Реферат: Special fields of psychology

SPECIAL FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Physiological psychology

3. Psychoanalysis

4. Behaviourism

5. Gestalt psychology

6 .Cognition

7. Tests and Measurements

8. Development psychology

9. Social psychology

10. Psychiatry and mental health

11. Forensic psychology and criminology

12. Psychology, religion and phenomenology

13. Parapsychology

14. Industrial Psychology

Vocabulary

Literature

1. Introduction

Psychology, scientific study of behavior and experience—that is, the study of

how human beings and animals sense, think, learn, and know. Modern psychology

is devoted to collecting facts about behavior and experience and

systematically organizing such facts into psychological theories. These

theories aid in understanding and explaining people’s behavior and sometimes

in predicting and influencing their future behavior.

Psychology, historically, has been divided into many subfields of study;

these fields, however, are interrelated and frequently overlap. Physiological

psychologists, for instance, study the functioning of the brain and the

nervous system, and experimental psychologists devise tests and conduct

research to discover how people learn and remember. Subfields of psychology

may also be described in terms of areas of application. Social psychologists,

for example, are interested in the ways in which people influence one another

and the way they act in groups. Industrial psychologists study the behavior

of people at work and the effects of the work environment. School

psychologists help students make educational and career decisions. Clinical

psychologists assist those who have problems in daily life or who are

mentally ill.

History. The science of psychology developed from many diverse sources,

but its origins as a science may be traced to ancient Greece.

Philosophical Beginnings. Plato and Aristotle, as well as other Greek

philosophers, took up some of the basic questions of psychology that are

still under study: Are people born with certain skills, abilities, and

personality, or do all these develop as a result of experience? How do people

come to know the world? Are certain ideas and feelings innate, or are they

all learned?

Such questions were debated for many centuries, but the roots of modern

psychological theory are found in the 17th century in the works of

the French philosopher Ren Descartes and the British philosophers Thomas Hobbes

and John Locke. Descartes argued that the bodies of people are like clockwork

machines, but that their minds (or souls) are separate and unique. He

maintained that minds have certain inborn, or innate, ideas and that these

ideas are crucial in organizing people’s experiencing of the world. Hobbes and

Locke, on the other hand, stressed the role of experience as the source of

human knowledge. Locke believed that all information about the physical world

comes through the senses and that all correct ideas can be traced to the

sensory information on which they are based.

Most modern psychology developed along the lines of Locke’s view. Some

European psychologists who studied perception, however, held onto Descartes’s

idea that some mental organization is innate, and the concept still plays a

role in theories of perception and cognition.

Against this philosophical background, the field that contributed most to the

development of scientific psychology was physiology—the study of the

functions of the various organ systems of the body. The German physiologist

Johannes Miller tried to relate sensory experience both to events in the

nervous system and to events in the organism’s physical environment. The

first true experimental psychologists were the German physicist Gustav

Theodor Fechner and the German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt. Fechner developed

experimental methods for measuring sensations in terms of the physical

magnitude of the stimuli producing them. Wundt, who in 1879 founded the first

laboratory of experimental psychology in Leipzig, Germany, trained students

from around the world in this new science.

Physicians who became concerned with mental illness also contributed to the

development of modern psychological theories. Thus, the systematic

classification of mental disorders developed by the German psychiatric

pioneer Emil Kraepelin remains the basis for methods of classification that

are now in use. Far better known, however, is the work of Sigmund Freud, who

devised the system of investigation and treatment known as psychoanalysis. In

his work, Freud called attention to instinctual drives and unconscious

motivational processes that determine people’s behavior. This stress on the

contents of thought, on the dynamics of motivation rather than the nature of

cognition in itself, exerted a strong influence on the course of modern

psychology.

Modern psychology still retains many aspects of the fields and kinds of

speculation from which it grew. Some psychologists, for example, are

primarily interested in physiological research, others are medically

oriented, and a few try to develop a more encompassing, philosophical

understanding of psychology as a whole. Although some practitioners still

insist that psychology should be concerned only with behavior—and may even

deny the meaningfulness of an inner, mental life—more and more psychologists

would now agree that mental life or experience is a valid psychological

concern.

The areas of modern psychology range from the biological sciences to the

social sciences.

2. Physiological psychology

The study of underlying physiological bases of psychological functions is

known as physiological psychology. The two major communication systems of the

body—the nervous system and the circulatory system—are the focus of most

research in this area.

The nervous system consists of the central nervous system (the brain and the

spinal cord) and its outlying neural network, the peripheral nervous system;

the latter communicates with the glands and muscles and includes the sensory

receptors for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, feeling pain, and

sensing stimuli within the body. The circulatory system circulates the blood

and also carries the important chemical agents known as hormones from the

glands to all parts of the body. Both these communication systems are very

important in overall human behavior.

The smallest unit of the nervous system is the single nerve cell, or neuron.

When a neuron is properly stimulated, it transmits electrochemical signals

from one place in the system to another. The nervous system has 12.5 billion

neurons, of which about 10 billion are in the brain itself.

One part of the peripheral nervous system, the somatic system, transmits

sensations into the central nervous system and carries commands from the

central system to the muscles involved in movement. Another part of the

peripheral nervous system, the autonomic system, consists of two divisions

that have opposing functions. The sympathetic division arouses the body by

speeding the heartbeat, dilating the pupils of the eye, and releasing

adrenaline into the blood. The parasympathetic division operates to calm the

body by reversing these processes.

A simple example of communication within the nervous system is the spinal

arc, which is seen in the knee-jerk reflex. A tap on the patellar tendon,

just below the kneecap, sends a signal to the spinal cord via sensory

neurons. This signal activates motor neurons that trigger a contraction of

the muscle attached to the tendon; the contraction, in turn, causes the leg

to jerk. Thus, a stimulus can lead to a response without involving the brain,

via a connection through the spinal cord.

Circulatory communication is ordinarily slower than nervous-system

communication. The hormones secreted by the body’s endocrine glands circulate

through the body, influencing both structural and behavioral changes . The

sex hormones, for example, that are released during adolescence effect many

changes in body growth and development as well as changes in behavior, such

as the emergence of specific sexual activity and the increase of interest in

the opposite sex. Other hormones may have more direct, short-term effects;

for instance, adrenaline, which is secreted when a person faces an emergency,

prepares the body for a quick response—whether fighting or flight.

3. Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis, name applied to a specific method of investigating

unconscious mental processes and to a form of psychotherapy. The term refers,

as well, to the systematic structure of psychoanalytic theory, which is based

on the relation of conscious and unconscious psychological processes.

Theory of Psychoanalysis

The technique of psychoanalysis and much of the psychoanalytic theory based

on its application were developed by Sigmund Freud. His work concerning the

structure and the functioning of the human mind had far-reaching

significance, both practically and scientifically, and it continues to

influence contemporary thought.

The Unconscious

The first of Freud’s innovations was his recognition of unconscious

psychiatric processes that follow laws different from those that govern

conscious experience. Under the influence of the unconscious, thoughts and

feelings that belong together may be shifted or displaced out of context; two

disparate ideas or images may be condensed into one; thoughts may be

dramatized in the form of images rather than expressed as abstract concepts;

and certain objects may be represented symbolically by images of other

objects, although the resemblance between the symbol and the original object

may be vague or farfetched. The laws of logic, indispensable for conscious

thinking, do not apply to these unconscious mental productions.

Recognition of these modes of operation in unconscious mental processes made

possible the understanding of such previously incomprehensible psychological

phenomena as dreaming. Through analysis of unconscious processes, Freud saw

dreams as serving to protect sleep against disturbing impulses arising from

within and related to early life experiences. Thus, unacceptable impulses and

thoughts, called the latent dream content, are transformed into a conscious,

although no longer immediately comprehensible, experience called the manifest

dream. Knowledge of these unconscious mechanisms permits the analyst to

reverse the so-called dream work, that is, the process by which the latent

dream is transformed into the manifest dream, and through dream

interpretation, to recognize its underlying meaning.

Instinctual Drives

A basic assumption of Freudian theory is that the unconscious conflicts

involve instinctual impulses, or drives, that originate in childhood. As

these unconscious conflicts are recognized by the patient through analysis,

his or her adult mind can find solutions that were unattainable to the

immature mind of the child. This depiction of the role of instinctual drives

in human life is a unique feature of Freudian theory.

According to Freud’s doctrine of infantile sexuality, adult sexuality is an

end product of a complex process of development, beginning in childhood,

involving a variety of body functions or areas (oral, anal, and genital

zones), and corresponding to various stages in the relation of the child to

adults, especially to parents. Of crucial importance is the so-called Oedipal

period, occurring at about four to six years of age, because at this stage of

development the child for the first time becomes capable of an emotional

attachment to the parent of the opposite sex that is similar to the adult’s

relationship to a mate; the child simultaneously reacts as a rival to the

parent of the same sex. Physical immaturity dooms the child’s desires to

frustration and his or her first step toward adulthood to failure.

Intellectual immaturity further complicates the situation because it makes

children afraid of their own fantasies. The extent to which the child

overcomes these emotional upheavals and to which these attachments, fears,

and fantasies continue to live on in the unconscious greatly influences later

life, especially love relationships.

The conflicts occurring in the earlier developmental stages are no less

significant as a formative influence, because these problems represent the

earliest prototypes of such basic human situations as dependency on others

and relationship to authority. Also basic in molding the personality of the

individual is the behavior of the parents toward the child during these

stages of development. The fact that the child reacts, not only to objective

reality, but also to fantasy distortions of reality, however, greatly

complicates even the best-intentioned educational efforts.

Id, Ego, and Superego

The effort to clarify the bewildering number of interrelated observations

uncovered by psychoanalytic exploration led to the development of a model of

the structure of the psychic system. Three functional systems are

distinguished that are conveniently designated as the id, ego, and superego.

The first system refers to the sexual and aggressive tendencies that arise from

the body, as distinguished from the mind. Freud called these tendencies

Triebe, which literally means “drives,” but which is often inaccurately

translated as “instincts” to indicate their innate character. These inherent

drives claim immediate satisfaction, which is experienced as pleasurable; the

id thus is dominated by the pleasure principle. In his later writings, Freud

tended more toward psychological rather than biological conceptualization of

the drives.

How the conditions for satisfaction are to be brought about is the task of

the second system, the ego, which is the domain of such functions as

perception, thinking, and motor control that can accurately assess

environmental conditions. In order to fulfill its function of adaptation, or

reality testing, the ego must be capable of enforcing the postponement of

satisfaction of the instinctual impulses originating in the id. To defend

itself against unacceptable impulses, the ego develops specific psychic

means, known as defense mechanisms. These include repression, the exclusion

of impulses from conscious awareness; projection, the process of ascribing to

others one’s own unacknowledged desires; and reaction formation, the

establishment of a pattern of behavior directly opposed to a strong

unconscious need. Such defense mechanisms are put into operation whenever

anxiety signals a danger that the original unacceptable impulses may

reemerge.

An id impulse becomes unacceptable, not only as a result of a temporary need

for postponing its satisfaction until suitable reality conditions can be

found, but more often because of a prohibition imposed on the individual by

others, originally the parents. The totality of these demands and

prohibitions constitutes the major content of the third system, the superego,

the function of which is to control the ego in accordance with the

internalized standards of parental figures. If the demands of the superego

are not fulfilled, the person may feel shame or guilt. Because the superego,

in Freudian theory, originates in the struggle to overcome the Oedipal

conflict, it has a power akin to an instinctual drive, is in part

unconscious, and can give rise to feelings of guilt not justified by any

conscious transgression. The ego, having to mediate among the demands of the

id, the superego, and the outside world, may not be strong enough to

reconcile these conflicting forces. The more the ego is impeded in its

development because of being enmeshed in its earlier conflicts, called

fixations or complexes, or the more it reverts to earlier satisfactions and

archaic modes of functioning, known as regression, the greater is the

likelihood of succumbing to these pressures. Unable to function normally, it

can maintain its limited control and integrity only at the price of symptom

formation, in which the tensions are expressed in neurotic symptoms.

Anxiety

A cornerstone of modern psychoanalytic theory and practice is the concept of

anxiety, which institutes appropriate mechanisms of defense against certain

danger situations. These danger situations, as described by Freud, are the

fear of abandonment by or the loss of the loved one (the object), the risk of

losing the object’s love, the danger of retaliation and punishment, and,

finally, the hazard of reproach by the superego. Thus, symptom formation,

character and impulse disorders, and perversions, as well as sublimations,

represent compromise formations—different forms of an adaptive integration

that the ego tries to achieve through more or less successfully reconciling

the different conflicting forces in the mind.

Psychoanalytic Schools

Various psychoanalytic schools have adopted other names for their doctrines

to indicate deviations from Freudian theory.

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung, one of the earliest pupils of Freud, eventually created a

school that he preferred to call analytical psychology. Like Freud, Jung used

the concept of the libido; however, to him it meant not only sexual drives,

but a composite of all creative instincts and impulses and the entire

motivating force of human conduct. According to his theories, the unconscious

is composed of two parts; the personal unconscious, which contains the

results of the individual’s entire experience, and the collective

unconscious, the reservoir of the experience of the human race. In the

collective unconscious exist a number of primordial images, or archetypes,

common to all individuals of a given country or historical era. Archetypes

take the form of bits of intuitive knowledge or apprehension and normally

exist only in the collective unconscious of the individual. When the

conscious mind contains no images, however, as in sleep, or when the

consciousness is caught off guard, the archetypes commence to function.

Archetypes are primitive modes of thought and tend to personify natural

processes in terms of such mythological concepts as good and evil spirits,

fairies, and dragons. The mother and the father also serve as prominent

archetypes.

An important concept in Jung’s theory is the existence of two basically

different types of personality, mental attitude, and function. When the

libido and the individual’s general interest are turned outward toward people

and objects of the external world, he or she is said to be extroverted. When

the reverse is true, and libido and interest are centered on the individual,

he or she is said to be introverted. In a completely normal individual these

two tendencies alternate, neither dominating, but usually the libido is

directed mainly in one direction or the other; as a result, two personality

types are recognizable.

Jung rejected Freud’s distinction between the ego and superego and recognized

a portion of the personality, somewhat similar to the superego, that he

called the persona. The persona consists of what a person appears to be to

others, in contrast to what he or she actually is. The persona is the role

the individual chooses to play in life, the total impression he or she wishes

to make on the outside world.

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler, another of Freud’s pupils, differed from both Freud and Jung in

stressing that the motivating force in human life is the sense of

inferiority, which begins as soon as an infant is able to comprehend the

existence of other people who are better able to care for themselves and cope

with their environment. From the moment the feeling of inferiority is

established, the child strives to overcome it. Because inferiority is

intolerable, the compensatory mechanisms set up by the mind may get out of

hand, resulting in self-centered neurotic attitudes, overcompensations, and a

retreat from the real world and its problems.

Adler laid particular stress on inferiority feelings arising from what he

regarded as the three most important relationships: those between the

individual and work, friends, and loved ones. The avoidance of inferiority

feelings in these relationships leads the individual to adopt a life goal

that is often not realistic and frequently is expressed as an unreasoning

will to power and dominance, leading to every type of antisocial behavior

from bullying and boasting to political tyranny. Adler believed that analysis

can foster a sane and rational “community feeling” that is constructive

rather than destructive.

Otto Rank

Another student of Freud, Otto Rank, introduced a new theory of neurosis,

attributing all neurotic disturbances to the primary trauma of birth. In his

later writings he described individual development as a progression from

complete dependence on the mother and family, to a physical independence

coupled with intellectual dependence on society, and finally to complete

intellectual and psychological emancipation. Rank also laid great importance

on the will, defined as “a positive guiding organization and integration of

self, which utilizes creatively as well as inhibits and controls the

instinctual drives.”

Other Psychoanalytic Schools

Later noteworthy modifications of psychoanalytic theory include those of the

American psychoanalysts Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.

The theories of Fromm lay particular emphasis on the concept that society and

the individual are not separate and opposing forces, that the nature of

society is determined by its historic background, and that the needs and

desires of individuals are largely formed by their society. As a result,

Fromm believed, the fundamental problem of psychoanalysis and psychology is

not to resolve conflicts between fixed and unchanging instinctive drives in

the individual and the fixed demands and laws of society, but to bring about

harmony and an understanding of the relationship between the individual and

society. Fromm also stressed the importance to the individual of developing

the ability to fully use his or her mental, emotional, and sensory powers.

Horney worked primarily in the field of therapy and the nature of neuroses,

which she defined as of two types: situation neuroses and character neuroses.

Situation neuroses arise from the anxiety attendant on a single conflict,

such as being faced with a difficult decision. Although they may paralyze the

individual temporarily, making it impossible to think or act efficiently,

such neuroses are not deeply rooted. Character neuroses are characterized by

a basic anxiety and a basic hostility resulting from a lack of love and

affection in childhood.

Sullivan believed that all development can be described exclusively in terms

of interpersonal relations. Character types as well as neurotic symptoms are

explained as results of the struggle against anxiety arising from the

individual’s relations with others and are a security system, maintained for

the purpose of allaying anxiety.

Melanie Klein

An important school of thought is based on the teachings of the British

psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. Because most of Klein’s followers worked with

her in England, this has come to be known as the English school. Its

influence, nevertheless, is very strong throughout the European continent and

in South America. Its principal theories were derived from observations made

in the psychoanalysis of children. Klein posited the existence of complex

unconscious fantasies in children under the age of six months. The principal

source of anxiety arises from the threat to existence posed by the death

instinct. Depending on how concrete representations of the destructive forces

are dealt with in the unconscious fantasy life of the child, two basic early

mental attitudes result that Klein characterized as a “depressive position”

and a “paranoid position.” In the paranoid position, the ego’s defense

consists of projecting the dangerous internal object onto some external

representative, which is treated as a genuine threat emanating from the

external world. In the depressive position, the threatening object is

introjected and treated in fantasy as concretely retained within the person.

Depressive and hypochondriacal symptoms result. Although considerable doubt

exists that such complex unconscious fantasies operate in the minds of

infants, these observations have been of the utmost importance to the

psychology of unconscious fantasies, paranoid delusions, and theory

concerning early object relations.

4. Behaviriourism

The literature of this school of psychology is still awaiting its

bibliographer. Though this interpretation of human actions and reactions has

been strongly criticized by other psychologists, the leading figures -

B.F.Skinner, J.B.Watson and E.C.Tolman - have also been recognized and

respected as great scholars. Skenner`s own summary About behaviorism, 1974,

contained numerous bibliographic references to this important interpretation

of man’s relationship to the world around him. Strange compilation of

references designed to show the errors of this school of psychology was

published by A.A.Roback in 1923 as part of his critical discussion entitled

Behaviorism and Psychology; it is now only of historical interest.

We have already referred to Robert 1 Watson`s The history of psychology and

behavioral sciences: a bibliographic guide, 1978. in our discussion of the

general background guides to psychology. It suffices to note, here, that this

work, though by one of the leading scholars of the behaviorist school, is

not, and does not pretend to be, a bibliography of Behaviourism. In some

respects the same can be said of C.Heidenreich`s Dictionary of personality:

behavior and adjustment terms, which appeared in 1968. Both these books have

been compiled by leading members of this behaviorist school and

unquestionably representative of the views of that school. We have mentioned

these works here for that reason, but stress that these are scholarly and

unbiased reference works which do not include or misrepresent references to

other interpretations of human behavior.

5. Gestalt psychology

Gestalt Psychology, school of psychology that deals mainly with the

processes of perception. According to Gestalt psychology, images are perceived

as a pattern or a whole rather than merely as a sum of distinct component

parts. The context of an image plays a key role. For instance, in the context

of a city silhouette the shape of a spire is perceived as a church steeple.

Gestalt psychology tries to formulate the laws governing such perceptual

processes.

Gestalt psychology began as a protest. At the beginning of the 20th

century, associationism dominated psychology. The associationist view that

stimuli are perceived as parts and then built into images excluded as much as

it sought to explain; for instance, it allowed little room for such human

concepts as meaning and value. About 1910, German researchers Max Wertheimer,

Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka rejected the prevailing order of

scientific analysis in psychology. They did not, however, reject science;

rather they sought a scientific approach more nearly related to the subject

matter of psychology. They adopted that of field theory, newly developed in

physics. This model permitted them to look at perception in terms other than

the mechanistic atomism of the associationists.

Gestalt psychologists found perception to be heavily influenced by the

context or configuration of the perceived elements. The word Gestalt can be

translated from the German approximately as “configuration.” The parts often

derive their nature and purpose from the whole and cannot be understood apart

from it. Moreover, a straightforward summation process of individual elements

cannot account for the whole. Activities within the total field of the whole

govern the perceptual processes.

The approach of Gestalt psychology has been extended to research in areas as

diverse as thinking, memory, and the nature of aesthetics. Topics in social

psychology have also been studied from the structuralist Gestalt viewpoint,

as in Kurt Lewin’s work on group dynamics. It is in the area of perception,

however, that Gestalt psychology has had its greatest influence.

In addition, several contemporary psychotherapies are termed Gestalt. These

are constructed along lines similar to Gestalt psychology’s approach to

perception. Human beings respond holistically to experience; according to

Gestalt therapists, any separation of mind and body is artificial. Accurate

perception of one’s own needs and of the world is vital in order to balance

one’s experience and achieve “good Gestalten.” Movement away from awareness

breaks the holistic response, or Gestalt. Gestalt therapists attempt to

restore an individual’s natural, harmonic balance by heightening awareness.

The emphasis is on present experience, rather than on recollections of

infancy and early childhood as in psychoanalysis. Direct confrontation with

one’s fears is encouraged.

6. Cognition psychology

Cognition, act or process of knowing. Cognition includes attention,

perception, memory, reasoning, judgment, imagining, thinking, and speech.

Attempts to explain the way in which cognition works are as old as philosophy

itself; the term, in fact, comes from the writings of Plato and Aristotle. With

the advent of psychology as a discipline separate from philosophy, cognition

has been investigated from several viewpoints.

An entire field—cognitive psychology—has arisen since the 1950s. It studies

cognition mainly from the standpoint of information handling. Parallels are

stressed between the functions of the human brain and the computer concepts

such as the coding, storing, retrieving, and buffering of information. The

actual physiology of cognition is of little interest to cognitive

psychologists, but their theoretical models of cognition have deepened

understanding of memory, psycholinguistics, and the development of

intelligence.

Social psychologists since the mid-1960s have written extensively on the

topic of cognitive consistency—that is, the tendency of a person’s beliefs

and actions to be logically consistent with one another. When cognitive

dissonance, or the lack of such consistency, arises, the person unconsciously

seeks to restore consistency by changing his or her behavior, beliefs, or

perceptions. The manner in which a particular individual classifies

cognitions in order to impose order has been termed cognitive style.

7. Tests and Measurements

Many fields of psychology use tests and measurement devices. The best-known

psychological tool is intelligence testing. Since the early 1900s

psychologists have been measuring intelligence—or, more accurately, the

ability to succeed in schoolwork. Such tests have proved useful in

classifying students, assigning people to training programs, and predicting

success in many kinds of schooling. Special tests have been developed to

predict success in different occupations and to assess how much knowledge

people have about different kinds of specialties. In addition, psychologists

have constructed tests for measuring aspects of personality, interests, and

attitudes. Thousands of tests have been devised for measuring different human

traits.

A key problem in test construction, however, is the development of a

criterion—that is, some standard to which the test is to be related. For

intelligence tests, for example, the usual criterion has been success in

school, but intelligence tests have frequently been attacked on the basis of

cultural bias (that is, the test results may reflect a child’s background as

much as it does learning ability). For vocational-interest tests, the

standard generally has been persistence in an occupation. One general

difficulty with personality tests is the lack of agreement among

psychologists as to what standards should be used. Many criteria have been

proposed, but most are only indirectly related to the aspect of personality

that is being measured.

Very sophisticated statistical models have been developed for tests, and a

detailed technology underlies most successful testing. Many psychologists

have become adept at constructing testing devices for special purposes and at

devising measurements, once agreement is reached as to what should be

measured.

Types of Tests

Currently, a wide range of testing procedures is used in the U.S. and

elsewhere. Each type of procedure is designed to carry out specific

functions.

Achievement Tests . These tests are designed to assess current

performance in an academic area. Because achievement is viewed as an indicator

of previous learning, it is often used to predict future academic success. An

achievement test administered in a public school setting would typically

include separate measures of vocabulary, language skills and reading

comprehension, arithmetic computation and problem solving, science, and social

studies. Individual achievement is determined by comparison of results with

average scores derived from large representative national or local samples.

Scores may be expressed in terms of “grade-level equivalents”; for example, an

advanced third-grade pupil may be reading on a level equivalent to that of the

average fourth-grade student.

Aptitude Tests. These tests predict future performance in an area in

which the individual is not currently trained. Schools, businesses, and

government agencies often use aptitude tests when assigning individuals to

specific positions. Vocational guidance counseling may involve aptitude testing

to help clarify individual career goals. If a person’s score is similar to

scores of others already working in a given occupation, likelihood of success

in that field is predicted. Some aptitude tests cover a broad range of skills

pertinent to many different occupations. The General Aptitude Test Battery, for

example, not only measures general reasoning ability but also includes form

perception, clerical perception, motor coordination, and finger and manual

dexterity. Other tests may focus on a single area, such as art, engineering, or

modern languages.

Intelligence Tests. In contrast to tests of specific proficiencies or

aptitudes, intelligence tests measure the global capacity of an individual to

cope with the environment. Test scores are generally known as intelligence

quotients, or IQs, although the various tests are constructed quite

differently. The Stanford-Binet is heavily weighted with items involving verbal

abilities; the Wechsler scales consist of two separate verbal and performance

subscales, each with its own IQ. There are also specialized infant intelligence

tests, tests that do not require the use of language, and tests that are

designed for group administration.

The early intelligence scales yielded a mental-age score, expressing the

child’s ability to do as well as average children who were older, younger, or

equivalent in chronological age. The deviation IQ used today expresses the

individual’s position in comparison to a representative group of people of

the same age. The average IQ is set at 100; about half of those who take the

test achieve scores between 90 and 110. IQ scores may vary according to

testing conditions, and, thus, it is advisable to understand results of the

tests as falling within a certain range, such as average or superior.

Interest Inventories. Self-report questionnaires on which the subject

indicates personal preferences among activities are called interest

inventories. Because interests may predict satisfaction with some area of

employment or education, these inventories are used primarily in guidance

counseling. They are not intended to predict success, but only to offer a

framework for narrowing career possibilities. For example, one frequently used

interest inventory, the Kudor Preference Record, includes ten clusters of

occupational interests: outdoors, mechanical, computational, scientific,

persuasive, artistic, literary, musical, social service, and clerical. For each

item, the subject indicates which of three activities is best or least liked.

The total score indicates the occupational clusters that include preferred

activities.

Objective Personality Tests. These tests measure social and emotional

adjustment and are used to identify the need for psychological counseling.

Items that briefly describe feelings, attitudes, and behaviors are grouped into

subscales, each representing a separate personality or style, such as social

extroversion or depression. Taken together, the subscales provide a profile of

the personality as a whole. One of the most popular psychological tests is the

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), constructed to aid in

diagnosing psychiatric patients. Research has shown that the MMPI may also be

used to describe differences among normal personality types.

Projective Techniques. Some personality tests are based on the phenomenon

of projection, a mental process described by Sigmund Freud as the tendency to

attribute to others personal feelings or characteristics that are too painful

to acknowledge. Because projective techniques are relatively unstructured and

offer minimal cues to aid in defining responses, they tend to elicit concerns

that are highly personal and significant. The best-known projective tests are

the Rorschach test, popularly known as the inkblot test, and the Thematic

Apperception Test; others include word-association techniques,

sentence-completion tests, and various drawing procedures. The psychologist’s

past experience provides the framework for evaluating individual responses.

Although the subjective nature of interpretation makes these tests particularly

vulnerable to criticism, in clinical settings they are part of the standard

battery of psychological tests.

Interpretation of Results

The most important aspect of psychological testing involves the

interpretation of test results.

Scoring. The raw score is the simple numerical count of responses, such

as the number of correct answers on an intelligence test. The usefulness of the

raw score is limited, however, because it does not convey how well someone does

in comparison with others taking the same test. Percentile scores, standard

scores, and norms are all devices for making this comparison.

Percentile scoring expresses the rank order of the scores in percentages. The

percentile level of a person’s score indicates the proportion of the group that

scored above and below that individual. When a score falls at the 50th

percentile, for example, half of the group scored higher and half scored lower;

a score at the 80th percentile indicates that 20 percent scored

higher and 80 percent scored lower than the person being evaluated.

Standard scores are derived from a comparison of the individual raw score

with the mean and standard deviation of the group scores. The mean, or

arithmetic average, is determined by adding the scores and dividing by the

total number of scores obtained. The standard deviation measures the

variation of the scores around the mean. Standard scores are obtained by

subtracting the mean from the raw score and then dividing by the standard

deviation.

Tables of norms are included in test manuals to indicate the expected range

of raw scores. Normative data are derived from studies in which the test has

been administered to a large, representative group of people. The test manual

should include a description of the sample of people used to establish norms,

including age, sex, geographical location, and occupation. Norms based on a

group of people whose major characteristics are markedly dissimilar from

those of the person being tested do not provide a fair standard of

comparison.

Validity. Interpretation of test scores ultimately involves predictions

about a subject’s behavior in a specified situation. If a test is an accurate

predictor, it is said to have good validity. Before validity can be

demonstrated, a test must first yield consistent, reliable measurements. In

addition to reliability, psychologists recognize three main types of validity.

A test has content validity if the sample of items in the test is

representative of all the relevant items that might have been used. Words

included in a spelling test, for example, should cover a wide range of

difficulty.

Criterion-related validity refers to a test’s accuracy in specifying a future

or concurrent outcome. For example, an art-aptitude test has predictive

validity if high scores are achieved by those who later do well in art

school. The concurrent validity of a new intelligence test may be

demonstrated if its scores correlate closely with those of an already well-

established test.

Construct validity is generally determined by investigating what

psychological traits or qualities a test measures; that is, by demonstrating

that certain patterns of human behavior account to some degree for

performance on the test. A test measuring the trait “need for achievement,”

for instance, might be shown to predict that high scorers work more

independently, persist longer on problem-solving tasks, and do better in

competitive situations than low scores.

Controversies. The major psychological testing controversies stem from

two interrelated issues: technical shortcomings in test design and ethical

problems in interpretation and application of results. Some technical

weaknesses exist in all tests. Because of this, it is crucial that results be

viewed as only one kind of information about any individual. Most criticisms of

testing arise from the overvaluation of and inappropriate reliance on test

results in making major life decisions. These criticisms have been particularly

relevant in the case of intelligence testing. Psychologists generally agree

that using tests to bar youngsters from educational opportunities, without

careful consideration of past and present resources or motivation, is

unethical. Because tests tend to draw on those skills associated with white,

middle-class functioning, they may discriminate against disadvantaged and

minority groups. As long as unequal learning opportunities exist, they will

continue to be reflected in test results. In the U.S., therefore, some states

have established laws that carefully define the use of tests in public schools

and agencies. The American Psychological Association, meanwhile, continues to

work actively to monitor and refine ethical standards and public policy

recommendations regarding the use of psychological testing.

8. Development psychology

Developmental Psychology study of behavioral changes and continuity from

infancy to old age. Much emphasis in psychology has been given to the child

and to the deviant personality. Developmental psychology is particularly

significant, then, in that it provides for formal study of children and

adults at every stage of development through the life span.

Developmental psychology reflects the view that human development and

behavior throughout the life span is a function of the interaction between

biologically determined factors, such as height or temperament, and

environmental influences, such as family, schooling, religion, and culture.

Studies of these interactions focus on their consequences for people at

different age levels. For example, developmental psychologists are interested

in how children who were physically abused by their parents behave when they

themselves become parents. Studies, although inconclusive, suggest that

abused children often become abusive parents.

Other recent studies have focused on the relationship between the aging

process and intellectual competence; contrary to the traditional notion that

a person’s intellectual skills decline rapidly after the age of 55, research

indicates that the decline is gradual. American studies of adulthood,

building on the work of Erik Erikson, point to stable periods with a duration

of 5 to 7 years, during which energy is expended on career, family, and

social relationships, punctuated by “transitional” periods lasting 3 to 5

years, during which assessment and reappraisal of major life areas occurs.

These transitional periods may be smooth or emotionally stormy; the “midlife

crisis” is an example of such a transition. Whether such transitions are the

same for men and women, and whether they are universal, is currently under

study.

9. Social psychology

Social Psychology branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of

the behavior of individuals as influenced, directly or indirectly, by social

stimuli. Social psychologists are interested in the thinking, emotions,

desires, and judgments of individuals, as well as in their overt behavior. An

individual’s inner states can be inferred only from some form of observable

behavior. Research has also proved that people are affected by social stimuli

whether or not they are actually in the presence of others and that virtually

everything an individual does or experiences is influenced to some extent by

present or previous social contacts.

Development of Theory. Social psychology is rooted in the earliest

intellectual probes made by individuals into their relations with society. Many

of the major problems of concern to contemporary social psychology were

recognized as problems by social philosophers long before psychological

questions were joined to scientific method. The questions posed by Aristotle,

the Italian philosopher Niccol Machiavelli, the English philosopher Thomas

Hobbes, and others throughout history are still asked, in altered form, in the

work of present-day social psychologists.

The more recent history of social psychology begins with the publication in

1908 of two textbooks—each having the term social psychology in its

title—that examine the impact of society on the development and behavior of

individuals. One of these was written by the British psychologist William

McDougall, and the other by the American sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross.

McDougall framed a controversial theory of human instincts, conceived of as

broad, purposive tendencies emerging from the evolutionary process. Ross, on

the other hand, was concerned with the transmission of social behavior from

person to person, such as the influence of one person’s emotions on another’s

in a crowd, or the following of fads and fashions.

Another textbook on social psychology, published in 1924 by the American

psychologist Floyd H. Allport, had an important influence on the development

of social psychology as a specialization of general psychology. Allport

extended the principles of associative learning to account for a wide range

of social behavior. He thus avoided reference either to such mysterious

social forces as were proposed by Ross or to the elaborate instinctive

dispositions used by McDougall and his followers to account for social

behavior. Through the remainder of the decade, the literature of social

psychology continued to be devoted to similar discussions and controversies

about points of view, and little empirical work, that is, work relying on

experience or observation, of theoretical or practical significance was done.

Early Experimentation. In the 1930s empirical research was first

undertaken on such matters as animal social behavior, group problem-solving,

attitudes and persuasion, national and ethnic stereotypes, rumor transmission,

and leadership. The German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin emphasized the

necessity of doing theoretical analysis before conducting research on a

problem, the purpose of the research being to clarify explanatory mechanisms

hypothesized to underlie the behavior being studied. The theory proposes an

explanation of certain behavior and allows the investigator to predict the

specific conditions under which the behavior will or will not occur. The

investigator then designs experiments in which the appropriate conditions are

methodically varied and the occurrence of the behavior can be observed and

measured. The results allow modifications and extensions of the theory to be

made.

In 1939 Lewin together with two of his doctoral students published the

results of an experiment of significant historical importance. The

investigators had arranged to have the same adults play different leadership

roles while directing matched groups of children. The adults attempted to

establish particular climates—that is, social environmental conditions—of

democratic, autocratic, or completely laissez-faire leadership. The reactions

of the children in the groups were carefully observed, and detailed notes

were taken on the patterns of social interaction that emerged. Although the

experiment itself had many deficiencies, it demonstrated that something as

nebulous as a democratic social climate could be created under controlled

laboratory conditions.

The originality and success of this research had a liberating effect on other

investigators. By the end of World War II, an outpouring of experimental

research involving the manipulation of temporary social environments through

laboratory stagecraft began. At the same time, important advances occurred in

nonexperimental, or field, research in social psychology. The objective

rather than the speculative study of social behavior is the current trend in

social psychology.

Research Areas. Social psychology shares many concerns with other

disciplines, especially with sociology and cultural anthropology. The three

sciences differ, however, in that whereas the sociologist studies social groups

and institutions and the anthropologist studies human cultures, the social

psychologist focuses attention on how social groups, institutions, and cultures

affect the behavior of the individual. The major areas of research in social

psychology are the following.

Socialization. Social psychologists who study the phenomena of

socialization, meaning the process of being made fit or trained for a social

environment, are interested in how individuals learn the rules governing their

behavior toward other persons in society, the groups of which they are members,

and individuals with whom they come into contact. Questions dealing with how

children learn language, sex role, moral and ethical principles, and

appropriate behavior in general have come under intensive investigation. Also

widely studied are the methods by which adults learn to adapt their patterns of

behavior when they are confronted by new situations or organizations.

Attitudes and Attitude Change. Attitudes have generally been regarded as

learned predispositions that exert some consistent influence on responses

toward objects, persons, or groups. Attitudes are usually seen as the products

of socialization and therefore as modifiable. Because the behavior of a person

toward others is often, although not always, consistent with his or her

attitudes toward them, the investigation of how attitudes are formed, how they

are organized in the mind, and how they are modified has been considered of

great practical as well as theoretical importance.

The discovery that attitudes follow from behavior as well as vice versa

emerges from the well-tested assumption that people desire to preserve

logical consistency in their views of themselves and their environments. A

number of theories of cognitive consistency have become important in social

psychological thinking. These theories stress the idea that individuals have

a personal stake in believing that their own thoughts and actions are in

agreement with one another, and that perceiving inconsistency between one’s

actions and thoughts leads to attempts to reduce the inconsistency. Through

research, social psychologists attempt to understand the conditions under

which people notice an inconsistency and the conditions under which they will

attempt to reduce it by changing significant attitudes. Studies support the

consistency-theory prediction that the attitudes of a person about a group of

people can often be changed by inducing the person to change his or her

behavior toward the group; the attitude change represents the efforts of the

person to bring his or her ideas about the group into agreement with how he

has just acted toward its members.

Social Affiliation, Power, and Influence. The factors that govern whether

and with whom people will affiliate, as well as whether and how they will

attempt to influence or be influenced by others, have received much attention

by social psychologists. Researchers have determined, for example, that if

people are unsure of how they should feel or behave in response to a new or

unpleasant situation, they will seek the company of others who may be able to

provide the lacking information. Social psychologists have also found that

firstborn and only children are generally more inclined to join groups

throughout their lives than are those born later.

Group Structure and Functioning. Social psychologists have studied many

issues related to questions of how the group and the individual affect one

another, including problems of leadership functions, styles, and effectiveness.

Social psychologists investigate the conditions under which people or groups

resolve their conflicts cooperatively or competitively and the many

consequences of those general modes of conflict resolution. Research is

conducted also to determine how the group induces conformity and how it deals

with deviant members.

Personality and Society. Some social psychologists are particularly

concerned with the development and consequences of stable individual

differences among people. Differences in the degree of achievement motivation

have been found to be measurable and to have important consequences for how a

person behaves in various social situations. Systems of attitudes toward

authority, such as the notion of the authoritarian personality, have been found

to relate to attitudes toward ethnic minorities and to certain aspects of

social behavior. A personality syndrome known as Machiavellianism, named after

the Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, has been used to

predict the social manipulativeness of people in interaction and their ability

to dominate certain interpersonal situations.

Investigative Techniques

Numerous kinds of research methods and techniques are being used in social

psychology. The tradition of theory-based investigation remains strong in the

discipline. In recent years rigorously exact mathematical models of social

behavior have been used increasingly in psychological studies. Such models

are projections, based on theory and in arithmetic detail, of social behavior

in a possible system of social relationships.

Other techniques include the questionnaire and the interview, both used

widely in public opinion polls and studies of consumer preferences. These two

methods pose a considerable challenge to investigators. The kind of control

of the environment that is possible in the laboratory is not available in the

field, and the effects of subtle variables that can be observed in

experiments are easily obscured by other variables that may exist in natural

environments.

Frequently, behavior in natural settings is systematically observed, or

computers are programmed to simulate social behavior. Special techniques are

used for analysis of statistics and other data and for attitude measurement

as well as measurement of social choice and interpersonal attractiveness.

Also important is psychophysiological measurement, that is, the measurement

of shared mental and physiological characteristics. Cross-national and cross-

cultural research is one of the modern techniques, designed to provide

comparisons of behavior between nations and cultures; the same research study

is carried out in several different countries in order to determine the

cross-cultural validity of the research.

In the study of social behavior in animals, a laboratory environment

facilitates controlled experimentation, that is, experimentation considering

the previous history of the animals as well as their present environmental

conditions. Simple behavioral acts, such as a pigeon pecking at an object,

can be isolated and schedules of reinforcement—that is, repetition of

stimuli—can be maintained. Social psychological research with animals has led

to important new techniques for their training.

Applied Social Psychology

The principles developed in laboratory and field research in social

psychology have been applied to many social situations and problems. Applied

researchers and consultants have worked to ameliorate problems found in

ethnic relations, international relations, industrial and labor relations,

political and economic behavior, education, advertising, and community mental

health. Industries, organizations, schools, and task groups of many kinds

regularly use the services of applied social psychologists to improve

interpersonal relations, to increase understanding of relations between

members of groups in conflict with one another, and to diagnose and help

correct problems in group and organizational productivity.

10. Psychiatry and mental health

Psychiatry is the realm in which medical science and psychology join to provide

help for persons whose mind (as one says) is disturbed and whose behavior does

not conform to accept social patterns. Psychopathology and clinical psychology

are integral sub-fields of this branch of medical psychology which, of

necessity, also includes neurology, mental deficiency or retardation, forensic

psychology, certain aspects of abnormal psychology, social psychology and

psychotherapy. Mental illness has been recognized as such since the

days of Aristotle and Hippocrates, and its long modern history has been able

described by some scientists.

Mental Health, state characterized by psychological well-being and

self-acceptance. The term mental health usually implies the capacity to love

and relate to others, the ability to work productively, and the willingness to

behave in a way that brings personal satisfaction without encroaching upon the

rights of others. In a clinical sense, mental health is the absence of mental

illness.

The Mental Health Movement

Concern for the mentally ill has waxed and waned through the centuries, but the

development of modern-day approaches to the subject dates from the mid-18

th century, when reformers such as the French physician Philippe Pinel and

the American physician Benjamin Rush introduced humane “moral treatment” to

replace the often cruel treatment that then prevailed. Despite these reforms,

most of the mentally ill continued to live in jails and poorhouses—a situation

that continued until 1841, when the American reformer Dorothea Dix campaigned

to place the mentally ill in hospitals for special treatment.

The modern mental health movement can be traced to the publication in 1908 of

A Mind That Found Itself, an account of the experience of its author,

Clifford Whittingham Beers, as a mental patient. The book aroused a storm of

public concern for the mentally ill. In 1909 Beers founded the National

Committee for Mental Hygiene.

Public awareness of the need for greater governmental attention to mental

health services led to passage of the National Mental Health Act in 1946.

This legislation authorized the establishment of the National Institute of

Mental Health to be operated as a part of the U.S. Public Health Service. In

1950 the National Committee for Mental Hygiene was reorganized as the

National Association for Mental Health, better known as the Mental Health

Association.

In 1955 Congress established a Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health

to survey the mental health needs of the nation and to recommend new

approaches. Based on the commission’s recommendations, legislation was passed

in 1963 authorizing funds for construction of facilities for community-based

treatment centers. A similar group, the President’s Commission on Mental

Health, reported its findings in 1978, citing estimates of the cost of mental

illness in the U.S. alone as being about $17 billion a year.

Scope of the Problem

According to a common estimate, at any one time 10 percent of the American

population has mental health problems sufficiently serious to warrant care;

recent evidence suggests that this figure may be closer to 15 percent. Not

all the people who need help receive it, however; in 1975 only 3 percent of

the American population received mental health service. One major reason for

this is that people still fear the stigma attached to mental illness and

hence often fail to report it or to seek help.

Analysis of the figures on mental illness shows that schizophrenia afflicts

an estimated 2 million Americans, another 2 million suffer from profound

depressive disorders, and 1 million have organic psychoses or other

permanently disabling mental conditions. As much as 25 percent of the

population is estimated to suffer from mild or moderate depression, anxiety,

and other types of emotional problems. Some 10 million Americans have

problems related to alcohol abuse, and millions more are thought to abuse

drugs. Some 5 to 15 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 15 are the

victims of persistent mental health problems, and at least 2 million are

thought to have severe learning disabilities that can seriously impair their

mental health.

In addition, according to the President’s Commission, the list of mental

health problems should be extended beyond identifiable psychiatric conditions

to include the damage to mental health associated with unrelenting poverty,

unemployment, and discrimination on the basis of race, sex, class, age, and

mental or physical handicaps.

Prevention

Public health authorities customarily distinguish among three forms of

prevention. Primary prevention refers to attempts to prevent the occurrence

of mental disorder, as well as to promote positive mental health. Secondary

prevention is the early detection and treatment of a disorder, and tertiary

prevention refers to rehabilitative efforts that are directed at preventing

complications.

Two avenues of approach to the prevention of mental illness in adults were

suggested by the President’s Commission. One was to reduce the stressful

effects of such crises as unemployment, retirement, bereavement, and marital

disruption; the second was to create environments in which people can achieve

their full potential. The commission placed its heaviest emphasis, however,

on helping children. It recommended the following steps:

1) good care during pregnancy and childbirth, so that early treatment can

be instituted as needed;

2) early detection and correction of problems of physical, emotional, and

intellectual development;

3) developmental day-care programs focusing on emotional and intellectual

development;

4) support services for families, directed at preventing unnecessary and

inappropriate foster care or other out-of-home placements for children.

Treatment

Care of the mentally ill has changed dramatically in recent decades. Drugs

introduced in the mid-1950s, along with other improved treatment methods,

enabled many patients who would once have spent years in mental institutions

to be treated as outpatients in community facilities instead. (A series of

judicial decisions and legislative acts has promoted community care by

requiring that patients be treated in the least restrictive setting

available.) Between 1955 and 1980 the number of people in state mental

hospitals declined from more than 550,000 to fewer than 125,000. This trend

was due partly to improved community care and partly to the cost of operating

hospitals; in an effort to save public money, some large state mental

hospitals have been closed, forcing alternatives to be found for patients.

This is generally considered a progressive trend because when patients spend

extended periods in hospitals they tend to become overly dependent and lose

interest in taking care of themselves. In addition, because the hospitals are

often located long distances from the patients’ homes, families and friends

can visit only infrequently, and the patients’ roles at home and at work are

likely to be taken over by others.

The psychiatric wards of community general hospitals have assumed some of the

responsibility for caring for the mentally ill during the acute phases of

illness. Some of these hospitals function as the inpatient service for

community mental health centers. Typically, patients remain for a few days or

weeks until their symptoms have subsided, and they usually are given some

form of psychotropic drug to help relieve their symptoms. Following the lead

of Great Britain, American mental hospitals now also give some patients

complete freedom of buildings and grounds and, in some instances, freedom to

visit nearby communities. This move is based on the conclusion that disturbed

behavior is often the result of restraint rather than of illness.

Treatment of patients with less severe mental disorders has also changed

markedly in recent decades. Previously, patients with mild depression,

anxiety disorders, and other neurotic conditions were treated individually

with psychotherapy. Although this form of treatment is still widely used,

alternative approaches are now available. In some instances, a group of

patients meets to work through problems with the assistance of a therapist;

in other cases, families are treated as a unit. Another form of treatment

that has proven especially effective in alleviating phobic disorders is

behavior therapy, which focuses on changing overt behavior rather than the

underlying causes of a disorder. As in the serious mental illnesses, the

treatment of milder forms of anxiety and depression has been furthered by the

introduction of new drugs that help alleviate symptoms.

Rehabilitation

The release of large numbers of patients from state mental hospitals,

however, has caused significant problems both for the patients and for the

communities that become their new homes. Adequate community services often

are unavailable to former mental patients, a large percentage of whom live in

nursing homes and other facilities that are not equipped to meet their needs.

Most of these patients have been diagnosed as having schizophrenia, and only

15 to 40 percent of schizophrenics who live in the community achieve an

average level of adjustment. Those who do receive care typically visit a

clinic at periodic intervals for brief counseling and drug monitoring.

In addition to such outpatient clinics, rehabilitation services include

sheltered workshops, day-treatment programs, and social clubs. Sheltered

workshops provide vocational guidance and an opportunity to brush up on an

old skill or learn a new one. In day-treatment programs, patients return home

at night and on weekends; during weekdays, the programs offer a range of

rehabilitative services, such as vocational training, group activities, and

help in the practical problems of living. Ex-patient social clubs provide

social contacts, group activities, and an opportunity for patients to develop

self-confidence in normal situations.

Another important rehabilitative facility is the halfway house for patients

whose families are not willing or able to accept them after discharge. It

serves as a temporary residence for ex-patients who are ready to form outside

community ties. A variant is the use of subsidized apartments for recently

discharged psychiatric patients.

Research

Many different sciences contribute to knowledge about mental health and

illness. In recent decades these sciences have begun to clarify basic

biological, psychological, and social processes, and they have refined the

application of such knowledge to mental health problems.

Some of the most promising leads have come from biological research. For

example, brain scientists who study neurotransmitters—chemicals that carry

messages from one nerve cell to another—are contributing to knowledge of

normal and abnormal brain functioning, and they may eventually discover

better treatment methods for mental illness. Other researchers are trying to

discover how the brain develops—they have learned, for example, that even in

adults some nerve cells partially regenerate after being damaged—and such

research adds to the understanding of mental retardation, untreatable forms

of brain damage, and other conditions.

Psychological research relevant to mental health includes the study of

perception, information processing, thinking, language, motivation, emotion,

abilities, attitudes, personality, and social behavior. For example,

researchers are studying stress and how to cope with it. One application of

this type of research may help to prevent mental disorders; in the future,

psychologists may be better able to match people (and their coping skills) to

work settings and job duties.

Research in the social sciences focuses on problems of individuals in

contexts such as the family, neighborhood, and work setting, as well as the

culture at large. One example of such work is epidemiological research, which

is the study of the occurrence of disease patterns, including mental illness,

in a society.

11. Forensic psychology and criminology

The study of abnormal behaviour often leads to special investigations into

the origins or causes of crime. This in turn will lead to the psychological

study of criminals and also of the victims of crime. The literature on this

topic is growing and there exist now a number of useful indexing services to

help with the retrieval of particular contributions from many countries.

While most of these indexes and abstracts are orientated towards the work of,

and happenings in, the courts, all of them contain, references to the

behaviour of criminals or social deviants. Criminology and penology

abstracts has been in existence since 1960; its abstracts are arranged under

broad subject heading which include psychology, psychopathology, psychiatry,

social behaviour of groups.

12. Psychology, religion and phenomenology

The long traditional links between religions and psychology go back to

classical antiquity. They received much impetus in the middle ages and again

during the many periods of religious and political fervour that stirred

Europe during the past six centuries, reaching various climactic peaks

through seers, visionaries and martyrs. Every one of these advocated social

reforms on earth to attain a new heaven, or threatened new hells should the

reforms not be adopted. All were persecuted by the established religious or

political power, or both; then as now, the defenders of the status quo almost

invariably accused the challengers of being madmen or psychopaths. It is all

a matter of firmly held beliefs uttered from pulpits,chancery ballconies and

soap boxes as well as printed in broadsides, pamphlets, or large books, or

smeared on the walls of houses with a wide brush

13. Parapsychology

Psychical Research, also parapsychology, scientific investigation of

alleged phenomena and events that appear to be unaccounted for by conventional

physical, biological, or psychological theories. Parapsychologists study two

kinds of so-called psi phenomena: extrasensory perception (ESP), or the

acquiring of information through nonsensory means; and psychokinesis (PK), or

the ability to affect objects at a distance by means other than known physical

forces. Psychical research also investigates the survival of personality after

death and deals with related topics such as trance mediumship, hauntings,

apparitions, poltergeists (involuntary PK), and out-of-body experiences. The

name of this field of investigation is taken from the Society of Psychical

Research, founded in England in 1882 and in the U.S. in 1884; both groups

continue to publish their findings today.

Historical Development

Among the early achievements of the British group was the investigation of

hypnotism, a field later claimed by medicine and psychology. The society also

investigated phenomena produced at spiritualistic seances and the claims of

spiritualism. Psi phenomena to be investigated were classified as either

physical or mental. The physical effects, or PK, include the movement of

physical objects or an influence upon material processes by the apparent

direct action of mind over matter. The mental manifestations, or ESP, include

telepathy, which is the direct transmission of messages, emotions, or other

subjective states from one person to another without the use of any sensory

channel of communication; clairvoyance, meaning direct responses to a

physical object or event without any sensory contact; and precognition, or a

noninferential response to a future event.

One of the first specific investigations in the field was the examination, by

the British chemist and physicist Sir William Crookes, of the phenomena

produced at seances held by the Scottish medium Daniel Dunglas Home. Home, a

physical medium, held his seances in full light, and the validity of the

paranormal phenomena he produced has never been successfully impugned. The

contents of verbal utterances by mental mediums were also studied.

Significant early research involved the American medium Leonore E. Piper,

whose apparent psychical gifts were discovered by the American philosopher

and psychologist William James. Other lines of investigation dealt with

psychic experiences that seemed to occur spontaneously in everyday life, and

involved the controlled testing of persons with apparently outstanding ESP

abilities.

Rhine’s Laboratory

In the U.S., one of the earliest groups to become active in parapsychology

was the Parapsychology Laboratory of North Carolina’s Duke University, which

began publishing literature in the 1930s. There, under the direction of the

American psychologist Joseph Banks Rhine, methods were developed that

advanced psychical investigations from the correlations of isolated and often

vague anecdotal reports to a mathematical study based on statistics and the

laws of probability.

In the experiments dealing with ESP, Rhine and his associates used mainly a

deck of 25 cards, somewhat similar to ordinary playing cards but bearing on

their faces only five designs: star, circle, cross, square, and wavy lines.

If a subject correctly named 5 out of the shuffled deck of 25 concealed

cards, that was considered pure chance. Certain subjects, however,

consistently named 6 out of 10 cards correctly; so Rhine and his associates

concluded that this demonstrated the existence of ESP. In their experiments

on PK, the group used ordinary dice that were thrown from a cup against a

wall or tumbled in mechanically driven cages. In these tests, an apparent

relationship was found between the mental effort of subjects to “will”

particular faces of the dice to appear upward and the percentage of times the

faces actually did so. The results obtained in many individual experiments

and in the research as a whole, Rhine and his workers decided, could not

reasonably be attributed to the fluctuations of chance.

Rhine retired from Duke University in 1965 and transferred his research to a

privately endowed organization, the Foundation for Research on the Nature of

Man. Since that time parapsychology has become better established in other

universities, as illustrated by the offering of credit courses in the subject

in increasing numbers. In addition, independent research centers continue to

be founded, among them the American Society for Psychical Research, with

headquarters in New York City. The Parapsychological Association, an

international group of scholars actively working in the field, was formed in

1957 and was granted affiliation status by the American Association for the

Advancement of Science in 1969.

Criticisms

Although parapsychologists are increasingly employing and refining scientific

methodologies for their observations, one of the chief criticisms of their

work is that experiments in psi phenomena can rarely be duplicated. Under the

most rigorous laboratory controls, for example, experiments on phenomena such

as out-of-body experiences—in which individuals demonstrate an apparent

ability to locate their center of perception outside their bodies—indicate

that even reputable psychics are rarely able to duplicate earlier, high-

scoring performances. The scores of such individuals, in fact, tend to drop

to the level of probability the more the experiment is repeated.

Nonparapsychologists find psi experiments even more difficult to repeat, and

a majority of conventional scientists dismiss parapsychology findings as

unscientific or at best inconclusive.

A similar criticism is based on the claim by most parapsychologists that psi

phenomena occur beyond the law of causality, which is one of the fundamental

premises of any scientific investigation. Indeed, results of psi experiments

often turn out to be far from or even contradictory to the original

predictions. Parapsychologists admit that psi phenomena fall so far outside

ordinary comprehension that they are often unsure whether an ESP event or a

PK event has occurred; Rhine himself stated that one kind of event could not

occur without the other. Because these phenomena are difficult to define or

isolate when they appear to happen—and, further, because the phenomena occur

only for a select group of observers—most scientists think that psi

investigations fall far short of the rules of objectivity required by the

scientific method. As a result, many parapsychologists, rather than trying to

demonstrate the reality of psi phenomena to a skeptical scientific community,

have turned to exploring how such phenomena might actually work; they even

have drawn on quantum physics for empirical support. Some workers in the

field object to the very notion of repeatability of experiments as foreign to

the nature of psi phenomena; they consider the scientific method, as

currently understood, too restrictive a formulation for exploring the

unknown.

14. Industrial Psychology

Psychologists in industry serve many roles. In the personnel office, they

assist in hiring through testing and interviewing, in developing training

programs, in evaluating employees, and in maintaining good employee relations

and communications. Some psychologists do research for marketing and

advertising departments. Others work in the field of human engineering, which

involves designing machines and workplaces to make them more suitable for

people.

School Psychology

Psychologists in the educational system give most of their attention to

counseling and guidance. They help students plan their school and work

careers. Educational psychologists deal with the processes of teaching and

learning; for example, they may investigate new methods of teaching children

how to read or to do mathematics, in order to make classroom learning more

effective.

Clinical Psychology

Many applied psychologists work in hospitals, clinics, and private practice,

providing therapy to people who need psychological help. By testing and

interviewing, they classify their patients and engage in all forms of

treatment that are not exclusively medical, such as drug therapy and surgery.

A special contribution of clinical psychology is behavior therapy, which is

based on principles of learning and conditioning. Through behavior therapy,

clinical psychologists try to change the behavior of the patient and to

remove unpleasant or undesirable symptoms by arranging the proper

conditioning experiences or the proper rewards for desired behavior. A

patient with a phobia about dogs, for example, might be “desensitized” by a

series of rewards given for closer and closer contact with dogs in

nonthreatening situations. In other forms of therapy, the psychologist may

try to help patients better understand their problems and find new ways of

dealing with them.

Vocabulary

Contents

Physiological psychology - психофизиология. Изучает психику в единстве с ее

нейрофизиологическим субстратом - рассматривает соотношение мозга и психики.

Psychoanalysis - психоанализ. Основывается на идее о том, что поведение

определяется не

только и не столько сознанием, сколько бессознательным.

Behaviourism - бихевиоризм. Направление в американской психологии ХХ в.,

отрицающее

сознание как предмет научного исследования и сводящее психику к различным формам

поведения, понятого как совокупность организма на стимулы внешней среды.

Gestalt psychology - гештальт-психология. Программа изучения психики с

точки зрения

целостных структур - гештальтов, первичным по отношению к своим компонентам.

Cognition - когнитивная психология. Исходит из того, что любая ассоциация

между стимулом и

реакцией создается сначала в мозге.

Tests and Measurements - тесты

Development psychology - возрастная психология. Отрасль психологии,

изучающая закономерности этапов психического развития и формирования личности в

связи с возрастом - на протяжении онтогенеза человека от рождения до старости

Social psychology - социальная психология. Изучает психологические особенности и

закономерности поведения и деятельности людей, обусловленные их включением в

группы

социальные и существованием в них, а также психологические характеристики

самих этих

групп.

Psychiatry and mental health - психиатрия и психическое здоровье. Область

клинической

медицины, изучающая психические болезни

Forensic psychology - судебная психология. Область психологии

юридической, изучающая круг

вопросов, относящихся к судопроизводству.

Сriminology - криминология.

Рhenomenology - феноменология.

Parapsychology- парапсихология (психотроника). Именование гипотез и

представлений, относящихся к психическим явлениям, объяснение коих не имеет

строгого научного обоснования.

Industrial Psychology - индустриальная психология.

2. Physiological psychology

Perception - восприятие

Certain skills - определенные навыки

Innate - врожденный

Perception - восприятие

Nervous system - нервная система

Circulatory system - гормональная регуляция

Central nervous system - центральная нервная система

Spinal cord - спинной мозг

Peripheral nervous system - периферическая нервная система

Glands- железа

Muscles - мышца

Sensory - чувствительный

Neuron - нейрон

Somatic system - соматическая система

Autonomic system - вегетативная система

Sympathetic division - симпатический отдел

Parasympathetic division - парасимпатический отдел

Knee-jerk reflex - рефлекс коленный (пателлярный)

3. Psychoanalysis

Unconscious - бессознательное

Conscious - сознательное

Latent dream - тайные (латентные) мысли

Manifest dream - явные мысли

Instinctual drives - основные инстинкты

Infantile sexuality - инфантильная сексуальность

Adult sexuality - взрослая сексуальность

Oral, anal and genital zones - оральная, анальная и фаллическая стадии

Oedipal period - эдипов комплекс

Структурные компоненты души:

Id - Ид (оно) “содержит все унаследованное, все, что есть при рождении. Ид

резервуар энергии для всей личности, содержание Ид бессознательно

Ego - эго - та часть психического аппарата, которая находится в контакте с

внешней реальностью. Развивается из Ид по мере того, как ребенок начинает

осознавать свою личность. Эго защищает Ид.

Superego - суперэго. Развивается и Эго. Служит судьей или цензором Эго.

Thinking - мышление

Motor control - моторные контроль

Defense mechanisms - защитные механизмы

Repression - подавление

Projection - проекция

Reaction formation - реактивные образование. Явная и обычно бессознательная

инверсия желания

Anxiety - тревожность

Analytical psychology - аналитическая психология

Libido - либидо - половое влечение

Personal unconscious - личное бессознательное

Collective unconscious - коллективное бессознательное

Archetypes - архетипы. Психические структуры, формы без собственного

содержания, которые организуют и канализируют психологический материал.

Persona - персона. Это то, какими мы представляем себя миру

Neurosis - невроз

Primary trauma of birth - первичная травма детства

Mental, emotional and sensory powers - ментальная, эмоциональная и

чувственная сила

Situation neuroses - ситуационный невроз

Character neuroses - невротик

Complex unconscious fantasies in children - комплекс бессознательных фантазий

в детстве

Death instinct - инстинкт смерти. Под ним понимаются присущие индивиду - как

правило,

бессознательные - тенденции к саморазрушению и возврату в неорганическое

состояние.

Depressive position - депрессивное состояние

Paranoid position - параноидальное состояние

7. Gestalt psychology

Associationism - ассоциативная психология

8. Cognition psychology

Attention - внимание

Perception - восприятие

Memory - память

Reasoning - мотивация

Judgment - суждение

Imagining - воображение

Thinking - мышление

Speech - речь

Psycholinguistics - психолингвистика. Научная дисциплина, изучающая

обусловленность процессов речи и ее восприятия структурой соответствующего

языка, или языка вообще.

Intelligence - интеллект

7. Tests and Measurements

Achievement tests - тест достижений

Aptitude tests - тест на профпригодность

Intellegence tests - тест умственных способностей

Verbal abilities - способности на восприятие вербального (знакового) материала

Infant intelligence tests - тесты на определение уровня интеллекта детей

Interest inventories - опросники профориентации

Objective Personality tests - объективные качества личности

Social extroversion or depression - социальные экстроверсия и интроверсия

Personality types - психотипы

Projective techniques - Проективные тесты

Validity - валидность. Указывает, что именно тест измеряет и насколько хорошо

он это делает.

Criterion-related validity - критериально-связывающая валидность

Construct validity - конструктивная валидность

9. Social psychology

Emotions - эмоции

Desires - желания

Social Affiliation - социальная аффилиация (стремление быть в обществе других

людей)

Influence - влияние

10. Psychiatry and mental health

Patterns - образ жизни

Depressive disorders - депрессия

Organic psychoses - органический психоз. Глубокие расстройства психики,

психической деятельности; проявляются в нарушении отражения реального мира,

возможности его познания, изменении поведения и отношения к окружающему.

13. Parapsychology

Extrasensory perception (ESP) - экстрасенсорное восприятие

Psychokinesis (PK) - психокинез

Trance mediumship, hauntings, poltergeists (involuntary PK) - трансовый

медиумизм, телепатия, полтергейст

Out-of-body experience - опыт вне телесного сознания

Hypnotism - гипноз (техника воздействия на индивида путем фокализации его

внимания с целью сузить поле сознания и подчинить его влиянию,, контролю

внешнего агента - гипнотизера, внушения коего гипнотизируемый будет

выполнять.

LITERATURE

1. Borchardt D.H. How to find out in Psychology. Pergamon Press 1984

2. Stedman`s concise Medical dictionary. First Webster`s New World Edition

1987.

3. Encarta Encyclopedia.1996

4. Никошкова Е.В. Англо-русский словарь по психологии. М: РУССО, ИП РАН, 1998

5. Ривкин В.Л., Морозов Н.В. Русско-английский медицинский словарь-

справочник с толкованиями. М: РУССО, 1996

6. Словарь практического психолога. Минск: Харвест, 1998

7. Хрестоматия по психологии личности. Самара: Издательский Дом “Бахрах”, 1996