Introduction
At the turn of the 20th century, psychology was a new and emerging discipline. Many of its proponents were publishing papers that were more conceptual in nature, taking on a predominantly philosophical perspective. There was a large amount of questioning and contextualising conducted in an attempt to get a clear understanding of the aims of psychology and its appropriate methodologies. There were many important contributors to this discussion. Mary Whiton Calkins, for example, was greatly influenced by the work of William James and Josiah Royce, who many believe sparked the development of a number of Calkins’ own theories surrounding self-psychology (McDonald, 2007). The current paper, titled “Psychology as science of self: Is
…show more content…
The first form regards the self as a psychophysical organism and psychology as the science of processes or functions of the conscious body, making up the mind-and-body complex. For Calkins, this is more practical for functional psychologists. Angell (1907) prohibits this use of the term “self”, stating that the idea of a mind-and-body-complex compounds two distinct phenomena and ignores their functions. This view would then mean that an organism’s functions could not be defined as “physiological” or “psychical” as they would be combined into the category of “psychophysical functions”. It is pointed out that functional psychologists still need to distinguish psychical from physiological functions, leading Calkins to the reasonable conclusion that treating the self as “psychophysical” is …show more content…
It is interesting to note, however, that Calkins previously implied that the nature of the relationship between the mind and body should be left for philosophy to examine, stating that psychology should not be concerned “with the philosophical problem of the relation of mind and body”. Overlooking this, Calkins continues to outline the two key aims of science. The first is to describe or portray using observation, analysis, and classification. For psychologists attempting to describe consciousness, this would involve observing a psychic fact, analysing it into its basic factors, and classifying it according to its similarities to other phenomena. The second aim is to explain by discovering other phenomena (psychic or physical) that may be related to the psychic fact of interest. For Calkins, these roles do not contradict the view that science is always descriptive and never explanatory, as they still focus on the “how?” rather than the “why?” (Pearson, 1892). Ideally, science should seek to classify explained phenomena, grouping them by internal similarities and by similarities of the phenomena which explain them. The author’s description here provides a very practical representation of a scientific approach to
However, advancements in the field made it possible to better understand that not only was psychology more complex than concepts of consciousness, but also that there were many other mental aspects at play. Consciousness has since been redefined to express the idea of awareness – both of personal being and the environment that exists around it. It is through cognitive neuroscience, which is the study of the brain in relation to its mental processes, that scientists can better understand the level of consciousness. Knowing how the body reacts at various levels, what human control exists in each and how they contribute to the activities of the brain can likely explain a lot about human behavior. Within cognitive neuroscience, the latest research is able to the show the ways in which brain activity centered on imagined thoughts, personal ideals and concepts and the inner working of this organ direct behavior among individuals of varying backgrounds and physical
The roots of Calkins’s self-psychology is a form of introspectionist psychology which examines someone 's mental experience. Many psychologist wants to explain self with some kind of experiment. However, Calkins argued that
Psychology and its Implications Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Psychology and its Implications Introduction Psychology has been used for a long time to understand human behaviour. Basically, this is how human beings react to various stimuli. The reaction can originate from a past experience, for instance, death, sickness, and so forth. In the book The Perk of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (2012), Charlie can be seen to be faced by psychological problems. Charlie is the major character in the novel.
Conclusion: The mind is substantively different from the body and indeed matter in general. Because in this conception the mind is substantively distinct from the body it becomes plausible for us to doubt the intuitive connection between mind and body. Indeed there are many aspects of the external world that do not appear to have minds and yet appear none the less real in spite of this for example mountains, sticks or lamps, given this we can begin to rationalize that perhaps minds can exist without bodies, and we only lack the capacity to perceive them.
1. Personality- individual differences in characteristic 2. Psychodynamic theories- views that defends personality of conscious and unconscious 3. Psychoanalysis-
What is the Mind? Introduction To try and explore the ‘mind’ it is necessary to examine if the mind and the brain are separate or if the mind and body are distinct from one another? Is the mind and body separate substance or elements of the same substance? Is consciousness the result of the mechanisms of the brain, wholly separate from the brain or inextricably linked?
Psy20150 Essay. Name: Clodagh Finnerty Student Number: 13362386 ‘It has been argued that two events led to the development of the modern discipline of Psychology: the foundation of Wilhelm Wundt’s Institute of Experimental Psychology, and the introduction of a new theory of evolution, described in Darwin’s Origin of Species. Critically assess the impact of these events on Psychology and society.’
Various philosophers and scientists have inquired about the mind and body issue for a long time. The mind-body philosophies try to explain the way a person’s mental state and processes are linked to the physical state. The core of the mind and body is that individuals have a biased experience of an inner life that appears detached from the physical world. Although they are separated, they need to work together in some way. Individuals may appear to have physical properties and mental properties.
However, due to the limitation of skills, most of the researches done are not well designed. A main limitation of psychology as a field of study is that it never captures the nature of consciousness (Willig, 2013), as human mind is bound up with meanings and interpretations which differ from one individual to another
The main aim of this assignment is to find out the strength and weakness, similarities and differences between the different approaches of psychology such as biological approach, behavioural approach and psychodynamic approach. I have chosen mental illness to evaluate these approach. The biological, behavioural and psychodynamic approaches of psychology are connected to the nature and nurture argument. The biological approach highly talks about nature side of the argument and states that all behaviour is biological and is treatable.
I argue that while mechanistic and teleological explanations are distinctly different, both are required in order to thoroughly explain a phenomenon. In this essay, I will describe mechanistic, atomistic, and teleological explanations, highlight their key differences, and then explain why one cannot completely understand a phenomenon without incorporating a teleological component. A mechanistic explanation is one that describes “how” a phenomenon (such as breathing, growing, or eating) occurs. It conveys the physiological, or physical, movements and changes involved in that phenomenon.
Early scientists and psychologist have been trying to get a full grasp about human minds by studying the truth about the self. They have used a variety of stimuli in their study, but the method of using artificial stimulus may not be the best way to understand how the mind works and why humans behave the way they do. Mary Calkins has developed a different approach to study the human mind by observing one’s own emotion. In the earlier study, they were observing the mind and body as a whole and not as two separate entities. They did not really observe the things that were happening in the mind while they were observing; therefore, Calkins instead examined her own mind because that was the only way she could have a full access without using
The self can be defined as ‘an organised, consistent set of perceptions of and beliefs about oneself’ (Passer, Smith, Holt, Bremner, Sutherland & Vliek, 2009, p676). We should aim to understand ourselves, learn know how we function
Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory Why this topic? Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is very important. There are some reasons of it. The first reason is because learning is existencial issue for an individual.
The Carl Rogers theory of the self-concept will explain the development and structure of personality, whereas Victor Frankl’s theory will explain the meaning of life as a dynamic of personality. Carl Rogers’s personality