Why Psychology?

Adrian Furnham, David Oakley

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135056179
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Psychology has been the fastest growing student discipline in recent years and in Why Psychology? the unique essence, attraction and diversity of the subject is introduced for the uninitiated in an accessible and attractive way. It will be suitable for school students considering studying psychology in college or university, for those considering a change in career, for parents, careers officers and others who advise students of all ages. It will also be required reading for anyone who has ever wondered just what psychology involves but was not sure where to find out.
Why Psychology? will be the starting point for a whole generation of new psychologists at the stage where they are asking the fundamental question about their academic future -- which subject should I study? It provides an intelligent and accessible answer as to why psychology might be for them. What it means to study and practise psychology is explained in this introduction to an often misunderstood field. It provides a broad view of the scope of psychology and shows its rich diversity and depth in an accessible introductory style. The book is intended for "A"-level students considering their degree options; careers advisors; degree-level students with a subsidiary choice to make; and general low-level psychology market.

Chapter 1

Common-sense views and misconceptions about psychology

Introduction

Is psychology more interesting and worthy of study than you might think? Students and lecturers in the subject would say so, but that is to be expected. What people who study psychology often say is that it gives you an “aha” experience. This is based on the distinction between trial-and-error learning, which involves trying out theories or hypotheses until the “correct” answer is found, and just “fiddling about” with the problem in the hope that the solution presents itself. “Aha” is the expression of surprised happiness which comes with insight.

Perhaps more importantly and usefully, psychology teaches students a rich vocabulary through which they can describe and explain behaviour. Just as going to art galleries with art historians (or even better, a tape recording of their comments) can bring paintings to life because they are able to point out and describe minor details of major significance, so psychology teaches the student the language of behavioural description. Of course there is a joke about “psychobabble”, which is the mis- or overuse of psychological language and concepts, but that usually occurs only in the popular press and by non-psychologists.

There is one other great feature of psychology: a number of the theories are counterintuitive, or not what common sense suggests. It is true that some findings and theories are pretty commonsensical but there are also a number that are not. Indeed, it is frequently the discovery of principles and processes behind non-commonsensical findings that leads to the “aha” experience.

Nevertheless, many sceptics and some cynics have continued to maintain that all the findings in psychology really are only a form of common sense. Surely, they argue, human nature dictates what people are really like and there certainly is no shortage of opinion from philosophers on the topic of human nature.

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) described humans as rational beings, making choices and decisions in terms of enlightened self-interest. Le Bon (1841–1931) on the other hand stressed the irrationality and impulsiveness of people in crowds. Hobbes (1588–1679) viewed humans as selfish, nasty and brutish, whose striving had to be restrained by a powerful government. Rousseau (1712–78) saw the restraints of his civilization as the force that was destroying the nobility of the “natural man”, the noble savage. Furthermore, there are numerous philosophical treatises which carefully compare and contrast some of the major thinkers of our time: Marx, Darwin, Freud, Lévi-Strauss, Chomsky, etc. It may also be argued that the major schools of psychology – Skinnerian behaviourism, psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology – have quite different theories about the essential nature of mankind (see Ch. 2).

Thinkers who have pondered human nature have typically asked the following sorts of questions: What are the differing views of human nature? How do these views explain behaviour in interactions among people? How do the behaviours explained and predicted by philosophies of human nature compare to the actual ongoing, observable ways in which people act? What types of societies and institutions are to be inferred from these views of human nature? How do these societies and institutions compare with existing social structures? Which of the views of human nature thus considered are most accurate? Which behaviours are most congruent and which behaviours are least congruent with this view of human nature? Where is it possible to place societal and institutional constraints upon behaviour, and how may these constraints be arranged to dampen or correct deviations and aberrations from human nature? How can constraints be placed or removed in order to maximize the good in man's basic nature?

The psychologist Wrightsman (1964) has argued that people's beliefs about human nature differ along six basic dimensions, each with positive and negative poles, which form the basis for his Philosophy of Human Nature Scale. The six dimensions are as follows:

1. Trustworthiness vs untrustworthiness

+ =	belief that people are trustworthy, moral and responsible
- =	belief that people are untrustworthy, immoral and irresponsible

2. Strength of will and rationality vs lack of willpower and irrationality

+ =	belief that people can control their outcomes and that they understand themselves
- =	belief that people lack self-determination and are irrational

3. Altruism vs selfishness

+ =	belief that people are altruistic, unselfish and sincerely interested in others
- =	belief that people are selfish and self-centred

4. Independence vs conformity to group pressures

+ =	belief that people are able to maintain their beliefs in the face of group pressures to the contrary
- =	belief that people give in to pressures of group and society

5. Variability vs similarity

+ =	belief that people are different from each other in personality and interests and that a person can change over time
- =	belief that people are similar in interests and are not changeable over time

6. Complexity vs simplicity

+ =	belief that people are complex and hard to understand
- =	belief that people are simple and easy to understand

Two of these dimensions of human nature concern beliefs in the variation that exists among individuals: similarity vs variability and complexity vs simplicity. So Wrightsman's six-dimension scale can be divided into two major variables or subscales: positive-negative (incorporating the dimensions of strength of will, trust, independence and altruism) and multiplexity (covering variability and complexity) which are by and large independent of one another.

One way to discover the real nature of human nature is, according to most psychologists, scientific experimentation and observation, but lay people do not use scientific evidence when forming their ideas about their fellows. Many believe in superstitions and old-wives’ tales that have been perpe...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Common-sense views and misconceptions about psychology
• 2 Background and history of psychology
• 3 Major research methods in psychology
• 4 What goes on in psychology?
• 5 Uses (and possible abuses) of psychology
• 6 Taking things further
• References
• Index