Olivia, Lizzy, and Stephany V. July 24, 2015

(I) Melanie Klein was a psychoanalyst who studied the development of children under the ages of 6. She was born in Austria in 1882. Her child analysis began while she was in Berlin, between 1921-25. Throughout her work, which was based off of Freud’s ideas, found that the Oedipus complex is also found during infancy. She theorized that child development goes through Paranoid-Schizoid position and then Depressive position. In Paranoid-Schizoid position the splitting of the ego occurs, such that the infant splits the mothers breast into a good and bad breast. The Depressive position is when the ego starts to integrate with the super-ego, such that the infant starts to realize that the feelings of the good and bad breast come from the same person, and the sense of guilt and reparation occur.

            Cyril Burt was an educational psychologist who primarily focused on individual differences and children in his work. He was born to a small lower class family in 1883. William McDougall, who Burt studied under his final year at Jesus College, Oxford, largely influenced Burt. This work inspired his work with mental testing that would be prominent throughout his whole career in psychology. Even during his 21 years of retirement Burt remained very active in the worlds of science and education. He continued to write, edit, read, and give lectures. Unfortunately, five years after Cyril’s death an article in London Sunday Times as published accusing Burt of committing fraud in the majority of his work. It has been widely agreed that the majority of the work that was published after WWII is unreliable. Despite these claims Burt’s followers have remained adamant in attempting to clear his name. In doing so they have pointed out through research that results of the same studies of Burt produce very similar that results that were call fraud by most. For this reason a lot of his followers admit that his work might have been careless when published but by no means purposely published as fake data.

            Ernest Jones was a British psychoanalyst. He studied in London and was very close friends with Sigmund Freud. In 1917 Jones married Morfydd Owens, a Welsh musician. The two were madly in love until Morfydd passed away in 1918. Morfydd suffered from an appendicitis attack while traveling with Jones, and Jones took it upon himself to perform the surgery, using chloroform to begin. A few days later she passed away from chloroform poisoning. A few years later Jones married Katharine Jokl and together the two had four kids. While Jones is known for being a psychoanalyst his largest accomplishment was the biographies that he wrote about Sigmund Freud. He also translated Freud’s work from German to English, and wrote various books about Freud’s view on everything psychoanalytic. Jones passed away in 1939 after suffering from chronic rheumatism as well as bladder cancer. He left behind an unfinished manuscript of an autobiography he was working on entitled, Free Associations: Memories of a Psychoanalyst that was later published in 1959.

            (II) Ernest Jones published Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 1: The Young Freud 1856–1900 in 1953. It was the first of three volumes and is still today the most influential biography written about Freud.

            (III) This is a photo of street art taken in Shoreditch London.

            (IV) This is a web link to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/royalpavilion/ which we visited on July 24, 2015.

References

Ernest Jones Obituary, (1958). Ernest Jones M. D. Obituary. British Medical Journal, 1, 463-465.

Hearnshaw, L.S. Cyril Burt Psychologist.  Great Britain. Hodder and Soughton Educational 1979. Print.

Melanie Klein Trust. (n.d.). Retrieved July 23, 2015, from http://www.melanie-klein-trust.org.uk/theory

Shamdasani, Sonu (2004). ‘Jones, (Alfred) Ernest (1879–1958)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography. Retrieved from http://0-www.oxforddnb.com.catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/view/article/34221?docPos=1

Street. (1994). March 30 in Psychology. Retrieved July 23, 2015, from http://www.cwu.edu/~warren/calendar/cal0330.html

Brianna and Amelia Final Post

There were many psychologists in the 1950s that impacted the development of cognitive psychology. One of them was Roger Brown. Brown greatly influenced social psychology, language, child development, and memory. His work went on to explain how limited thoughts impact language. This idea was explained in his book Words and Things that he published in 1958. He also made a lot of discoveries on how language was learned in children. Brown also developed a lot of early research for the topic of flashbulb memory. However, one of his most important influences in psychology was his work with David McNeill on the tip of the tongue phenomenon (TOT) in 1966.

The tip of the tongue phenomenon deals with the inability to recover something that the person knows they can recall. The problem with trying to study this phenomenon is that it does not happen that often and no one can know when it is going to happen. However, Brown and McNeill were able to find a way to make this happen intentionally. Their study was done to measure the degree of closeness to the word trying to be recovered. They told the subjects a definition of a word that is not used in everyday context but is a word that the subjects still know. Then they asked the participants to recall the word. The researchers found that the subjects experienced three different reactions when asked to recall the word. The first was that the participants did not know the word. The second reaction was that the participants might know the word, and the third, and the most important, was that they would know it but be unable to say it. The last reaction is the tip of the tongue phenomenon. If they experienced this, the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire that asked questions such as what do they believe the first letter of the word is and how many syllables does it have and if they could think of any words of similar sound or meaning. Brown and McNeill were able to induce tip of the tongue experiences over 200 times. The results showed that participants who experience tip of the tongue phenomenon usually could recall the correct number of syllables and guess the first letter and could think of similar words. This study was important because it showed the true essence of cognitive psychology and exactly what it was about.

Timeline: Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon 1966

  

The two of us went on the London Eye this past weekend. Photo taken July 18, 2015. The link is the London Eye website.

https://www.londoneye.com

Benjamin, L. T. (2014). A brief history of modern psychology (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Raymond Cattell
          by Alex and Gavin

Raymond Cattell is one of History of Psychology’s most influential contributors due to his work with personality and intelligence among other fields. Raised by Ernest Cattell and Mary Field in the midlands of England, he often spent his time exploring his Devonshire home and the surrounding land. Cattell was an extremely active child, but also spent a lot of his time invested in reading, which contributed to his early academic success. Among grammar school scholarships, Cattell first attended King’s College at the age of sixteen and graduated three years later with a degree in physics. Cattell soon left that field, however, when he was inspired by a lecture by Cyril Burt to help solve social issues. It was in 1929 that Cattell earned his PhD in psychology, and three years later a master’s in education from the University of London. The field of clinical psychology and particularly the role of the clinician, which he believed to be any field dealing with the issues of the human condition, fascinated Cattell. He found that there were not nearly enough designated tools that help in achieving the goals of clinical psychology, and set out to define problems, and possible future standards for the field of clinical psychology. The main problem Cattell found with the state of clinical psychology in his time was social need. There was an obvious need for clinical psychologists, but clinical psychologists also needed in-depth. According to Cattell, clinical psychologists should have an extensive educational background. During this time, medical doctors were deemed more appropriate conductors of mental testing than the psychologists who created them, which perplexed Cattell. In order to remedy this, Cattell believed that medical doctors should be forced to study psychology for a certain amount of time, and psychologists should receive some medical training, but only courses that were relevant to them. Without extensive training, different professions would be able to easily come along and take control of the field of Clinical psychology. He also believed that if the clinical psychologists were better trained, the public would be more trusting and would have less problems going to clinical psychologists instead of relying solely on medical doctors. Cattell also noted that one of the most important roles of the clinical psychologist was to keep current with research. By doing so, clinical psychologists will always know the most current and accurate findings and treatments, so they are better able to treat their patients. Cattell’s advocacy for clinical psychology standards has shaped the profession into what it is today.

1894: Cattell takes over control of the journal Science, revitalizing it and spreading the word about new fields in psychology.

Benjamin, L. T. (2014). A brief history of modern psychology (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: 

Cattell, R. B. (1948). The meaning of clinical psychology. In L. A. Pennington, I. A. Berg, L. A. Pennington, I. A. Berg (Eds.) , An introduction to clinical psychology (pp. 3-16). Oxford, England; New York, N: Ronald Press. doi:10.1037/10577-023

Cattell, R. B. Raymond B. Cattell. (1974). In G. Lindzey, G. Lindzey (Eds.) , A history of psychology in autobiography, Vol VI (pp. 61-100). Englewood Cliffs, NJ,: Prentice-Hall, Inc., Print. doi:10.1037/11553-003

Horn, J. (2001). Raymond Bernard Cattell (1905-1998). American Psychologist, 56(1), 71-72. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.56.1.71

Jenn Gumbulevich and Sam Phelan Last Blog Post on July 24, 2015

Jenn Gumbulevich:

            Because the last chapter in the book ended more towards the current research in Psychology, I decided to research a little more on cognitive – behavioral psychology. I am going to focus more specifically on therapy, because it’s what I’m interested in doing as a career and because the book only talked about them separately rather than together. When I looked online, I found an article going into detail about what cognitive-behavioral therapy entails. It said cognitive – behavioral therapy is based on cognition, emotion, and behavior all combined and working together. All three processes are valued and equally viewed during therapy as important factors in your overall outcome. The article continues by saying that cognitive behavioral therapy helps people who have negative thoughts that are conditioned or reinforced by bad behavior while having a negative outlook on a situation. This type of therapy came about from two major psychologists, Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck in the 1950’s and 60’s.

            Albert Ellis contributed the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy which involved the ABC Model. The ABC Model stood for A) Activating Event, B) Belief, and C) Consequences. The “activating event” involves an occurrence that induces an emotional or negative response. The “belief” is when the patient is supposed to record on a piece of paper what negative thoughts come to mind from such an event. The “consequence” is when there are negative feelings or behaviors that are brought upon due to the belief, which is due to the activating event.

            Aaron Beck was more of a cognitive psychologist, but he still contributed a lot to the field of cognitive-behavioral therapy. His first contribution was known as the cognitive triad. This included three aspects of a patients mind, their thoughts about their future, their world, and what they think of themselves. If all three are negative, they work together to add to depression. In the article it says, “As these three components interact, they interfere with normal cognitive processing, leading to impairments in perception, memory and problem solving with the person becoming obsessed with negative thoughts.” Beck also included a section on negative self-schemas. He explained that when people have negative beliefs or expectations about themselves, it can lead to focusing on one part of a bad situation rather than looking at it logically as a whole. It can also lead to making errors in logic and causing depression. A third contribution Beck gave towards this field included research on errors in logic. There were several different thinking processes that can be considered illogical such as personalization, overgeneralization etc. All of these ideas contributed more towards cognitive-behavioral psychology and probably more from other psychologists. I found this field very interesting and thought it did a good job of summing up this class.

McLeod, S. (2008). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-therapy.html

1954 – Albert Ellis began teaching his new techniques to other therapists, and by 1957, he formally set forth the first cognitive behavior therapy by proposing that therapists help people adjust their thinking and behavior as the treatment for emotional and behavioral problems. 

https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/

Here is a link to the Warner Brothers studio that has the Harry Potter Studio Tour in it that I went to last weekend! There are some pictures online you can see if you’re interested.

Sam Phelan:
1910 - Freud founded the International Psychoanalytical Association

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/freud/images/vc123.jpg
Here's a link of a picture of an IPA gathering with Freud

Kaylei & Sam

(I) Psychology is still a relatively new field, especially when compared to the origin of mathematics in the works of 16^th century Greek philosophers or of the practice of medicine, spanning back to early Egypt. It is true that psychology predates the 19^th century with the popular psychology of mystics and clairvoyants, however, for general purposes, the birth of modern psychology can be pinpointed to the year 1879. This year is in accordance with the establishment of the first experimental laboratory for psychology in Leipzig, Germany. It is here that Wilhelm Wundt published his first psychological paper pertaining to his work in the laboratory. Soon after, psychology spread to America when Stanley Hall, a student of Wundt, installed a similar experimental institution at John Hopkins University. By the end of the century, the American Psychological Association was founded (1892), and three disciplines had emerged: Structuralism, Functionalism, and Psychoanalysis.

            At the turn of the century, Lightner Witmer opened up the first psychology clinic, and the focus of psychology shifted to include applied work. This shift is apparent as well in the mission statement of the APA as well. Up until 1945, the APA stated its goal as the pursuit and the growth of psychology as a science; at this time, the APA revised their goal to include the pursuit and growth of psychology as a profession, as well.

            Psychology continued to evolve, as the field grew exponentially. The field expanded from the niche of European white men, and in 1904, the APA welcomed Mary Calkins as its first woman president. The diversifying field of psychology would influence its direction. In addition to this, psychology saw many other changes as well. In the 1920s, psychology moved away from studying consciousness, and it focused instead on measuring the observable – behavior. It was this shift that marked the beginning of Behaviorism, which would strongly affect the field of psychology until the emergence of Cognitive psychology in the 1960s. Since then, psychology has continued to evolve both as a science and as a profession. The disciplines of psychology today are as wide-ranging as the problems our modern world faces – abnormal psychology and psychopathology, clinical psychology, consumer psychology, counseling psychology, cognitive neuroscience, health psychology, human factors engineering, industrial-organizational psychology, forensic psychology, sports psychology, school psychology, humanistic psychology, the psychology of music, psycholinguistics, psychophysics, psychometrics, psychonomics, and psychotherapy. The study of psychology has spread to almost every field imaginable, as it is relevant in almost every aspect of the human life.

            It is paramount to recognize that all of this happened in less than 150 years. This raises the question: where will we be 150 years from now?

Benjamin, L. T. (2014). A brief history of modern psychology (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

(II) Timeline: July 1892 the American Psychological Association was founded by G. Stanley Hall

(III) Picture: Buckingham Palace

(IV) Here is a link, providing the tools for those interested in cognitive psychology, in particular, neuroscience: http://www.gocognitive.net

 

July 19th, Stephanie A. and Sam P.

Karen Horney earned her medical degree in 1915, after studying at the University of Frieberg, however she had prior knowledge to psychoanalysis before her graduation. She took great issue with Freud and his view on women, and between the years 1922 and 1935, published several articles that deconstructed and redefined how men and women were portrayed in psychoanalysis. With the rise of fascism in 1932, she fled Germany and settled in the United States, more specifically in Chicago. However she eventually moved to New York City, where she integrated herself in the intellectual community that was already there. Horney wrote all five of her books while she lived in the United States, with several other pieces of her works being published posthumously as anthologies of her papers that had been published or unpublished elsewhere. One of her books was called The Neurotic Personality of Our Time and was meant to be partially autobiographical, and it entailed her struggles with love, alienation, and spoke of a life in the 1930s, which she described as the “age of anxiety”. Her feminist essays were published in 1967, which were brought to the forefront by the burgeoning women’s movement, and she continues to provide a contrarian view of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis.

Horney’s views were not just at the forefront of the women’s movement because they contradicted Freud’s misogynistic ones.  They also offered a feminist psychoanalytic explanation for why men would deny and limit women’s opportunities.  Horney introduced the idea of womb envy, a reversal of the penis envy theory proposed by Freud.  Freud’s theory suggested that women were born believing that they used to have male genitalia, and that the castration of those male genitalia led them to suffer from penis envy and develop a jealousy of men.  Horney offered an opposite theory.  She posited that males unconsciously felt inferior to women and wanted to maintain their illusions of superiority over women and did so by ostracizing women.  In 1939 she published New Ways in Psychoanalysis, which detailed all her theories, one of the most important of which challenged Freud’s belief that women were born neurotic. 

Besides challenging Freud’s theories on feminist issues, Horney also disagreed with him on theories of anxiety.  Instead of posing the idea that anxiety came from too many demands being put on the ego, Horney theorized that it came from consistent feelings of loneliness or helplessness.  She described this as basic anxiety.

Click here for a more comprehensive biography of Karen Horney and her work in feminism!

The Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Timeline: 1939--Karen Horney's book New Ways in Psychoanalysis is published

References

Benjamin, L. (2014). The Early Schools of American Psychology. In A Brief History of Modern Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 136-138). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Lizzy and Alex July 19, 2015

         

John B. Watson is considered the creator of behaviorism because he formed a new, more efficient establishment of the previous ideas associated with behaviorism. When he was 16, Watson attended Furman University and graduated in five years with a Masters degree. After graduating, he went on to the University of Chicago where his interest in comparative psychology grew. In 1903 he earned his Ph.D after majoring in psychology, neurology, and minoring in philosophy. Watson taught psychology at Johns Hopkins University after spending a short period of time assisting and teaching at the University of Chicago. At Johns Hopkins, Watson developed a psychology lab where he conducted experiments on animal behavior. Watson’s first famous article was published in 1913 in Psychological Review titled “Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It”. The article described psychology as being a science of human behavior that will be benefitted by being studied in a lab. In 1914, he published Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology where he discussed the importance of animal subjects and how studying their reflexes might be useful. Watson’s most famous experiment on Little Albert also caused him the most amount of trouble when his affair with his student and assistant Rosalie Rayner was found out. Due to this affair Watson was forced to leave Johns Hopkins. He eventually moved to New York and became the vice president of J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, while continuing to publish articles and books about psychology. One year before his death, Watson received the gold medal from the American Psychological Association.

       John Watson was not satisfied with the course of psychology’s success in 1913. For this reason he decided that a new psychology should be developed that would finally permit psychology to be accepted with the other sciences. This new psychology would be the study of behavior, and called behaviorism. Watson decided that this new psychology required a new methodology using observation without scientific instruments. One of his most well known studies using a similar method was done with classical conditioning. Here he was determining if emotions of humans can be conditioned, more specifically, the emotion of fear. In 1919 Watson conducted a study of a young boy in which he was able to condition the boy to develop a new fear in rats, dogs, fur coats, and Santa Claus, as a result of presenting a loud and intimidating noise as a rat was presented to him. Although this study would now be seen as extremely unethical, because the subject was never debriefed and continued to live with the fear, the results were incredible, especially at the time. Throughout time it is clear that the foundation of behaviorism were laid before Watson made his influence, but his ability to bind the separate ideas together suggests that he deserves the title of founder of behaviorism.

 Pictured: The Elizabeth Tower

Link: http://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html

Timeline: 1919 Watson tried to condition emotion in humans through his experiment on Little Albert

Weiland, C. (n.d.). John Broadus Watson. Retrieved July 19, 2015, from http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/johnbroaduswatson.html

Benjamin, L. T. (2014). A brief history of modern psychology (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley