Background to the Study of Behaviour Psychology

The word “psychology” comes from the Greek words “psyche,” meaning Soul or
mind, and “logos,” meaning explanation or study. This word where derived from a
branch of philosophy known as Epistemology which is the study of knowledge and
how human beings come to know the world. The history of psychology can be traced
from two dimensions which is Philosophical Roots and Physiological Roots
According to Philosophical roots; psychology originated from 600 to 300BC
where some Greek Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in most of their
works inquired about a wide range of psychological topics such as pleasure and pain;
desire; rationality; memory, nature of perception; motivation and common sense
etc.; they also theorized about whether human traits are innate or the product of
experience. While in the field of ethics, philosophers of the ancient world tried to
answer some a variety of psychological questions like; are people inherently good?
How can people attain happiness? How are people being motivated to do things?
Are humans naturally social?
These early thinkers also considered the causes of mental illness to be as a result of
supernatural causes, such as possession by evil spirits, Plato and Socrates believes
that madness results when a person’s irrational psyche overwhelms his rational
psyche. Going forward, Rene Descartes proposed a theory called dual entity in which
he suggested that the body and mind are separate entities regarding the body as a
physical entity and the mind a spiritual entity and believed that the two interact
through a tiny structure at the base of the brain called PINEAL GLAND.
Physiological Root; the modern psychology can be traced from Physiology which
is a branch of biology which focused on the study of living organism and their parts
and practice of medicine. In the 19th century many physiologists began to develop
much interest in the study of the brain and nervous system, paying much attention
to sensation and perception and how the brain process such information and its
relationship to people’s behaviour in certain condition this lead to the development
of PSYCHOPHYSICS an area of psychology which looks at stimuli, threshold and
perception bias. This modern psychologist believed solely in the biological
determinants of behaviour and uphold that the brain and conscious mind processes
sensory information and perception and in turns determines ones behaviour. In
medicine, they identified that mental illness is as a result of damage in particular
areas in the brain such as damage in the left hemisphere of the brain causes Broca’s
………………. (in ability to produce fluent speech), While damage in the right
hemisphere cause Wernicke Aphasia (in ability to understand or comprehend
speech).
However, modern psychology is deeply rooted in the older disciplines of philosophy
and physiology but the official birth of psychology is traced to 1879 at the University
of Leipzig, Germany when a Physiological known as William Wundt established the
laboratory dedicated to the scientific study of the mind. This attracted many scientist
and students from Europe and America and widened the awareness of the study of
the mind and also led to the development of the Structuralism school of thought in
psychology.
Approaches to the Study of Behaviour (Schools of Thought in Psychology)
Structuralism: this school of thought was developed by the teachings of William
Wundt and his followers. They believed that psychology should focus on the basic
elements or parts of CONSCIOUSNESS in the same way physicians’ breakdown
the particles of matter. They believed that behaviour can be understood by studying
the various structures of the mind and investigating their roles in different condition
in other to predict behaviour. However their main made of studying behaviour was
the use of INTROSPECTION (subjecting individuals in different sensual conditions
and asking them to describe their own mental processes).
Functionalism: in contraction to the teaching of William Wundt, William James
promoted another school of thought called Functionalism. This School of thought
also believed in the study of CONSCIOUSNESS just like the Structuralism but the
suggested that Psychology should focus on the study of the functions and purpose of
the various parts of the consciousness or the mind. They believe that in other to
understand behaviour that we should focus on the functions of the mind rather than
the structure because different behaviour originates from different parts of the mind
and damage or changes affects behaviour.
Psychoanalysis/ Psychodynamics; this school of thought originated from the works
of Sigmund Freud, through his clinical practice Freud developed a different
approach to psychology which does not believe in the study of Consciousness but
rather in the interpretation of dreams and the study of UNCONSCOUS experience.
According to him, the mind is like an iceberg where the tip of human behaviour lies
in the consciousness. He believed that behaviour are motivated by unconscious
forces which he went further to develop a psychotherapy technique called free
association ( a system of therapy where individuals are allowed to talk about their
wishes, dreams, memories, thoughts and any feeling that comes in their mind in other
to identify the hidden impulses and thereby suggest a healing for the patient)
Freud divided the mind into three which is Conscious, Unconscious and
Preconscious which he likened them to the three (3) aspect of mind which he termed
as the ID (the primitive part of the mind which is the gratification center of human
mind, it is the part of the mind which desires and set for an imitate gratification of
need without seeking or looking at the consequences). The Ego (which is the reality
part of the mind which looks at the realistic way of satisfying the ID’s demand. And
the Superego (which is the moral principle of the mind that contains social and
religious moral learned from the society which also tried to balance the ID and the
ego.
Sigmund Freud also went forward to identify stages of development of which
determines human personality and behaviour, this stages according to Freud includes
the Oral stage, Anal Stage, Phallic Stage, Latency stage and Genital stage. He
maintained that fixation in different stages of development has an effect on the
child’s behaviour and may as well lead to one or two abnormal behaviour.
Gestalt; this school of thought originated from Germany and derived its name from
the word “Gestalt” which means “whole”, the other schools of thought believe in
structure and functions of the various parts of the mind but this school believe that
“the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. Their assumption is that perception
is the basis of human behaviour. They believe that for us to interpret senses the mind
organizes information into certain groups which helps us to understand them without
repetition. This school focused on sensation and perception and opined that
individuals are different because of how the perceive information. They believe in
the law of proximity, similarity, continuity and closure. However, this school believe
that behaviour can be predicted and studied by grouping patterns of behaviour
together. (eg. Seeing the back of someone and easily identify the person, sharing
behaviour due to proximity with someone or environment, ability to detect object by
seeing the shape etc.)
Behaviorism; the early psychologist like William James defined psychology as the
science of mental life which made the previous schools of thought to believe and
focus on the study of consciousness and unconsciousness which are covert aspect of
behaviour which cannot be seen or measured. However, the Behaviorist School of
thought believe that psychology should focus on the study of the behaviour which
can be seen and measured. However, this school of thought dominated the modern
era of psychology and their assumption are based on the following theories and
experiments;
Edward Thorndike - Law of effect (experiment based on learning
behaviour with positive outcome, he puts a cat into a cage and timed how long it
took d cat to learn how to open an escape door that led to the food)
Ivan Pavlov - Classical Conditioning (experiment based on conditioning an
animal exhibit biological behaviours from external stimulus by using dog and bell)
B. F. Skinner - Operant Conditioning (an experiment which is based on
try and error mechanism where by rewarded behaviours are repeated while punished
behaviours are avoided. He made use of his Skinner box and a rat)
Albert Bandura - Learning by Modeling ( an experiment which is based on
learning aggression where he used little child and subjected him to learn aggression
patterns through watching someone hitting teddy bear).
Others include J.B Watson experiment (learning anxiety using little Albert and try
and error using a Chimpanzee)
Humanistic; this particular school of thought originated from the combination of the
teachings of structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt, Psychoanalysis and behaviorist
school of thought as their teachings are focused on the study of conscious mind, free
will and capacity of self-reflection and growth. This approach was developed by
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow whom in their various study believe that
individual behaviour are determined in their quest to achieve self-actualization. They
opined that individuals are born with innate drive to achieve their full capacity and
also behave in ways that are consistent to their true self and need.
Definition of Psychology
The definition of Psychology has two dimension from the conception of the
discipline till date this dimension is based on the approaches and assumptions of the
different schools of thought in Psychology. The Schools of thought that originated
from Physiological roots believe that Psychology should focus on mental processes
which they also opined that overt behaviours are products of our mental processes
thereby focusing mainly on the study of unconscious mind which according to their
assumptions determines our observable behaviour or action. These schools of
thought defined psychology as the scientific study of behaviour and mental
processes.
However, the contemporary Psychological schools of thought which originated from
philosophical and behavourism approaches and assumptions. These schools believe
that psychology should focus mainly on the study of observable behaviour which
can be measured and not subconscious mind, they believe on social and socio-
cultural determinants of behaviour rather than physiological aspect. This brought the
second definition of psychology “as the scientific study of behaviour”

COURSE OUTLINE
Background to the Study of Behaviour
Understanding Social Psychology
Altitude and Theories of Altitude
Attribution and Theories of Attribution (Social Perception)
Aggression and Theories of Aggression
Social Influence (Theories and Components)
Stereotype, Prejudice and Discrimination
Socialization and Theories of Social Relationships
Self-Concept and Emotional Theories