Introduction to Psychology
Psychology – The Study of the Mind
The mind is very peculiar. Is it just a series of electric pulses shooting through our brains? Define consciousness. Do we humans have a ’soul’ that separates us from mere robots? What about animals and insects, do they have souls? Are they conscious? These philosophical questions lie at the root of psychology.
So what is psychology? In a nutshell, psychology is the study of the mind. Psychology in considered a science as it attempts to discover the process by which the mind operates. A practitioner of psychology is called a psychologists. Psychologists are split into two areas – research and applied. Research psychologists continue to expand on their knowledge of the human mind whereas applied psychologists use current knowledge to help people.
You’ve probably heard of Sigmund Freud, possibly the greatest psychologist to have ever lived. Well, psychology has evolved exponentially since then. Many of Freud’s ideas have been scrapped (while others have been kept), but his role in the expansion of psychology was vital. No longer is psychology simply the theorising of inner child sexual development. In modern times, psychology is mainly researched through empirical evidence (physical evidence such as statistics).
Cognitivism
Psychology as we know it today is dominated by the idea of ‘cognitive’ psychology. This type of psychology arose recently, only becoming popular in the middle of the 20th century during a period called the ‘cognitive revolution’. Cognitive psychology refers to the study of our mental abilities – the memory, learning, thinking, reasoning, understanding, perceiving.
In cognitive psychology, it is thought that the inner working of the brain can be individually mapped out using complex algorithms and computational models. There are in fact, three main methods of studying cognitive psychology.
- Empirical data: Like other sciences, experiments are carried out to extend knowledge cognitive psychology. Ranging from surveys to response time, experiments are vital to most types of psychology.
- Information Processing: Computational models are a main feature of cognitive psychology and helped bring it to mainstream psychology in the mid 20th century. Complex mathematical and computational models are used to predict and map the workings of the brain.
- Neural data: High resolution brain imaging and neurobiological methods are thought to be able to show visually how the brain functions.
Because of the foundations of cognitive psychology, it is combined with other studies of intelligence under the umbrella of cognitive science.
Behaviorism
Before the cognitive revolution, behaviorism dominated the field of psychology. Under this theory, it was thought that everything a person does is a behavior; their thinking, acting and everything else are all considered to be behaviors. Psychologists thought that they could scientifically explain someone’s behavior, meaning they could explain someone’s thinking and acting (thinking and doing were now considered to be the same).
Although behaviorism was largely eclipsed by the cognitive revolution, it continues to exist to this day with many institutions dedicated to studying a newer, modern form of behaviorism, ‘behavior analysis’ which incorporates cognitivism.
Also, behaviorism is able to explain some things that cognitivism cannot. For example, imagine a plain, ordinary room. If a person walked in the room, what would they do? Cognitive psychology and behavior analysis can both explain the consequent actions of the person (albeit differently). Now if we put a chair in the middle of the room, what would a person do if they walked in the room? Cognitive psychology cannot describe the consequences, whereas behavior analysis can.
Psychology is a Pseudo Science!
Although cognitive psychology does show obvious advantages over behavior analysis (such as the ability to explain how the mind works to a precise level), its rise in psychology is largely attributed to the increasing technology available over the years. It has been stressed before, psychology is a science. As such, it isn’t surprising that the school of thought that incorporates the most technological and scientific methods should become the dominant one.
Behaviorism reliance on experiments was its only scientific characteristic. Cognitivism also uses experiments, can be replicated through computational models, can be predicted using complex mathematical algorithms, and incorporates many other scientific characteristics.
So Psychology is the Study of Cognition?
No. Psychology is far broader than one simple study and cognitive psychology is simply one branch. However, it is the most important branch and is used in virtually every other branch of psychology. While this blog encompasses every branch of psychology, it is focused on social psychology – the uses of psychology in life and other psychological phenomena witnessed in social situations. Sometimes referred to as everyday psychology.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
[...] More here: Introduction to Psychology | Psychology in Life [...]
How does ‘behavior analysis’ incorporate cognitivism? More accurately, it’s said that the influence of behaviorism on cognitivism, given that it sprung up in reaction to behaviorism, is pervasive, as methodological behaviorism pervades psychology today (even if radical behaviorism has been relatively marginalized). Also, behavior analysis isn’t a form of behaviorism; behaviorism is the philosophy underlying the natural science of behavior, and behavior analysis is this natural science of behavior. Typically, psychology is broken into 3 areas: theoretical, experimental, and applied. But this is a distinction based on formal characteristics that practically does not hold, just as you don’t find an applied physicist who doesn’t venture into the theoretical or a theoretical who operates wholly beyond the applied. On one final note, by your claim that Sigmund Freud was “possibly the greatest psychologist to have ever lived,” which is a far cry from consensus among psychologists, do you mean that he was one of the most influential? Otherwise, on what grounds do you make this assertion?
Cognitivism existed long before behaviorism. It’s just that cognitivism gained popularity with the rise of everyday computing technology.
Of course psychologists venture across the different areas of psychology. I never said that they were confined to one. In a psychology career, almost all psychologists go through at least two of the areas of study.
And yes, you are right about the Sigmund Freud section. I do not believe nor encourage the belief that Freud was literally the greatest psychologist ever. I should have made it clearer that I thought Freud was the most influential.
There’s a lot on which we don’t agree, but I shall limit myself to one additional thought. You write: “Behaviorism reliance on experiments was its only scientific characteristic.” What’s you definition of science and how does behaviorism fall short? Experimental psychologists, whether or not they identify themselves as such, actually are methodological behaviorists that take the additional step of inferring mental states from their observations. Is this additional non-parsimonious step what makes cognitive psychology more scientific in your opinion? This is the reason many persons, whether readers agree or not, call cognitive psychology pseudoscience (or short of natural science). It’s important to note that radical behaviorists also find “thoughts” a worthwhile subject for inquiry, but treat “thoughts” as behavior, rejecting Cartesian mind-body dualism, or that consciousness somehow operates beyond physical observation (which isn’t limited to sight), which allows them to accurately claim to be practicing natural science.