Abnormal Psychology Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies unusual patterns of behavior, emotion and thought, which may or may not be understood as precipitating a mental disorder. There is a long history of attempts to understand and control behavior deemed to be aberrant or deviant (statistically, morally or in some other sense)
The Nature of Scientific Enquiry Is psychology a science or just common sense? Psychology uses an empirical approach. Empiricism (founded by John Locke) states that the only source of knowledge comes through our senses – e.g. sight, hearing etc. This was in contrast to the existing view that knowledge could be gained solely through powers
Psychology is really a very new science, with most advances happening over the past 150 years or so. However, it can be traced back to ancient Greece, 400 – 500 years BC. The emphasis was a philosophical one, with great thinkers such as Socrates influencing Plato, who in turn influenced Aristotle. Plato argued that there
Psychoanalysis has great explanatory power and understanding of behavior, but is has been accused of only explaining behavior after the event, not predicting what will happen in advance and of being unfalsifiable. Some have argued that psychoanalysis has approached the status more of a religion than a science, but it is not alone in being
However, some psychologists’ argue that psychology should not be a science. There are alternatives to empiricism such as rational research, argument and belief. The humanistic approach (another alternative) values private, subjective conscious experience and argues for the rejection of science. The humanistic approach argues that objective reality is less important than a person’s subjective perception
In certain ways everyone is a psychologist. This does not mean that everyone has been formally trained to study and be trained in psychology. People have common sense views of the world, of other people and themselves. These common sense views may come from personal experience, from our upbringing as a child and through culture
Despite having a scientific methodology worked out (we think), there are further problems and arguments which throw doubt onto psychology ever really being a science. Limitations may refer to the subject matter (e.g. overt behavior versus subjective, private experience), objectivity, generality, testability, ecological validity, ethical issues and philosophical debates etc. Science assumes that there are
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire life span. This field
Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories. This article puts forward a general model based on the most widely accepted developmental stages. However, it is important to understand that there is wide variation
Psychology is the science of mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand behavior and mental processes by researching and establishing both general principles and specific cases. For many practitioners, one goal of applied psychology is to benefit society. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist, and can be
Mother and Child Newborn humans infants cannot survive without a caregiver to provide food and protection, and will not thrive without other types of support as well. While infants have relatively few inborn behaviors—such as crying, rooting, and sucking—they also come with many behavioral systems ready to be activated through interaction with another person. In
The history of psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates back to the Ancient Greeks. There is also evidence of psychological thought in ancient Egypt. Psychology was a branch of philosophy until 1879, when psychology developed as an independent scientific discipline in Germany and the United States. Psychology borders on various
Adolescent psychology addresses the psychological issues and interests of adolescents. Adolescence Adolescence, the transitional stage of development between childhood and adulthood, represents the period of time during which a person experiences a variety of biological changes and encounters a number of emotional issues. The ages which are considered to be part of adolescence vary
Many cultures throughout history have speculated on the nature of the mind, soul, spirit, etc. For instance, in Ancient Egypt, the Edwin Smith Papyrus contains an early description of the brain, and some speculations on its functions (though in a medical/surgical context). Though other medical documents of ancient times were full of incantations and applications
The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities (“nature,” i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences (“nurture,” i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. “Nature versus nurture” in its modern sense was coined by the English Victorian polymath Francis Galton in
Also influential on the emerging discipline of psychology were debates surrounding the efficacy of Mesmerism (a precursor to hypnosis) and the value of phrenology. The former was developed in the 1770s by Austrian physician Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) who claimed to use the power of gravity, and later of “animal magnetism”, to cure various physical and
Gene-environment correlation (or genotype-environment correlation) is said to occur when exposure to environmental conditions depends on an individual’s genotype. Definition Gene-environment correlations can arise by both causal and non-causal mechanisms. Of principal interest are those causal mechanisms, which indicate genetic control over environmental exposure. Genetic variants influence environmental exposure indirectly via behavior. Three causal
Until the middle of the 19th century, psychology was widely regarded as a branch of philosophy. For instance, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) declared in his Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786) that psychology cannot be made into a “proper” science because its phenomena cannot be rendered in mathematical form, among other reasons. However, Kant proposed what
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Вы́готский or Выго́тский, born Lev Simyonovich Vygodsky; November 17 [O.S. November 5] 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of cultural-historical psychology, and the leader of the Vygotsky Circle. Biography Vygotsky was born in Orsha, in the Russian Empire (today in Belarus) into a
Around 1875, the Harvard physiology instructor (as he then was), William James, opened a small experimental psychology demonstration laboratory for use with his courses. The laboratory was never used, in those days, for original research, and so controversy remains as to whether it is to be regarded as the “first” experimental psychology laboratory or not.
The zone of proximal development (зона ближайшего развития), often abbreviated ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. It is a concept developed by Soviet psychologist and social constructivist Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934). Vygotsky stated that a child follows an adult’s
In no small measure because of the conservatism of the reign of Louis Napoléon (president, 1848–1852; emperor as “Napoléon III”, 1852–1870), academic philosophy in France through the middle part of the 19th century was controlled by members of the eclectic and spiritualist schools, led by figures such as Victor Cousin (1792–1867), Théodore Jouffroy (1796–1842), and
Cultural mediation is one of the fundamental mechanisms of distinctly human development according to cultural–historical psychological theory introduced by Lev Vygotsky and developed in the work of his numerous followers worldwide. Introduction Vygotsky investigated child development and how this was guided by the role of culture and interpersonal communication. Vygotsky observed how higher mental
Although the British had the first scholarly journal dedicated to the topic of psychology – Mind, founded in 1876 by Alexander Bain and edited by George Croom Robertson – it was quite a long while before experimental psychology developed there to challenge the strong tradition of “mental philosophy.” The experimental reports that appeared in Mind