this essay

1. Margaret Templeton
Psychology A: History and Development of Psychology
The earliest origins of psychology can be found unsurprisingly in the ancient
civilisations of Egypt, Greece, China and India. Although it took a highly
philosophical form, this early form of psychology involved theories on the
mind, body and soul and how they all worked together, so this is not what
psychology of the modern world is.
Ahmed ibn sahl al-Balkhi was among one of the first to put forward that if the
mind gets ill, then it is logical to say the body will start to experience physical
illness.
During the later 1800s, Wilheim Wundt, the founder of modern psychology
found the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in
Germany.
It was Sigmund Freud who was the founder of the Psychodynamic Approach,
it was established in 1900 and he was interested in neurosis. It has two key
assumptions: that a person’s unconscious mental processes influence
behaviour and early childhood experiences, personality development.
According to Freud a person has three states of consciousness: conscious-
one-eighth of mind represents current awareness. Pre-conscious mind
(transition) situations can be brought into awareness such as dreams.
Unconscious mind- all repressed and hidden experiences and desires.
Freud also suggested that a person’s personality is made up of three parts,
the Id, Ego and Superego or Tripartite.
Anna O suffered from hysteria, memory loss and paralysis of one side of her
body; she had also been unable to drink liquid for 6 weeks. There was no
known neurological cause. During her sessions, Freud used ‘free association’
and this caused her to remember a trauma, the symptoms disappeared during
her sessions.
Many theorists suggest that this approach is unscientific in it’s of human
behaviour. Also many of the central concepts of Freud’s theories are
subjective and impossible to test. It has made the case study method of
research popular and it highlighted the importance of childhood.

2. Behaviourism became known around 1913 when John B. Watson said that
psychologists should only study behaviour, as it was measurable and also
observable by more than one person.
Behaviourism is interested in how a person or animal can be conditioned by
using ‘association’ or ‘reinforcement’. The school believes that everyone is
born a blank slate or ‘Tabula Rasa’. They also say that all behaviours can be
treated successfully by unlearning behaviours.
In behaviourism you have classical and operant conditioning. In classical
conditioning a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response.
Pavlov notices the sight of food or the appearance of the lab assistants
caused the dogs to salivate.
Pavlov wondered if he could teach the dogs to respond to unconditioned
stimulus (US). He then rang a bell every time the assistants appeared with
food. At the sound of the bell the dogs salivated without food being present.
The dogs now responded to conditioned response (CS).
This school has many experiments to support theories and it has identified
similarities between animals (Pavlov) and humans (Watson and Rayner- Little
Albert).
But the school gives a weak explanation for human behaviour as it doesn’t
take into consideration mental states e.g. thoughts, perceptions and emotions.
It also ignores biology, e.g. testosterone and free will.
Modern cognitive psychology emerged in the late 1950s. It was Ulric Neisser
in 1967 that actually used the words ‘Cognitive Psychology’ as the title of his
book. He believed that cognition begins with input from the senses and this
input is then transferred into a pattern of neural events for processing.
Cognitive psychology is the rejection of stimulus- response psychology. A
great amount of research focuses on the meditational processes of perception
and thought.
The school can be applied to child development which began with Piaget and
his Three Mountains Task, also to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It
can also combines easily with other approaches e.g. behaviourism.
The early experiments in cognitive psychology had lacked ecological validity.
Other theorists feel it is too simplistic, rejects scientific method and it is
machine reductionism.

3. The Biological approach is relevant to the study of psychology in two different
ways:
Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain
functions, how changes in structure or function can affect behaviour.
Investigation of inheritance: what a person inherits from their parents.
Charles Darwin gave his theory of natural selection through observing animals
while travelling the world. The Phineas Gage (1848) brain injury case provided
his doctor who treated him and later neuroscience significant information
regarding the working of the brain.
The central nervous system includes all the neurons in the brain and spinal
cord. The peripheral nervous system consists of the nerves connecting the
brain and spinal cord to the other parts of the body. The PNS is divided into 2
additional systems. The somatic system which sends information about
external stimulation from skin, muscles and joints to the CNS, this makes us
aware of pain and pressure.
The motor nerves carry impulses from the CNS to the muscles of the body,
where they initiate actions, this is all voluntary. The autonomic nervous also
has 2 additional systems. The sympathetic nervous system helps us mobilise
and expand energy in response to emergencies expressing strong emotions
and performing strenuous activities i.e. adrenaline.
The parasympathetic nervous system works along with the sympathetic
system often with the opposite effect. It regulates ‘quite’ or calming helping our
organs to conserve and store energy. The nervous system is connected to
and it regulates all our body systems.
The Endocrine system is a network of glands that make and release chemical
messengers called hormones into our bloodstream. These hormones control a
wide range of bodily functions and behaviours such as the ‘fight or flight’
reactions
This school can be applied to Stress Response (SRRS, stress immune
system) also to Gender Role Development. The school is very scientific, it is
highly applicable to other areas and it is a strong counter argument to the
nurture side in the ‘Nature vs. Nurture’ debate.
The experiments in this approach have very little ecological validity and it is
too deterministic and it leaves little room for free will.

4. www.simplypsychology.org
Gross Richard. Psychology, The Science of Mind and Behaviour 6th
edition
2010. Hodder Education London