Reflection paper on personal learning and experience

¶ … Philosophical, and Empirical Foundations of Psychology

Argument

Pre-Modern Period (to 1650's)

Classical Period

Western Civilization, its intellectual and social aspects, was still dominated by Christianity, as it had been throughout the dark ages. Christianity was chiefly concerned with the "why," the question of why we exist. It held that we exist in order to do God's willing, follow God's law, and eventually be judged by God for how we have lived. Christian theology, which held that God created the universe and was responsible for all things and occurrences within it, inhibited reason and free inquiry during the dark ages and middle ages. Ideas that contradicted Christian theology in any way were suppressed and their hosts persecuted.

Aristotle the Good Life and Habitsand Habits

In Ethics, Aristotle is concerned with the question of what is good. He thinks this question is important because every choice and action humans take is aimed at some good. Aristotle defined happiness as the ultimate good. Thus, the question "what is the good life?" is asking "how do we achieve happiness?" Aristotle believed that a man was what he did repeatedly, a product of his habits.

Hippocrates' and Galen's Theory of Humors

The Greek physician Hippocrates posited that the human body was, like everything else in the world, was made from four elements, earth, air, fire, and water. Hippocrates believed that the four elements were associated with the different "Humors" of the human body: Earth with black bile, air with yellow bile, fire with blood, and water with phlegm. (40). He believed that illness was caused by an imbalance among these humors.

Hippocrates' Theory of Humors gave rise to Western civilization's first attempt to explain human traits and behaviors. In the Second Century a.D., the physician Galen created a rudimentary theory of personality based on the Theory of Humors. (41). In Galen's system, the phlegm humor was associated with the sluggish and emotional Phlegmatic temperament, the blood humor with the cheerful Sanguine temperament, the yellow bile humor with the fiery Choleric temperament, and the black bile humor with the sad Melancholic temperament.

Galen theorized that each individual's body is dominated by one of these humors, bequeathing a particular temperament to the individual. Galen's temperaments were defined by personal traits, such as cheerfulness, sadness, or sluggishness. Thus, a person who we would today diagnose as Dysthymic might just been considered to be of Melancholic temperament, sad by nature. If the person was undergoing physical illness, Galen would try to trace them to organic causes such as an excess of black bile.

Galen recognized that physical illnesses sometimes did not have organic roots and traced certain symptoms to the non-naturals such as the "passions or perturbations of the soul."

Under Galen's system, illnesses were addressed through the body and the mind. He believed that some illnesses were caused by "errors of the soul," the failure to control one's passions, or emotions. Galen, echoing Plato, recommended the control of the passions through the application of reason. Reason was applied through moral examination of awareness of harmful emotions, such as anger and lust, which we all men are prone to. Galen recommended a technique of conscious verbalization, where the individual would ponder moral maxims, remind himself of his faults, and recite them maxims aloud.

Galen's Theory of Humors and Temperaments and diseases of Passion dominated Western medicine until the 17th Century. In fact, they continue to be influential in the realm of personality theory as we. Although Galen's explanations of human behavior may appear primitive, it identified the psycho-somatic elements of illness which were later neglected during the modern period. In this way, it anticipated the creation modern psychosomatic medicine, which combines psychological, behavioral, and biomedical approaches to illness.

The Christian Age (412 AD -- 1650 AD)

Galen's theories regarding the influence of emotions on illness became a cornerstone of medical diagnosis until the 17th century. Although Galen's psychosomatic approach to illness dominated throughout. The primary epistemological basis for psychology during the Christian period was the Word of God. This knowledge, which was considered the Ultimate Truth, was revealed through authoritative sources, such as priests or holy books. These authoritative sources held that God created the universe and was responsible for all things and occurrences within it.

Because of the influence of Christian theology and its explanation of occurrences, new explanations for mental illnesses arose alongside Galen's theories. For certain instances of mental illness that did not respond to Galenic medicine, the cause was traced to the work of God. Some priests would explain the illness as punishment for sin. In the most unfortunate cases, the person would be determined to be possessed by a demon and locked up in an infirmary or burned at the stake.

Modernism (1650-1950s)

The Enlightenment, the age of reason, was a period of intellectual and cultural flowering in 17th and 18th Century Western Europe. The Enlightenment promoted the use of reason, instead of Revelation, for understanding the world. Isaac Newton exemplified this shift by providing a mechanistic explanation for natural processes such as gravity, instead of the teleological explanation attributing those processes to God. This suggested that all physical processes had physical causes.

Philosophical Foundations

In the 1600's, Rene Descartes, considered the first modern philosopher, separated the world into mind and matter, with mind represented by thoughts and matter represented by physical substances. Descartes used this framework to classify human behavior, distinguishing humans from "automata" (machines), which acted through mechanistic, natural impulse. He believed that humans acted with a higher level of thought and classified them as "machines" with "minds."

Another Enlightenment philosopher, John Locke held that people were born without innate ideas. This idea, that the human mind was a blank slate, and that all of an individual's knowledge and character were determined by experience. This idea was hugely influential for the study of human behavior because it implied that all behavior was learnt, laying the philosophical foundations for the school of Behaviorism.

Epistemological Foundations

The two dominant epistemological authorities in this period were empiricism and pure reason or logic. Empirical knowledge was obtained through the senses, such as through observation, and formed the basis of modern science. The second epistemological authority was reason or logic. Often, science and reason worked in conjunction, especially where empirical methods could not be fully applied to a question.

Structuralism

Structuralism was the first school of Modern psychology. It was concerned with understanding the structure of the mind. It sought to do this through by the examination of mental processes, such as sensations, impressions, and affections. The school's founder, Edward Titchener, sought to understand mental processes through the observation of conscious events (276-77). Structuralism, however, was concerned with mental processes in general, not mental processes in the particular. Thus, Structuralism ignored issues like psychological development, abnormal behavior, or personality, or individual differences. (289).

Philosophical

Structuralism was greatly influenced by the Newton's mechanical explanations of physical processes and sought to understand the mind's mechanisms in the same manner. Its founder, Titchener, considered his methods perfectly scientific

Epistemological Foundations

Although Structuralists employed empirical methods, these methods could not obtain information about mental processes. Thus, Structuralisms relied heavily on introspection, the observation of conscious events, to determine the contents of the mind. Structuralism never overcame this epistemological challenge and the method of introspection was considered by many, especially Behaviorists like Skinner, to be unreliable as a method of observation.

Voluntarism

Related to the school of Structuralism was Voluntarism, which relied on the same philosophical and epistemological foundations. Voluntarist William Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology, was concerned with voluntary and involuntary mental processes. (289). He believed that the mind was capable of voluntary processes like attention. However, he did not believe that volitional activities like these constituted free will, making him a Determinist. Wundt believed that all volitional acts operated according to mental laws that acted on the contents of consciousness. (271).

Functionalism

Functionalism, unlike Structuralism, sought to understand the functions of the mind instead of just describing its contents. It envisioned a practical application of its findings, such as through the improvement of personal life, education, and industry. (337-38). Also, Functionalists were interested in understanding the differences between individuals, leading them to study issues such as personality, abnormal behavior, and motivation. (338). Because the various functions of the mind were numerous, Functionalism was highly diverse in its subjects of study.

The Functionalists were heavily influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution and believed that every process had a particular purpose or function. The Functionalists, unlike the Structuralists and Behaviorists, sought to understand both mental processes and behavior, specifically why they occur, or for what function. Although they used empirical observation and introspection as well, Functionalist methods were more sound because they did not seek to understand the mechanism of mental processes, only their functions.

Functionalism did not fade because its findings were rejected, but because they were so widely accepted. The school's findings, research interests, and methodologies were adopted and absorbed by many subsequent schools, and are still present in the study of psychology today.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism sought to understand observable behavior instead of the workings of the mind or even its functions. Some psychologists even insisted that psychology was the science of behavior. Watson denied the existence of a separate realm of conscious events. The purpose of Behaviorism, according to John Watson, was to predict and control behavior by understanding the effect of the environment on one's behavior. Watson was also influenced by Locke's blank slate theory, and believed that an individual's character and behavior was determined solely through experience.

Because Behaviorism was not concerned with what the mind and what went on inside it, they had no need for introspection and rejected it. Instead, they relied exclusively on the methodical, observable, and scientific observation of behavior. Their dominant method was the stimuli-response method, where the scientists presented the subject with a stimulus and observed its responses.

Behaviorism produced many findings, frameworks, and research questions that are still employed today. Pavlov, believed that all actions were reflexive and created the concept of conditioning, which posited that behavior was shaped by certain previous experiences, which he called stimuli. Later Behaviorists, such as Skinner, believed that behavior was also controlled by the consequences that followed it, that it was meant to produce a certain response in the environment. He called this operant behavior. (445). Skinner proposed the concept of operant behavior

Because of the Behaviorist position that one's behavior can be controlled by altering one's environment, Behaviorism had wide practical application and institutional support. Behaviorist theories and methodologies are still influential today, particularly in the fields of learning, motivation, and development psychology. Skinner's brand of Behaviorism, particularly the concepts of operant conditioning and reinforcement in order to control behavior, is particularly popular. However, the Behaviorist position that environment alone controls behavior has lost favor, especially among evolutionary psychologists, because of recent discoveries regarding the role of genetics in behavior and predispositions. (Workman and Reader, 2004, 1).

Gestalt psychology

The German school of Gestalt psychology, unlike the Behaviorists, sought to understand consciousness. The Gestaltists distinguished the geographical (physical) environment from the behavioral (subjective) environment. They believed that the behavioral environment governed behavior, meaning that the stimuli perceived by an individual was a product of his own subjective experience, his perception of the event. For this reason, Gestalt psychology pointed to the importance of an individual's subjective experience and perception of his environment in explaining behavior..

The Gestaltist wer heavily influenced by Immanuel Kant's ideas on sensory experience. Kant believed that "the mind adds something to our conscious experience that sensory stimulation does not contain." (Kant, Prologemenna). The Gestaltists believed that the brain changes sensory experience to making it more structured and organized in order to making meaningful to us. Thus, there is a crucial difference between sensory experience and our perception of that experience. Lewin was an early Gestaltist who believed that psychology should not categorize people into types or emphasize inner essences. (482).

The Gestaltists used introspection in order to study the dynamics of consciousness. They were not concerned with making psychology a hard science such as the Behaviorists and Structuralists, who they believed were more concerned with validity than gaining insight into the human mind. In this way, they were much like the Functionalists, who were concerned with the Gestalt psychology had big implications for modern psychology because it implied that an individual's mind and behavior can be altered by changing the individual's perception Although the Gestalt school is no longer active, many of its insights have been incorporated into modern psychology. It created a new focus on the holistic aspects of behavior and consciousness, instead attempting to explain psychology through narrow elemental terms. It has been particularly influential in Humanistic psychology and cognitive psychology.

Psychoanalysis

The School of Psychoanalysis sought to understand a part of the mind that was ignored by other schools, the mind's unconscious processes. As a physician, Freud was initially interested in the unconscious because he wanted to understand the causes of abnormal behavior and mental illness in order to help cure cases of mental illness. This is why Psychoanalysis still has such a strong psychologist-patient element. (515).

Freud posited that life is the individual's quest for instinctual freedom, which is denied to him by society. (Freud, 8). Freud believe humans are instinctually driven towards the gratification natural impulses, such as pleasure and domination. Freud held that people are forced to repress these instincts by society out of rational self-interest. Man's subjugation of himself to society is compulsory, a compromise made out of self-interest and fear of retribution. (Freud, 14).

Although the individual represses these instincts, his primordial instinctual drives remain. The constant repression of the individual's appetites by society are the source of his inner conflict and incessant anxiety. Freud believed that this aggression can only expresses itself by turning inward, back at the ego. (Freud, 33).

Freud was influenced by German idealists, such as Schopenhauer and Nietszche, who were concerned with the inner conflicts affecting the individual. From Schopenhauer, Freud learned the concepts of sublimation, repression, and resistance in the individual mind. From Nietschze, Freud learned the notion that the individual was engaged in an inner conflict between his irrational impulses and his rational efforts. (516).

Freud used the innovative practice of Pyschoanalysis, a form of introspection. One popular form of Psychoanalysis was dream analysis. Freud believes that dreams have to be interpreted from the standpoint of wish-fulfillment. According to Freud's theory, all dreams are a cathartic performance of the person's true wishes and desires. However, the true content of these desires, the "latent" content, is usually distorted and disguised by the pre-conscious and must be decoded in order to discern the real meaning of the dream.

Although Freud's ideas have been hugely influential in Western society, popular culture, and the arts, they have come under increasing criticism from the field of experimental psychology, which has found his theories to be overly speculative, unscientific, and unfalsifiable. (Stanovich, 2004, p. 26). However, Freud's focus on mental illness and treatment has made is ideas influential in abnormal psychology, which have adopted his focus on anxiety, neuroses, unconscious repression, and defense mechanisms. (545). His method of psychotherapy has also been influential in the treatment of mental illness by therapists and medical psychiatrists.

Post-Modernism (1950-Present)

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic Psychology was a reaction against the fields narrow focus on behavioral oddities and abnormal psychology. Humanism was concerned with the future, or how psychology could be used to provide guidance for human living. Humanists were concerned with the human experience of life and how to enrich that experience. Humanists believed that subjective reality is the guide for human behavior. (586). They believed that psychology should formulate a description of what it means to be a human being. (586).

Humanistic psychology is very influenced by the Existential philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Nietszche. Existentialist philosophers emphasized the importance of meaning in an individual's life. They recognized that the discrediting of Christianity and its promises of personal salvation had left a huge void in Western society. Because life had no intrinsic meaning, individuals would naturally suffer the pain of a nihilistic existence until they created meaning for themselves. Because of its emphasis on the efforts of the individual, Existentialism emphasizes the importance of individual willpower, as indicated by Nietschzes quote that "What does not kill me, makes me stronger." (Nietsczhe, 1889).

Humanist Abraham Maslow developed a model of personal development called the hierarchy of needs. An individual would first have to secure his physiological needs, then the need for security, then the need for love, and the need for esteem before he could reach his life's goal of self-actualization, where he reaches his full potential as a human being. A self-actualized human being is joyful, accepting, natural, fulfilled, creative, universal, ethical, inner-directed, and possess a deep love of life that cannot be shaken by external conditions. (588; Maslow, 1968, 4).