ethical principles, and appropriate behavior in
general have come under intensive investigation. Also widely studied are the
methods by which adults learn to adapt their patterns of behavior when they are
confronted by new situations or organizations.
Attitudes and Attitude Change. Attitudes have generally been regarded as learned predispositions
that exert some consistent influence on responses toward objects, persons, or
groups. Attitudes are usually seen as the products of socialization and
therefore as modifiable. Because the behavior of a person toward others is
often, although not always, consistent with his or her attitudes toward them,
the investigation of how attitudes are formed, how they are organized in the
mind, and how they are modified has been considered of great practical as well
as theoretical importance.
The discovery that attitudes follow
from behavior as well as vice versa emerges from the well-tested assumption
that people desire to preserve logical consistency in their views of themselves
and their environments. A number of theories of cognitive consistency have
become important in social psychological thinking. These theories stress the
idea that individuals have a personal stake in believing that their own
thoughts and actions are in agreement with one another, and that perceiving
inconsistency between one’s actions and thoughts leads to attempts to reduce
the inconsistency. Through research, social psychologists attempt to understand
the conditions under which people notice an inconsistency and the conditions
under which they will attempt to reduce it by changing significant attitudes.
Studies support the consistency-theory prediction that the attitudes of a
person about a group of people can often be changed by inducing the person to
change his or her behavior toward the group; the attitude change represents the
efforts of the person to bring his or her ideas about the group into agreement
with how he has just acted toward its members.
Social Affiliation, Power, and
Influence. The factors that govern whether and with
whom people will affiliate, as well as whether and how they will attempt to
influence or be influenced by others, have received much attention by social
psychologists. Researchers have determined, for example, that if people are
unsure of how they should feel or behave in response to a new or unpleasant
situation, they will seek the company of others who may be able to provide the
lacking information. Social psychologists have also found that firstborn and
only children are generally more inclined to join groups throughout their lives
than are those born later.
Group Structure and Functioning. Social psychologists have studied many issues related to questions
of how the group and the individual affect one another, including problems of
leadership functions, styles, and effectiveness. Social psychologists
investigate the conditions under which people or groups resolve their conflicts
cooperatively or competitively and the many consequences of those general modes
of conflict resolution. Research is conducted also to determine how the group
induces conformity and how it deals with deviant members.
Personality and Society. Some social psychologists are particularly concerned with the
development and consequences of stable individual differences among people.
Differences in the degree of achievement motivation have been found to be
measurable and to have important consequences for how a person behaves in
various social situations. Systems of attitudes toward authority, such as the
notion of the authoritarian personality, have been found to relate to attitudes
toward ethnic minorities and to certain aspects of social behavior. A
personality syndrome known as Machiavellianism, named after the Italian
political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, has been used to predict the
social manipulativeness of people in interaction and their ability to dominate
certain interpersonal situations.
Investigative Techniques
Numerous kinds of research methods and
techniques are being used in social psychology. The tradition of theory-based
investigation remains strong in the discipline. In recent years rigorously
exact mathematical models of social behavior have been used increasingly in
psychological studies. Such models are projections, based on theory and in
arithmetic detail, of social behavior in a possible system of social
relationships.
Other techniques include the
questionnaire and the interview, both used widely in public opinion polls and
studies of consumer preferences. These two methods pose a considerable
challenge to investigators. The kind of control of the environment that is
possible in the laboratory is not available in the field, and the effects of
subtle variables that can be observed in experiments are easily obscured by
other variables that may exist in natural environments.
Frequently, behavior in natural settings
is systematically observed, or computers are programmed to simulate social
behavior. Special techniques are used for analysis of statistics and other data
and for attitude measurement as well as measurement of social choice and
interpersonal attractiveness. Also important is psychophysiological
measurement, that is, the measurement of shared mental and physiological
characteristics. Cross-national and cross-cultural research is one of the
modern techniques, designed to provide comparisons of behavior between nations
and cultures; the same research study is carried out in several different
countries in order to determine the cross-cultural validity of the research.
In the study of social behavior in
animals, a laboratory environment facilitates controlled experimentation, that
is, experimentation considering the previous history of the animals as well as
their present environmental conditions. Simple behavioral acts, such as a
pigeon pecking at an object, can be isolated and schedules of
reinforcement—that is, repetition of stimuli—can be maintained. Social
psychological research with animals has led to important new techniques for
their training.
Applied Social Psychology
The principles developed in laboratory
and field research in social psychology have been applied to many social
situations and problems. Applied researchers and consultants have worked to
ameliorate problems found in ethnic relations, international relations,
industrial and labor relations, political and economic behavior, education,
advertising, and community mental health. Industries, organizations, schools,
and task groups of many kinds regularly use the services of applied social
psychologists to improve interpersonal relations, to increase understanding of
relations between members of groups in conflict with one another, and to
diagnose and help correct problems in group and organizational productivity.
10. Psychiatry and mental health
Psychiatry
is the realm in which medical science and psychology join to provide help for
persons whose mind (as one says) is disturbed and whose behavior does not
conform to accept social patterns. Psychopathology and clinical psychology are
integral sub-fields of this branch of medical psychology which, of necessity,
also includes neurology, mental deficiency or retardation, forensic psychology,
certain aspects of abnormal psychology, social psychology and psychotherapy.
Mental illness has been recognized as such since the days of Aristotle
and Hippocrates, and its long modern history has been able described by some
scientists.
Mental Health, state characterized by psychological well-being and
self-acceptance. The term mental health usually implies the capacity to love
and relate to others, the ability to work productively, and the willingness to
behave in a way that brings personal satisfaction without encroaching upon the
rights of others. In a clinical sense, mental health is the absence of mental
illness.
The Mental Health Movement
Concern for the mentally ill has waxed
and waned through the centuries, but the development of modern-day approaches
to the subject dates from the mid-18th century, when reformers such
as the French physician Philippe Pinel and the American physician Benjamin Rush
introduced humane “moral treatment” to replace the often cruel treatment that
then prevailed. Despite these reforms, most of the mentally ill continued to
live in jails and poorhouses—a situation that continued until 1841, when the
American reformer Dorothea Dix campaigned to place the mentally ill in
hospitals for special treatment.
The modern mental health movement can be
traced to the publication in 1908 of A Mind That Found Itself, an
account of the experience of its author, Clifford Whittingham Beers, as a
mental patient. The book aroused a storm of public concern for the mentally
ill. In 1909 Beers founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene.
Public awareness of the need for greater
governmental attention to mental health services led to passage of the National
Mental Health Act in 1946. This legislation authorized the establishment of the
National Institute of Mental Health to be operated as a part of the U.S. Public
Health Service. In 1950 the National Committee for Mental Hygiene was
reorganized as the National Association for Mental Health, better known as the
Mental Health Association.
In 1955 Congress established a Joint
Commission on Mental Illness and Health to survey the mental health needs of
the nation and to recommend new approaches. Based on the commission’s
recommendations, legislation was passed in 1963 authorizing funds for construction
of facilities for community-based treatment centers. A similar group, the
President’s Commission on Mental Health, reported its findings in 1978, citing
estimates of the cost of mental illness in the U.S. alone as being about $17
billion a year.
Scope of the Problem
According to a common estimate, at any
one time 10 percent of the American population has mental health problems
sufficiently serious to warrant care; recent evidence suggests that this figure
may be closer to 15 percent. Not all the people who need help receive it,
however; in 1975 only 3 percent of the American population received mental
health service. One major reason for this is that people still fear the stigma
attached to mental illness and hence often fail to report it or to seek help.
Analysis of the figures on mental illness
shows that schizophrenia afflicts an estimated 2 million Americans, another 2
million suffer from profound depressive disorders, and 1 million have organic
psychoses or other permanently disabling mental conditions. As much as 25
percent of the population is estimated to suffer from mild or moderate
depression, anxiety, and other types of emotional problems. Some 10 million
Americans have problems related to alcohol abuse, and millions more are thought
to abuse drugs. Some 5 to 15 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 15
are the victims of persistent mental health problems, and at least 2 million
are thought to have severe learning disabilities that can seriously impair
their mental health.
In addition, according to the President’s
Commission, the list of mental health problems should be extended beyond
identifiable psychiatric conditions to include the damage to mental health
associated with unrelenting poverty, unemployment, and discrimination on the
basis of race, sex, class, age, and mental or physical handicaps.
Prevention
Public health authorities customarily
distinguish among three forms of prevention. Primary prevention refers to
attempts to prevent the occurrence of mental disorder, as well as to promote
positive mental health. Secondary prevention is the early detection and
treatment of a disorder, and tertiary prevention refers to rehabilitative
efforts that are directed at preventing complications.
Two avenues of approach to the prevention
of mental illness in adults were suggested by the President’s Commission. One
was to reduce the stressful effects of such crises as unemployment, retirement,
bereavement, and marital disruption; the second was to create environments in
which people can achieve their full potential. The commission placed its
heaviest emphasis, however, on helping children. It recommended the following
steps:
1) good care during pregnancy and childbirth, so that early treatment
can be instituted as needed;
2) early detection and correction of problems of physical, emotional,
and intellectual development;
3) developmental day-care programs focusing on emotional and
intellectual development;
4) support services for families, directed at preventing unnecessary
and inappropriate foster care or other out-of-home placements for children.
Treatment
Care of the mentally ill has changed
dramatically in recent decades. Drugs introduced in the mid-1950s, along with
other improved treatment methods, enabled many patients who would once have
spent years in mental institutions to be treated as outpatients in community
facilities instead. (A series of judicial decisions and legislative acts has
promoted community care by requiring that patients be treated in the least
restrictive setting available.) Between 1955 and 1980 the number of people in
state mental hospitals declined from more than 550,000 to fewer than 125,000.
This trend was due partly to improved community care and partly to the cost of
operating hospitals; in an effort to save public money, some large state mental
hospitals have been closed, forcing alternatives to be found for patients. This
is generally considered a progressive trend because when patients spend
extended periods in hospitals they tend to become overly dependent and lose
interest in taking care of themselves. In addition, because the hospitals are
often located long distances from the patients’ homes, families and friends can
visit only infrequently, and the patients’ roles at home and at work are likely
to be taken over by others.
The psychiatric wards of community
general hospitals have assumed some of the responsibility for caring for the
mentally ill during the acute phases of illness. Some of these hospitals
function as the inpatient service for community mental health centers.
Typically, patients remain for a few days or weeks until their symptoms have
subsided, and they usually are given some form of psychotropic drug to help
relieve their symptoms. Following the lead of Great Britain, American mental
hospitals now also give some patients complete freedom of buildings and grounds
and, in some instances, freedom to visit nearby communities. This move is based
on the conclusion that disturbed behavior is often the result of restraint
rather than of illness.
Treatment of patients with less severe
mental disorders has also changed markedly in recent decades. Previously,
patients with mild depression, anxiety disorders, and other neurotic conditions
were treated individually with psychotherapy. Although this form of treatment
is still widely used, alternative approaches are now available. In some
instances, a group of patients meets to work through problems with the
assistance of a therapist; in other cases, families are treated as a unit.
Another form of treatment that has proven especially effective in alleviating
phobic disorders is behavior therapy, which focuses on changing overt behavior
rather than the underlying causes of a disorder. As in the serious mental
illnesses, the treatment of milder forms of anxiety and depression has been
furthered by the introduction of new drugs that help alleviate symptoms.
Rehabilitation
The release of large numbers of patients
from state mental hospitals, however, has caused significant problems both for
the patients and for the communities that become their new homes. Adequate
community services often are unavailable to former mental patients, a large
percentage of whom live in nursing homes and other facilities that are not
equipped to meet their needs. Most of these patients have been diagnosed as
having schizophrenia, and only 15 to 40 percent of schizophrenics who live in
the community achieve an average level of adjustment. Those who do receive care
typically visit a clinic at periodic intervals for brief counseling and drug
monitoring.
In addition to such outpatient clinics,
rehabilitation services include sheltered workshops, day-treatment programs,
and social clubs. Sheltered workshops provide vocational guidance and an
opportunity to brush up on an old skill or learn a new one. In day-treatment
programs, patients return home at night and on weekends; during weekdays, the
programs offer a range of rehabilitative services, such as vocational training,
group activities, and help in the practical problems of living. Ex-patient
social clubs provide social contacts, group activities, and an opportunity for
patients to develop self-confidence in normal situations.
Another important rehabilitative facility
is the halfway house for patients whose families are not willing or able to
accept them after discharge. It serves as a temporary residence for ex-patients
who are ready to form outside community ties. A variant is the use of
subsidized apartments for recently discharged psychiatric patients.
Research
Many different sciences contribute to
knowledge about mental health and illness. In recent decades these sciences
have begun to clarify basic biological, psychological, and social processes,
and they have refined the application of such knowledge to mental health
problems.
Some of the most promising leads have
come from biological research. For example, brain scientists who study
neurotransmitters—chemicals that carry messages from one nerve cell to
another—are contributing to knowledge of normal and abnormal brain functioning,
and they may eventually discover better treatment methods for mental illness.
Other researchers are trying to discover how the brain develops—they have
learned, for example, that even in adults some nerve cells partially regenerate
after being damaged—and such research adds to the understanding of mental
retardation, untreatable forms of brain damage, and other conditions.
Psychological research relevant to mental
health includes the study of perception, information processing, thinking,
language, motivation, emotion, abilities, attitudes, personality, and social
behavior. For example, researchers are studying stress and how to cope with it.
One application of this type of research may help to prevent mental disorders;
in the future, psychologists may be better able to match people (and their
coping skills) to work settings and job duties.
Research in the social sciences focuses
on problems of individuals in contexts such as the family, neighborhood, and
work setting, as well as the culture at large. One example of such work is epidemiological
research, which is the study of the occurrence of disease patterns, including
mental illness, in a society.
11. Forensic psychology
and criminology
The study of abnormal behaviour
often leads to special investigations into the origins or causes of crime. This
in turn will lead to the psychological study of criminals and also of the
victims of crime. The literature on this topic is growing and there exist now a
number of useful indexing services to help with the retrieval of particular
contributions from many countries. While most of these indexes and abstracts
are orientated towards the work of, and happenings in, the courts, all of them
contain, references to the behaviour of criminals or social deviants.
Criminology and penology abstracts has been in existence since 1960; its
abstracts are arranged under broad subject heading which include psychology,
psychopathology, psychiatry, social behaviour of groups.
12. Psychology, religion and
phenomenology
The long traditional links between
religions and psychology go back to classical antiquity. They received much
impetus in the middle ages and again during the many periods of religious and
political fervour that stirred Europe during the past six centuries, reaching
various climactic peaks through seers, visionaries and martyrs. Every one of
these advocated social reforms on earth to attain a new heaven, or threatened
new hells should the reforms not be adopted. All were persecuted by the
established religious or political power, or both; then as now, the defenders
of the status quo almost invariably accused the challengers of being madmen or
psychopaths. It is all a matter of firmly held beliefs uttered from
pulpits,chancery ballconies and soap boxes as well as printed in broadsides,
pamphlets, or large books, or smeared on the walls of houses with a wide brush
13. Parapsychology
Psychical Research, also parapsychology, scientific investigation of alleged phenomena
and events that appear to be unaccounted for by conventional physical,
biological, or psychological theories. Parapsychologists study two kinds of
so-called psi phenomena: extrasensory perception (ESP), or the acquiring of
information through nonsensory means; and psychokinesis (PK), or the ability to
affect objects at a distance by means other than known physical forces.
Psychical research also investigates the survival of personality after death
and deals with related topics such as trance mediumship, hauntings,
apparitions, poltergeists (involuntary PK), and out-of-body experiences. The
name of this field of investigation is taken from the Society of Psychical
Research, founded in England in 1882 and in the U.S. in 1884; both groups
continue to publish their findings today.
Historical Development
Among the early achievements of the
British group was the investigation of hypnotism, a field later claimed by
medicine and psychology. The society also investigated phenomena produced at
spiritualistic seances and the claims of spiritualism. Psi phenomena to be
investigated were classified as either physical or mental. The physical
effects, or PK, include the movement of physical objects or an influence upon
material processes by the apparent direct action of mind over matter. The
mental manifestations, or ESP, include telepathy, which is the direct transmission
of messages, emotions, or other subjective states from one person to another
without the use of any sensory channel of communication; clairvoyance, meaning
direct responses to a physical object or event without any sensory contact; and
precognition, or a noninferential response to a future event.
One of the first specific investigations
in the field was the examination, by the British chemist and physicist Sir
William Crookes, of the phenomena produced at seances held by the Scottish
medium Daniel Dunglas Home. Home, a physical medium, held his seances in full
light, and the validity of the paranormal phenomena he produced has never been
successfully impugned. The contents of verbal utterances by mental mediums were
also studied. Significant early research involved the American medium Leonore
E. Piper, whose apparent psychical gifts were discovered by the American
philosopher and psychologist William James. Other lines of investigation dealt
with psychic experiences that seemed to occur spontaneously in everyday life,
and involved the controlled testing of persons with apparently outstanding ESP
abilities.
Rhine’s Laboratory
In the U.S., one of the earliest groups
to become active in parapsychology was the Parapsychology Laboratory of North
Carolina’s Duke University, which began publishing literature in the 1930s.
There, under the direction of the American psychologist Joseph Banks Rhine,
methods were developed that advanced psychical investigations from the
correlations of isolated and often vague anecdotal reports to a mathematical
study based on statistics and the laws of probability.
In the experiments dealing with ESP,
Rhine and his associates used mainly a deck of 25 cards, somewhat similar to
ordinary playing cards but bearing on their faces only five designs: star,
circle, cross, square, and wavy lines. If a subject correctly named 5 out of
the shuffled deck of 25 concealed cards, that was considered pure chance.
Certain subjects, however, consistently named 6 out of 10 cards correctly; so
Rhine and his associates concluded that this demonstrated the existence of ESP.
In their experiments on PK, the group used ordinary dice that were thrown from
a cup against a wall or tumbled in mechanically driven cages. In these tests,
an apparent relationship was found between the mental effort of subjects to
“will” particular faces of the dice to appear upward and the percentage of
times the faces actually did so. The results obtained in many individual
experiments and in the research as a whole, Rhine and his workers decided,
could not reasonably be attributed to the fluctuations of chance.
Rhine retired from Duke University in
1965 and transferred his research to a privately endowed organization, the
Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man. Since that time parapsychology
has become better established in other universities, as illustrated by the
offering of credit courses in the subject in increasing numbers. In addition,
independent research centers continue to be founded, among them the American
Society for Psychical Research, with headquarters in New York City. The
Parapsychological Association, an international group of scholars actively
working in the field, was formed in 1957 and was granted affiliation status by
the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1969.
Criticisms
Although parapsychologists are
increasingly employing and refining scientific methodologies for their
observations, one of the chief criticisms of their work is that experiments in
psi phenomena can rarely be duplicated. Under the most rigorous laboratory
controls, for example, experiments on phenomena such as out-of-body
experiences—in which individuals demonstrate an apparent ability to locate
their center of perception outside their bodies—indicate that even reputable
psychics are rarely able to duplicate earlier, high-scoring performances. The
scores of such individuals, in fact, tend to drop to the level of probability
the more the experiment is repeated. Nonparapsychologists find psi experiments
even more difficult to repeat, and a majority of conventional scientists
dismiss parapsychology findings as unscientific or at best inconclusive.
A similar criticism is based on the claim
by most parapsychologists that psi phenomena occur beyond the law of causality,
which is one of the fundamental premises of any scientific investigation.
Indeed, results of psi experiments often turn out to be far from or even
contradictory to the original predictions. Parapsychologists admit that psi
phenomena fall so far outside ordinary comprehension that they are often unsure
whether an ESP event or a PK event has occurred; Rhine himself stated that one
kind of event could not occur without the other. Because these phenomena are
difficult to define or isolate when they appear to happen—and, further, because
the phenomena occur only for a select group of observers—most scientists think
that psi investigations fall far short of the rules of objectivity required by
the scientific method. As a result, many parapsychologists, rather than trying
to demonstrate the reality of psi phenomena to a skeptical scientific
community, have turned to exploring how such phenomena might actually work;
they even have drawn on quantum physics for empirical support. Some workers in
the field object to the very notion of repeatability of experiments as foreign
to the nature of psi phenomena; they consider the scientific method, as
currently understood, too restrictive a formulation for exploring the unknown.
14. Industrial
Psychology
Psychologists in industry serve many
roles. In the personnel office, they assist in hiring through testing and
interviewing, in developing training programs, in evaluating employees, and in
maintaining good employee relations and communications. Some psychologists do
research for marketing and advertising departments. Others work in the field of
human engineering, which involves designing machines and workplaces to make
them more suitable for people.
School Psychology
Psychologists in the educational system
give most of their attention to counseling and guidance. They help students
plan their school and work careers. Educational psychologists deal with the
processes of teaching and learning; for example, they may investigate new
methods of teaching children how to read or to do mathematics, in order to make
classroom learning more effective.
Clinical Psychology
Many applied psychologists work in
hospitals, clinics, and private practice, providing therapy to people who need
psychological help. By testing and interviewing, they classify their patients
and engage in all forms of treatment that are not exclusively medical, such as
drug therapy and surgery.
A special contribution of clinical
psychology is behavior therapy, which is based on principles of learning and
conditioning. Through behavior therapy, clinical psychologists try to change
the behavior of the patient and to remove unpleasant or undesirable symptoms by
arranging the proper conditioning experiences or the proper rewards for desired
behavior. A patient with a phobia about dogs, for example, might be
“desensitized” by a series of rewards given for closer and closer contact with
dogs in nonthreatening situations. In other forms of therapy, the psychologist
may try to help patients better understand their problems and find new ways of
dealing with them.
Vocabulary
Contents
Physiological psychology - психофизиология. Изучает психику в единстве с ее
нейрофизиологическим субстратом - рассматривает соотношение
мозга и психики.
Psychoanalysis - психоанализ.
Основывается на идее о том, что поведение определяется не
только и не столько сознанием, сколько бессознательным.
Behaviourism - бихевиоризм.
Направление в американской психологии ХХ в., отрицающее
сознание как предмет научного исследования и сводящее психику
к различным формам
поведения, понятого как совокупность организма на стимулы
внешней среды.
Gestalt psychology -
гештальт-психология. Программа изучения психики с точки зрения
целостных структур - гештальтов, первичным по отношению к
своим компонентам.
Cognition - когнитивная
психология. Исходит из того, что любая ассоциация между стимулом и
реакцией создается сначала в мозге.
Tests and Measurements - тесты
Development
psychology - возрастная психология. Отрасль психологии, изучающая
закономерности этапов психического развития и формирования личности в связи с
возрастом - на протяжении онтогенеза человека от рождения до старости
Social psychology - социальная
психология. Изучает психологические особенности и
закономерности поведения и деятельности людей, обусловленные
их включением в группы
социальные и существованием в них, а также психологические
характеристики самих этих
групп.
Psychiatry and mental health -
психиатрия и психическое здоровье. Область клинической
медицины, изучающая психические болезни
Forensic psychology - судебная
психология. Область психологии юридической, изучающая круг
вопросов, относящихся к судопроизводству.
Сriminology -
криминология.
Рhenomenology -
феноменология.
Parapsychology-
парапсихология (психотроника). Именование гипотез и представлений,
относящихся к психическим явлениям, объяснение коих не имеет строгого научного
обоснования.
Industrial Psychology - индустриальная психология.
2. Physiological
psychology
Perception - восприятие
Certain skills - определенные навыки
Innate - врожденный
Perception - восприятие
Nervous system - нервная система
Circulatory system - гормональная
регуляция
Central nervous system - центральная
нервная система
Spinal cord - спинной мозг
Peripheral nervous system - периферическая
нервная система
Glands- железа
Muscles - мышца
Sensory - чувствительный
Neuron - нейрон
Somatic system - соматическая система
Autonomic system - вегетативная
система
Sympathetic division - симпатический
отдел
Parasympathetic division -
парасимпатический отдел
Knee-jerk reflex - рефлекс коленный
(пателлярный)
3. Psychoanalysis
Unconscious - бессознательное
Conscious - сознательное
Latent dream - тайные (латентные)
мысли
Manifest dream - явные мысли
Instinctual drives - основные
инстинкты
Infantile sexuality - инфантильная
сексуальность
Adult sexuality - взрослая
сексуальность
Oral, anal and genital zones - оральная,
анальная и фаллическая стадии
Oedipal period - эдипов комплекс
Структурные компоненты души:
Id - Ид (оно) “содержит все
унаследованное, все, что есть при рождении. Ид резервуар энергии для всей
личности, содержание Ид бессознательно
Ego - эго - та часть психического
аппарата, которая находится в контакте с внешней реальностью. Развивается из
Ид по мере того, как ребенок начинает осознавать свою личность. Эго защищает
Ид.
Superego - суперэго. Развивается и
Эго. Служит судьей или цензором Эго.
Thinking - мышление
Motor control - моторные контроль
Defense mechanisms - защитные
механизмы
Repression - подавление
Projection - проекция
Reaction formation - реактивные
образование. Явная и обычно бессознательная инверсия желания
Anxiety - тревожность
Analytical psychology - аналитическая
психология
Libido - либидо - половое влечение
Personal unconscious - личное
бессознательное
Collective unconscious - коллективное
бессознательное
Archetypes - архетипы. Психические
структуры, формы без собственного содержания, которые организуют и канализируют
психологический материал.
Persona - персона. Это то, какими
мы представляем себя миру
Neurosis - невроз
Primary trauma of birth - первичная
травма детства
Mental, emotional and sensory powers - ментальная,
эмоциональная и чувственная сила
Situation neuroses - ситуационный
невроз
Character neuroses - невротик
Complex unconscious fantasies in children
- комплекс бессознательных фантазий в детстве
Death instinct - инстинкт смерти. Под
ним понимаются присущие индивиду - как правило,
бессознательные - тенденции к саморазрушению и возврату в
неорганическое состояние.
Depressive position - депрессивное
состояние
Paranoid position - параноидальное
состояние
7.
Gestalt
psychology
Associationism - ассоциативная
психология
8.
Cognition
psychology
Attention - внимание
Perception - восприятие
Memory - память
Reasoning - мотивация
Judgment - суждение
Imagining - воображение
Thinking - мышление
Speech - речь
Psycholinguistics - психолингвистика.
Научная дисциплина, изучающая обусловленность процессов речи и ее восприятия
структурой соответствующего языка, или языка вообще.
Intelligence - интеллект
7.
Tests and Measurements
Achievement tests - тест достижений
Aptitude tests - тест на
профпригодность
Intellegence tests - тест
умственных способностей
Verbal abilities - способности на
восприятие вербального (знакового) материала
Infant intelligence tests - тесты
на определение уровня интеллекта детей
Interest inventories - опросники
профориентации
Objective Personality tests - объективные
качества личности
Social extroversion or depression - социальные
экстроверсия и интроверсия
Personality types - психотипы
Projective techniques - Проективные
тесты
Validity - валидность. Указывает,
что именно тест измеряет и насколько хорошо он это делает.
Criterion-related validity - критериально-связывающая
валидность
Construct validity - конструктивная
валидность
9.
Social
psychology
Emotions - эмоции
Desires - желания
Social Affiliation - социальная
аффилиация (стремление быть в обществе других людей)
Influence - влияние
10. Psychiatry and mental health
Patterns - образ жизни
Depressive disorders - депрессия
Organic psychoses - органический
психоз. Глубокие расстройства психики, психической деятельности; проявляются в
нарушении отражения реального мира, возможности его познания, изменении
поведения и отношения к окружающему.
13. Parapsychology
Extrasensory perception (ESP) - экстрасенсорное
восприятие
Psychokinesis (PK) - психокинез
Trance mediumship, hauntings, poltergeists
(involuntary PK) - трансовый медиумизм, телепатия, полтергейст
Out-of-body experience - опыт вне
телесного сознания
Hypnotism - гипноз (техника
воздействия на индивида путем фокализации его внимания с целью сузить поле
сознания и подчинить его влиянию,, контролю внешнего агента - гипнотизера,
внушения коего гипнотизируемый будет выполнять.
LITERATURE
1. Borchardt D.H. How to
find out in Psychology. Pergamon Press 1984
2. Stedman`s concise
Medical dictionary. First Webster`s New World Edition 1987.
3. Encarta
Encyclopedia.1996
4. Никошкова Е.В. Англо-русский словарь
по психологии. М: РУССО, ИП РАН, 1998
5. Ривкин В.Л., Морозов Н.В. Русско-английский
медицинский словарь-справочник с толкованиями. М: РУССО, 1996
6. Словарь практического психолога.
Минск: Харвест, 1998
7. Хрестоматия по психологии личности.
Самара: Издательский Дом “Бахрах”, 1996