Monday 6 August 2018
Sunday 5 August 2018
Behaviorism
History of Behaviorism
Formally founded by John B. Watson in 1913.-19th Century: Similar views as psycho analytic and Gestalt movements in psychology.-20th Century: Result of cognitive revolution.
-21st Century:"behavior analysis," is a thriving field.
Behaviorism Theorists
-Ivan Pavlov-John B. Watson
-B.F. Skinner
Definition
-Behaviorism equates learning with behaviorsthat can be observed and measured.
- Reinforcement is key to successful transfer
through behavioristic learning.
Several aspects of behavioral psychology have direct applications in OHS interventions.
Behavioural psychology is sometimes referred to as ‘the psychology of learning’ or
‘learning and motivation’
In other words, behaviour can be controlled by its consequences. A stimulus leads to a
response, which is reinforced: Stimulus ----> Response ----> Reinforcement. The stimulus for
Thorndike’s cats was the box. The response was the action of pressing the lever and the
reinforcement was the food. B. F. Skinner (1938) applied the term ‘operand conditioning’
to this form of behavior modification after extending the concept with rats. In the now
iconic ‘Skinner box,’ rats learned to press a lever when a stimulus (e.g. a light or tone)
was present. The lever press resulted in the delivery of food (the reinforce). Applying
this to behavior-based safety, the stimulus-response-reinforce connection parallels the
antecedent–behaviour-consequences (ABC) model that is used to analyse and change
behaviours
Response |Positive (Appetite/Nice) | Negative (Aversive/Nasty)
Produces the reinforcer| Positive reinforcement(Response increases) | Punishment(Response decreases)
Eliminates/prevents or
removes the reinforcer |Omission training(Response decreases)| Negative reinforcement (Response increases)
Application
- Students will work for things that bring them positive
feelings.
-Use of a token system can reinforce positive academic
performance.
- Students can utilize the art of repetition so that information
remains concrete during the learning process.
-Small progressively sequenced tasks ensure that students
remain focused during the learning process.
Sunday 29 July 2018
about us
learning psychology is a platform to create awareness and to learn psychology absolutely free of cost. a unique platform to crest and learn different things
if you have any query directly contact us either from contact form in respected contact page of mail us info2ankitkumarverma@gmail.comwill be in touch with your in few working days
stay tuned, stay active
highlights
Name- Ankit kumar verma
City - Allahabad
Pin- 211016
privacy policy
Privacy Policy
Effective date: July 30, 2018learning psychology ("us", "we", or "our") operates the caniankitkumarverma.blogspot.com website (the "Service").
This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data. This Privacy Policy for learning psychology is powered by FreePrivacyPolicy.com.We use your data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, accessible from caniankitkumarverma.blogspot.com
Information Collection And Use
We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.Types of Data Collected
Personal Data
While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you ("Personal Data"). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:- First name and last name
- Cookies and Usage Data
Usage Data
We may also collect information how the Service is accessed and used ("Usage Data"). This Usage Data may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.Tracking & Cookies Data
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information.Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Service.
You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.
Examples of Cookies we use:
- Session Cookies. We use Session Cookies to operate our Service.
- Preference Cookies. We use Preference Cookies to remember your preferences and various settings.
- Security Cookies. We use Security Cookies for security purposes.
Use of Data
learning psychology uses the collected data for various purposes:- To provide and maintain the Service
- To notify you about changes to our Service
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
- To provide customer care and support
- To provide analysis or valuable information so that we can improve the Service
- To monitor the usage of the Service
- To detect, prevent and address technical issues
Transfer Of Data
Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.If you are located outside India and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to India and process it there.
Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
learning psychology will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.
Disclosure Of Data
Legal Requirements
learning psychology may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:- To comply with a legal obligation
- To protect and defend the rights or property of learning psychology
- To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
- To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
- To protect against legal liability
Security Of Data
The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.Service Providers
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service ("Service Providers"), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
Analytics
We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.-
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.
For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Links To Other Sites
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.
Children's Privacy
Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 ("Children").We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
Changes To This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the "effective date" at the top of this Privacy Policy.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:- By email: info2ankitkumarverma@gmail.com
Friday 27 July 2018
psychology as science
welcomes you
Psychology as a Science
The Problem of Intuition
The results of these “everyday” research projects can teach us many principles of human behavior. We learn through experience that if we give someone bad news, he or she may blame us even though the news was not our fault. We learn that people may become depressed after they fail at an important task. We see that aggressive behavior occurs frequently in our society, and we develop theories to explain why this is so. These insights are part of everyday social life. In fact, much research in psychology involves the scientific study of everyday behavior (Heider, 1958; Kelley, 1967). Unfortunately, the way people collect and interpret data in their everyday lives is not always scientific. Often, when one explanation for an event seems “right,” we adopt that explanation as the truth. However, this reasoning is more intuitive than scientific. Intuition is thinking that is more experiential, emotional, automatic, and unconscious, and does not lead to careful analysis of all the variables in a situation (Kahneman, 2011). Other explanations might be possible and and even more accurate. For example, eyewitnesses to violent crimes are often extremely confident in their identifications of criminals. But research finds that eyewitnesses are just as Learning Objective 1. Describe the differences among opinions, values and facts, and explain how the scientific method is used to provide evidence for facts. 9 confident when they are wrong as when they are right (Cutler & Wells, 2009; Wells & Hasel, 2008). People may also believe in extrasensory perception (ESP), or the predictions of astrology, when there is no evidence for either (Gilovich, 1993). Furthermore, psychologists have also found that there are a variety of biases that can influence our perceptions. These biases lead us to draw faulty conclusions (Fiske & Taylor, 2007; Hsee & Hastie, 2006). In addition, most individuals listen to people they know and trust to give them accurate information rather than doing research to determine what scientific studies show.
Let’s start with thinking…critically…about anything. You have most certainly heard about critical thinking, as it is often stated as a learning objective in college-level courses. You may even think that the critical thinking you do in your Physics class is not the same critical thinking that you do in your Psychology class. And in a way, you are right. However, I challenge you to broaden your idea of critical thinking, beyond specific courses, even beyond areas of study, to include everything you think about—from the most mundane decisions you make to the weightiest ones. The critical thinking model that we will use in this course is one that allows you to do just that. Developed by Richard Paul and Linda Elder (2006), the model has eight elements of reasoning that, together, capture the essence of the thinking critically—the process of analyzing and assessing thinking with a view to improving it.
ELEMENT OF THOUGHT QUESTION POSED BY ELEMENT OF THOUGHT
Purpose
Assumptions
Implications and Consequences
Information
Concepts
Interpretation,
Conclusions
Psychology’s Central Questions Psychology has changed dramatically over its history, but the most important questions that psychologists address have remained constant. Some of these questions follow, and we will discuss them both in this chapter and in the chapters to come:
• Nature versus nurture:
Are genes or environment most influential in determining the behavior of individuals and in accounting for differences among people? Most scientists now agree that both genes and environment play crucial roles in most human behaviors. Yet we still have much to learn about how nature, our biological makeup, and nurture, the environment and experiences that we have during our lives, work together (Harris, 1998; Pinker, 2002). The proportion of differences that is due to genetics is known as the heritability of the characteristic. We will see, for example, that the heritability of intelligence is very high (about .85 out of 1.0), but we will also see that nature and nurture interact in complex ways. Given this complex interaction, psychologists now consider the question of how they interact to produce behavior as more relevant than whether nature or nurture is more important.
• Free will versus determinism:
This question concerns the extent to which people have control over their own actions. Are we the products of our environment, guided by forces out of our control, or are we able to choose the behaviors we engage in? Most of us like to believe that we are able to do what we want. Our legal system is based on the concept of free will. We punish criminals because we believe that they have choice over their behaviors and freely choose to disobey the law. But as we will discuss later in the research focus in this section, recent research has suggested that we may have less control over our own behavior than we think we do (Wegner, 2002)
. • Conscious versus unconscious processing:
To what extent are we conscious of our own actions and the causes of them? Many of the major theories of psychology, ranging from the Freudian psychodynamic theories to cognitive psychology, argue that much of our behavior is determined by variables of which we are not aware.
• Differences versus similarities:
To what extent are we all similar, and to what extent are we different? For instance, are there basic psychological and personality differences between men and women, or are men and women by-and-large similar? What about people from different ethnicities and cultures? Are people around the world generally the same, or are they influenced by their backgrounds and environments in different ways? Personality, social, and cross-cultural psychologists attempt to answer these classic questions. • Accuracy versus inaccuracy: To what extent are humans good information processors? It appears that people are “good enough” to make sense of the world around them and to make decent decisions (Fiske, 2003). But human judgment is sometimes compromised by inaccuracies in our thinking styles and by our motivations and emotions. For instance, our judgment may be affected by emotional responses to events in our environment
How Do Psychologists Study Behavior?
—well, that depends on whether their purpose is to describe, explain, predict, or change it
This introduction to research methods in Psychology is intended to do just that—introduce you to the ways psychologists study behavior. Although more than half of psychologists are engaged in applied practice (i.e., changing behavior), the evidence that guides their interventions is the result of behavioral research. Psychologists are scientists searching for answers to questions and solutions to problems. Research methods are the indispensable tools of their investigations. Like any skilled worker who uses tools in his/her profession, psychologists know which tool to use for the job at hand. If you can organize the psychologist’s toolbox in three tiers (paradigms, methods, statistics), you will be more likely to know which methods answer which questions.
next
PSYCHOLOGY: UNDERSTANDING SELF AND OTHER
People hold a variety of expectations from the study of psychology. Many of them
are because of ignorance but some are also true. Psychology promises to help us
in understanding how various mental functions operate and how people behave in
different conditions. Its principles and theories are used in many situations.
Psychology is relevant to solving teaching-learning problems in schools, problems
in socializing children at home, motivating people in organizations and helping people
to solve their emotional problems in personal lives. In addition, there are numerous
human phenomena which require psychological theories and techniques. Selection
of people for various jobs, assessing abilities and aptitudes of people, providing
training for developing skills, setting goals and motivating people to achieve them
and improving the style of life for better health are some of the very popular
applications of psychology. In brief, understanding the growth and development
of a person or functioning of a group are important areas of psychological
applications.
Thus it is clear that the study of psychology is needed to understand ourselves
better in terms of the potentialities that we possess and shaping them in desired
directions. Such an effort is also done at the level of groups and organizations
which represent human collectivities. In other words, a proper study and
understanding of psychology can help us understand ourselves and others better
and enhance the quality of life.
NATURE OF PSYCHOLOGY
How human beings receive information from environment and perceive objects? How people, learn and remember experiences? How do people think, reason and solve problems? How do they differ in various psychological characteristics like intelligence, personality and interest? How do people cope with various problems in life? A moment’s reflection will make it clear that in all the above questions brain, mind or mental activities and behaviour are involved. Any observable action is an outcome of a coordination of brain, mind and behaviour. Brain has a physical structure whereas mind is considered a functional correlate of brain. Psychology tries to understand the laws and principles characterizing the linkages across them in a scientific manner.
MAJOR PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
Biological perspective : It considers human beings as nothing but a biological structure. Treating behaviour in purely physical terms, it looks at the internal physiological structures (e.g., brain, nervous system). Subscribing to a materialistic view it asserts that all behaviour has a physiological basis. In this view the working of nervous system and the role of genetic factors in shaping behaviour become major concerns
Behavioural Perspective : This perspective stresses on the role of environmental stimuli in determining the way people act. It argues that what we are is largely the result of past learning
Accordingly, the overt or observable behaviour becomes the subject matter of psychology. This approach does not give importance to consciousness and subjective mental states. In this tradition observable behaviour and its relationship with environmental conditions is the main focus of study. Its proponent W.J. Watson and exponent B.F. Skinner believed in the objective study of behaviour.
Behaviourism has many variants but all share common interest in learning and use explanations based on observable events.
Psychodynamic Perspective : We are often unaware of the true reasons for our actions. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psycho-analysis, is closely associated with this view. Focusing on motivational questions about behaviour, this perspective examines the role of internal processes. It believes that each behaviour has a cause and that cause is to be found in the mind. It is held that much of our behaviour is governed by the unconscious processes that lie outside the range of our awareness. This view uses the observations of people suffering from mental disorders and considers early childhood experiences as determinants of adult behaviour. According to this view, human being is driven primarily by sexual and aggressive instincts. The neo-Freudians like Horney, Erikson and Erich Fromm have developed psycho-analysis in various forms. Similarly Jung and Adler developed different traditions
. Cognitive Perspective: The main focus of this view is on how people know, understand and think about the world. Much of our behaviour involves mental or cognitive processes such as perceiving, remembering and thinking. They are as important as environmental stimuli in understanding our behaviour. They mediate between environmental stimuli and organism’s responses. They function in organized and systematic way. As active organisms, we process information and act upon it. Our cognitions determine the course of our behaviour. We observe the environment and respond on the basis of its interpretation. Our thoughts are both causes as well as results of our overt actions. This perspective has links with the emerging fields of cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Humanistic Perspective : Often termed as a third force, this perspective views humans as basically good and responsible beings. It is also held that one’s behaviour is not simply determined by either past experiences or the current circumstances. People can make choices. The emphasis in on ‘free will’. The subjective experiences and interpretations of the people are important in determining the course of their actions.
Indian Perspective: The Indian thought system has discussed the problem of human life from a broader perspective. A human being is embedded in relationship with environment and divinity; and harmony of mind, body and soul is emphasized. People are attracted to objects of desire unmindfully and that creates problems. People are ignorant of their true nature. The difficulties in life are because we are not aware of the potentialities and misidentify with physical objects. The remedy is proposed in terms of various forms of Yoga like Bhakti, Gyan, Karma and Raj yogas. In addition, there have been many other developments in all these systems and other traditions. 1.6 RELATIONSHIP OF PSYCHOLOGY WIT
Next
Ego
According to Sigmund Freud, the ego is part of personality that mediates the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. Freud described the id as the most basic part of personality that urges people to fulfill their most primal needs. The superego, on the other hand, is the moralistic part of personality that forms later in childhood as a result of upbringing and social influences. It is the ego's job to strike a balance between these two often competing forces and to make sure that fulfilling the needs of the id and superego conform to the demands of reality.
In his 1933 book New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Freudcompared the relationship between the id and the ego to that of a horse and rider. The horse represents the id, a powerful force that offers the energy to propel forward motion. The rider represents the ego, the guiding force that directs the power of the id toward a goal.
Freud noted, however, that this relationship did not always go as planned. In less ideal situations, a rider may find himself simply along for the ride as he allows his horse to go in the direction the animal wants to go. Just as with the horse and rider, the id's primal urges may sometimes be too powerful for the ego to keep in check.
In her own 1936 book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense, Anna Freudthat all of the ego's defenses against the id were carried out behind the scenes. These measures against the id are known as the defense mechanisms, which are carried out silently and invisibly by the ego.
While we cannot observe the defenses in action, Anna Freud suggested that they could be observed in retrospect. Repression is one example. When something is repressed from awareness, the ego is not aware that the information is missing. It is only later, when it become obvious that some piece of information or a memory is gone, that the actions of the ego become apparent.
Quotations About the Ego
Sometimes it helps to look at the original source of these ideas to get a better perspective on the topic. So what did Freud have to say about his concept of the ego? He wrote extensively about the ego as well as its relationship to other aspects of personality.
Here are just a few of his more famous quotes about the ego:
On the ego's origins:
"It is easy to see that the ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world." (Sigmund Freud, 1923, From The Ego and the Id)
On the ego's influence:
"The ego is not master in its own house." (Sigmund Freud, 1917, From A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis)
"The ego represents what we call reason and sanity, in contrast to the id which contains the passions." (Sigmund Freud, 1923, From The Ego and the Id)
From the moment when he catches sight of the light of the world a man seeks to find out himself and get hold of himself out of its confusion, in which he, with everything else, is tossed about in motley mixture. But everything that comes in contact with the child defends itself in turn against his attacks, and asserts its own persistence. Accordingly, because each thingcares for itself at the same time comes into constant collision with other things, the combat of self-assertion is unavoidable. Victory or defeat – between the two alternatives the fate of the combat wavers. The victor becomes the lord, the vanquished one the subject: the former exercises supremacy and "rights of supremacy," the latter fulfills in awe and deference the "duties of a subject. But both remain enemies, and always lie in wait: they watch for each other’s weaknesses – children for those of their parents and parents for those of their children (e.g., their fear); either the stick conquers the man, or the man conquers the stick. In childhood liberation takes the direction of trying to get to the bottom of things, to get at what is "back of" things; therefore we spy out the weak points of everybody, for which, it is well known, children have a sure instinct; therefore we like to smash things, like to rummage through hidden corners, pry after what is covered up or out of the way, and try what we can do with everything. When we once get at what is back of the things, we know we are safe; when, e.g., we have got at the fact that the rod is too weak against our obduracy, then we no longer fear it, "have out-grown it." Back of the rod, mightier than it, stands our – obduracy, our obdurate courage. By degrees we get at what is back of everything that was mysterious and uncanny to us, the mysteriously-dreaded might of the rod, the father’s stern look, etc., and back of all we find our ataraxia, i. e. imperturbability, intrepidity, our counter force, our odds of strength, our invincibility. Before that which formerly inspired in us fear and deference we no longer retreat shyly, but take courage. Back of everything we find our courage, our superiority; back of the sharp command of parents and authorities stands, after all, our courageous choice or our outwitting shrewdness. And the more we feel ourselves, the smaller appears that which before seemed invincible. And what is our trickery, shrewdness, courage, obduracy? What else but – mind!6 Through a considerable time we are spared a fight that is so exhausting later – the fight against reason. The fairest part of childhood passes without the necessity of coming to blows with reason. We care nothing at all about it, do not meddle with it, admit no reason. We are not to be persuaded to anything by conviction, and are deaf to good arguments, principles, etc.; on the other hand, coaxing, punishment, etc. are hard for us to resist. This stern life-and-death combat with reason enters later, and begins a new phase; in childhood we scamper about without racking our brains much. Mind is the name of the first self-discovery, the first self-discovery, the first undeification of the divine; i. e., of the uncanny, the spooks, the "powers above." Our fresh feeling of youth, this feeling of self, now defers to nothing; the world is discredited, for we are above it, we are mind. 6Geist. This word will be translated sometimes "mind" and sometimes "spirit" in the following pages. 21 22 I. A HUMAN LIFE Now for the first time we see that hitherto we have not looked at the world intelligently at all, but only stared at it. We exercise the beginnings of our strength on natural powers. We defer to parents as a natural power; later we say: Father and mother are to be forsaken, all natural power to be counted as riven. They are vanquished. For the rational, i.e. the "intellectual" man, there is no family as a natural power; a renunciation of parents, brothers, etc., makes its appearance. If these are "born again" as intellectual, rational powers, they are no longer at all what they were before. And not only parents, but men in general, are conquered by the young man; they are no hindrance to him, and are no longer regarded; for now he says: One must obey God rather than men. From this high standpoint everything "earthly" recedes into contemptible remoteness; for the standpoint is – the heavenly. The attitude is now altogether reversed; the youth takes up an intellectual position, while the boy, who did not yet feel himself as mind, grew up on mindless learning. The former does not try to get hold of things (e.g. to get into his head the data of history), but of the thoughts that lie hidden in things, and so, e.g., of the spirit of history. On the other hand, the boy understands connections no doubt, but not ideas, the spirit; therefore he strings together whatever can be learned, without proceeding a priori and theoretically, i.e. without looking for ideas. As in childhood one had to overcome the resistance of the laws of the world, so now in everything that he proposes he is met by an objection of the mind, of reason, of his own conscience. "That is unreasonable, unchristian, unpatriotic," etc., cries conscience to us, and – frightens us away from it. Not the might of the avenging Eumenides, not Poseidon’s wrath, not God, far as he sees the hidden, not the father’s rod of punishment, do we fear, but – conscience. We "run after our thoughts" now, and follow their commands just as before we followed parental, human ones. Our course of action is determined by our thoughts (ideas, conceptions, faith) as it is in childhood by the commands of our parents. For all that, we were already thinking when we were children, only our thoughts were not fleshless, abstract, absolute, i. e., NOTHING BUT THOUGHTS, a heaven in themselves, a pure world of thought, logical thoughts. On the contrary, they had been only thoughts that we had about a thing; we thought of the thing so or so. Thus we may have thought "God made the world that we see there," but we did not think of ("search") the "depths of the Godhead itself"; we may have thought "that is the truth about the matter," but we do not think of Truth itself, nor unite into one sentence "God is truth." The "depths of the Godhead, who is truth," we did not touch. Over such purely logical, i.e. theological questions, "What is truth?" Pilate does not stop, though he does not therefore hesitate to ascertain in an individual case "what truth there is in the thing," i.e. whether the thing is true. Any thought bound to a thing is not yet nothing but a thought, absolute thought. To bring to light the pure thought, or to be of its party, is the delight of youth; and all the shapes of light in the world of thought, like truth, freedom, humanity, Man, etc., illumine and inspire the youthful soul. But, when the spirit is recognized as the essential thing, it still makes a difference whether the spirit is poor or rich, and therefore one seeks to become rich in spirit; the spirit wants to spread out so as to found its empire – an empire that is not of this world, the world just conquered. Thus, then, it longs to become all in all to itself; i.e., although I am spirit, I am not yet perfected spirit, and must first seek the complete spirit. But with that I, who had just now found myself as spirit, lose myself again at once, bowing before the complete spirit as one not my own but supernal, and feeling my emptiness. Spirit is the essential point for everything, to be sure; but then is every spirit the "right" spirit? The right and true spirit is the ideal of spirit, the "Holy Spirit." It is not my or your spirit, but just – an ideal, supernal one, it is "God." "God is spirit." And this supernal "Father in heaven gives it to those that pray to him."7 The man is distinguished from the youth by the fact that he takes the world as it is, instead of everywhere fancying it amiss and wanting to improve it, i.e. model it after his ideal; in him the view that one must deal with the world according to his interest, not according to his ideals, becomes confirmed. 7Luke 11, 13. 23 So long as one knows himself only as spirit, and feels that all the value of his existence consists in being spirit (it becomes easy for the youth to give his life, the "bodily life," for a nothing, for the silliest point of honor), so long it is only thoughts that one has, ideas that he hopes to be able to realize some day when he has found a sphere of action; thus one has meanwhile only ideals, unexecuted ideas or thoughts. Not till one has fallen in love with his corporeal self, and takes a pleasure in himself as a living flesh-and-blood person – but it is in mature years, in the man, that we find it so – not till then has one a personal or egoistic interest, i.e. an interest not only of our spirit, e. g., but of total satisfaction, satisfaction of the whole chap, a selfish interest. Just compare a man with a youth, and see if he will not appear to you harder, less magnanimous, more selfish. Is he therefore worse? No, you say; he has only become more definite, or, as you also call it, more "practical." But the main point is this, that he makes himself more the center than does the youth, who is infatuated about other things, e.g. God, fatherland, etc. Therefore the man shows a second self-discovery. The youth found himself as spirit and lost himself again in the general spirit, the complete, holy spirit, Man, mankind – in short, all ideals; the man finds himself as embodied spirit. Boys had only unintellectual interests (i.e. interests devoid of thoughts and ideas), youths only intellectual ones; the man has bodily, personal, egoistic interests. If the child has not an object that it can occupy itself with, it feels ennui; for it does not yet know how to occupy itself with itself. The youth, on the contrary, throws the object aside, because for him thoughts arose out of the object; he occupies himself with his thoughts, his dreams, occupies himself intellectually, or "his mind is occupied." The young man includes everything not intellectual under the contemptuous name of "externalities." If he nevertheless sticks to the most trivial externalities (e.g. the customs of students’ clubs and other formalities), it is because, and when, he discovers mind in them, i.e. when they are symbols to him. As I find myself back of things, and that as mind, so I must later find myself also back of thoughts – to wit, as their creator and owner. In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies – an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e. g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: "I alone am corporeal." And now I take the world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself. If as spirit I had thrust away the world in the deepest contempt, so as owner I thrust spirits or ideas away into their "vanity." They have no longer any power over me, as no "earthly might" has power over the spirit. The child was realistic, taken up with the things of this world, till little by little he succeeded in getting at what was back of these very things; the youth was idealistic, inspired by thoughts, till he worked his way up to where he became the man, the egoistic man, who deals with things and thoughts according to his heart’s pleasure, and sets his personal interest above everything.
Everything came from the creation. In the beginning, there was nothing, or the void— there was only God; only oneness. And God wanted to exist and interact with something, so he created the World with the great force of separation. Creation was born of separation, and what is created is still pure God. The Soul is God from a localized or individual point of view. But the Soul can perceive the infinity of the void, in which there is contentment in stillness, with no mind and no need. The Ego is also God. It is our awareness of and reaction to separation. Through Ego we experience the illusion of not being loved by God. This part of us that holds on tight to the belief in separation, causing joyful and painful emotions to rise up inside us as we look for love from the outside. If we can learn to observe and master these emotions, we learn that all is love. This is spiritual evolution. The Ego is a tool, a beautiful gift, the contrast that shows us the light of God.
Denial means to choose the perception of Ego rather than Soul. But as we evolve, our Ego becomes more powerful, and there is more and more conflict inside of us.
Fear is avoidance, because we don’t want to suffer. We want to be with another person, but don’t ask for a date because of fear of rejection. We don’t try to get a job, because we fear no one will want to hire us (rejection), or that we won’t be competent and will be fired (abandonment). We even don’t pray, because we might hear no answer.
Pride is the most obvious and complicated of the denials. Pride is a lie—we pretend that we are in charge, that we don’t suffer from emotions and we justify our mistakes. We use pride to protect our image—to others and to ourselves. Pride grows from a profound need for outside love. We say or do things to compete or get attention in some form. The mask of pride can be self-sustaining—we are proud of being proud, and might pretend to be humble to justify it. Not feeling important or not being right originates self-hatred.
Abandonment is when something went away and we feel alone. It can be a person, in the form of physical death or the end of a relationship. We can lose a job, a car or anything. Something could leave us, or we could leave it—it is all abandonment.
Rejection is when someone or something pushes us away, and that makes us feel unloved. Someone could call us an asshole or the IRS might conduct an audit. It could be us pushing something away. We can find ourselves to be unlovable and that is a form of rejection.
Guilt is not whether we did something wrong, it is whether or not others approve of what we did. If we did the right thing, but others judge us, then we feel guilty. A student could study hard for a test, and make a high score that skews the bell curve for other students (his friends)—they then blame the good student for their lower scores and he feels guilty. If we do something “wrong”, but others congratulate us, we don’t feel guilty. For example, a gang member commits a crime as part of his gang initiation, and everyone is happy about it.
Next
Human life
From the moment when he catches sight of the light of the world a man seeks to find out himself and get hold of himself out of its confusion, in which he, with everything else, is tossed about in motley mixture. But everything that comes in contact with the child defends itself in turn against his attacks, and asserts its own persistence. Accordingly, because each thingcares for itself at the same time comes into constant collision with other things, the combat of self-assertion is unavoidable. Victory or defeat – between the two alternatives the fate of the combat wavers. The victor becomes the lord, the vanquished one the subject: the former exercises supremacy and "rights of supremacy," the latter fulfills in awe and deference the "duties of a subject. But both remain enemies, and always lie in wait: they watch for each other’s weaknesses – children for those of their parents and parents for those of their children (e.g., their fear); either the stick conquers the man, or the man conquers the stick. In childhood liberation takes the direction of trying to get to the bottom of things, to get at what is "back of" things; therefore we spy out the weak points of everybody, for which, it is well known, children have a sure instinct; therefore we like to smash things, like to rummage through hidden corners, pry after what is covered up or out of the way, and try what we can do with everything. When we once get at what is back of the things, we know we are safe; when, e.g., we have got at the fact that the rod is too weak against our obduracy, then we no longer fear it, "have out-grown it." Back of the rod, mightier than it, stands our – obduracy, our obdurate courage. By degrees we get at what is back of everything that was mysterious and uncanny to us, the mysteriously-dreaded might of the rod, the father’s stern look, etc., and back of all we find our ataraxia, i. e. imperturbability, intrepidity, our counter force, our odds of strength, our invincibility. Before that which formerly inspired in us fear and deference we no longer retreat shyly, but take courage. Back of everything we find our courage, our superiority; back of the sharp command of parents and authorities stands, after all, our courageous choice or our outwitting shrewdness. And the more we feel ourselves, the smaller appears that which before seemed invincible. And what is our trickery, shrewdness, courage, obduracy? What else but – mind!6 Through a considerable time we are spared a fight that is so exhausting later – the fight against reason. The fairest part of childhood passes without the necessity of coming to blows with reason. We care nothing at all about it, do not meddle with it, admit no reason. We are not to be persuaded to anything by conviction, and are deaf to good arguments, principles, etc.; on the other hand, coaxing, punishment, etc. are hard for us to resist. This stern life-and-death combat with reason enters later, and begins a new phase; in childhood we scamper about without racking our brains much. Mind is the name of the first self-discovery, the first self-discovery, the first undeification of the divine; i. e., of the uncanny, the spooks, the "powers above." Our fresh feeling of youth, this feeling of self, now defers to nothing; the world is discredited, for we are above it, we are mind. 6Geist. This word will be translated sometimes "mind" and sometimes "spirit" in the following pages. 21 22 I. A HUMAN LIFE Now for the first time we see that hitherto we have not looked at the world intelligently at all, but only stared at it. We exercise the beginnings of our strength on natural powers. We defer to parents as a natural power; later we say: Father and mother are to be forsaken, all natural power to be counted as riven. They are vanquished. For the rational, i.e. the "intellectual" man, there is no family as a natural power; a renunciation of parents, brothers, etc., makes its appearance. If these are "born again" as intellectual, rational powers, they are no longer at all what they were before. And not only parents, but men in general, are conquered by the young man; they are no hindrance to him, and are no longer regarded; for now he says: One must obey God rather than men. From this high standpoint everything "earthly" recedes into contemptible remoteness; for the standpoint is – the heavenly. The attitude is now altogether reversed; the youth takes up an intellectual position, while the boy, who did not yet feel himself as mind, grew up on mindless learning. The former does not try to get hold of things (e.g. to get into his head the data of history), but of the thoughts that lie hidden in things, and so, e.g., of the spirit of history. On the other hand, the boy understands connections no doubt, but not ideas, the spirit; therefore he strings together whatever can be learned, without proceeding a priori and theoretically, i.e. without looking for ideas. As in childhood one had to overcome the resistance of the laws of the world, so now in everything that he proposes he is met by an objection of the mind, of reason, of his own conscience. "That is unreasonable, unchristian, unpatriotic," etc., cries conscience to us, and – frightens us away from it. Not the might of the avenging Eumenides, not Poseidon’s wrath, not God, far as he sees the hidden, not the father’s rod of punishment, do we fear, but – conscience. We "run after our thoughts" now, and follow their commands just as before we followed parental, human ones. Our course of action is determined by our thoughts (ideas, conceptions, faith) as it is in childhood by the commands of our parents. For all that, we were already thinking when we were children, only our thoughts were not fleshless, abstract, absolute, i. e., NOTHING BUT THOUGHTS, a heaven in themselves, a pure world of thought, logical thoughts. On the contrary, they had been only thoughts that we had about a thing; we thought of the thing so or so. Thus we may have thought "God made the world that we see there," but we did not think of ("search") the "depths of the Godhead itself"; we may have thought "that is the truth about the matter," but we do not think of Truth itself, nor unite into one sentence "God is truth." The "depths of the Godhead, who is truth," we did not touch. Over such purely logical, i.e. theological questions, "What is truth?" Pilate does not stop, though he does not therefore hesitate to ascertain in an individual case "what truth there is in the thing," i.e. whether the thing is true. Any thought bound to a thing is not yet nothing but a thought, absolute thought. To bring to light the pure thought, or to be of its party, is the delight of youth; and all the shapes of light in the world of thought, like truth, freedom, humanity, Man, etc., illumine and inspire the youthful soul. But, when the spirit is recognized as the essential thing, it still makes a difference whether the spirit is poor or rich, and therefore one seeks to become rich in spirit; the spirit wants to spread out so as to found its empire – an empire that is not of this world, the world just conquered. Thus, then, it longs to become all in all to itself; i.e., although I am spirit, I am not yet perfected spirit, and must first seek the complete spirit. But with that I, who had just now found myself as spirit, lose myself again at once, bowing before the complete spirit as one not my own but supernal, and feeling my emptiness. Spirit is the essential point for everything, to be sure; but then is every spirit the "right" spirit? The right and true spirit is the ideal of spirit, the "Holy Spirit." It is not my or your spirit, but just – an ideal, supernal one, it is "God." "God is spirit." And this supernal "Father in heaven gives it to those that pray to him."7 The man is distinguished from the youth by the fact that he takes the world as it is, instead of everywhere fancying it amiss and wanting to improve it, i.e. model it after his ideal; in him the view that one must deal with the world according to his interest, not according to his ideals, becomes confirmed. 7Luke 11, 13. 23 So long as one knows himself only as spirit, and feels that all the value of his existence consists in being spirit (it becomes easy for the youth to give his life, the "bodily life," for a nothing, for the silliest point of honor), so long it is only thoughts that one has, ideas that he hopes to be able to realize some day when he has found a sphere of action; thus one has meanwhile only ideals, unexecuted ideas or thoughts. Not till one has fallen in love with his corporeal self, and takes a pleasure in himself as a living flesh-and-blood person – but it is in mature years, in the man, that we find it so – not till then has one a personal or egoistic interest, i.e. an interest not only of our spirit, e. g., but of total satisfaction, satisfaction of the whole chap, a selfish interest. Just compare a man with a youth, and see if he will not appear to you harder, less magnanimous, more selfish. Is he therefore worse? No, you say; he has only become more definite, or, as you also call it, more "practical." But the main point is this, that he makes himself more the center than does the youth, who is infatuated about other things, e.g. God, fatherland, etc. Therefore the man shows a second self-discovery. The youth found himself as spirit and lost himself again in the general spirit, the complete, holy spirit, Man, mankind – in short, all ideals; the man finds himself as embodied spirit. Boys had only unintellectual interests (i.e. interests devoid of thoughts and ideas), youths only intellectual ones; the man has bodily, personal, egoistic interests. If the child has not an object that it can occupy itself with, it feels ennui; for it does not yet know how to occupy itself with itself. The youth, on the contrary, throws the object aside, because for him thoughts arose out of the object; he occupies himself with his thoughts, his dreams, occupies himself intellectually, or "his mind is occupied." The young man includes everything not intellectual under the contemptuous name of "externalities." If he nevertheless sticks to the most trivial externalities (e.g. the customs of students’ clubs and other formalities), it is because, and when, he discovers mind in them, i.e. when they are symbols to him. As I find myself back of things, and that as mind, so I must later find myself also back of thoughts – to wit, as their creator and owner. In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies – an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e. g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: "I alone am corporeal." And now I take the world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself. If as spirit I had thrust away the world in the deepest contempt, so as owner I thrust spirits or ideas away into their "vanity." They have no longer any power over me, as no "earthly might" has power over the spirit. The child was realistic, taken up with the things of this world, till little by little he succeeded in getting at what was back of these very things; the youth was idealistic, inspired by thoughts, till he worked his way up to where he became the man, the egoistic man, who deals with things and thoughts according to his heart’s pleasure, and sets his personal interest above everything.
Everything came from the creation. In the beginning, there was nothing, or the void— there was only God; only oneness. And God wanted to exist and interact with something, so he created the World with the great force of separation. Creation was born of separation, and what is created is still pure God. The Soul is God from a localized or individual point of view. But the Soul can perceive the infinity of the void, in which there is contentment in stillness, with no mind and no need. The Ego is also God. It is our awareness of and reaction to separation. Through Ego we experience the illusion of not being loved by God. This part of us that holds on tight to the belief in separation, causing joyful and painful emotions to rise up inside us as we look for love from the outside. If we can learn to observe and master these emotions, we learn that all is love. This is spiritual evolution. The Ego is a tool, a beautiful gift, the contrast that shows us the light of God.
3 Denial
Denial means to choose the perception of Ego rather than Soul. But as we evolve, our Ego becomes more powerful, and there is more and more conflict inside of us.
Fear is avoidance, because we don’t want to suffer. We want to be with another person, but don’t ask for a date because of fear of rejection. We don’t try to get a job, because we fear no one will want to hire us (rejection), or that we won’t be competent and will be fired (abandonment). We even don’t pray, because we might hear no answer.
Pride is the most obvious and complicated of the denials. Pride is a lie—we pretend that we are in charge, that we don’t suffer from emotions and we justify our mistakes. We use pride to protect our image—to others and to ourselves. Pride grows from a profound need for outside love. We say or do things to compete or get attention in some form. The mask of pride can be self-sustaining—we are proud of being proud, and might pretend to be humble to justify it. Not feeling important or not being right originates self-hatred.
Shame is feeling unlovable. Pride leads us to shame. When we try to show how good we are, and no one responds, we sink in shame. We isolate, not wanting to expose ourselves and receive negative or no attention. We feel very alone.
The Three Emotions
The Soul experiences emotion, not as good or bad, but as pure experience. The Soul doesn’t perceive the distinction, but the Ego sees the distinction and classifies it into many variations. These are the main categories.Abandonment is when something went away and we feel alone. It can be a person, in the form of physical death or the end of a relationship. We can lose a job, a car or anything. Something could leave us, or we could leave it—it is all abandonment.
Rejection is when someone or something pushes us away, and that makes us feel unloved. Someone could call us an asshole or the IRS might conduct an audit. It could be us pushing something away. We can find ourselves to be unlovable and that is a form of rejection.
Guilt is not whether we did something wrong, it is whether or not others approve of what we did. If we did the right thing, but others judge us, then we feel guilty. A student could study hard for a test, and make a high score that skews the bell curve for other students (his friends)—they then blame the good student for their lower scores and he feels guilty. If we do something “wrong”, but others congratulate us, we don’t feel guilty. For example, a gang member commits a crime as part of his gang initiation, and everyone is happy about it.
Next
Wednesday 25 July 2018
Psychological Professionals
Psychiatrist – medical doctor; prescribe medications; not always up on psychPsychoanalyst – practices psychoanalysis specialized training (M.D., Ph.D., Psy. D., Ed.) Psychologist – no medical training but doctorate (Ph. D. or Psy. D.)
Psychiatric social worker -
LCSW – Licensed Clinical Social Worker
MSW - Master of Social Work
LCPC – Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor
MFCC – Licensed Marriage, Family and Child Couselor
What do psychologists do?
• Provide health or mental health services “psychological practice”
–Counseling psychologist– help people deal with everyday life – School psychologist – school performance; student, parent & teacher –
Clinical psychologist – diagnose, treat & study mental / emotional problems; has Ph.D., an Ed.D, or a Psy.D. •
Teach and do research in colleges and universities –
Basic psychology – “pure” research; knowledge for sake of knowledge –
Applied psychology – direct practical significance; application of findings
Work always involves humans. Humans are complex beings and their behaviour and their health is the result of interaction within and between their internal biological, psychological and social systems and their physical and social environment.
Psychology is defined as “the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes”
Behavior = outward or avert actions and reactions – Talking, facial expressions and movement • Mental Process = internal, covert activity – Thinking, feeling and remembering
A good definition of our science would distinguish it from other sciences, especially from those neighboring sciences with which it is in closest contact. Psychology and sociology. There is no difficulty in framing a good logical distinction here. Sociology studies the activities of a group of people taken as a whole, while psychology studies the activities of the individuals. Both might be interested in the same social act, such as an election, but sociology would consider this event as a unit, whereas psychology would break it up into the acts of the several voters. The distinction is clear enough theoretically, but breaks down often in practice, as sociology would like to know the motives that swayed individual voters, while psychology on its side is interested to know what decision was reached by the majority. AH the social sciences, including economics and politics, have a psychological side, since they evidently are concerned to know the causes that govern human conduct. Social psychology studies the individual in his social relations. Psychology and biology. Biology, being the science of living creatures, includes psychology, which studies these creatures on the mental side. The science of life includes the science of mental life. We may call psychology a part of biology, or we may call it one of the biological sciences. It has very close contact with several other branches of biology. Animal psychology overlaps that part of zoology which studies the behavior of animals. Genetic psychology, as it is sometimes called, i.e., the study of mental heredity 6 PSYCHOLOGY and development, dovetails with the general biological science of genetics, so that we find biologists gathering data on the heredity of feeble-mindedness or of musical ability, while psychologists discuss the general theory of heredity. Psychology and physiology. That one of all the sciences that has the closest contacts with psychology is human and animal physiology. Broadly defined, physiology is that part of biology that studies functions or activities; and, so defined, it includes psychology as part of itself. In practice, psychology devotes itself to desire, thought, memory, and such " mental functions ", while physiology concentrates its effort upon " bodily functions " like digestion and circulation. But this is only a rough distinction, which breaks down at many points. Where shall we class sensation? Is it "mental " or "bodily" ? Both sciences study it. Physiology is perhaps more apt to go into the detailed study of the action of the sense organs, and psychology to concern itself with the classification of sensations and the use made of them for recognizing objects or for esthetic purposes. But the line between the two sciences is far from sharp at this point. Speech, also, lies in both provinces. Physiology has studied the action of the vocal organs and the location of the brain centers concerned in speech, while psychology has studied the child's process of learning to speak and the relation of speech to thought, and is more apt to be interested in stuttering, slips of the tongue, and other speech disturbances which are said to be " mental rather than physical ". It would be hard to mention any activity that is mental without being physical at the same time. Even thinking, which seems as purely mental as any, requires brain action; and the brain is just as truly a bodily organ as the heart or stomach. Its activity is bodily activity and lies properly within the field of physiology.
The History of Psychology • Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) Germany – Father of Psychology – 1 st in movement to make psychology a science – 1 st true experimental lab in psychology Structuralist - structure or basic elements of the mind Objective introspection – Examining and measuring one’s own thoughts and mental activities • Trained volunteers to observe, analyze and describe their own sensations, mental images and emotional reactions. • Train 10,00 observations; 20 mins to report 1.5 second experiment • Goal to break down behavior in to basic elements…H20 – Eventually rejected as too subjective
Structuralism (USA) – E.B. Titchener (1867 – 1927) – Student of Wilhelm Wundt – Analyze sensations, images and feelings into basic elements • Eventually Discarded • Functionalism – William James (1842 – 1910) – Function or purpose of behavior • not analysis or description – How do specific behaviors & mental processes help ADAPT to environment? • No longer a major perspective
Theories
Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development
The Oral Stage
This stage occurs from birth to around the age of one year. As the name suggests, in this stage, a child tries to gratify his libidinal energy through his/her mouth by sucking, biting, chewing, etc. You would observe children putting everything in their mouth at this age, be it food, toys, or soil. Oral fixation has two possible outcomes. According to Freud, if a person is dissatisfied at this stage, he/she is characterized by pessimism, suspicion, and sarcasm and grows into an adult who reduces tension or anxiety through chewing gum or the ends of pens and pencil. Such a person is said have an oral receptive personality
During the oral stage, the infant's primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the rooting and sucking reflex is especially important. The mouth is vital for eating, and the infant derives pleasure from oral stimulation through gratifying activities such as tasting and sucking.
Because the infant is entirely dependent upon caretakers (who are responsible for feeding the child), the child also develops a sense of trust and comfort through this oral stimulation.
The Anal Stage
This stage occurs between two to four years when a child starts toilet or potty training. According to Freud, the child becomes aware of his/her anus at this stage and tries to gratify this zone with retention or expulsion of the feces. Anal fixation may occur due to strictness showed by the child's parents while toilet training, which can have two possible outcomes. The first can be a person with an oral retentive personality, which is characterized by stinginess, excessive tidiness, perfectionism, and stubbornness.
During the anal stage, Freud believed that the primary focus of the libido was on controlling bladder and bowel movements. The major conflict at this stage is toilet training--the child has to learn to control his or her bodily needs. Developing this control leads to a sense of accomplishment and independence.
According to Freud, success at this stage is dependent upon the way in which parents approach toilet training. Parents who utilize praise and rewards for using the toilet at the appropriate time encourage positive outcomes and help children feel capable and productive. Freud believed that positive experiences during this stage served as the basis for people to become competent, productive, and creative adults.
The Phallic Stage
This stage occurs between four to six years of age when the erogenous zones of the body, i.e., the genitals, start developing. At this stage, children frequently indulge in playing with their genitals in order to explore them. How parents react to this behavior of their children decides the outcome of the fixation at this stage. According to Freud, boys and girls experience Oedipus complex at this stage and the boys suffer from castration anxiety.
Freud suggested that during the phallic stage, the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. At this age, children also begin to discover the differences between males and females.
Freud also believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s affections. The Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the mother and the desire to replace the father. However, the child also fears that he will be punished by the father for these feelings, a fear Freud termed castration anxiety.
The term Electra complex has been used to described a similar set of feelings experienced by young girls. Freud, however, believed that girls instead experience penis envy.
The Latent Period
During this stage, the superego continues to develop while the id's energies are suppressed. Children develop social skills, values and relationships with peers and adults outside of the family.
The development of the ego and superego contribute to this period of calm. The stage begins around the time that children enter into school and become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies, and other interests.
The latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy repressed or dormant. This energy is still present, but it is sublimated into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social interactions. This stage is important in the development of social and communication skills and self-confidence.
This stage occurs from the age of six till puberty when children express no sexual feelings. According to Freud, children at this stage suppress their sexual energy and direct it towards asexual pursuits, such as, school, athletics, hobbies, social relationships, friendships with same-sex, etc. Fixation at this stage results into sexual unfulfillment in later life.
The Genital Stage
The onset of puberty causes the libido to become active once again. During the final stage of psychosexual development, the individual develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex. This stage begins during puberty but last throughout the rest of a person's life.
Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in the welfare of others grows during this stage. If the other stages have been completed successfully, the individual should now be well-balanced, warm, and caring. The goal of this stage is to establish a balance between the various life areas.
This stage occurs from puberty till death, which is also the period when children reach sexual maturity. How children explore and experiment their sexuality at this stage defines their adult behavior. Children with more resolved psychosexual development have greater capacity to develop normal relationships with opposite sex, whereas a fixation at this stage results into the child being frigid and impotent in later life, while also having unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships.
Freud's theory is still considered controversial today, but imagine how audacious it seemed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. There have been a number of observations and criticisms of Freud's psychosexual theory on a number of grounds, including scientific and feminist critiques:
- The theory is focused almost entirely on male development with little mention of female psychosexual development.
- His theories are difficult to test scientifically. Concepts such as the libido are impossible to measure, and therefore cannot be tested. The research that has been conducted tends to discredit Freud's theory.
- Future predictions are too vague. How can we know that a current behavior was caused specifically by a childhood experience? The length of time between the cause and the effect is too long to assume that there is a relationship between the two variables.
- Freud's theory is based upon case studies and not empirical research. Also, Freud based his theory on the recollections of his adult patients, not on actual observation and study of children.
The onset of puberty causes the libido to become active once again. During the final stage of psychosexual development, the individual develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex. This stage begins during puberty but last throughout the rest of a person's life.
Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in the welfare of others grows during this stage. If the other stages have been completed successfully, the individual should now be well-balanced, warm, and caring. The goal of this stage is to establish a balance between the various life areas.
This stage occurs from puberty till death, which is also the period when children reach sexual maturity. How children explore and experiment their sexuality at this stage defines their adult behavior. Children with more resolved psychosexual development have greater capacity to develop normal relationships with opposite sex, whereas a fixation at this stage results into the child being frigid and impotent in later life, while also having unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships.
Freud's theory is still considered controversial today, but imagine how audacious it seemed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. There have been a number of observations and criticisms of Freud's psychosexual theory on a number of grounds, including scientific and feminist critiques:
- The theory is focused almost entirely on male development with little mention of female psychosexual development.
- His theories are difficult to test scientifically. Concepts such as the libido are impossible to measure, and therefore cannot be tested. The research that has been conducted tends to discredit Freud's theory.
- Future predictions are too vague. How can we know that a current behavior was caused specifically by a childhood experience? The length of time between the cause and the effect is too long to assume that there is a relationship between the two variables.
- Freud's theory is based upon case studies and not empirical research. Also, Freud based his theory on the recollections of his adult patients, not on actual observation and study of children.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)