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ACCORDING TO PSYCHOLOGY IF YOU WANT TO BE ONE OF THE WORLDS BEST?
THEN THERE IS ONE SURE WAY TO BECOME THIS.

10,000 hours OF PRACTICE


A VERY BASIC CRASH COURSE IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY UP TO 1950


Basically psychology as a science is believed to have started in 1879. Mainly covering parent discipline and also two other areas philosophy and biology.

ORIGINS IN PHILOSOPHY

PLATO & ARISTOTLE (C-350-BC)

DESCARTES (PRONOUNCED DAY-CAR)-17th CENTURY DUALISM

EMPIRICISTS (17-18th CENTURY) ASSOCIATIONISM


DUALISM
The Basic school of thought is :-

There are two universes of STUFF ( humorous technical terminology)-
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL
or to put it another way
BODY & MIND

It was said that you can study scientifically PHYSICAL that is everything but the mind, this meant that animals could also be placed under the heading of physical. Supporters of Dualism believed that the MIND/MENTAL could NOT be studied-scientifically (?)

Descartes on the other hand said that the two interact (BODY-&-MIND). The body being a form of hydraulic system, where the muscles were balloons fed by arteries supplying the fluid. This particular idea is now squashed although Descartes still has many of his theories explored by new age thinkers one of which is Monads (link Monad to Descartes page in alternative theories section.


BRITISH-EMPIRICISTS

They challenged the theory that the mind could not be studied scientifically and said that it could. Their belief works on the principle that human beings enter life as a blank slate and build upon associated learning i.e. human beings learn (acquire knowledge) from their mistakes.

ORIGINS-IN-PHILOSOPHY IS ONE AREA THAT LINKS WITH PSYCHOLOGY

CRASH COURSE IN ORIGINS-IN-BIOLOGY

Galvani 18th Century (who disproved Descartes theory of a form of hydraulics type system). Galvani used the theory of Electrical Neural Transmissions.

Muller-(19th Century) Specific Channels nerves

Flourens, Broca (19th-Century) Brain Areas
Ablation description by Flourens description to find out what different parts of the brain actually do.

Helm Holtz (19th Century) Evolution/Animal models

Darwin-(19th Century) Evolution/Animal Models

Broca during war period, used people that were shot or badly injured in the head to try and test what different parts of the brain are responsible for.

Computerised Axel Topography or CAT for short is now used to observe what areas of the brain are being used during certain functions or actions.

Holtz-Demonstrated how to measure the speed of neural cells.

EARLY-SCHOOL-OF-THOUGHT

WUNDT-:-STRUCTURISM------------------------LATE-19th-CENTURY

DEWEY & JAMES-:-FUNCTIONLISM---------------LATE-19th-CENTURY

FREUD : PSYCHOANALYSIS--------------------EARLY-20th-CENTURY

GESTALT : PSYCHOLOGY----------------------EARLY-20th-CENTURY

BEHAVIOURISM--------------------------EARLY/MID-20th-CENTURY


WUNDT
Applied scientific process to the mind and was probably the first. INTROSPECTION (from the Latin 'look inside') getting people to reveal there inner conscientiousness. This system has its limitations in the fact that it cannot be applied to animals or children because they cannot tell or communicate how their mind is working or how they are really feeling.
DEWEY & JAMES Functionism
Inspired directly by DARWIN. Raising the questions what is the mind for, what does it do? Works on observation and questioning why people do certain things.
FREUD -Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is nothing to do with psycho therapy. His main theory was illness is caused by subconscious i.e. neurosis will abate if it can be discharged with no discomfort for the patient. The idea that the subconscious can be responsible for illness is now examined more closely in psychology under the discipline of PsychoNeuroImmunonlogy (PNI)

PAIN IS COGNITIVE
EXAMPLE

If you accidentally catch your knuckles and take the top layer of skin off you do not feel pain until you see the damage. If you try and take a file and rub it on your knuckles then you find you cannot as you instantly feel the pain during the process.

COGNITIVE Psychology Gestalt. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

BEHAVIOURISM
FOUNDERS

Thorndike
Pavlov
Skninner
John B. Watson(-medieval-conceptions)

BEHAVIOURISM threw out all words that did not comply with their own theories such as Emotions, perception, memory etc..

FIELDS OF APPROACHES
Social Development

Biological
Behavioural
Cognitive
Psychoannal.
Humanistic

Some of the Applications of psychology
Ergonomics and human factors
Educational
Counselling & psychotherapy
Clinical
Criminological and legal :forensics
Environmental
Industrial/organisational/occupational
Media & Advertising
Social work
Sport
Health


SOME METHODS TO DISTINGUISH DIFFERENT TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGY

Experiments
Case studies
Observation/methodology
Psychometric tests
Interviews
Computer simulation

FOOTNOTE
Remember that this is a very basic crash course introduction to psychology but the editor not only feels that the understanding of the Mind and /or spirit that gives us our individualistic approach to life should be acknowledged but also further explored in research as there is still a long way to go before psychology can argue for acceptance both in the scientific world and in the spiritual. Many scientist expect that a theory only stands if it can be replicated over and over again. unfortunately the very nature of humans and animals is that they learn from their mistakes and they remember. So science can never truly replicate an experiment based on humans as their perceptions change each time they are involved in an experiment.

It is arguably easier with chemistry to say that water boils at 100 degrees unless acted upon be some external force ( air pressure, the adding of salt to the solution etc.). People are not as predictable and so, not only external forces such as heat, light, smell, ergonomics and taste, can have an effect on an individual but also internal forces. How the person feels about themselves, do they have a headache, is there something bothering them, are they having a good day or bad day. Psychologists can ask all day long for peoples opinions/views on things but people as we are all aware, don't always tell the truth and if they do tell the truth, who's truth is it theirs, yours or someone else's?

If any one can identify any alterations or updates or would like to add an opinion to this section please email to Mell Paul (mellpaul@mystical-www.co.uk) and mark it Psychology in the subject area.


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