User:Sxndrx2828/Psychology

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History: The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Persia all engaged in the philosophical study of psychology. In Ancient Egypt the Ebers Papyrus mentioned depression and thought disorders. Historians note that Greek philosophers, including Thales, Plato, and Aristotle (especially in his De Anima treatise), addressed the workings of the mind. As early as the 4th century BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders had physical rather than supernatural causes. In 387 BCE, Plato suggested that the brain is where mental processes take place, and in 335 BCE Aristotle suggested that it was the heart.

Psychology
Psychology is the study of how the mind operates given the never-ending change of our world. While these obstacles can be physical or mental the mind must find a way to adapt to new surroundings. Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920) described Psychology as a scientific study of the conscious. Meaning, not only is psychology extremely important but it has an impact on every human as it is the study of the human mind.

The study of conscious and unconscious events, such as emotions and thoughts, is included in psychology. It is a broad academic field that bridges the gap between the social and scientific sciences. Psychologists link their field to neuroscience in an effort to better understand the emergent features of brains.

The Science of Mental Life
In 1890, William James defined psychology as "the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and their conditions."[12] This definition enjoyed widespread currency for decades. However, this meaning was contested, notably by radical behaviorists such as John B. Watson, who in 1913 asserted that the discipline is a natural science, the theoretical goal of which "is the prediction and control of behavior."[13] Psychology was of interest to Enlightenment thinkers in Europe. In Germany, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) applied his principles of calculus to the mind, arguing that mental activity took place on an indivisible continuum. He suggested that the difference between conscious and unconscious awareness is only a matter of degree.

Although psychological knowledge is frequently utilized in the evaluation and management of mental health issues, it is also focused on comprehending and resolving issues in a variety of human endeavors. According to many accounts, psychology's ultimate goal is to advance society.In clinical, counseling, or educational contexts, psychotherapy is a common therapeutic role for psychologists. Numerous subjects pertaining to mental processes and behavior are the subject of scientific research conducted by other psychologists. The latter category of psychologists typically works at educational institutions, such as colleges, hospitals, or medical schools. A further subset of psychologists works in corporate and industrial environments. An example of these corporate jobs can be in Human Resources and developmental areas that help people become the best version of themselves.

Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud is one of the most cited, if not the most cited psychologist throughout history. His work about the subconscious mind was a revolution for the study of Psychology, his brought a brilliant amount of attention to the field of psychology. He introduced the idea of psychoanalysis and the idea that a subconscious and conscious mind exist. Psychoanalysis means that everyone has id, primal instincts, a superego (morality), and an ego that balances the subconscious and conscious mind. He further argued that a lack of balance between the three would lead to maladaptation.

Psychological Testing
When experimental psychology came to Britain, Francis Galton was a leading practitioner. By virtue of his procedures for measuring reaction time and sensation, he is considered an inventor of modern mental testing (also known as psychometrics). James McKeen Cattell, a student of Wundt and Galton, brought the idea of psychological testing to the United States, and in fact coined the term "mental test". In 1901, Cattell's student Clark Wissler published discouraging results, suggesting that mental testing of Columbia and Barnard students failed to predict academic performance. In response to 1904 orders from the Minister of Public Instruction, French psychologists Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon developed and elaborated a new test of intelligence in 1905–1911. They used a range of questions diverse in their nature and difficulty. Binet and Simon introduced the concept of mental age and referred to the lowest scorers on their test as idiots. Henry H. Goddard put the Binet-Simon scale to work and introduced classifications of mental level such as imbecile and feebleminded. In 1916, (after Binet's death), Stanford professor Lewis M. Terman modified the Binet-Simon scale (renamed the Stanford–Binet scale) and introduced the intelligence quotient as a score report. Based on his test findings, and reflecting the racism common to that era, Terman concluded that intellectual disability "represents the level of intelligence which is very, very common among Spanish-Indians and Mexican families of the Southwest and also among negroes. Their dullness seems to be racial."

Ethics
Ethical standards in the discipline have changed over time. Some famous past studies are today considered unethical and in violation of established codes (the Canadian Code of Conduct for Research Involving Humans, and the Belmont Report). The American Psychological Association has advanced a set of ethical principles and a code of conduct for the profession.

The most important contemporary standards include informed and voluntary consent. After World War II, the Nuremberg Code was established because of Nazi abuses of experimental subjects. Later, most countries (and scientific journals) adopted the Declaration of Helsinki. In the U.S., the National Institutes of Health established the Institutional Review Board in 1966, and in 1974 adopted the National Research Act (HR 7724). All of these measures encouraged researchers to obtain informed consent from human participants in experimental studies. A number of influential but ethically dubious studies led to the establishment of this rule; such studies included the MIT-Harvard Fernald School radioisotope studies, the Thalidomide tragedy, the Willowbrook hepatitis study, and Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience to authority.

Other Animals
Research on other animals is also governed by university ethics committees. Research on nonhuman animals cannot proceed without permission of the ethics committee of the researcher's home institution. Current ethical guidelines state that using non-human animals for scientific purposes is only acceptable when the harm (physical or psychological) done to animals is outweighed by the benefits of the research. Keeping this in mind, psychologists can use certain research techniques on animals that could not be used on humans.

Comparative psychologist Harry Harlow drew moral condemnation for isolation experiments on rhesus macaque monkeys at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1970s. The aim of the research was to produce an animal model of clinical depression. Harlow also devised what he called a "rape rack", to which the female isolates were tied in normal monkey mating posture. In 1974, American literary critic Wayne C. Booth wrote that "Harry Harlow and his colleagues go on torturing their nonhuman primates decade after decade, invariably proving what we all knew in advance—that social creatures can be destroyed by destroying their social ties." He writes that Harlow made no mention of the criticism of the morality of his work.

Animal research is very influential in the world of psychology while still being highly debated among academics. The testing of animals for research has led to many medical breakthroughs in human medicine. Many psychologists argue that animal experimentation is essential for human advancement but must be regulated by the government to ensure ethicality

An example of this advancement in human medicine is one that was done involving monkeys where the amygdala was inactivated temporarily to show how the connection to the other parts of the brain work.This specific study has helped scientists learn more about people who are suffering form ailments involving abnormal patterns of brain activity.

Other types of studies
Surveys are used in psychology for the purpose of measuring attitudes and traits, monitoring changes in mood, and checking the validity of experimental manipulations (checking research participants' perception of the condition they were assigned to). Psychologists have commonly used paper-and-pencil surveys. However, surveys are also conducted over the phone or through e-mail. Web-based surveys are increasingly used to conveniently reach many subjects. Observational studies are commonly conducted in psychology. In cross-sectional observational studies, psychologists collect data at a single point in time. The goal of many cross-sectional studies is the assess the extent factors are correlated with each other. By contrast, in longitudinal studies psychologists collect data on the same sample at two or more points in time. Sometimes the purpose of longitudinal research is to study trends across time such as the stability of traits or age-related changes in behavior. Because some studies involve endpoints that psychologists cannot ethically study from an experimental standpoint, such as identifying the causes of depression, they conduct longitudinal studies a large group of depression-free people, periodically assessing what is happening in the individuals' lives. In this way psychologists have an opportunity to test causal hypotheses regarding conditions that commonly arise in people's lives that put them at risk for depression. Problems that affect longitudinal studies include selective attrition, the type of problem in which bias is introduced when a certain type of research participant disproportionately leaves a study.

One example of an observational study was run by Arthur Bandura. This observational study focused on children who were exposed to an adult exhibiting aggressive behaviors and their reaction to toys versus other children who were not exposed to these stimuli. The result shows that children who had seen the adult acting aggressively towards a toy, in turn, were aggressive towards their own toy when put in a situation that frustrated them.