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Study of Human Nature The study of human nature perhaps is one of the most exciting studies that were ever done by man. What is human nature and what makes people act the way they do is what many scientists, psychologists and sociologists had attempted discover throughout the centuries. Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle outlined many of the problems in psychology in the 5 th century BC. Darwin's theory of evolution also had an impact on psychology. In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Wundt and his colleagues were trying to investigate the mind through introspection by observing and analysing the structure of their own conscious mental process.
For the first time scientists applied scientific investigation methods to the study of mental processes. However, by the early twentieth century introspection was being questioned by an American psychologist, John B. Watson who studied behaviorism. The school of behaviorism itself was influenced by the functionalist school of psychology, founded by John Dewey in 1886 (Handout).
Darwin's theory of evolution and the idea of the 'survival of the fittest' influenced the functionalist's. To try and understand human behaviour they studied the behaviour of animals. The fact that human behaviour is much more complex than the behaviour of for instance an amoeba, or even that of rats, is simply because the human brain is larger and therefore humans can store more learning. Watson believed that the majority of all behaviour is learned after birth and that learning is obtained through the operation of conditioning, and the linking of a stimulus with a response. Watson also completely denied the existence of the mind or consciousness. The behavioural approach is reductionist it reduces the complexity of human behaviour to a few principles of learning.
In 1900, Sigmund Freud, a neurologist living in Vienna, published his psychoanalytic theory of personality. Freud's theories of human personality and development are founded upon his invention of psychoanalysis. Some of the central aspects of Freud's psychoanalytical theory are the unconscious, infantile sexuality and the impact of early experience. In the classical Freudian theory, there is only one 'drive' or instinct which is the sexual drive. Freud also believed that behaviour is determined by the unconscious mind most of which are repressed memories from childhood.
Freud was convinced that unconscious mental causes were responsible for all disorders and even normal personality. Freud's theory of the mind is deterministic he believed that early childhood experiences determines the future development of the child. According to Freud there are different stages in the early years. These stages of psychosexual development include the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage and the genital stage. Failure to negotiate a stage successfully would result in fixation at that stage. The most important of these stages is the phallic stage during which all children experience the Oedipus complex.
So in effect behaviorism favours the notion that the child is born with a blank slate whilst Freud believes the child already posses a certain number of innate drives. According to behaviorism a child is born without any personality, innate intelligence and psychic drives and only possess individual biological characteristics. Children are very similar to one another, and tend to develop in the same way. Give me a dozen healthy infants... and my own specified world to bring them up in and Ill guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select - doctor, lawyer and yes even beggarman and thief. (Watson, J. ). Ethologist have criticised behaviorism for not taking into account species-specific behaviour which is influenced by both genetics and learning.
Freud on the other hand believed that the child's character is already being formed prior to birth, and that the behaviour of the mother during pregnancy was extremely important. For instance in the 1950 s psychiatrists who was influenced by the psychoanalytical approach blamed autism, a medical condition, on poor parenting. According to Freud the child is born with two basic instincts which are Eros (life) and Thanatos (death). Eros is made up of two instincts namely self-preservation and sexuality. The energy of sexual instinct is called Libido. Carl Jung a student of Freud, who developed analytical development, believed that Freud emphasised sex too much, however, he did retain the concept of libido but as a life energy rather than sexual energy.
For the behaviorist, learning is obtained through the operation of conditioning and the linking of a stimulus with a response. Conditioning can happen in two ways either as classical conditioning by linking a new stimulus to a given response or by operant conditioning by reinforcing the behaviour of the person towards a particular pattern of behaviour. Ivan Pavlov (1902) performed one of the earliest classical conditioning experiment better known as Pavlov's dog whereby an innate reflex response (salivation) was linked to a natural stimulus (food). In this case the neutral stimulus (UCS) was a bell that was linked to the food.
Watson was the first psychologist to apply the principals of classical conditioning to human behaviour. In 1920 Watson and Rayner conducted an experiment with Little Albert an 11 month old baby where the UCS was a hammer striking a steel bar behind Alberts head. Suffice to say that Albert became terrified of furry animals and fur in general. Eysenck a behaviour therapist regards the little Albert experiment as a demonstration of how all phobias are acquired in everyday life. B. F.
Skinner, a radical behaviorist, saw the learner as much more active than Watson and he was therefore interested in seeing how animals operate in their environment. Skinners study of operant conditioning grew out of earlier work of E. Thorndike who built puzzle boxes for cats in 1898. 40 years later Skinner used a puzzle box known as a Skinner box. An animal would be placed in the box and would have to operate a lever in order to eat. In this kind of conditioning, a behaviour is rewarded, and thus becomes reinforced. Both Skinner and Thorndike believed that negative reinforcement / punishment is not very efficient.
However, 'aversion therapy' does appear to work in some cases but it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the punishment is experienced as a reward. Freud and Skinner shared the belief that free will is an illusion. However, their reasons are radically different. Freud believed that in the universe of the mind there is no accidents, unconscious causes can always account for them e.
g. Freudian Slip. This also applies to hysterical symptoms and dreams. Skinner argues that what we do is dictated by force or punishment. Behaviour is determined by the pursuit of things that have been positively reinforced in the past, for instance an athlete will compete because he / she is praised for winning.
For me, it is rather difficult to determine which one the aforementioned scientists is more secure on his viewpoint. I believe that the truth is somewhere in between, that is why we have to evaluate many different approaches of different scientists in order to arrive some reasonable conclusion. Word Count: 1182 Bibliography: Flanagan, C. (2001). Revise AS Psychology.
London. Letts Educational. Gross, R. (2001). Psychology, The Science of Mind and Behaviour.
London. Hodder and Stoughton Educational. Handouts from Psychology (2002). Jarvis, M. (2000).
Theoretical Approaches in Psychology. Perspectives and Research. London. Routledge Modular Psychology series.
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Research essay sample on Study Of Human Nature
