Please go to "Classics inthe history of psychology" http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/ and pick an article of interest to read. Read the article and respond to the following:
1) Why did you pick that article?
2) What was the author's main points?
3) What did you find interesting in the article? Why?
4) How does it relate to the material that we have read so far?
5) What are some questions you have after reading this article?
1) Why did you pick that article?
I picked The Myth of Mental Illness. I picked this because I searched motivation, and this was one article that came up. I work with the mentally disabled and thought that this article would be interesting to read, and see what people back in the day thought about the term mental illness.
2) What was the author's main points?
The author was trying to argue that there is not such thing as a mental illness. His main points were the fact that a mental illness was not a disease. People always made it seem like people who were classified as having a mental illness as if there were dying of a skin or liver disease. The other main point was that a mental illness is just a problem that the living are dealing with. For instance if you were getting a divorce, you were said to have a mental illness. Anything there was not in the “norm” meant mental illness.
3) What did you find interesting in the article? Why?
I found this whole article to be interesting. This is because what a mental illness back in the day was compared to now is so different. While at times it was so much alike. The author argued that being mentally ill is just the same as a person struggling with how he is living/ or with his living environment. I thought that it was very neat to see someone look outside to box , on a topic that was so point blank. I just thought that it was so interesting to see that someone who was getting a divorce was considered to have a mental illness. If someone did something that was out of the norm they had a mental illness.
4) How does it relate to the material that we have read so far?
Personally I did not know that we needed to pick something that related to what we have read so far. However mental illness is in the book, so it will related to the chapters which we have not read. :)
5) What are some questions you have after reading this article?
What made one want to argue this topic?
Who was the one that determined what the symptoms were in order to tell someone that they had a mental illness?
When did concept of a mental illness change?
I picked the article The Nature of Love, and I chose this article because psychologists always question if love is nature or nurture with unconditional love for their child.
The author's main points was that love is a secondary drive, and women need a man to help out the other drive to complete the love to give an offspring. Another important points was Watson tested a monkey with just a wire bed, and one with a surrogate monkey. The monkey felt loved by the surrogate monkey than it did to the wire bed in the cage. Watson did many tests to see if the monkey would feel loved by the surrogate monkey with cloth or just nothing in the cage and the monkey felt love from clothed monkey.
I found this article interesting because a monkey needs love, and it showed without being loved any monkey, child, or any other living thing can live to not love anyone.
It relates to the nature vs. nurture debate from Darwin that we still continue to debate about today.
Questions for this article. Did the infant monkey without the surrogate have problems dealing with love growing up? Does a woman really need a man to fulfill her love? Does love come from nature or nurture?
1) Why did you pick that article? I picked the article “The Myth of Mental Illness”, simply because I found the title to be interesting. I did not really have a specific topic in mind when looking through these articles and was happy to find an interesting title. Also, I am not very familiar with mental illnesses, their causes, and what type of effect they can have on people.
2) What were the author’s main points? The Author actually states what exactly he is trying to get at right in the beginning of the article. He says he is asking, “Is there such a thing as mental illness?” and to argue that the answer is in fact NO. He says that because mental illness is not a “thing” and it can only exist in our mind, the same way those other theoretical ideas can exist.
3) What did you find interesting in the article? Why? What I found interesting was that the author actually made a really valid point. He says that we are referring to “mental illness” incorrectly. He doesn’t argue that these don’t exist, but that they should be labeled as a disease of the brain. Also his point about using mental illness as an excuse for life hardships really resonated with me too. He argues that too many people take for granted that life is difficult and an arduous process. I really agreed with him here on a lot of levels, I think that a lot of people do this. However, I don’t know that I would go as far as to say that it deals with mental illness, but I could understand how an argument could be made.
4) How does it relate to the material that we have read so far? I did not see a ton of relation to what we have read so far, but I don’t think that is always a bad thing. I feel that it had more to deal with society today than any sort of history of psychology.
5) What are some questions you have after reading this article?
-How is this argument viewed in the professional realm?
-Will we deal with mental illness in later chapters?
-How will this concept change and evolve over time?
1. I picked this article Studying the Mind of Animals by John B. Watson (1907). I originally searched for this article because yesterday my mom was talking to me about how our three legged dog gets so angry at the neighbors and tries to chase them down the street but barely makes it twenty feet before giving up. I really wondered what could create that type of aggression in her, or whether or not she was abused in her previous family, thus being more prone to aggression.
2. The authors main point was that we can learn what is going on in our animal companions minds. Such things can be reasoning, imitation, and imagination. Watson gives a great example for how we can do this even though we can not verbally communicate with animals. He stated that we do this with infants who cannot speak yet, so we may be able to understand animals in how they feel or what they may want in the same way as these young children with no language involved. This was done through dogs, rats and monkeys.
3. I found this article to be interesting just for the fact that I have noticed through time that it was important back in the early 1800's-1900's to understand what animals were thinking, and now today I feel that it is not such a big deal to really study things such as this. I really like how Watson was actually smart in stating that these sort of studies would take time because it would only be made possible since one would have to have the tamest animals in order to cooperate. I was confused though on how one would measure aggression in an animal if they were tame. I figure that it would have to be given a certain stimuli in order to make it act this way, even if it were tame. All of this is interesting because I feel like there could be many flaws to any experiment involving animals.
4. I honestly have no idea how this would relate to what we have read so far. I know chapter 3 was mainly over the brain and how certain things work, so I am banking on the fact that we will cover in the future what may cause a person to act a certain way, certainly in animals as well. We are learning the history of psychology, and after all, what I read is history and animals were used a lot for experiments.
5. The only question about this article that I have is, how can we understand the behavior of animals and relate that in any way to ourselves when we have much different priorites?
1. I chose the article “What is Emotion?” because after reading the last chapter the processes of the brain interested me. I searched brain for the article data-base and the article for emotion popped up and sparked my interest. My interest in this article comes directly from my desire to better understand the brain itself.
2. The main point the author is trying to convey is that emotion does not come as a natural feeling when something happens to us. Take for instance I won the lottery which would in turn make me happy. Most people tend to think that after something like that we would naturally be pre-disposed to be happy. According to the author this is not the case he states that we must first perceive the stimulus as a positive one before we could ever have the emotion of happiness.
3. I found this article interesting because it explores emotion, something in which every person can relate to. The article also interests me because it deals with processes of the brain. I also found the authors theory very interesting as well. Due to his theory it explains why humor is so subjective. A person must perceive something as funny before they will ever laugh at it.
4. This article relates to the material we have covered so for by relating to brain physiology which we covered in the most recent chapter.
5. The biggest question I have after reading this article is the overall reason for emotion and its benefits to us?
1) Why did you pick that article?
I chose this article because I wanted to step away from discussions on human psychology and move to animal psychology. I find it fascinating trying to figure out what goes on inside an animal's mind. I hope this article gives some good insight.
2) What was the author's main points?
The author's main points in his article included ways we can relate to animals. He also was pointing out how we can figure out what animals are thinking. The author was explaining what he thinks are the right ways to go about these types of studies that will give us the most data and to keep the animals safe.
3) What did you find interesting in the article? Why?
Something I found to be interesting in this article was towards the end when the author mentioned some animals such as dogs and monkeys being able to do things out of the norm. For example he mentioned the unexplainable monkey demonstration of making up his own bed sheets and covers. Another example would be when a dog purchased a certain pack of bread and was able to count the right amount of change he was supposed to receive back.
4) How does it relate to the material that we have read so far?
It relates to the material we have read so far with another set of ideas. We cannot entirely portray how animals learn but we have our theories. Much of what we have read in early chapters was ideas by people that were later proven false. However they made contributions to psychology by giving us information that we were able to take, synthesize and prove incorrect. In the long run this can help psychologists, scientists, and others find the truth which is what we are learning about as well.
5) What are some questions you have after reading this article?
Besides humans what are the smartest animals we know of?
Will our communication with animals be extended in later years? What I mean by that is we can communicate with animals already to some extent. Like dogs for example, they can let us know when they have to go outside, or they listen to us when we ask them to sit, lie down or roll over. Will we be able to take that further? Have there already by strides in that direction?
My article
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Krstic/marulic.htm
1) How the term psychology got coined seemed very interesting to me. Psychology is what I want to do for the rest of my life, and though the name itself obviously isn’t the reason why I chose this path, it still interests me on how it got its name.
2) One of the author’s main points is that the term “psychology” did not come from one person, but rather three. Rudolf Gockel, Otto Casmann, and Filip Melanchton all have some part into coming up with the term psychology. Ultimately though, if this author had to pick one person to give credit to for coming up with the word Psychology, Filip Melanchton is thought to have first used the words in his lectures. He also notes that he needs to look at encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. to determine when and who created the word psychology.
3) I found it interesting that though it wasn’t very difficult for the author to find multiple creators of the word psychology, it was difficult for him to find the same information in any of the dictionaries and encyclopedias that is. I found this very curious. Maybe this was because the authors of the encyclopedias and dictionaries didn’t find this new science deemed worthy or important? Perhaps it was because the founders didn’t do a good enough job of publishing the term? My guess would be option B, but you never know.
4) This article relates very well with our textbook. Where the term psychology came from is extremely important to its history. The name, in some ways, defines the topic at hand. A name can give us a mental picture of what we’re looking at.
5) My questions would then be why did the dictionaries and encyclopedias start publishing the word psychology.
I chose to read the Practical Value of Psychology to the Teacher written by James Gibson Hume. The title struck me as something that I would want to learn about, so I decided to take go with it. The main points that the author has is that there are three ways in which psychology was important to the teacher. The ways are as a director, student, and educator.
As a director the teacher needs to know how different studies are interrelated with one another. To me this means that the teachers must first have a personal understanding of what is happening, or they will be unable to accurately teach to students. The teacher as a student focuses on the teacher having interest in the things that he or she is teaching. By the teacher being interested he or she is continually gaining new knowledge all the while creating more and more questions. Lastly, there is the teacher as an educator. After understanding the basics and also continually seeking knowledge it is now up to the teacher to find a way to make his or her students want to learn. Teaching should be more about creating a stimulating environment for students that merely rattling off factual information.
I thought that it was interesting that an article was emphasizing the importance of psychology to a teacher instead of discussing primarily the learner. In relation to the things that we have read so far I it drives home the fact that psychology is a science in itself. For example, there is a section in the article that talks about how psychology is complementary to what Wundt calls the three great classes (natural sciences, mental sciences, and philosophical enquiries).
After reading the article the main question that I have is why some of the things stated in this article are not applied in more classrooms.
I chose Epictetus, and I'll be back next century to post once I finish reading this monster!
I chose the article The Discourses by Epictetus. I wanted to do something quite different from ‘typical psych’ stuff, so I chose something from very early Greek philosophical history. Plus, I’d grown up with a passion for all things Greek Myth.
(This assignment will be over the first 15 Chapters of Book One, specifically.)
Epictetus examined such important things as the rational mind and how we differ from animals, as well as our relationship to God if a god exists. In classic Greek form, his writing was almost a discussion or argument within his mind that he allowed us to see.
Epictetus discussed how opinion and will determine what we do in life, and that morality comes from removing the “tumors” from our opinions… this is done through careful examination of ourselves and our motivations. He theorized that the proper path of life is found only through pondering hypotheticals, and he claimed that critics of academia and philosophy were simply hardened of understanding or shameful. Epictetus also said that the irrational and rational are relative to the man who thinks them.
He pondered the God dilemma throughout, and he finally concluded that we decide these things for ourselves and we reap the consequences – if a man chose to not believe in God, he put the weight of all the world’s troubles on his own shoulders. Epictetus felt it was akin to imprisoning oneself. He also said that – assuming Zeus does exist – a person could please him by simply being content. He said that our body is not our own, but essentially a clay vessel for the mind.
Epictetus went on to discuss “what philosophy promises.” I thought that was pretty amusing since it seems everyone in class dislikes philosophy, and Epictetus himself explained that philosophy promises nothing physical, only insight into man’s mind.
Oh, and in good Greek fashion, there was lots of talk of decapitation and genital mutilation… just to keep things light.
I thought it was most interesting that he discussed whether or not to believe in God, then argues that it’s best if we DO believe in God, and finally spends 2/3 of his time fantasizing about conversations with God as an argument for his philosophical and psychological theories. Clearly he comes down on the “Believe in God” side.
This article relates to our material because – while it has some major flaws – Epictetus is trying hard to figure out what is moral and rational, as well as how rational thought makes us unique (we have the ability to question). These are concepts that come up often in the nature v nurture arguments as well as other modern-day psychological theories. It shows that man has struggled with these concepts for a long time and will most likely struggle with them for time to come.
I don’t really have questions about the article, but I did find it interesting that he essentially said: Believe in God because it’s easier than not believing.
1) Why did you pick that article?
I picked this article because I took a social psychology class last sememster and found it very interesting. Also I thought the Nature of Love sounded like an interesting topic to read about since I’m learning about it in many of my psychology classes currently.
2) What was the author's main points?
Although love is something that is hard to measure, we can measure different elements love consists of, such as comfort, gazing and nursing. By using two man-made monkeys, one cloth and one wire we can tests these elements. It was found that given the option of both monkeys, the babies would spend more time on the cloth monkey and would become in distress if it was removed. Even if the baby was feed from the wire monkey it still would spend most of its time on the cloth mother. Another test that was done was using the “Love machine”. It was designed to test their responds to a monkey, cloth monkey, wire monkey or nothing. The babies responded higher to the one they had been raised with, even if feed by the wire monkey, it usually had a high response to the cloth monkey. I found it very interesting that a monkey that was raised by a wooden block for a face, if placed in front of a surrogate-mother would turn the face around so it would be a blank face. This shows that we are more attracted to our mother’s face no matter what it looks like.
3) What did you find interesting in the article? Why?
“It is cheering in view of this trend to realize that the American male is physically endowed with all the really essential equipment to compete with the American female on equal terms in one essential activity: the rearing of infants.” I thought it was so interesting. He has a great point, there’s really no reason now that it has to be the women that stay home and take care of the children. With so much modern technology and improvements, women can have a job and a family. Although it is most women’s choice to want to stay home with the children, this just gives us the option to being able to support our family just as much as the men.
4) How does it relate to the material that we have read so far?
This study is just the beginning of the study of love. Many more tests and experiments must be done. Just like the ideas of so many psychologists and philosophers, their ideas are continually being researched and improved to help us learn more about ourselves and the world around us.
5) What are some questions you have after reading this article?
How is love seen in other cultures? How would being raised by a surrogate-mother change the emotions of the babies when interacting with real ones?
I chose to read “The Contribution of Psychology to Education” by Edward L. Thorndike in 1910. The title of the article looked interesting to me as future educator.
The main point of the article was how the purpose of education can be different depending on who you ask and psychology helps solve this problem. Psychology is able to do this by redefining the aim of education and that the two are intertwined; advances in one will lead to advances in the other.
I found this article interesting because the same arguments about education are still being made to day over a hundred years later. Educators are still trying to find the most effective teaching methods, deciding who is capable of learning the stated curriculum, and what is worth teaching and to whom do we teach it to.
For me this article relates to the importance of learning about history; not just history of psychology, but history in general. The U.S. educational system has been debating these same questions and we still don’t have an answer to the issues. If more policy makers analyzed the past maybe the educational system wouldn’t be making the same mistakes.
After reading this article my questions relate more on the educational aspect of the article. I wonder if there will ever be a solution to how schools should teach the youth. Also who are we, as educators, to decide what a student has the right to learn; do we teach students vocational skills or traditional education.
1) I picked the article titled, "The Women Problem" by Edwin G. Boring. The title interested me right of the bat because, as a women, I was immediately on defense mode when I read the title. I wanted to know what Boring had to say about a "women problem".
2) Boring's idea of the women problem was why women were so sparse in the APA, and why weren't there many women presidents of the APA? He talked a lot about prestige and how to acquire it. Men go through similar steps to become the president of the APA. They first get their PhD., manage good research and publish it, do more good research to establish more recognition, then write a book. He points out that in order for women to receive the same merits, they must do the same. He highlighted the importance of writing a good book. He said men write on more broad topics, which help with prestige, while women write about more particular subjects, making it seem not as important. Boring then goes on to talk about how men have all the time in the world to invest in their professional lives, while women can't because they chose to get married and have kids, taking away time from their professional lives, and the possibility to gain the right amount of prestige to become the APA president.
3) As I found this article very interesting, I also found parts of it cow crap. He made a point saying that marriage was not a possibility for women who wanted to gain professional accomplishments that amounted to anything, but said that men are capable of this. Complete crap. He did equate the two sex's when talking about children. He said if a husband and wife had kids and shared the responsibilities equally, then they are both capable of a good life, but would not be able to become the president of the APA. I didn't mind this idea because it kept the genders at an equal level. Overall, I found it really interesting that he thought writing a book was so important that if one did not write one, they would not have enough prestige to become the president of the APA. -- this is my question that I gathered from this article (5) - Is it really that pressing to write a book to become prestigious? Can one not have intellectual success if they do not write a book?
4) We studied Boring in the first chapter, which is related to our material. We learned his background. It doesn't directly relate to much else that we have studied thus far.
5) (see the end of comment three)
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Origin/origin4.htm
1) I am very interested in Industrial-Organizational Psychology so I searched for articles more related to this subject. Because it is a newer field in psychology, I really could find nothing. So when I typed in business it brought up an article on Freud and the origin and development of psychoanalysis. While I find most of his theories crazy, they are very interesting.
2) This was an incredibly difficult read but I believe I understood the gist of what he was trying to get across. Freud’s main point in this article was that sexual development does not begin in puberty; rather it begins in early childhood. He also brings up his theory that a person’s first “sexual desires” are aimed towards their parents: a son for his mother and a daughter for her father.
3) What I could understand in the article I found to be very interesting, because I find it incredibly disturbing and strange. Thinking back to when I first had the “birds and the bees” talk with my mom, I was absolutely appalled by what I was hearing and to think that I had “sexual desires” (according to Freud) that young, seems completely outrageous to me.
4) This relates to the material because thus far we have read about a lot of firsts, and Freud was really the first to publish and start researching psychoanalysis. It is also Freud’s “philosophy” that these are all what he believed to be true.
5) After reading this article I really want to understand how he came to these conclusions. I also really want to know what research he did to support all of his arguments.
The article I read was about Hermann Ebbinghaus.It was about the discovery of early methods of experimentation in the field of psychology. I chose this article as it is very relevant to the history of psychology and is about one of the most known and respected names related to psychology. I thought that it would be interesting to read about the beginnings of experimentation in psychology.
The author basically states how Ebbinghaus used experimentation in psychology and how this step taken by him was the beginning of measuring higher mental processes in the future. This article also has details about how Ebbinghaus came up with various novel methods in order to measure memory. Another important point covered in this article is how Ebbinghaus had to tackle various problems and how he led to develop the savings method. As I stated above this article is related to the begging’s of measurement of mental processes so it is related to the history of psychology, this aspect relates it to the material we have read so far in the class as it was mostly about the beginnings in psychology.
The various questions that I have after reading this article are:
How Ebbinghaus’s methods influenced other psychologists to measure various processes?
Was there any initial criticism of his methods when he initially developed them?
How much time did it take for his measures to be accepted by other psychologists?
I chose the article "Studying the Mind of Animals" because I thought it would be interesting to read what psychologists thought they could understand about the way animal's think over a 100 years ago. I thought it would be interesting to read what kind of experiments they performed on animals and if their research produced anything conclusive.
The author's main points are that in order to study animals it is imperative to observe the animal's conduct. The author is John Watson, father of behaviorism, so he feels it is very necessary to observe the conduct of the animals. He thought scientists could study animals scientifically just as humans are studied scientifically. He says that they should be observed day by day for months and should also make sure to keep the animals in a healthy and clean environment. Observations and experiments of animals are most widely used by having the animal do something to get food whether it is turning a latch, pulling out a bolt, or gnawing a string before the animal can obtain the food. He states that most of the evidence so far collected points to the fact that if animals possess what in man are called the higher mental functions they keep them pretty well hidden because they may be able to do an experiment on one day, but won't be able to complete the next day. However, if a large number of time records are averaged, the time of the second opening of the box is found to be shorter than that of the first; the third shorter than that of the second and so on until they find the most direct way to do it.
Honestly the most interesting thing I found about the article was after I read it I thought it seemed to talk a fair amount about what sounded like behaviorist theories, and after I finished it I looked who the author was and indeed it was John Watson, the father of behaviorism. When I chose it I thought it would be more interesting than it actually was unfortunately.
It kind of relates to the empiricist thinking that knowledge comes only from sensory experience which is not only how the animals learned how to get the food, but also how the animals were studied by the scientists. I'm sure we will cover Watson and behaviorism as well in the future chapters.
After reading the chapter the main question I have is what is known today about how animals learn? Or maybe a better question is what are animal's brains capable of learning or doing?
1)I chose the article The Nature of Love by Harry F. Harlow. I chose this article because in many classes, such as Biological Psychology and Human Growth and Development, we discussed Harlow’s work with the monkeys. When I searched for social psychology, I saw this article written by Harlow and decided to get some more information on the study.
2) The main points in this article include that love is initiated in human beings by the infant mother relationship. From this relationship we learn affection responses for other relationships. The view by many psychologists is that love and affection are secondary drives. Another main point was that there has been little to no research done on love, which made Harlow interested in the topic. To address the topic, he created two surrogate mothers, one made solely of wire, and one that was covered in cloth. The infant monkeys were exposed to both surrogate mothers, and their responsiveness was recorded.
3)I found it interesting that when the mothers were differed by means of lactating, the monkeys chose the cloth mother, which did not lactate over the wire mother, which did lactate. This study helped to show that contact with the mother is essential in developing affection or love. Providing resources, such as food, does not mean that the infants would feel affectionate toward the surrogate.
4) It relates to the book by means of empirically based studies, as well as research done on emotions (which is connected to the physiological section working with the brain).
5)According to this article, it says that in times of danger, children cling to their mothers instead of their fathers. If a mother is not present in the child’s life, what does Harlow conclude will result? How did all of the monkeys react as they grew up, and with that what were the comparisons of the wire and cloth surrogates groups future behaviors.
The article that I chose was “The contribution of Psychology to Education” by Edward L. Thorndike and it was written in 1910.
1) Why did you pick that article?
I chose this article because, as a part of my major I have to take many classes in education, and psychology. A lot the methods or practices in education are reinforced by theories in psychology. I picked this article because, I felt it would give me a greater background and understanding in my field as well as, to see in the early 1900’s what society’s views were on Psychology and Education.
2) What were the author’s main points?
The author emphasizes that to understand education in the first place you need psychology. How material in a classroom is presented, explained or used is all backed by psychology. Methods in education employ basic measures of psychology. The two topics are so intertwined it is hard to separate the two subjects without having some gray areas in between.
The author also emphasizes that psychology in education helps us to understand how different people of different races and many other traits learn how those specific individuals learn. Psychology is the basis for any understanding or teaching method on the teacher and student side of education.
3) What did you find interesting in the article? Why?
What is discussed in the article seems to be common sense or rather obvious points to the reader, but looking back on how schools educated their student as wells as, how students were expected to learn, it is evident that the ideas of a “one size” fits all education were beginning to change. These ideas are still discussed today, and are being taught to future teachers. But what I found in the conclusion in the article is that while many will understand and agree to the point there is still a serious lack of follow through in the psychology backing today. In this article written in 1910 this is pointed out and it still is true in 2011.
4) How does it relate to the material that we have read so far?
This material relates to class in that in the history of psychology, each article on psychology presents many different views of the history, or aspects. Whether it is an article looking back on a changed viewpoint or reading an article on a current subject that is still very much relevant such as education in psychology. This articles main points and purpose still apply today in 2011. We look at a past document and its truth is still relevant to a current situation.
5) What are some questions you have after reading this article?
Were educators in the 1900’s as well as psychologist’s experiencing or running into the same problems that current teachers and educational psychologists are experiencing today? Has this been an on-going problem (the lack of support of psychology being the founding bases of education) is this a good example of not learning from history?
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Thorndike/education.htm
1) Why did you pick that article?
I chose Skinner's article, "'Superstition' in the pigeon". I chose it because I am fairly interested in behaviorism in general and Skinner's operant conditioning in particular. I think it's really cool that Skinner could create superstitious behaviors in pigeons by reinforcing on a set time schedule with no reference to the behaviors of the pigeon.
2) What was the author's main points?
His main point was that the principle of operant conditioning can be used to create superstitious behavior in animals, much like the superstitious behavior of people: "Never quit when you're on a heater" is essentially the same as the baseball player who hits a home run and stops washing his socks. Skinner argues that the pigeon's superstitions are essentially the same.
3) What did you find interesting in the article? Why?
I think these animal conditioning studies are all really cool. The fact that a timed reinforcer can get a hungry pigeon to nod its head over and over, or dance around and around in a circle, is both scary and fascinating.
4) How does it relate to the material that we have read so far?
I think it would be interesting to examine the relationship between conditioning and neurological structure. What parts of the brain would have to be ablated for operant conditioning to stop working? Does operant conditioning work in different parts of the brain depending on the kind of reward (food rewards versus physical pleasure rewards etc), or if there is just one reinforcement center in the brain.
5) What are some questions you have after reading this article?
I would like to know to what extent this superstition is analogous to the superstitious habits of people such as the bowler Skinner described.
I also wonder to what extent, if any, superstitious beliefs (as opposed to observable behaviors) can be attributed to conditioning. I think the explanation can fit some examples. For example, is confirmation bias in astrologers a result of conditioning? It seems plausible; the reinforcement comes when an astrologer guesses correctly, or when the person who believes in astrology sees something that "fits" a horoscope or an astrological prediction. This fits a variable ratio reinforcement schedule (the most addictive kind).
I chose the article The Myth of Mental Illness because I'm interested in mental diseases and abnormalities so I felt this article could give some insight about how others felt in the past about the menatally unstable.
The authors main point was the mental illness is not a disease and it is overly used. The author was adament on saying that mental illness can be used as a fail safe from life's difficulties. Life is tough and instead of facing the conflicts, we use mental illness to explain the everyday problems in society. The author also went on to explain how mental illness has outlived its usefulness jsut ike witchcraft and demonology.
Being interested in mental illnessess I found this article interesting, to see that because of someone not following norms it was considered a mental illness and how its changed today. I feel like mental illness has grown today and we use it when someone does break norms, however it differs by culture in my opinion on what is classified as a mental illness.
So far we've read about philosphers and the evolvemnt of psychology as a science. I think this kind of fits into the book and into future topics in this class.
The questions that this articl left me with was how was mental illnesses decided? How did the become a normal part of everyday life?
1.) I chose the article “A Laboratory Study of Fear: The Case of Peter,” by Mary Cover Jones (1924). I wanted to read this article because I heard this name in my clinical psychology class beforehand. We weren’t given much information about the study so I thought it would be best to look at it a little closer.
2.) The point of this article was to “uncondition” a fear response to an animal. Peter was a two year tenth month old boy who was afraid of a white rat and fear extended to a rabbit, a fur coat, a feather, cotton wool, etc. Peter showed more fear towards rabbits so he, along with other children, would play together and at some point a rabbit would be present during the play period. New situations would require closer contact with the rabbit had been gradually introduced. Peter progressed from great fear of the rabbit to feeling indifferent and finally even gave a voluntary pat on the rabbit’s back when others were setting the example.
3.) What I found interesting about this article was when Peter got ill and could not continue the experiment for about two months. When going to return to the lab, a large dog had scared Peter and his nurse. From this point, they had to turn to a different method of treatment, “direct conditioning.” Through the presence of satisfying stimulus, food, whenever the rabbit was shown, fear was eliminated gradually in favor of a positive response. Also, due to the presence of another child who did not fear rabbits influenced Peter’s reaction when a rabbit was present. This just shows how fast one incident can change not only the experiment, but the child as well.
4.) This article and experiment is closely related to that of Dr. Watson and his study with “Little Albert.” In Watson’s study, he illustrated how fear could be produced experimentally under laboratory conditions. Jones’ experiment picks up right where Dr. Watson left off.
5.) Later on, Peter’s fears of cotton, fur coats, feathers, etc. were entirely absent. He would look at them, handle them, and immediately turn to something that interested him more. He also showed tolerance towards strange and unfamiliar situations. My question is, is there an experiment that can prove whether or not the primary fear can be eliminated by training the transfers? This article explains that all of the fears that were “unconditioned” were transferred fears. How could one go about proving whether or not primary fears can even be eliminated? The better question would be, is it even possible?
1) The article I chose was titled “The Woman Problem,” by Edwin G. Boring. Right away the title grabbed my attention, and I wanted to read what Boring had to say about what makes a woman a problem. This article is also from 1951, so the capabilities of a woman at this time was not seen as good as a man. I wanted to see what sort of tone they had toward women in this article. We had also talked about Boring from the text, so seeing a familiar name as the author intrigued me as well.
2) The article was a little hard to read, but I think Boring’s main point is that women lack the prestige in order to obtain “top-level” positions. He bases this claim on the fact that women focus more on details than on the bigger picture, and they have more pressure of getting married and taking care of a family than a man does. A man can commit more time to his job, and therefore gain more prestige in order to fill these leadership positions.
3) There was an interesting idea in the article stating that women who are unmarried that do try to find prestige at the higher levels can not find it because there is less availability to women then men. On the other hand, if a women gets married, she will not be able to find prestige because her duty as a woman is to take care of her family, and not try to be ambitious with a job. It is a catch 22 where the woman can not get prestige more likely than not.
4) The only thing that this article really related to the book is the author Edwin Boring. He was talked about extensively in the first chapter, and it was part of why I chose this article.
5) Why was the author so concerned about writing a good book? Is that what got you “in” as a psychologist back at that time?
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Harlow/love.htm
1) I picked this article because it was under Social Psychology, which I find interesting, and it sounded interesting being about love, and I have heard of Harry Harlow from the monkey experiment, so I thought it would be a good choice.
2) The authors main point is that love is a very natural and innate feeling for us. He has done multiple studies involving infant monkeys, and each time they show a psychological need for a “Mother” or at least a soft pretend mother. The infant monkeys often become distressed when they are not able to have a “mother” in new situations, or if they are only exposed to a wire monkey which does not provide softness to the infant. This evidence support the need we have for love and nurture, and it is not a social construct, but an inborn desire.
3) I found it interesting how much evidence Harlow has to support this. I only knew about his classic experiment with the wire and cloth monkeys, but he has done more research than just this. I thought the study with the new experiences for the monkey was interesting because they became very distressed without the presence of a cloth monkey, and there were even pictures that showed the monkeys curled up in the middle of the room because of fear. I think Harlow has done a good job of finding a lot of ways to support his evidence.
4) This relates to the material that we have learned so far because like many people that the previous chapters have discussed have curiosity in a topic that has very little research in and decided to research it for themselves. Harlow also mentioned that some psychologists would say this topic is “improper”, similar to the Catholic Church deeming things taboo for the church.
5) I would like to know why love is not researched more. It is an emotion that is experienced by most individuals. It is usually interesting to people as well, because there is a desire for it. It is strange to me that there is very little research done on this topic. Another question would be if this research would be considered ethical or not today.
I chose the article “Significant Aspects of Client-Centered Therapy” by Carl R. Rogers (1946), because I find person-centered process incredibly effective and challenging. I feel these strategies presented are crucial in motivating individuals to grow and/or change. Carl Rogers compares “client-centered therapy” to “directive” approach.
The author describes Client-Centered Therapy as “a predictable process” in that if conducted consistently and timely, will assist individuals in changing their behavior by way of their own choices and realizations. The author also emphasizes the importance of a suitable atmosphere for therapy. Carl Rogers describes “the discovery of capacity of clients” discussing the capabilities of individuals to self-realize benefits for change of behavior at their own pace and depth which is most valuable for sustained growth and continued applications. The author then describes the “nature of client-centered therapy” in which explains that providing a safe, suitable atmosphere for client to “work” it out can be more beneficial than giving a client the answer or some great advice. Carl Rogers also describes some implications of “Client-Centered Therapy” where he briefly highlights areas of service in which these strategies can be integrated, such as education.
I am most interested in the integration of client-centered therapy into education in the form of student-centered programming. I relate the topic in this article to our class in that I feel that I am expected to show genuine interest, and that I then have freedom to choose my own interest area, which is certainly more applicable to myself than a interest area REQUIRED of me. The implications for me are amazing to ponder. I have had success in utilize related techniques in support of adults in change processes, and I am very intrigued as to how to apply to younger children who may have perception of life in more concrete terms versus abstract.
I chose the article “Significant Aspects of Client-Centered Therapy” by Carl R. Rogers (1946), because I find person-centered process incredibly effective and challenging. I feel these strategies presented are crucial in motivating individuals to grow and/or change. Carl Rogers compares “client-centered therapy” to “directive” approach.
The author describes Client-Centered Therapy as “a predictable process” in that if conducted consistently and timely, will assist individuals in changing their behavior by way of their own choices and realizations. The author also emphasizes the importance of a suitable atmosphere for therapy. Carl Rogers describes “the discovery of capacity of clients” discussing the capabilities of individuals to self-realize benefits for change of behavior at their own pace and depth which is most valuable for sustained growth and continued applications. The author then describes the “nature of client-centered therapy” in which explains that providing a safe, suitable atmosphere for client to “work” it out can be more beneficial than giving a client the answer or some great advice. Carl Rogers also describes some implications of “Client-Centered Therapy” where he briefly highlights areas of service in which these strategies can be integrated, such as education.
I am most interested in the integration of client-centered therapy into education in the form of student-centered programming. I relate the topic in this article to our class in that I feel that I am expected only to show genuine interest, and that I then have freedom to choose my own interest area, which is certainly more applicable to my goals than a interest area REQUIRED of me. The implications for me are amazing to ponder. I have had success in utilize related techniques in support of adults in change processes, and I am very intrigued as to how to apply to younger children who may have perception of life in more concrete terms versus abstract.
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Dreams/dreams1a.htm
The article I chose was chapter 1 of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. This chapter was called "The Scientific Literature of Dream-Problems."
1.) I chose this particular article simply because I found it incredibly interesting. Although I have never been Freud's biggest fan, I've always found his research on dream interpretation to be pretty fascinating. Dream interpretation is thought of as silly and unimportant by most, but I think it's interesting to learn why exactly we dream the things we do.
2.) Freud's main idea in this chapter was to sum up four big points: the relation of the dream to the waking state, the material of dreams (with a special focus on memory in dreams), dream-stimuli and sources (both external sensory stimuli and internal), and why we forget dreams after waking. In the first section, Freud's hypothesis was that dreams are just basically continuations of our waking life; dreams do not come out of nowhere and detach itself from the real world - they are always derived from our own true experiences. The second section discussed how we could even view dreams as a crazy way of remembering, since the content of our dreams usually are fragmented pieces of our past experience. The third section talked about all of the different stimuli (whether internal OR external) that affect the content of our dreams as we sleep. Freud's final discussion in this chapter concerned why we forget (or only partially remember) our dreams after we wake up. Freud seemed to believe that we have trouble remembering dreams because they are so scattered and fragmented; the human mind needs some sense of order and connection in order to successfully remember things.
3.) The third section was BY FAR the most interesting to me! It talked about the different stimuli that may affect our dreams as we sleep. When the article discussed external sensory stimuli and how it affected the content of our dreams, I was immediately intrigued. Freud discussed different experiments in which a sleeping person's neck was pinched (causing the person to dream of someone popping a blister on his neck) and another sleeping person was sprinkled with water (causing him to dream of being in Italy and perspiring very heavily). I just find this fascinating and strange; it's bizarre how dreams can be affected and thrown off course.
4.) This article related to our book thus far in that it was written by Freud, who is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in psychological history. Controversial as his theories are, we cannot argue with the fact that he is very influential to psychology today. Other than that, we all know that one of Freud's main points of interest in his research was dream interpretation and past experience. This article discussed both.
5.) After reading this piece, I'd like to know if dream interpretation is still researched in detail today. If so, to what extent/how often? It seems like whenever I read a piece about dreams, it is always from the early 1900's. Do dreams not interest us anymore in the field of psychology? Why not?
The article I chose to read was by Charles Darwin, “A Biographical Sketch of an Infant.” My reasoning for choosing this article was because I am always amazed at all the growth and learning children do in the first year of life. There are so many changes that happen almost daily. Being a mother, I still see this in my four, almost five year old, but nothing as rapidly as her first year.
The article first talks about the reflexes that children are born with, and Charles talks about his own child in his first days of life. He talks about how within days infants have reflexes, like someone touching the bottom of their foot and the toes curl and it is pulled away. This isn’t a learned behavior, it is instinctive, like a mother’s breast next to an infants mouth makes them open and search. Darwin was amazed by how quickly these reflexes if you will, were instilled in an infant. Darwin also talks about how the eye and vision is developed, like the first few days the infant is fixated on a candle light, but by 6 months they can follow bright colors and the movement of his or her arm. Although even at 7 months his infant could not follow something that was swinging fast, yet at just a few days could identify his mothers breast when 3 or 4 inches away.
Then next idea Darwin touched on was how when infants, the movement of their hands have no specific order, they cannot reach for something for sometime, with the exception to the rule being thumb sucking. When the infant first started putting other things to his mouth it was very random or almost an accident, but within weeks, was able to figure out what he was doing and did so almost as a pro. Darwin compares his son to his daughters when looking at anger. He explained when he thought he first thought he saw his son get angry, and it was when he was a few months old and couldn’t reach a toy, but he talks more about when his son was 2 and would get angry and throw things, and his daughters never did this, leading Darwin to believe a tendency to throw objects is inherited by boys. He compares the early onset of fear and pleasurable sensation by smiling and wincing when hearing a loud noise. Pleasurable sensation so quickly leads into having a liking for specific things, such as a special toy or blanket. Darwin goes on to talk about when an infant gains curiosity, moral sense, affection, etc, and all of these ideas were interesting to me. Like I said prior, I am always amazed at how quickly infants learn, but until reading this article, I didn’t put a lot of the actions together with specific feelings and behaviors. I remember when my daughter first smiled and I remember thinking, she has learned how to use those mouth muscles and express that happiness and affection.
I liked how Darwin used his own child to compare stages and how he explained how quickly things can change, within days, a new learned skill is mastered. Oh, how I love watching children grow, and I feel Darwin did too in reading this article.
In class I would like to learn more about why Darwin studied this.
I chose to read On the Witness Stand: Essays on Psychology and Crime by Hugo Munsterberg
This specific article focused on Untrue Confessions
1)Why did you pick this article?
I chose this article because I have always been interested in the psychologists' opinion in court. Right away the author states that "new" psychology has become somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades. Within the courtroom, psychologists are asked questions about everything from unbalanced minds to social troubles. Basically wherever an experience seems unexplainable, a psychologist is asked his or her opinion. To me, that is giving one person a lot of power.
2)What was the author's main points?
This article was regarding a case in which the author, a psychologist, was asked to give his opinion about a man who charged with murder. Since the accused man had completely confessed to the crime, it was hard for the psychologist to convince anyone that this man may have been innocent. Although the jury convicted the man and he was hanged to death, the author of this article found it important to further investigate the case and the innocence of the man. Some of the main points that he wrote had to do with the motivation of why one would confess to a crime he did not commit. One of his theories had to do with how weak-willed the accused may be. If someone is very subborn and rarely changes their mind, they would be less likely to give in to investigators'
"we already know you did it" approach to seeking a confession. But to a weak-minded or passive person, they may be more easily talked into the fact that they did something that, in actuality, they did not do. Also. police and investigators often question suspects for hours on end, until the "truth" comes out. There is, of course, a reason why they do this. The accused eventually get tired, hungry and frustrated and they will, at times, say whatever they need to say to get the police to leave them alone.
3)What did you find interesting in this article? Why?
There were a lot of interesting points in this article but one that stood out to me more than others was what I would call the "lesser of two evils" motivation to tell an untrue confession. The article uses the example of the famous Boom case in Vermont. In this case, two brothers confess to killing their brother-in-law. They described the man's death in full detail, even explaining what they did with the body. To everyone's surprise, the "dead" brother-in-law showed up in the village years later. The brothers' motivation for lying about killing their family member? They felt so defeated by the justice system that they felt their only choice was to "confess" to lessen their charges from murder to manslaughter. I found this so interesting to read because I know it happens, but I feel its something I never hear Nancy Grace talking about on TruTV. It may not be pretty, but its our justice system.
4)How does it relate to the material that we have read so far?
This article reminded me more of a discussion that we had in class, rather than a specific reading in our textbook. In my opinion, one of the most interesting class periods we have had so far pertained to the issue of finding the truth. This article asked the questions "Whose truth are we finding, our own or someone else's?"
5)What are some questions you have after reading this article?
This article talked a lot about suspects that have basically been brainwashed into believing that they have committed a crime, when in fact they are innocent. It talked about gaps in our memories and confusing dreams with reality. One thing that it did not touch on was the incidents in which one person is taking the fall for another person. I found myself wondering how often this happens and some of the motivations behind it.
1) I picked “On Dreams” by Aristotle. I did a research paper on Aristotle over a year ago in philosophy over a year ago and found him to be interesting. I pick the article because I tend to have weird dreams every now and then and I’d love to know what they really mean and what my unconscious is trying to say. I think it will be an interesting read.
2) From what I got out of this article is that a dream is how the soul wants to show its self. It can be intelligent or it can have a sense of perception. Aristotle tells that these are the only two ways that we obtain or knowledge. Also in this article, affection is what causes dreams, or in his words, is what a dream is.
He states that when our eyes are closed we cannot see, which is an obvious fact, and that this is the same for the other senses (hearing, tasting ect.). What he means by this is that we cannot or don’t make out anything while we are asleep. The example that he used is of a man and a horse. We do not know if a man or a horse is really there. We do know that the object we see are of colors like white or brown and something of beauty to us. The reason we think of a man and a horse is because that is what or soul makes us see. The main point is that if we do not see it before sleep, then it will not happen. So if you see a man and/or a horse in your dreams it’s because you previously seen it.
While we are awake the dream state is different. When we are not sleeping the dream like figures we might see are due to illness or disease, according to Aristotle. However, it is similar to what we go through while sleeping. It’s a little confusing. :/
3) I read a little section in the article that said that we do not dream after we eat a meal. I never realized this before, I guess I never fell asleep right after Thanksgiving dinner to find out. In this same paragraph it also says that infants do not dream, something that I also found interesting. The horse and man thing was also interesting but there is one more thing that I found. Aristotle says that if we fall asleep and are not aware that we are sleeping then you’re less likely to dream.
4) Chapter two talks about the mind a lot and a dream is something that is tucked away in our mind. It kind of goes along with the body part as well, meaning the senses.
5) Even after reading this, I’d still like to know what a dream really is. This just kind of gave what I thought was Aristotle’s idea on what a dream is. What I really want to know is what my dreams mean or if they even have a meaning behind them at all.
Chapter three opens up by discussing Europe and the Enlightenment period. During this period, people are looking to science more for answers. Which also made psychology more popular as well as bringing up the question “Is psychology a science?” This is still a question asked today. A lot of times you will hear people call psychology a soft science. I find this highly offensive, as I definitely believe psychology is a science. I looked at multiple websites and found the same common theme. Psychology is a science! Now I know what you’re thinking, obviously I’d pick the websites that only stated this FACT. However, after simply googling “is psychology a science”, I could barely find any websites that stated it wasn’t. So why do we classify psychology as a science? Because you can fit psychology under the scientific method. When psychologists start an experiment, they go through the scientific method just like any other biologist, physicist, etc. Therefore, psychology is a science!
http://www.globalpolitician.com/21443-sociology-psychology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TMXnh2wtUY
http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/class/psy301/Delville/Classes/September3Stats/Index.html
http://helpingpsychology.com/the-scientific-method-in-psychology
The article I chose was “Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance” by Leon Festinger & James M. Carlsmith (1959), first published in Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-210.
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Festinger/index.htm
I think that most of us have at least some experience - at work, at school, with friends or some other social setting - where we have felt compelled to wear a 'public' face because our private thoughts and feelings were 'inappropriate'. (Perhaps you hate your job, but you can't afford to lose it - so you paste on a plastic smile and just try to get through the day.) I thought that this article might relate to that sort of social conditioning, and that seemed interesting to me.
The main point of the article seemed to be that we seek to minimize cognitive dissonance. If we are forced to publicly profess a position contrary to our own beliefs, we will try to convince ourselves to change our beliefs so as to minimize the dissonance. What seems strange though is that the greater the pressure put upon us to profess the contrary position, the less likely we will be to convince ourselves to accept that position. (No explanation for this phenomenon was given.)
A lengthy description of an experiment was given. To me, the most interesting aspect of this was how they decided to discard subject data that did not conform to their expectations of the experiment design. (If the subject didn’t perform according to their design, they discarded the data.) It seems a long way from nerve-response or two-point sensation studies that we have read about in Goodwin, but they were still clearly trying to design experiments that were reliable and valid.
I thought the conclusion (the greater the pressure put upon us to profess the contrary position, the less likely we will be to convince ourselves to accept that position) was interesting because it seems counterintuitive. One would think that the more pressure being applied (either threat of punishment or promise of reward), the more likely the individual would be to try to convince him/herself of the alternative position. I suspect that I've known quite a few people who would believe anything if the price were high enough. Were they the exceptions to the rule, or do we now have a different understanding of this?