Essay on ‘Psychology’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Psychology’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Psychology
Essay # 1. Introduction to Psychology:
Psychology is relatively a young science and yet within a brief span it has made tremendous progress. Psychology touches almost every facet of our lives. There is hardly any single aspect of human life where psychology has not made its contribution.
In all the important spheres of life, such as industry, technology, arts, education, law, management, politics, social life, medicine etc., psychology has made its unique contribution by examining the basic psychological processes underlying all these spheres; viewed from this angle, it can be said that the scope of psychology is as vast as our life itself.
Psychology has been defined as the science of human and animal behaviour. In other words, psychologists are interested in finding out the causes underlying various types of behaviour. The term behaviour as it is used in psychology is very broad. It does not mean only the things a person does in everyday life, such as walking, crying, frowning etc.
For the psychologists, however, the term behaviour includes not only how we act or what we do, but also how we think and how we feel. In short, it includes mental processes, such as thinking, feeling, willing, imagining etc. as well as the physical processes.
Since every organism including man lives in an environment with ever changing energies, objects and other organisms, psychologist believe that behaviour is a means of adjusting to the environment. All our behaviour, therefore, is directed towards achieving an adjustment between the forces within us and those in our environment.
Adjustment to inner and outer demands of the body is a continuous process and hence, psychologists aim at the study of organism’s attempt to adjust itself to the varying conditions both within itself and in its environment.
Essay # 2. Fields of Psychology:
Psychology is relatively young compared to other sciences and yet within a very short time it has pervaded practically all fields of human behaviour. Psychology is no longer a subject of academic interest taught in colleges and universities, but its impact has been felt in business, industry, clinics, guidance centres and education. Psychologists do many things depending on their field of specialization. In this article we shall attempt to indicate some of the fields of specialization in which psychologists are engaged.
i. Experimental Psychology:
In this category we find psychologists who use experimental methods to study the behaviour of the individual. They study how individuals react to sensory stimuli, perceive the world around them, learn and remember things and events, respond emotionally either in a positive or negative way, and are motivated to action whether because of the organic need of hunger, or because of their desire for some status in society. In short, experimental psychologist by using laboratory techniques, study sensation, perception, learning, remembering and forgetting, emotion and motivation.
Usually since these phenomena cannot be investigated with human beings as their subjects due to the ethical consideration, psychologists work with animals. They attempt to relate their animal findings to human behaviour, sometimes they also study animals in order to compare the behaviour of different species and they are known as comparative psychologists. Whatever the interest, experimental psychologists are concerned with developing precise, objective and scientific methods of measurement and control.
The term experimental psychology is really a misnomer because psychologists in several other areas make use of experimental methods. For example, social and personality psychologists also use experimental techniques although, strictly speaking, they are not experimentalists. Experimental psychology, therefore, is distinguished as such by its methods. Experimental psychologists are not primarily engaged in work which has a direct application to practical problems; instead, they are interested understand the fundamental causes of behaviour. In short, they are theoreticians.
ii. Physiological Psychology:
Closely related to experimental psychology is physiological psychology. The physiological psychologist tries to discover the relationships between bodily processes and behaviour, it is interested in showing some type of correlation between a given psychological activity and some set of physiological activities within the organism. How do sex hormones influence behaviour? What are the areas of the brain that control speech? How do drugs like marijuana and LSD affect coordination and memory? These and several other questions form the subject-matter of physiological psychology.
The physiological psychologist, really speaking, is concerned with the whole organism. His interest lies in the reintegration of the total activity of the organism and to accomplish this he must go into the physiology of the living organism as a functional unit.
iii. Developmental Psychology:
The main purpose of developmental psychology is to study the human growth and the factors that shape human behaviour from birth to old age. It is much more comprehensive than the child psychology or the psychology of adolescence. Developmental psychology studies the qualitative changes that take place with the changes in age.
These changes are directional, that is, they; lead forward rather than backward. At every stage of the development, some changes just begin, others are at their peak, and some others are in the process of decline. Different types of changes influence the development in different ways.
Developmental psychology has both research and applied aspects. For example, much of the research in developmental psychology is concerned with the intellectual, emotional, social and moral development. On the applied side, the developmental psychologist works with maladjusted and disturbed children.
iv. Clinical Psychology:
Clinical psychology appears to be the largest area in which psychologists work. A clinical psychologist is engaged in the application of psychological principles to the diagnosis and treatment of emotional and behavioural problems such as mental illness, criminal behaviour, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, mental retardation and other problems of adjustment.
Clinical psychologists work in a clinic, in a mental hospital, a mental- health clinic, in a prison, or are in private practice. In most cases, individuals with major personal problems come to them for help.
It is necessary to distinguish between two types of specialists, namely, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. The psychiatrists are usually medical men with a degree in medicine and special training in the diagnosis and treatment of behavioural disorders. The psychiatrists usually use drugs, surgery and shock treatment in treating their patients.
The clinical psychologists, on the other hand, are trained extensively. In all aspects of psychology and special psychodynamics rather than medicine. They are highly specialized in the work of diagnosis and Psychotherapy. They are also well versed in research techniques used in understanding and treating mental disorders, such as the use of psychological tests, interviews and various psychotherapies. In short, clinical Psychologists are primarily concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mentally ill persons.
v. Counselling Psychology:
It is rather difficult to draw a sharp dividing line between clinical psychologists and counselling psychologists. The major point of difference is that the counselling psychologists treat those individuals who have relatively minor problems of adjustment. They mainly deal with persons having emotional or personal problems that require some expert advice and guidance. Typically, they work with students in high schools, or universities, giving advice on problems of social adjustment and vocational as well as educational goals.
There are various types of counselling psychologists. Some of them are specialized in helping the people who have problems of marital adjustment; others are specialized in problems related to school, or college, or vocational selection; there are still others who are specialised in helping children’s problem or mal-adjusted industrial workers.
In short, the main task of a counselling psychologist is to understand the causes of individual’s mal-adjustment and help or guide him in reaching normal adjustment. In a way, counselling psychologists are the guardians of the mental health of the people.
vi. Educational and School Psychology:
Although educational and school psychologists are concerned with education, their activities differ considerably. The psychologists who are involved in testing and guidance of individual students are called school or college psychologists. Their main task is to help students develop better adjustment to school and college situations.
The school psychologists are well verse in psychological testing and also in helping that to overcome their several difficulties or problems such as slow speed in reading, emotional problems, lack of concentration in studying, and several other problems, which are commonly encountered in school life. School psychologists are also train vocational counselling and hence there is no clear dividing line between the work of a school counsellor and a school psychologist.
Educational psychology is closely related to school psychology, but the educational psychologists are not much concerned with the problems of individual students. Instead, they are more concerned with general psychological principles underlying the entire process of education. Their main problems are when to teach, what to teach and how to teach.
They use various important psychological processes involved in education such as learning, effective methods of teaching, training and motivating the students. In general then, we may say that the emphasis of educational psychology is to discover the principles upon which a sound and effective educational system can be based.
vii. Social Psychology:
Social psychology is interested in the ways in which interactions with other people influence attitudes and behaviour. Individuals belong to several types of groups such as family, club, community, school, friendship and so on. These groups affect our behaviour and shape our attitudes towards life, social psychology is mainly concerned with the behaviour of an individual as a member of a group.
It uses its own methods of investigating the influences that a group exerts on an individual’s behaviour. It is mainly concerned with such group phenomena as leadership, group behaviour, group dynamics, social perception, social attitudes, customs, traditions, social prejudice and social tensions like strikes, riots and wars.
Social psychology also investigates such topics as propaganda and persuasion, conformity and inter-group conflicts. Social psychologists are perhaps best known for their work on public opinion and attitude surveys.
viii. Industrial and Engineering Psychology:
Many industrial firms have a trained and specialised psychologist on their staff who is known an industrial psychologist. The main work of an industrial psychologist consists of section of a worker for a job after a very careful consideration of his intelligence, aptitudes, and personality characteristics.
Besides, industrial Psychologists are also entrusted with such tasks as training programmes for workers, training of supervisors and related personnel in leadership, improving the organizational efficiency, improvement of conditions which lead to decreased efficiency and productivity, and several other functions.
One specialization of industrial psychology is known as engineering psychology. This branch of industrial psychology is chiefly concerned with the design of the equipment and other related problems used in industry for achieving maximum efficiency and ease for the worker, who operates it. Industrial and engineering psychologists at one level serve the technological process, that is, they are concerned with human factors in industry such as personnel selection, employee morale, and the design of complex machines.
At another level, they are concerned with the larger problems of industrial civilization like environmental pollution, over-crowding and other influences, which disturb the quality of human life. A new term for this area of investigation is environmental psychology.
ix. Psychology of Personality:
This branch of psychology is primarily concerned with normal human personality. The personality psychologists Use various methods and techniques to find out the basic traits of human personality. They use devices like psychological tests, interview, and naturalistic observation and so on, for understanding the behaviour of normal people. Sometimes, when needed, even experiments are conducted under carefully controlled conditions.
Psychology of personality primarily aims at constructing theories about human behaviour that will give adequate explanation about human personality as it is revealed through an individual’s normal behaviour.
x. Psychometric Psychology:
As in all sciences, in psychology also, great emphasis is laid on measurement and quantification. Measurement and quantification help in describing the events or behaviour under study, in a most precise and objective manner. Since psychology borrows several statistical and mathematical concepts and applies them for objective understanding of behaviour, a new branch of psychology, known as psychometric psychology, has gradually emerged.
The psychometricians are mostly concerned with the development of statistical techniques for research purposes as well as construction, development, administration and scoring of psychological tests. Psychometricians supply us with tools to be used by psychologists in the applied fields such as schools, counselling, clinical and industrial psychology.
Essay # 3. Methods of Psychology:
The aim of science is to use scientific method to collect information in the form of verifiable data. Different sciences use different methods that are suitable for the investigation of their subject-matter. However, all of them have one thing in common, in the sense that, they aim at a very high objectivity in the collection of facts and precise description of the phenomena under investigation.
When discussing the methods used by psychology, we must be sure that they fulfill scientific requirements. The complexity of the subject-matter with which psychology deals is quite obvious. The behaviour of the individual is something that varies not only from person to person but also from time to time.
Such variations in behaviour, obviously, are less subject to accurate and objective observation and description than the subject-matter of many sciences like physics, chemistry, biology etc. In spite of these difficulties, psychologists, have tried to confine themselves to the requirements of objectivity, which characterize the methods of science. Like other sciences, psychology also uses several methods to study its problems.
The methods which psychology uses can be broadly classified into three categories:
(1) Experimental methods;
(2) Descriptive methods; and
(3) Statistical methods.
(1) Experimental Methods:
The experimental method is regarded as one of the most preferred and most full-proof methods because it meets the requirements of objectives. It can be used outside the laboratory as well as inside but most experimentation takes place in special laboratories chiefly because the control of conditions commonly requires special equipment.
The distinguishing feature of the experimental methods is that the experimenter can carefully control the conditions and make measurements in order to discover relationships among variables. A variables something which varies; it is a condition which can be measured.
For example, in an experiment seeking to discover the relationship between learning ability and age, both learning ability and age are variables which can have different values, learning being either slow or fast and the learner being either young or old. To the extent that learning ability changes systematically with increasing age, we can discover an orderly relationship between them.
The ability to exercise control over variables distinguishes the experimental method from other methods of observation. For example, if the experimenter seeks to discover whether learning ability depends on the amount of sleep, he can control, the amount of sleep by arranging to have several groups of subjects spend the night in the laboratory. First group might be allowed to go to sleep at 11.00 P.M., second at 1.00 A.M. and the third at 4.00 A.M.
By waking all the subjects at the same time and giving each one of them the same learning task, the experimenter can find out whether the subjects with more sleep learn the task more quickly than those with less sleep. In this experiment, the different amounts of sleep are the antecedent conditions and the learning performance is the results of these conditions.
We call the antecedent condition the independent variable because it is independent of what the subject does. The variable affected by the changes in the antecedent conditions is called the independent variable. In psychological research the dependent variable is usually some measure of the subject’s behaviour.
In performing an experiment, the experimenter manipulates the independent variable and tries to find out different effects of the manipulati6n. Another important characteristic of the experimental method is control. Since there may be several factors other than the independent variable which might influence the dependent variable, the experimenter tries to have two groups, that is, the experimental group and the control group. Supposing a scientist has discovered a chemical X, which when taken regularly for a week, in prescribed quantities, results in increase of IQ, the experimenter will employ the control group. To begin with, he will select two groups of subjects with similar IQs.
He will treat both the groups exactly in similar manner by keeping all the conditions that are like to affect the IQ, exactly identical for all the subjects in both the groups. However, he will give the drug X to one group and some harmless resembling the drug X to the other group. Now, if at the end of the experimental period, he finds significant differences in the IQ’s of the two groups, he can safely conclude that the drug X is effective in increasing the IQ’s of the people. He can come to this safe conclusion because he very well knows that the two groups were exactly alike in all conditions except one, that is, the independent variable (the drug X) was administered to one group, whereas a harmless drug was administered to another.
In experimental terminology the group in which independent variable is introduced is called the experimental group whereas, the group in which the independent variable is absent is called the control group. This technique of not letting the subjects know to which group they belong is called the single-blind technique. However, it is possible that the experimenter himself may be unconsciously and in subtle ways influenced regarding the outcome of the experiment.
The obvious way to control this effect is to keep the experimenter in the dark about which subjects are in which group. A person who never has any contact with the subjects may assist the experimenter by assigning code numbers to the subjects. The experimenter who does not know the code can conduct the experiment without knowing which subjects are in the experimental or control groups. This technique of disguising group membership from both the subjects and the experimenter is known as the double-blind technique.
Thus then, when an experiment is to be performed the scientist must be able to distinguish between which is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable and what are the relevant variables, which he must control. The experimenter’s skill lies in identifying all these variables and also in adequately controlling the relevant variables. The control is the unique feature of an experiment; the better the control of an experiment, the better and more reliable are its results.
(2) Descriptive Methods:
Descriptive methods are used both by scientists as well as non-scientists. As the name implies, this technique consists in making direct observation of various events in nature as they occur in their natural surroundings and record them as faithfully as possible.
(i) Naturalistic observation;
(ii) Systematic observation; and
(iii) Case history methods.
(i) Naturalistic Observation:
Ancient Greeks first used this method and thereby laid down the ground work for various sciences. Although many new and refined methods have been developed in recent years, naturalistic observation is still used occasionally to study some events in various sciences. For example, some years ago, a group of child psychologists made a special use of this method to study the behaviour of a seven year old boy. A team of eight child psychologists carefully watched the behaviour of the boy almost round the clock, right from the time he got up till he went to sleep at night.
The behaviour was observed so carefully that it filled a volume of 435 pages. Such detailed observations are often useful in supplying us with clues for further systematic research. Similarly, observation of chimpanzees in their natural environment can give us important information about their social observation, which will help us to conduct precise laboratory investigations.
(ii) Systematic Observations:
The method of naturalistic observation discussed above is unsystematic because the observer simply and faithfully records the things as he observes them happening. However, there is a possibility that the observer may record consciously only those events which he thinks are important from the point of view of understanding the event under observation. By doing so, he may very often ignore many things that take place and keep on looking for only some that he thinks are important.
Under such conditions the observation becomes systematic and precise. In such an observation the observer may even have some rough idea about his independent, dependent and even relevant variables.
Such systematic observations may come very close to experimentation, but the observer may not have the same control over the event observed, as the experimenter has because he is observing the things as they occur in their natural course; secondly, the naturalistic observer has to wait for the event to take place, or observe it only when it takes place.
He cannot like the experimenter, produce an event as and when he wants it. In spite of these disadvantages, this method can be used where the experimental method cannot be used. The most important contribution of this method is that it provides new problems for experimentation and thus serves as an aid to experimentation.
(iii) Case History Methods:
Scientific biographies, known as case histories, are important sources of data for psychologists studying individuals. Most case histories are prepared by reconstructing the biography of a person according to remembered events and records. Reconstruction is necessary because often the person’s earlier history does not become a matter of interest until he develops some sort of problem. In such cases understanding of the past is considered to be important to understand the present behaviour.
These methods are usually used by clinical psychologists when patients come to them with some serious psychological problems. Although not all clinical problems need a thorough probe, in many cases the psychologists have to undertake a peep into the personal history of the patient to explore the possible causes of his mental disorder.
Clinical methods come very close to naturalistic observation. The only difference is that these methods are used in tracing out the possible causes of a patient’s abnormal behaviour. Clinical methods are not highly reliable because the observations are not made under controlled conditions. They lack the objectivity of the experimental method and yet they are the best available tools that can be used in the study of abnormal behaviour.
Case histories may also be based on a longitudinal study. This type of study follows an individual or a group of individuals over an extended period of time, with measurements made at periodic intervals. The case history is constructed from the actual observations made by the investigator according to our plan. The advantage of a longitudinal study is that it does not depend on the memories of those interviewed at a later date.
Some problems, which are difficult to study by direct observation may be studied through the use of questionnaires or interviews. Surveys are usually undertaken to ascertain group trends in behaviour of various types. Thus, a survey may be aimed at finding out opinions of a group of people on various topics such as political opinions, food preferences, health care needs and the like. A survey to be reliable must use carefully selected questions as well as a representative sample of the group about which the findings are made.
(3) Statistical Method:
Psychology aims not only at the mere description of behaviour but also at its precise measurement wherever possible. This emphasis on psychology on quantification of its data has given rise to a number of statistical techniques for the analysis of behaviour. The use of statistical analysis has helped psychological research especially in the field of psychological testing and experimental psychology.
Essay # 4. Historical Focus of Psychology:
Even since man has been able to think, he has had a desire to understand the psychological processes by which he lives. The history of psychology has been characterized by an increasing use of the empirical method. Psychologists preferred to rely upon reliable observations rather than on verbal reports from their subjects.
However, gradually when new methods of investigation developed, many schools of psychology emerged. The most influential psychologists who revolutionized psychology are- Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, Max Wertheimer and Sigmund Freud.
Wundt, E. B. Titchener and their followers concerned themselves primarily with the structure of consciousness and with the way that structure interacted with changes in the outside world. They started searching for mental elements into which they believed, all mental contents could be analyzed. The elements they thought must be sensation such as red, cold, sweet, or putrid. In their search for these mental elements, they used the method of introspection.
Although many valuable observations were collected by the method of introspection, this approach proved too narrow because it was limited to reports of what a person experienced. Further, it also became apparent that the mind cannot be thought of as a structure made up of elementary sensations. This disenchantment led some psychologists to give up structuralism and seek some other avenues to explain psychological events.
Psychologists like William James, John Dewey and others being influenced by the Darwinian theory of evolution turned towards functionalism which lays emphasis on the total organism adjusting to its environment. Thus they sought to study the adaptive functions of behaviour and mental processes and not merely their structure.
The methods used by the functionalists were introspection and the observation of behaviour. They did not limit themselves to the description and analysis of sensory experience and of mental content like the structuralists but emphasized the total activity of the individual how he learns, how he is motivated, how he solves problems etc.
Functionalism then, was characterized by two important aspects:
(1) The study of the total behaviour and experience of an individual, and
(2) The nature of the adaptive functions.
With John B. Watson, its first and most influential advocate, discarded introspection as a method of studying-mental processes used by the structuralists and insisted that psychological experiments be restricted to the study of behaviour. In a way it can be said that Watson tried to remove psychology from inside the skull and apply it only to objectively observable behaviour. He emphasized conditioned reflexes as the elements or building ‘blocks of behaviour.
Another characteristic of behaviourism was its emphasis on learned rather than unlearned behaviour like instincts. To Watson, almost all that a man becomes is a matter of the conditioning of reflexes. One of his famous statements is that he could take almost any infant and through proper training make him into a beggar, a lawyer, or any other kind of person he desired.
Finally, behaviourism emphasized animal behaviour and held that there is no important difference between man and animals; that we can learn much about man by the study of animals particularly since animals are easier to experiment with. These characteristics of behaviourism have left their impact on modern psychology and many psychologists like B. F. Skinner came out with stimulus-response psychology.
The S.R. Psychology studies the stimuli that elicit behavioural responses, the rewards and punishments that maintain these responses, and the modifications in behaviour obtained by changing the patterns of rewards and punishments.
This type of psychology is not concerned with what goes on inside the Organism. Instead, it maintains that although the brain and the nervous system may carryon complex activities, which we cannot see, a science of psychology can be based strictly on what goes inside and what comes out, without worrying much about what goes on inside. Thus then, a theory of learning can be developed by observing how learned behaviour varies with environmental conditions.
For example, what stimulus conditions and patterns of reward and punishment lead to the fastest learning with the fewest errors are sufficient variables and we need not bother to specify the changes that learning produces in the nervous system. A strict S.R. approach does not consider the individual’s conscious experiences.
In nineties, when behaviourism in the United States was displacing introspectionism, another school of thought was gaining ground in Germany. This was Gestalt psychology founded by Max Wertheimer, and his colleagues, K. Koffka and W. Kohler. Gestalt psychology was a protest against the structuralists and also against the elementarism of the behaviourists.
Gestalt psychologists held that our experiences and our behaviour are not made up by compounding simple elements. Rather, they are patterns, or organizations similar to a magnetic field in which events in one part of the field are influenced by another part of the field.
For example, a gray piece of paper is gray only in relation to its, background because on a black background it appears light and, against a white background it appears dark. Similarly, a series of dots in any orderly arrangements is perceived as a pattern and not as isolated dots. The dots are somehow organized in perception so that they are seen as a configuration.
According to them, “the whole is more than some of its parts”. Today many psychologists, in studying perception, learning, thought, and problem solving apply the principles of Gestalt psychology and seek for patterns and organisation rather than seek for additive discreteness.
Psychoanalysis is not a school of psychology because it originated outside the laboratory in medical practice and vet it had a considerable impact on psychology. Psychoanalysis was founded and developed in the beginning 20th century by Sigmund Freud. Unlike the ideas discussed so far, psychoanalytic concepts are not based on experimental studies and yet have a profound interest on psychological thinking.
The basic assumption of Freud’s theory is that much of man’s behaviour is determined by innate instincts that are largely unconscious. By unconscious processes Freud meant thoughts, fears and wishes of which the person is unaware but which influence his behaviour.
According to him, many forbidden or punished impulses of childhood period are repressed into the unconscious from where they influence behaviour. These unconscious impulses, Freud believed, find expression, in dreams, slips of tongue, mannerisms and symptoms of neurotic illness, as well as through such socially approved behaviour as artistic, literary, or scientific activity.
Freud contributed two important things. In the first place, he developed a method of treatment and the word psychoanalysis primarily refers to that method. At first he used hypnosis with his patients and was not impressed by its efficacy. Consequently, when he heard that a new method had been devised by a Viennese physician, Joseph Breuer, a method by which the patient was cured of his symptoms by talking about them, he tried it out and found it to be effective.
This method is called the method of free associations. The patient freely associates on his thoughts and experiences with the help of the psychiatrist who analyses the causes of his difficulty. Secondly, he constructed a theory of personality known as the Freudian or psychoanalytic theory. This theory is rather elaborate and stresses the role of motives, often hidden and repressed from the individual and society.
The structure of personality is made up of three major systems; the id, the ego, and the superego. Although each of these has its own functions, properties, components, operating principles and mechanisms, they interact so closely with one another that it is difficult to weigh their relative contribution to man’s behaviour. Behaviour is almost always the product of an interaction among these three systems.
Freud’s theory of personality, rather than his method of treatment has evoked great interest among psychologists. The theory contains many unverified assumptions but it has none the less been very valuable, because it has stimulated further systematic research.
This school of thought developed from the ideas of existential philosophers (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre) emphasizes those human qualities, which distinguish man from the animals primarily his free will and his drive towards self-actualization. The humanistic psychology rejects the concepts of man as a mechanism controlled by external forces or by unconscious instincts. They prefer to see man as an actor capable of controlling his own destiny and changing the world around him.
According to humanistic psychology an individual is free to choose and to determine his actions. Each person, therefore, is responsible for his actions and cannot blame the environment, his parents, or even circumstances for what he does. Further, an individual’s main motivational force is a tendency towards growth and self-actualization.
Every person has a basic need to develop his potential to the fullest, to progress beyond what he is now. He may not know what path to follow or he may be blocked by all sorts and environmental and cultural obstacles, nonetheless, his natural tendency is towards actualization of his potential.
The main thesis of the humanistic psychology is the individual’s subjective experience. An individual’s perceptions of himself and of the world are considered as more important for study than his actions. Humanistic psychology emerged partly as a reaction against those aspects of technological society that tend to determine man.
If we wish, we can view the psychological process in neurological and physiological terms. Every time the organisms sense the world, interprets it, responds to it and feels a sense of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the results of its response, its body and its nervous system are involved. His motives may be construed in terms of physiological imbalances. This approach tries to reduce an observable behaviour and mental events, such as thoughts and emotions to neurobiological processes.
Recent discoveries have clearly demonstrated that there is an intimate relationship between the brain activity and behaviour, or experience. Emotional reactions such as fear and rage, have been produced in animals and humans by mild electrical stimulations of specific areas in the brain.
Electrical stimulation of specific areas in the human brain can produce sensations of pleasure and pain, and even vivid memories of the past events. However, because of the complexity of the brain and because live human brains are seldom available for study, there are many gaps in our knowledge regarding the neural functioning.
Since psychology is a new science, which emerged from Philosophy, and since every country in the world had its own philosophy, psychology can be said to have existed in every country. However, psychology as an objective science is of recent origin. The beginnings of scientific psychology were laid down in Europe by such stalwarts as Sir Francis Galton in England and Wilhelm Wundt in Germany. Subsequent development of objective psychology is the reflection of the work undertaken by these two founding fathers.
The growth of psychology in the form of research both from theoretical and practical angles was interrupted during the World War II. Psychological research in Germany and Austria suffered as a result of great losses of eminent psychologists who were exiled. If American psychology today stands foremost, it is because of the German immigrant psychologists who smuggled themselves into America to escape the horrors of the Nazi regime.
At that time, the German psychologists were involved in research particularly on verbal and personality areas. Some of the great German psychologists who influenced other European and American psychologists are Spranger whose Types of Men led to The Study of Values, by Allport and Vernon.
Jung’s Psychological Types gave our language extrovert and introvert Kretschmer’s Physique and Character is the early formulation of a classification which has influenced, among others Eysenck to formulate his hierarchy of personality traits such as introversion-extraversion and stability-instability. Finally, Rorschach’s psycho-diagnostics, are some of the important contributions showing the psychological trends in Germany.
Another area in which German psychology has had a unique position is perception. The Gestalt psychologist like Wertheimer, Kohler, Koffka and Lewin who went into exile exercised a far-reaching influence from 1920 till 1934. However, some of the younger generation like Metzger stayed on and produced a lot of experimental work on perception. Similarly, Von Frisch, whose work on bees had long been famous, made some observations during World War II that roused a good deal of controversy.
He claimed that the bee workers returning to the hive after discovering a new source of honey can indicate both the direction and the distance to their fellow beings by performing two types of dances—the “round” dance and the “waggle” dance. Lorenz perhaps is the most important animal psychologist whose contribution is the concept of “imprinting,” the process by which the young of a species become attached normally to their mothers.
Lorenz, and his disciples Tinbergen and Thorpe who made a special study of animal behaviour have contributed considerably to the science of psychology. Lorenz and his disciples fled to England during World War II.
In Great Britain psychology flourished under the stewardship of Bartlett whose books—Remembering and Thinking exercised great influence in the university of Cambridge. The most important figure in the development of British psychology was Craik, who died quite young as a result of road accident in 1945.
It is said that Craik was a “philosopher by training, and experimentalist by inclination, and a genius at inventing apparatus.” Some of his ideas have influenced the psychological thought both in Europe and in America. Some of the basic ideas of the science cybernetics owe their origin to him.
A second line of thought in British psychology can be traced back to Galton through Spearman, Thomson, and Sir Cyril Burt. These psychologists engaged themselves with the problem of intelligence. Spearman stated his theory of intelligence in ‘The Nature of Intelligence’ and ‘Principles of Cognition’, followed by ‘The Abilities of Man’. Thomson’s ‘The Factorial Analysis’ of Human Ability and Burt’s ‘The Factors of the Mind’ in 1940 are some of the noteworthy contributions to the theory of intelligence.
In the past 40 years, psychologists like Eysenck, Broadbent and Broad Hurst have contributed immensely by their original work. Eysenck’s output is much greater than that of any other British psychologist and ranges all the way from highly technical to popular writing. His book The Scientific Study of Personality shows his theoretical position. Much of his work has been done in a clinical setting in Maudsley Hospital in London.
In France, Pieron has been the influential figure on French psychology. He is both an empiricist and an experimentalism. Pieron has not been well understood by the English speaking world and hence his ideas on physiological and sensory areas, so also on psychophysics are also not adequately understood and hence he is poorly represented to the English speaking psychologists.
In Belgium Michotte and in Switzerland Piaget have been very influential figures. The former is a phenomenalist interested in the characteristics of immediate experience and yet he is a good experimentalist. Piaget’s work on the intellectual development of a child needs no mention since it is the best available work now.
His “The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence” is the landmark in the developmental psychology. Though he wrote in French his works have been translated in English and have influenced the English speaking world. John Flavell’s book “The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget” summarizes Piaget’s work.
Another important psychologist in Belgium is Joseph Nuttin. His own experimentally based attack upon the Thorndikian view of the law of effect has been largely neglected in the United States. His work on the spread of effect demonstrates this attack.
Italian psychology especially at the Catholic University at Milan is more centered on experimental work. Gemelli has produced a tremendous amount of experimental work in diverse fields. Much of the psychological research in Italy is concerned with applied orientation like accident prevention and occupational activities.
Applied work in Italy at the National Institute of Psychology at Rome has been much influenced by Gemelli’s contributions and to a lesser extent by Ponzo’s contributions to aptitude testing and selection in education, industry, and vocational guidance. Some of the psychologists in Italy have been engaging in the areas of intelligence, risk-taking behaviour and perception.
In Canada, like in the United States, there is a great volume of psychological research especially in the fields of verbal learning and memory by Earhard and Earhard, Mandler, Marshall, Murdock and Murray. The second field is motivation in which research is done by Appley, Bindra and Malmo.
Berlyne’s work on learning and attention is an attempt to understand the intellectual processes in terms of the behaviourist principles. Hebb seems to have greater influence on Canadian psychology especially from physiological point of view like sensory isolation and neural organization.
In Soviet Russia psychology has been influenced by Pavlovian concepts of conditioning. Soviet psychology is greatly interested in physiological basis of behaviour and attempts to account for psychological phenomena in terms of physiological principles.
Luria’s work on brain and behaviour, Norkina’s work on the “type of highest nervous activity” Miminoshvili’s work on experimental neurosis in monkeys by overstraining the cortical excitatory processes, Vygotskii’s work on thought and language and Krushinskii’s animal behaviour are some of the important strides made in Soviet psychology.
In the orient psychology has been the handmaid of philosophy and as such it is difficult to separate psychological concepts from philosophical ones. In the ancient Hindu and Buddhist literature, there are various systematic approaches to human; nature and experience. A lot of psychological information is to be found in the Rig Vedas and especially in Upanishads. According to one of the Upanishads as Akhilananda, states there are four states of the mental processes like sleeping, dreaming, the waking state, and the superconscious.
The first two states which belong to the subconscious; are considered by Hindu philosophers to be important aspects of human experience. It is interesting to note that the Hindu philosophers differentiated between sleeping and dreaming.
Recent neurophysiological research by Thompson, seems to support the Hindu thinker’s distinction of the dual theory of sleep classical “slow” sleep and, “paradoxical” sleep with dreaming.
The Hindu psychologists, like the psychoanalysts, place special importance on the sub-conscious but unlike psychoanalysis, Hindu psychology does not assume sex and death urges as the basic human instincts. According to them, the basic urge is to attain eternal happiness or complete freedom from bondage.
In India, the crowning achievement of the Indian thinkers was metaphysical speculation. However, the philosophical literature of India is not only rich in metaphysics, but also in Psychology, Logic, Ethics, Aesthetics, and Epistemology. Every school of philosophy has made worthy contributions to Psychology, Logic, Ethics, and other mental sciences, but these have never been treated as a separate branch of study.
Perhaps the reason is that the Indian mind is primarily synthetic and it always analyses a problem into its various aspects without destroying its organic unity. Although in the development of Indian though we come across separate monographs on different sciences, we find them mixed up with Metaphysics.
In India, there is not a single work that is exclusively devoted to the psychological analysis of mental processes. The Indian philosophers did not believe that psychology, as understood in modern terms, could be treated as a separate discipline. Mrs. Rhys David’s book on Buddhist Psychology is indeed a monumental work but only on the psychology of the Buddhists. Indian psychology is not Empirical because it is based on metaphysics.
In the words of Jadunath Sinha, “The psychological account of some problems of perception, e.g. perception of the self, perception of the universal, etc. is unintelligible without consideration of their metaphysical foundations. So I found it extremely difficult to avoid metaphysical considerations altogether in my treatment of these topics.”
Indian psychology is based on introspection and observation unlike the psychology in the West, which is based on experiments and this is obvious because introspection is the method of philosophical enquiry.
Comparing psychology in India from Western point of view, though psychology has made great strides in the West because it is treated as an empirical science and the methods used are of experimental nature, in India psychology is in its infancy merely because it is still regarded as part of philosophy. However, modern Indian psychologists trained in psychology as an empirical science are trying to experiment upon some of the problems encountered in Indian psychology.
The greatest contribution of modern Indian psychologists, has been in the fields of social psychology and psychological testing. Several studies on communal stereotypes, social distance, regional tensions, caste tensions and attitudes have been reported in Psychological Journals in India and abroad. A study by Desouza on regional and communal stereotypes of Bombay University students, has shown that Maharashtrians have a negative image of South Indians, Muslims and business communities.
In the field of testing, several’ psychologists have devised personality inventories and intelligence and vocational tests. Bhatia’s Test of Intelligence, Kamath’s Test of Intelligence in Marathi and Shukla’s Test of Intelligence in Gujarati are some of the widely used tests.
Kundu’s Neurotic Inventory, Bhagwat’s Pre-Medicine and Pre-Engineering Aptitude Test, Bengalee’s Multiphasic Personality Scale arid many other such tests devised by research students have come into existence. Besides, several foreign tests and projective techniques have been standardized in India.
Desouza standardized the Hand Test on Indian population consisting of 3,000 subjects drawn from seven religious communities such as Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Neo-Buddhists, Jains, Parsees and Sikhs and five occupations such as manufacture, construction, trade and commerce, transport and other unlisted occupations. The norms have been copyrighted by the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles.
A recent book, Personality Development: A Critic of Indian Studies by Kundu is based on Indian researches conducted by Indian psychologists. The book reflects contemporary trends in Psychology and Education with special reference to the area of Personality development. The book is a collection of the material consisting of 180 unpublished Ph.D. thesis and Master’s Dissertations.
Psychology in Japan:
Zen Buddhism is well known to the Western World because it was early introduced by Dr. Y. Motora of Tokyo University. According to him the essential nature of mind is a dynamic psychic potentiality into which the subject-object division melts away. Apart from the psychological aspects of Zen Buddhism, psychology in Japan has made tremendous strides in research and there are several Japanese Journals of Psychology.
Among the experimental fields, perception has attracted the attention and some of the most intensely studied areas are optical illusions, figural after effects, constancy phenomena, colour vision and binocular vision. Unfortunately, because most of the journals are published in Japanese language, their original work on perception is unknown to foreign workers.
Another area of popular research in experimental psychology is learning and memory. One of the original works on memory is concerned with the function of stimulus and response words in paired-associate learning. Some of the psychologists engaged in learning and memory follow the Gestalt theory.
In the field of animal behaviour several psychologists have followed the Pavlovian line of thought and have experimented upon such phenomena as reinforcement, resistance to extinction, discrimination learning and conditioned – avoidance response.
Now, interest in experimental psychology is marked by the interest in physiological psychology. Several psychologists are working on psychophysiological studies of sleep and wakefulness. Interest also has been shown in clinical psychology especially with children who are emotionally disturbed.
On the applied side, the psychologists are engaged in investigating such problems as school curricula, traffic safety, industrialization, physical education etc. In short, psychology in Japan has touched practically all facets of human and animal behaviour both from theoretical and applied aspects.