The Little Book of Psychology by Caroline Riggs & Emily Ralls

This illuminating little book will introduce you to the key thinkers, themes and theories you need to know to understand how the study of mind and behaviour has sculpted the world we live in and the way we think today. If you want to know your Freud from your Jung and your Milgram from your Maslow, strap in for this whirlwind tour of the highlights of psychology.

Notes from, “Ralls, Emily; Riggs, Caroline. The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know. Summersdale Publishers Ltd. Kindle Edition.”

The History Of Psychology

It wasn’t until around the 1800s that psychology emerged as a discipline in its own right, when German scientist Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) began using “the scientific method” to study human behaviour. (p. 8).

Light a candle and watch it flicker, play a single note on an instrument or smell a flower. Now say out loud how this makes you feel, or what thoughts you have. This is introspection: examining your own mental processes. (p. 9).

The Biological Approach

Hippocrates first argued that it was the brain that was responsible for human thought and consciousness, and not the heart, as Aristotle believed. (p. 11).

The frontal lobe is responsible for our executive functions, the higher-level processes that allow us to make decisions, think creatively and initiate or inhibit actions. In the temporal lobe, memories and language are processed for understanding, while the parietal lobe helps us perceive, interpret and make sense of the world. Finally, the occipital lobe processes information from our eyes, splitting it into smaller categories such as visual tone, pattern and distance. (p. 15).

Neurons are cells that are specially adapted to carry the electrical impulses that allow us to think and feel. (p. 16).

The Psychodynamic Approach

The concept of a “Freudian slip” is well known, and Freud is also credited with providing the first-known example of the use of the word “anxiety” to describe “a morbid state of mind”, in his 1909 work on hysteria… The concept of a “Freudian slip” is well known, and Freud is also credited with providing the first-known example of the use of the word “anxiety” to describe “a morbid state of mind”, in his 1909 work on hysteria. (p. 25).

Carl Jung (1875–1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who was 19 years younger than Freud. (p. 28).

However, in 1912, on a lecture tour of America, a feud developed and broke their relationship after Jung publicly criticized Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex. In his 1914 work The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement, Freud delegitimized Jung’s contributions. (p. 29).

Freud believed that much of our behaviour is the result of unconscious, biological urges that are mediated by our conscious mind. This is the basis for what is known as the tripartite personality, which consists of the Id, the Superego and the Ego. (p. 30).

The Id exists in our unconscious mind and represents our instinctual, biological urges. The Id encourages us to be impulsive, take what we want and do what we want. (p. 31).

The Superego is also largely in our unconscious mind, but it can influence our conscious thought. (p. 32).

The Ego represents our conscious self, and mediates impulses from the Id and moral reasoning from the Superego. The Ego is ruled by the “reality principle”. This means that it tries to work out realistic ways to satisfy the Id’s demands, while also being able to function in society. (p. 32).

Freud believed that the Id and the Superego, existing in the unconscious mind, are in constant conflict as they try to influence the Ego, in the conscious mind. (p. 32).

The following table lists four of the more common examples of defence mechanisms; (p. 33).

The Behaviourist Approach

In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) accidentally stumbled upon a vital learning theory… He was conducting a set of ethically dubious physiological experiments to investigate digestive function in dogs (for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1904), and in one experiment was measuring the amount of saliva a dog produces when it is presented with food. (p. 45).

Classical conditioning is essentially learning through association. During classical conditioning, two stimuli are repeatedly paired with each other until they become associated with one another. Eventually, a response that was previously only associated with one stimulus is now associated with both. (p. 46).

In 1920, John B. Watson (1878–1958) built on Pavlov’s work by investigating if these principles would apply to humans. In a controversial study conducted with his colleague Rosalie Rayner (whom he later married), an infant known in the study as Albert B. was intentionally conditioned to be fearful of small animals. (p. 49).

When Albert was presented with the white rat and reached out to play with it, Watson and Rayner struck a steel bar with a hammer to make a loud noise right behind him. This procedure was repeated over the next few weeks, pairing the loud noise with the white rat until Albert made an association between the two. (p. 50).

Over the coming weeks Watson and Rayner continued to study Albert, and found that he had also become fearful of objects that were similar to the white rat, such as a fur coat or a white beard. (p. 50-51).

Psychologists can use a treatment called systematic desensitization to help a patient to relearn their responses to stimuli, essentially by replacing one conditioned response (for example, fear) with a new, less stressful, conditioned response (relaxation). (p. 52).

In 1938, American psychologist (and later Harvard professor) B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) proposed a new theory of learning known as “operant conditioning”. He theorized that we learn new behaviours based on whether our actions are punished or rewarded. (p. 54).

Skinner is best known for developing this theory through his laboratory work with rats, rewarding them with treats when they pressed a lever. (p. 56).

Enter Albert Bandura (1925–) in 1977, who identified that we are constantly observing the behaviours of others. (p. 57).

Bandura conducted a series of experiments showing that children who watched an adult “model” hit a Bobo doll (an inflatable clown that rocks backwards and forwards when it is struck) were likely to repeat the aggressive behaviour. However, if they observed the model treating the doll nicely, then they would do the same. (p. 57-58).

The Cognitive Approach

This field of psychology aims to understand those higher-level procedures that make us who we are. For example, how we use language, how we solve problems or how we create memories. (p. 61).

Explaining how these cognitive processes develop was the life’s work of psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). (p. 62).

He went on to develop several theories explaining how children develop, which he called “genetic epistemology”, or “a developmental theory of knowledge”. Essentially, Piaget believed that children develop knowledge through interaction with their surroundings, and that this knowledge is constantly being added to and adjusted. (p. 64-65).

This contrasts with the theories of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), who thought that children develop through interaction with others. (p. 69).

He believed that learning takes place when a child is supported through their zone of proximal development (ZPD) by a more knowledgeable “other”, such as a parent, teacher or peer. The ZPD lies between a child’s current abilities and their potential abilities. (p. 71).

Our memories can be altered by suggestion and, as was shown in one famous study by American psychologists Elizabeth Loftus (1944–) and John Palmer (date of birth unknown), a single word can dramatically alter our recall of even a very memorable event. In 1974 Loftus and Palmer aimed to investigate the effect of language on eyewitness testimony. (p. 74).

In a 2008 study by Lahl et al. at the University of Düsseldorf, one hour after learning a list of 30 words, participants were asked to recall them… Recall was significantly better in the group who had taken a nap. (p. 79).

The work of cognitive psychologists has inspired many successful therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a therapy with a high success rate, which teaches a person how to recognize and dispute their own negative thoughts. (p. 81).

Techniques to dispute negative thoughts (p. 82).Consider:

• Is there any evidence for your negative belief?
• Is your belief logical?
• Have you had a similar belief before about a different situation?

Suggest three different reasonable alternatives to your negative belief.

Social Psychology

Have you ever found yourself agreeing with a group of friends despite inwardly believing that they might be wrong? If so, you’re not alone. In the 1950s, a Polish psychologist working in the United States, Solomon Asch (1907–1996), conducted a classic piece of research to investigate this behaviour, known as “conformity”. (p. 86).

Asch concluded that people conform for two main reasons, “normative social influence” and “informational social influence”. Some participants claimed that they wanted to fit in with the group and not be seen as unusual, a phenomenon known as normative social influence. Others doubted their own senses and claimed to really believe the group was correct. This is known as informational social influence. (p. 88).

The experiment on obedience that Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) carried out during the 1960s is one of the most controversial studies in this area of psychology. (p. 90).

The participants were to act as teachers, and were told to subject “learners” to increasingly powerful electric shocks every time they answered a question incorrectly. To encourage participants to do this Milgram simply had to have an “authority figure” present in the room. (pp. 90-91).

65 per cent of participants followed their instructions to the full, lethal voltage. As far as they knew, they had potentially killed the learner. It seemed that an authority figure could indeed influence a person to commit horrendous acts, simply by stating their authority and suggesting that they would take ultimate responsibility for what took place. (p. 92).

Milgram’s research represented a turning point in our understanding of social psychology and, as his biographer Thomas Blass stated, “It is not the kind of person we are that determines how we act, but rather the kind of situation we find ourselves in.” (p. 93).

American psychologist Philip Zimbardo (1933–) went on to examine the effect that a very specific environment has on a person – that of a prison. In 1971 he conducted his now famous “Stanford Prison Experiment”, which was funded by the US Office of Naval Research in an effort to study antisocial behaviour. (p. 93).

These measures were taken in an effort to break the solidarity of the prisoners, and it worked. As the guards became more dominant and assertive, the prisoners became more submissive. After only six days, the study, which had been planned to last for two weeks, had to be called off. Several prisoners showed symptoms similar to those of a mental breakdown and it was feared that their mental and physical health was at risk. (p. 96).

Zimbardo argued that they were conforming to the social role given to them, and had experienced “deindividuation”, a term coined by American social psychologist Leon Festinger, in the 1950s, to describe a state where an individual person cannot be separated or recognized in a group. This means that a person is no longer acting as an individual, but is an anonymous member of a crowd, losing their individual morals and responsibilities. (p. 96-97).

Some “guards” openly said that they felt that their behaviour was helping the experimenters. This is a phenomenon known as “demand characteristics”, where a participant will alter their behaviour to meet the demands of the study in which they are taking part. Then, when Zimbardo did not intervene after the first few instances of the guards overstepping their boundaries, his silence was providing tacit consent for them to continue. (p. 98).

The Humanistic Approach

The approaches we have discussed so far tend to take a deterministic view of human behaviour… They try to find specific, predetermined causes for behaviours (whether biological factors or experiences) that are often out of the control of the individual person. They also take what is known as a “nomothetic” approach when they study our psychology, which means that they attempt to explain human behaviour using a set of universal rules that apply to all people (p. 100).

This is an unsettling view of human behaviour for many people, as it suggests that we actually have very little free will or control over our behaviour… The humanistic approach rebels against these ideas and argues that each person is a unique individual, with a subjective experience of life and free will over their choices and behaviour. (p. 100).

American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908– 1970), who went on to become president of the American Psychological Association, is commonly credited with sparking the humanistic approach with the publication of his “hierarchy of needs” theory in 1943. (p. 101).

Maslow’s approach appealed to another American psychologist and fellow future president of the APA, Carl Rogers (1902–1987), who went on to develop this work further. (p. 105).

Rogers believed that we are the true experts of our own psychology, and only we, as individuals, can reflect upon and explain our own behaviour and motivations. (p. 105).

In order to reach our full potential and achieve “self-actualization”, there needs to be balance between three major personal perceptions: our self-worth, our self-image and our ideal self. (p. 105).

Rogers advocated a very specific type of intervention known as “personcentred therapy”. As the name suggests, this method of therapy is guided by the individual themselves and does not work on the assumption that the therapist is an allknowing authority figure who is there to diagnose and “fix” your mental health. (p. 106).

Rogers developed this therapeutic technique over several years, starting with a description of non-directive therapy in his 1942 publication, Counseling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice. This was in direct contrast to techniques used in “talking therapies” at the time, in which the therapist guided the sessions and provided possible answers or diagnoses. (p. 106-107).

Controversies In Psychology

Fortunately, psychological research is now regulated by thorough guidelines designed to protect participants, both human and non-human. (p. 110).

Some areas of psychology, such as the psychodynamic approach, have been accused of being too subjective and unfalsifiable – too “unscientific” to be taken seriously. (p. 115).

In order to study human behaviour it is usually necessary for a psychologist to focus on one particular variable at a time. They must reduce a very complex subject, for example depression, memory, aggression and so on, down to a few simple factors in order to be able to measure them. This is known as a reductionist approach and is based on the scientific principle of parsimony, meaning that complex phenomena should be explained using the simplest explanation possible. (p. 119-120).

Holism is an attempt to consider multiple factors when studying a behaviour. This approach considers the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts, and therefore the entirety of the human experience should be considered (or at least as much of it as possible) if we are to understand the true causes of behaviour. (p. 121).

The term “soft determinism” is used to describe an attempt to reconcile the human need to feel a sense of agency and control over our thoughts and behaviour, and the scientific need to develop laws in order to predict human behaviour. A soft deterministic approach would suggest that there are biological and environmental mechanisms that underlie our behaviour, but that, ultimately, we still have a choice regarding the impact they have on our thoughts and actions. (p. 123-124).