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
Salam Iqra,
ReplyDeletei am Rizwana.
pehlay to aap ka buhat buhat shukria ky aap ny Psy subject to itni aasani sy samjha dia hai. iqra i coulnot open the link of psy 502. please help me in this matter. exam sar py hain aur psy 502 ka buhat khoff hai. please reply your concern will be highly appreciated.
my email is rizwanakamran071@gmail.com
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