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Contemporary Psychology

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Title: Contemporary Psychology


1
Contemporary Psychology
2
Scientific reasons for the decline of behaviorism
  • Findings began to occur that were inconsistent
    with learning theories
  • Behaviorist began to argue among themselves about
    the need to develop learning theories

3
The Zeitgeist
  • Psychologist became involved in WWII
  • Behaviorist psychology could not address
    important questions being asked
  • Psychologists were working with other
    professionals who contributed new tools for
    looking at human behavior

4
1950s The beginning of the cognitive movement
  • 1954 P. W. Bridgman, who gave psychology the
    concept of operational definitions renounced
    strict behaviorism
  • Jean Piaget most of his studies done in 1920s
    and 30s, but not translated until 1950s

5
1950s The beginning of the cognitive movement
  • Two people instrumental in the resurgence of
    cognitive psychology
  • George Miller and Ulric Neisser

6
George Miller
  • Introduction to psychology mostly self-taught
  • 1950s all textbooks were purely behaviorist
  • Latter part of the 1950s he became interested in
    computers and computer simulations of the mind
  • Also encouraged to abandon behaviorism when he
    developed allergies to animal hair

7
Miller at Harvard
  • 1960 Hr and Jerome Bruner given William James old
    house to set up a lab to study the human mind
  • Miller chose the name cognition as the name for
    their subject

8
Center for Cognitive Studies
  • Developed to be against behaviorism
  • Behaviorism the ruling authority, they were
    anti-establishment (1960s)
  • Topics studied language, memory, perception,
    thinking, development, etc.
  • All basic parts of cognitive psychology and
    forbidden topics for behaviorists

9
Ulric Neisser
  • Physics undergraduate who took a psychology
    course from Miller
  • M.A. degree from Kohler and in 1956 received his
    PhD from Harvard
  • Found behaviorism to be very peculiar if not
    crazy

10
Ulric Neisser
  • 1st academic position was at Brandeis University
    Abraham Maslow was chair of the dept.
  • 1967 he published Cognitive Psychology in which
    he defined what it was
  • He was proposing a new way of studying human
    behavior not trying to start a new school of
    psychology
  • In 1976, he published a new book Cognition and
    Reality in which he criticized cognitive
    psychology for too much reliance on laboratory
    studies

11
Cognitive psychology today
  • The information processing and computer model of
    Miller and others has been abandoned for a brain
    model
  • The basic topics have remained the same although
    the immense increase in knowledge has created
    more specialized areas of study
  • Cognitive psychology like behaviorism has
    impacted all disciplines in psychology

12
Humanistic psychology
  • Basic ideas of Humanistic psychology were not new
  • Humanistic supporters developed the ideas at a
    time it when it could be accepted
  • Greatly effected by the unrest and
    dissatisfaction of young people in the 1960s

13
Humanistic criticism of Behaviorism
  • 1. too narrow, sterile, and artificial approach
  • Emphasis on overt behavior was dehumanizing
  • Rejected the concept of humans functioning in a
    deterministic manner
  • Behaviorism did not address human characteristics
    that made us different than nonhumans

14
Humanistic criticism of Psychoanalytic theory
  • Too deterministic and ignored the role of
    consciousness
  • It only studied disturbed individuals
  • It ignored positive human qualities

15
Basic concepts of Humanistic psychology
  • Study all aspects of the human experience
  • Study normal healthy humans
  • Help normal people grow

16
Abraham Maslow
  • A staunch behaviorist who became influenced by
    Wertheimer and Ruth Benedict, an American
    anthropologist
  • Developed his hierarchy of need with
    self-actualization at the pinnacle of the pyramid
  • Humans seen in a very positive light always
    striving to improve

17
Criticisms of Maslow
  • Subjective criteria for a person to be
    self-actualized
  • Very little empirical support for his theory
  • Based on very few subjects
  • Limited research failed to support his theory
  • Theory found to have a low degree of scientific
    validity and a very limited application to
    business and industry

18
Carl Rogers
  • Person-centered or client centered therapy
  • Personality was the result of a motivation
    similar to self-actualization
  • Studied people with mental disorders because he
    was treating people
  • People can rationally change their thoughts and
    behaviors from undesirable to desirable

19
Influence of Humanistic psychology
  • Rogers person centered therapy still popular and
    frequently used
  • Never replaced behaviorism and psychoanalysis and
    never developed into a school of psychology
  • Most humanist were in clinical practice not
    academic positions
  • Continued to attack behaviorism and Freudian
    psychology long after their influence was gone
  • They never truly defined what it was, just what
    it wasnt

20
Growth of Professional psychology in the U. S.
  • 1930s almost all people calling themselves
    psychologists worked in universities and colleges
  • 1950s only half were in academic positions

21
Influence of WWII
  • Need to treat war large number of war casualties
    and others created a large need for psychologists
    working outside academia
  • 1950s APA set up the Board of Professional
    Psychologist to test and license professional
    psychologists
  • 1950s and 1960s demand for clinical
    psychologist much greater than the demand now
    supply has caught up with demand

22
Changes in the nature of professional psychology
  • The result of other professions recognizing that
    knowledge of human behavior can be applied to
    many situations
  • Industrial settings
  • Management consulting
  • Quantitative applications surveys, opinion
    polls etc.

23
Outside influences on psychology
  • Computers that revolutionized statistical
    analysis Multi-variant statistics
  • Combining psychology with biological sciences
    Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Psychology and medicine behavioral medicine and
    health psychology

24
Has parapsychology (ESP) earned a place in
psychological science?
  • Attempts of scientific study of psychic
    phenomenon date back to 1882 the Society for
    Psychical Research in London
  • Proponents argue that parapsychology was once
    tangles up with astrology, numerology, magic and
    the occult, but it no longer is associated with
    these forms of mysticism. It now only includes
  • Precognition
  • Clairvoyance
  • Psychokinetics
  • Mental telepathy

25
Advocates of ESP
  • There are now experimental techniques that
    conform to strict scientific methodology
  • History is full of examples of phenomenon which
    at one time were caused by unknown factors
  • Their science is being held up to standards
    that no science could pass

26
Criticisms of ESP as a science
  • Gullibility of humans we easily fooled
  • Inaccuracy of our sensory systems
  • Inaccurate perception of probability of events
  • Illusion of control
  • No acceptable theory of what ESP is and how it
    works only what it isnt

27
Examples of criticism
  • Probability there are 22 people in a room. What
    is the probability that 2 of them have the same
    birthday?
  • What we perceive as a rare event isnt always
  • Deja vue
  • Dreams and other premonitions of things that will
    happen

28
Bottom line
  • The study of ESP will probably not be considered
    as a science by most until they can describe what
    it is and the system that underlies it.
  • Does this mean that it does not exist?
  • No, only that current evidence does not seem to
    support it now. It is necessary to be highly
    critical of their existence until the mechanisms
    have been identified.
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