PSY502 History and Systems of Psychology

 PSY502 History and Systems of Psychology 

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GREEK THINKERS

The ancient Greek philosophers/psychologists regarded three elements to be the basic ingredients of all matter including humans.

 These three elements were:

 • Water

 • Air 

•Fire

 The ancient Greek philosophers also put forward the view that contradiction is a permanent element in the world and because of it the world is influx all the time. This means that every time a phenomenon arises there is a counter explanation to the phenomenon. Thus a contradiction in explanation arises which leads to further investigation and further phenomenon and counter phenomenon. When this process continues over a long period of time, we find the world to be in a constant influx(an arrival or entry of large numbers of things). One of the greatest developments of the Ancient Greek philosophers was that they put forward the view that everything consists of small indivisible particles and these particles act upon on the soul to create sensations. This was later found to be true with the discovery of atoms.

Socrates

Socrates is considered to be one of the most important ancient philosopher/psychologist. He laid the foundation of ideas for many philosophers/psychologists to follow. Socrates was born in 469BC and he died in 399BC(years of Christ to come ).

1.       In his opinion knowledge and truth reside in the mind and one has to look for and find it there. It means that in order to gain knowledge and understand various phenomenons one has to look inwards instead of looking at the outward things and trying to find an explanation in them. 

2.       He further said that knowledge and awareness create virtue, so in order to be virtuous one has to look into the self. In other words, Socrates stressed on the study of soul i.e. looking inwards, and he rejected external observation.

3.       Another of the Socratic contributions is that he defined the concept of happiness. To Socrates, stealing is not happiness but the satisfaction gained through acquiring by honest means is happiness.

4.        He regarded the soul, called psyche in Greek, as superior to body and said that the psyche or the soul helps us to distinguish between good and bad. Socrates asserted that all things have a definite purpose and nothing occurs without that purpose. 

5.       Another of the great contributions of Socrates is his method of teaching. It is called the Socratic method of teaching. It is also the modern method of teaching and it consists of a dialogue, rather than monologue and focuses on the logical correctness of the argument. The teacher and the student interact with each other and have an intelligent dialogue that helps them to understand and comprehend better. The monologue is discouraged because it involves only one way flow of information, further it does not clear up any misunderstanding that may arise in the mind of the students, who are not able to express themselves. The Socratic method of teaching is in practice these days.  

Plato

Plato was a pupil of Socrates and another important Greek philosopher/psychologist. He was born in 427BC and he died in 347BC.  Following the Socratic tradition,

1.       Plato was also of the view that knowledge is innate and inside the mind. In order to extract knowledge one needs to look into the mind rather than looking at external objects. This method was later called the introspective method in which outwardly observation is discouraged and looking into the mind or the soul is encouraged.

2.       Plato is also considered an idealist philosopher who believed in the supremacy of ideas. He did not believe in acquiring knowledge by empiricism and observing facts. He thought that ideas are the only source and the true source of knowledge. As an individual looks into his ideas he can extract the best possible solutions and explanations to the problems that are encountered by him or her.

3.       Another of Plato’s contributions is that he described the parts of personality as 

•        appetite. 

•        Intellect

•        Drive/Will

The intellect is the ability to understand, while the will is the drive to do something. Appetite on the other hand is the part of the personality that deals with bodily needs. According to Plato, ideas are eternal, they are not born, and neither do they die while worldly objects change and die. Therefore, true knowledge, as mentioned earlier, can be gained from ideas rather than observation. Plato also regarded the soul or psyche to be permanent and the body as something that could change. This further suggested that knowledge could be acquired through the soul or the psyche but not by the use of bodily sensory organs. To Plato sensory organs were a hindrance to the acquisition of knowledge. 

4.       Plato suggested that the soul has three parts:

·         Reason, located in the head

·         Appetite, located in the stomach

·         Passion, located in the chest

The function of the reason is to control and direct the passion and appetite. Passion is the desire to perform a certain action. Appetite part of the soul refers to the natural needs of the body, such as hunger, thirst etc. According to Plato, some passions and appetites are satisfied in dreams. This concept given by Plato is similar to what was later given by Freud as id, ego and super ego. Plato was the one who established the first ever university by the name of Academy.   

Aristotle

Aristotle was one of the greatest philosopher/thinker ever in the history of mankind. This Greek philosopher/psychologist, Aristotle was born in 384BC and he died in 322BC. Aristotle was a student of Plato and his ideas not only show the influence of Plato’s thinking but also sometimes Aristotle has presented completely opposing views to his teacher.  Aristotle wrote a book by the name of De Anima which means “the Soul.” Since soul was considered to be the primary topic of interest for philosophers/psychologists at that time.

1.       Aristotle is considered to the first psychologists ever. Aristotle rejected the idea of dualism of soul and the body and put forward the view that these two are not separate but one entity. 

2.       Aristotle was of the view that ideas in the human beings tend to become associated with each other and there are three reasons for the association of ideas which he gave:

·         Similarity Similarity means that the mind tends to see certain similar patterns between two things and relates them together. This is the simplest explanation of the association of ideas where, for example, two events which a person witnesses have certain common elements. These may then be associated with each other due to the similarities present in them. 

·         Contiguity Contiguity refers to two things or events happening close to each other so that the person is able to relate them to each other. For example, if two events occur consecutively, one after the other, they tend to get associated with each other. This is an example of contiguity of ideas, where one even may remind of the other event which is contiguous to it. 

·         Contrast Contrast means that two events or ideas are completely opposing to each other, which results in the formation of a link between the two. Humans tend to associate the ideas together. These may be two conflicting statements by someone. One statement would remind a person about the other conflicting statement immediately. Therefore, in this way ideas tend to become associated with each other. 

3.       According to Aristotle, man is a biological being whose functions include:

•        Eating

•        Perceiving

•        Having children

•        Thinking 

•        And doing things.

All of these are characteristics of living organisms. It eats to fulfill the requirements for the nourishment of its body and its growth. It perceives and responds to stimuli according to its perception. It has the ability to procreate and expand its species. Higher form of living beings such as humans has the ability to use their mind to think and analyze objects and happenings around them. According to Aristotle, one of the functions of human beings is doing things, which means that humans are involved in various activities which they perform throughout their lives which may be anything such as reading this text.  

4.       According to him the true source of knowledge is ideas themselves. Plato further asserted the soul or psyche to be permanent and the body as something that could change. Therefore, according to Plato, knowledge could be acquired through the soul or the psyche and sensory organs were a hindrance to the acquisition of knowledge. This was an introspective and subjective method of learning, which means to look into the mind to find solutions to problems.

Aristotle on the other hand rejected his teacher’s views on introspection and said that true knowledge can only be gained through observation and empiricism. As human beings observe the phenomenon going on around them and the world around them, they tend to make judgments and decisions that are based on their objective perception rather than their subjective biases. Therefore, instead of looking to the mind, one needs to look at the world around in order to gain knowledge. This implies that in Aristotle’s views, sensory organs are not a hindrance to learning, but they are the source of gaining knowledge. 

5.       Aristotle also described two types of human motives which are

 • Primary motives Primary motives are basic motives which are the desires of all human beings and are mostly bodily desires such as such as hunger, sex, thirst, anger and need for rest. Such motives are not just possessed by human beings but may also be possessed by other living beings. An important aspect of such motives is that they are not learnt by the organisms; rather they are a part of the genetic makeup of all organisms. Humans are born with these motives, in other words these motives are inherited and they become the cause of propelling a person to perform a certain act or to do something. For example, hunger may cause a poor man to beg for food. Therefore, his basic bodily desire has caused him to perform a certain action. Such desires or motives are called primary motives by Aristotle.

• Secondary Motives  Secondary motives are those motives which are learnt by organisms and these become habits of the individuals. For example, it is the habit of certain people to socialize with others. Some people have the desire to dominate their fellows. These motives become the habits of individuals and they tend to follow them quite often.  Therefore, they are called secondary motives by Aristotle. 

6.       Another great contribution of the great philosopher Aristotle was that he recognized that there are individual differences in various respects in people. These differences may be in the intelligence level, in certain abilities, sports, math etc. For example, one individual may be a very good sportsman but not a very good musician, while another may be a very good musician but not a sports man. Therefore, differences exist in all individuals as far as their personal characteristics are concerned.  This is the reason for some individuals to excel in certain fields.  Aristotle further suggested that these individual differences are created during the life span of a person, but they are inherited by the person. He is born with these differences which may although be discovered in later in life.  Apart from these individual differences that are inherited and are a part of the genetic makeup of all individuals,

7.       Aristotle was of the view that the early childhood experiences and training of an individual have a profound impact on him or her. Childhood is the time when the mind is open to all influences from the environment. A child would learn to behave in a certain manner as he would see the individuals around him doing. Further, training of a child is also an important factor that would influence his behaviour throughout his life. The way he has been trained and educated during the early years of his life, that is childhood, he is expected to show some influence of it in every part of his or her life. A child of Pakistani family who has been educated and grown up in the United States cannot be expected to behave in a similar manner to the one who has been grown up in Pakistan. That is because his experiences in his environment and training that he gets is absolutely different from the child grown in Pakistan. This influence is expected to last through out his or her life.

8.       Aristotle also gave the concept of Catharsis. Catharsis is the sudden release of emotions by a person when he sees, hears or feels something. For example a person may start crying when he hears about a tragedy that someone else has encountered, or a people often have soaked eyes when they watch a tragic scene in a movie. These are the examples of catharsis where emotions are suddenly released by the individual. There may be also the emotions such as happiness or joy which someone feels when a villain is being beaten up by the hero of the movie. The list of contributions of Aristotle is a long one. This is why he is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers of mankind. His ideas have left a profound and