In economics and the social sciences, spontaneous order has been defined by Hayek as "the result of human actions, not of human design".
In economics,
spontaneous order has been defined as an equilibrium behavior among
self-interested individuals, which is most likely to evolve and survive,
obeying the natural selection process "survival of the likeliest".
History
According to Murray Rothbard, the philosopher Zhuangzi (c. 369–286 BC) was the first to propose the idea of spontaneous order. Zhuangzi rejected the authoritarianism of Confucianism,
writing that there "has been such a thing as letting mankind alone;
there has never been such a thing as governing mankind [with success]."
He articulated an early form of spontaneous order, asserting that "good
order results spontaneously when things are let alone", a concept later
"developed particularly by Proudhon in the nineteenth [century]".
In 1767, the sociologist and historian Adam Ferguson within the context of Scottish Enlightenment described society as the "result of human action, but not the execution of any human design".
Jacobs has suggested that the term "spontaneous order" was effectively coined by Michael Polanyi in his essay, "The Growth of Thought in Society," Economica 8 (November 1941): 428–56.
The Austrian School of Economics, led by Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek
made it a centerpiece in its social and economic thought. Hayek's
theory of spontaneous order is the product of two related but distinct
influences that do not always tend in the same direction. As an
economic theorist, his explanations can be given a rational explanation.
But as a legal and social theorist, he leans, by contrast, very heavily
on a conservative and traditionalist approach which instructs us to
submit blindly to a flow of events over which we can have little
control.
Proposed examples
Markets
Many classical-liberal theorists, such as Hayek, have argued that market economies
are a spontaneous order, and that they represent "a more efficient
allocation of societal resources than any design could achieve." They claim this spontaneous order (referred to as the extended order in Hayek's The Fatal Conceit) is superior to any order a human mind can design due to the specifics of the information required.
Centralized statistical data, they suppose, cannot convey this
information because the statistics are created by abstracting away from
the particulars of the situation.
Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education, a libertarianthink tank
in the United States, argues that spontaneous order "is what happens
when you leave people alone—when entrepreneurs... see the desires of
people... and then provide for them." He further claims that
"[entrepreneurs] respond to market signals, to prices. Prices tell them
what's needed and how urgently and where. And it's infinitely better and
more productive than relying on a handful of elites in some distant
bureaucracy."
Anarchists argue that the state
is in fact an artificial creation of the ruling elite, and that true
spontaneous order would arise if it were eliminated. This is construed
by some but not all as the ushering in of organization by anarchist law. In the anarchist view, such spontaneous order would involve the voluntary cooperation of individuals. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, "the work of many symbolic interactionists is largely compatible with the anarchist vision, since it harbours a view of society as spontaneous order."
Sobornost
The concept of spontaneous order can also be seen in the works of the Russian Slavophile movements and specifically in the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The concept of an organic social manifestation as a concept in Russia expressed under the idea of sobornost. Sobornost was also used by Leo Tolstoy as an underpinning to the ideology of Christian anarchism. The concept was used to describe the uniting force behind the peasant or serf Obshchina in pre-Soviet Russia.
Other examples
Perhaps the most prominent exponent of spontaneous order is Friedrich Hayek. In addition to arguing the economy is a spontaneous order, which he termed a catallaxy, he argued that common law and the brain are also types of spontaneous orders. In The Republic of Science,Michael Polanyi also argued that science
is a spontaneous order, a theory further developed by Bill Butos and
Thomas McQuade in a variety of papers. Gus DiZerega has argued that democracy is the spontaneous order form of government, David Emmanuel Andersson has argued that religion in places like the United States is a spontaneous order, and Troy Camplin argues that artistic and literary production are spontaneous orders. Paul Krugman has also contributed to spontaneous order theory in his book The Self-Organizing Economy, in which he claims that cities are self-organizing systems. Credibility thesis
suggests that the credibility of social institutions is the driving
factor behind the endogenous self-organization of institutions and their
persistence.
Different rules of game would cause different types of
spontaneous order. If an economic society obeys the equal-opportunity
rules, the resulting spontaneous order is reflected as an exponential
income distribution; that is, for an equal-opportunity economic society,
the exponential income distribution is most likely to evolve and
survive.
By analyzing datasets of household income from 66 countries and Hong
Kong SAR, ranging from Europe to Latin America, North America and Asia,
Tao et al found that, for all of these countries, the income structure
for the great majority of populations (low and middle income classes)
follows an exponential income distribution.
Criticism
Roland
Kley writes about Hayek's theory of spontaneous order that "the
foundations of Hayek's liberalism are so incoherent" because the "idea
of spontaneous order lacks distinctness and internal structure."
The three components of Hayek's theory are lack of intentionality, the
"primacy of tacit or practical knowledge", and the "natural selection of
competitive traditions." While the first feature, that social
institutions may arise in some unintended fashion, is indeed an
essential element of spontaneous order, the second two are only
implications, not essential elements.
Hayek's theory has also been criticized for not offering a moral
argument, and his overall outlook contains "incompatible strands that he
never seeks to reconcile in a systematic manner."
Abby Innes has criticised many of the economic ideas as a fatal
confrontation between economic libertarianism and reality, arguing that
it represents a form of materialist utopia that has much in common with
Soviet Russia.
Herd behavior is the behavior of individuals in a group acting collectively without centralized direction. Herd behavior occurs in animals in herds, packs, bird flocks, fish schools, and so on, as well as in humans. Voting, demonstrations, riots, general strikes,
sporting events, religious gatherings, everyday decision-making,
judgement, and opinion-forming, are all forms of human-based herd
behavior.
Raafat, Chater and Frith proposed an integrated approach to
herding, describing two key issues, the mechanisms of transmission of
thoughts or behavior between individuals and the patterns of connections
between them.
They suggested that bringing together diverse theoretical approaches
of herding behavior illuminates the applicability of the concept to many
domains, ranging from cognitive neuroscience to economics.
Animal behavior
A group of animals fleeing from a predator shows the nature of herd
behavior, for example in 1971, in the oft-cited article "Geometry for
the Selfish Herd", evolutionary biologistW. D. Hamilton
asserted that each individual group member reduces the danger to itself
by moving as close as possible to the center of the fleeing group. Thus
the herd appears as a unit in moving together, but its function emerges
from the uncoordinated behavior of self-serving individuals.
Symmetry-breaking
Asymmetric aggregation of animals under panic conditions has been observed in many species, including humans, mice, and ants.
Theoretical models have demonstrated symmetry-breaking similar to
observations in empirical studies. For example, when panicked
individuals are confined to a room with two equal and equidistant exits,
a majority will favor one exit while the minority will favor the other.
Possible mechanisms for this behavior include Hamilton's selfish herd theory, neighbor copying, or the byproduct of communication by social animals or runaway positive feedback.
Characteristics of escape panic include:
Individuals attempt to move faster than normal.
Interactions between individuals become physical.
Exits become arched and clogged.
Escape is slowed by fallen individuals serving as obstacles.
Individuals display a tendency towards mass or copied behavior.
Alternative or less used exits are overlooked.
Human behavior
Early research
The philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche
were among the first to criticize what they referred to as "the crowd"
(Kierkegaard) and "herd morality" and the "herd instinct" (Nietzsche) in
human society. Modern psychological and economic
research has identified herd behavior in humans to explain the
phenomenon of large numbers of people acting in the same way at the same
time. The British surgeon Wilfred Trotter popularized the "herd behavior" phrase in his book, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War (1914). In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen
explained economic behavior in terms of social influences such as
"emulation", where some members of a group mimic other members of higher
status. In "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (1903), early sociologist George Simmel
referred to the "impulse to sociability in man", and sought to describe
"the forms of association by which a mere sum of separate individuals
are made into a 'society' ". Other social scientists explored behaviors
related to herding, such as Sigmund Freud (crowd psychology), Carl Jung (collective unconscious), Everett Dean Martin (Behavior of Crowds) and Gustave Le Bon (the popular mind).
"Benign"
herding behaviors may occur frequently in everyday decisions based on
learning from the information of others, as when a person on the street
decides which of two restaurants to dine in. Suppose that both look
appealing, but both are empty because it is early evening; so at random,
this person chooses restaurant A. Soon a couple walks down the same
street in search of a place to eat. They see that restaurant A has
customers while B is empty, and choose A on the assumption that having
customers makes it the better choice. Because other passersby do the
same thing into the evening, restaurant A does more business that night
than B. This phenomenon is also referred as an information cascade.
Crowds that gather on behalf of a grievance can involve herding
behavior that turns violent, particularly when confronted by an opposing
ethnic or racial group. The Los Angeles riots of 1992, New York Draft Riots, and Tulsa race massacre are notorious in U.S. history. The idea of a "group mind" or "mob behavior" was put forward by the French social psychologists Gabriel Tarde and Gustave Le Bon.
Sheeple
Sheeple (/ˈʃiːpəl/; a portmanteau of "sheep" and "people") is a derogatory term that highlights the passive herd behavior of people easily controlled by a governing power or market fads which likens them to sheep, a herd
animal that is "easily" led about. The term is used to describe those
who voluntarily acquiesce to a suggestion without any significant critical analysis or research, in large part due to the majority of a population having a similar mindset. Word Spy defines it as "people who are meek, easily persuaded, and tend to follow the crowd (sheep + people)". Merriam-Webster defines the term as "people who are docile, compliant, or easily influenced: people likened to sheep". The word is pluralia tantum, which means it does not have a singular form.
While its origins are unclear, the word was used by W. R. Anderson in his column Round About Radio, published in London 1945, where he wrote:
The
simple truth is that you can get away with anything, in government.
That covers almost all the evils of the time. Once in, nobody,
apparently, can turn you out. The People, as ever (I spell it
"Sheeple"), will stand anything.
Another early use was from Ernest Rogers, whose 1949 book The Old Hokum Bucket contained a chapter entitled "We the Sheeple". The Wall Street Journal
first reported the label in print in 1984; the reporter heard the word
used by the proprietor of the American Opinion bookstore. In this usage, taxpayers were derided for their blind conformity as opposed to those who thought independently. The term was first popularized in the late 1980s and early 1990s by conspiracy theorist and broadcaster Bill Cooper on his radio program The Hour of the Time
which was broadcast internationally via shortwave radio stations. The
program gained a small, yet dedicated following, inspiring many
individuals who would later broadcast their own radio programs critical
of the United States government. This then led to its regular use on the
radio program Coast to Coast AM by Art Bell
throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. These combined factors
significantly increased the popularity of the word and led to its
widespread use.
The term can also be used for those who seem inordinately
tolerant, or welcoming, of widespread policies. In a column entitled "A
Nation of Sheeple", columnist Walter E. Williams writes, "Americans sheepishly accepted all sorts of Transportation Security Administration nonsense. In the name of security, we've allowed fingernail clippers, eyeglass screwdrivers, and toy soldiers to be taken from us prior to boarding a plane."
Economics and finance
Currency crises
Currency crises
tend to display herding behavior when foreign and domestic investors
convert a government's currency into physical assets (like gold) or
foreign currencies when they realize the government is unable to repay
its debts. This is called a speculative attack and it will tend to cause
moderate inflation in the short term. When consumers realize that the inflation of needed commodities is increasing, they will begin to stockpile and hoard goods, which will accelerate the rate of inflation even faster. This will ultimately crash the currency and likely lead to civil unrest.
Stock market bubbles
Large
stock market trends often begin and end with periods of frenzied buying
(bubbles) or selling (crashes). Many observers cite these episodes as
clear examples of herding behavior that is irrational and driven by
emotion—greed in the bubbles, fear in the crashes. Individual investors
join the crowd of others in a rush to get in or out of the market.
Some empirical works on methods for detecting and measuring the
extent of herding include Christie and Huang (1995) and Chang, Cheng and
Khorana (2000). These results refer to a market with a well-defined
fundamental value. A notable incident of possible herding is the 2007 uranium bubble, which started with flooding of the Cigar Lake Mine in Saskatchewan, during the year 2006.
Economic theory of herding
There
are two strands of work in economic theory that consider why herding
occurs and provide frameworks for examining its causes and consequences.
The first of these strands is that on herd behavior in a non-market context. The seminal references are Banerjee (1992) and Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer and Welch (1992), both of which showed that herd behavior may result from private information
not publicly shared. More specifically, both of these papers showed
that individuals, acting sequentially on the basis of private
information and public knowledge about the behavior of others, may end
up choosing the socially undesirable option. A large subsequent
literature has examined the causes and consequences of such "herds" and
information cascades.
The second strands concerns information aggregation in market
contexts. A very early reference is the classic paper by Grossman and
Stiglitz (1976) that showed that uninformed traders in a market context
can become informed through the price in such a way that private
information is aggregated correctly and efficiently. Subsequent work has
shown that markets may systematically overweight public information; it has also studied the role of strategic trading as an obstacle to efficient information aggregation.
Marketing
Herd behavior is often a useful tool in marketing and, if used properly, can lead to increases in sales and changes to the structure of society.
Whilst it has been shown that financial incentives cause action in
large numbers of people, herd mentality often wins out in a case of
"Keeping up with the Joneses".
Brand and product success
Communications technologies have contributed to the proliferation to consumer choice and "the power of crowds", Consumers increasingly have more access to opinions and information from both opinion leaders and formers on platforms that have largely user-generated content, and thus have more tools with which to complete any decision-making process. Popularity
is seen as an indication of better quality, and consumers will use the
opinions of others posted on these platforms as a powerful compass to
guide them towards products and brands that align with their
preconceptions and the decisions of others in their peer groups. Taking into account differences in needs and their position in the socialization
process, Lessig & Park examined groups of students and housewives
and the influence that these reference groups have on one another. By
way of herd mentality, students tended to encourage each other towards
beer, hamburger and cigarettes, whilst housewives
tended to encourage each other towards furniture and detergent. Whilst
this particular study was done in 1977, one cannot discount its findings
in today's society. A study done by Burke, Leykin, Li and Zhang in 2014
on the social influence
on shopper behavior shows that shoppers are influenced by direct
interactions with companions, and as a group size grows, herd behaviour
becomes more apparent. Discussions that create excitement and interest
have greater impact on touch frequency and purchase likelihood grows
with greater involvement caused by a large group.
Shoppers in this Midwestern American shopping outlet were monitored and
their purchases noted, and it was found up to a point, potential
customers preferred to be in stores which had moderate levels of
traffic. The other people in the store not only served as company, but
also provided an inference point on which potential customers could
model their behavior and make purchase decisions, as with any reference group or community.
Social media can also be a powerful tool in perpetuating herd behaviour. Its immeasurable amount of user-generated content serves as a platform
for opinion leaders to take the stage and influence purchase decisions,
and recommendations from peers and evidence of positive online
experience all serve to help consumers make purchasing decisions. Gunawan and Huarng's 2015 study concluded that social influence is essential in framing attitudes towards brands, which in turn leads to purchase intention. Influencers form norms which their peers are found to follow, and targeting extroverted personalities increases chances of purchase even further.
This is because the stronger personalities tend to be more engaged on
consumer platforms and thus spread word of mouth information more
efficiently.
Many brands have begun to realise the importance of brand ambassadors
and influencers, and it is being shown more clearly that herd behaviour
can be used to drive sales and profits exponentially in favour of any
brand through examination of these instances.
Social marketing
Marketing can easily transcend beyond commercial roots, in that it can be used to encourage action to do with health, environmentalism and general society. Herd mentality often takes a front seat when it comes to social marketing, paving the way for campaigns such as Earth Day,
and the variety of anti-smoking and anti-obesity campaigns seen in
every country. Within cultures and communities, marketers must aim to
influence opinion leaders who in turn influence each other,
as it is the herd mentality of any group of people that ensures a
social campaign's success. A campaign run by Som la Pera in Spain to
combat teenage obesity found that campaigns run in schools are more
effective due to influence of teachers and peers, and students' high
visibility, and their interaction with one another. Opinion leaders in
schools created the logo and branding for the campaign, built content
for social media and led in-school presentations to engage audience
interaction. It was thus concluded that the success of the campaign was
rooted in the fact that its means of communication was the audience
itself, giving the target audience a sense of ownership and empowerment.
As mentioned previously, students exert a high level of influence over
one another, and by encouraging stronger personalities to lead opinions,
the organizers of the campaign were able to secure the attention of
other students who identified with the reference group.
Herd behaviour not only applies to students in schools where they
are highly visible, but also amongst communities where perceived action
plays a strong role. Between 2003 and 2004, California State University
carried out a study to measure household conservation of energy, and motivations for doing so. It was found that factors like saving the environment, saving money or social responsibility did not have as great an impact on each household as the perceived behaviour of their neighbours did.
Although the financial incentives of saving money, closely followed by
moral incentives of protecting the environment, are often thought of as
being a community's greatest guiding compass, more households responded
to the encouragement to save energy when they were told that 77% of
their neighbours were using fans instead of air conditioning, proving
that communities are more likely to engage in a behaviour if they think
that everyone else is already taking part.
Herd behaviours shown in the two examples exemplify that it can
be a powerful tool in social marketing, and if harnessed correctly, has
the potential to achieve great change. It is clear that opinion leaders
and their influence achieve huge reach among their reference groups and
thus can be used as the loudest voices to encourage others in any
collective direction.
Collective animal behaviour is a form of social behavior involving the coordinated behavior of large groups of similar animals as well as emergent
properties of these groups. This can include the costs and benefits of
group membership, the transfer of information, decision-making process,
locomotion and synchronization of the group. Studying the principles of
collective animal behavior has relevance to human engineering problems
through the philosophy of biomimetics.
For instance, determining the rules by which an individual animal
navigates relative to its neighbors in a group can lead to advances in
the deployment and control of groups of swimming or flying micro-robots
such as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
The basis of collective animal behaviour originated from the study of collective phenomena;
that is, repeated interactions among individuals that produce large
scale patterns. The foundation of collective phenomena originates from
the idea that collective systems can be understood from a set of
techniques. For example, Nicolis and Prigogine (1977)
employed the use of non-linear thermodynamics to help explain
similarities between collective systems at different scales. Other
studies aim to use physics, mathematics and chemistry to provide
frameworks to study collective phenomena.
Proposed functions
Many
functions of animal aggregations have been proposed. These proposed
functions may be grouped into the four following categories: social and
genetic, anti-predator, enhanced foraging, and increased locomotion
efficiency.
Social interaction
Support
for the social and genetic function of aggregations, especially those
formed by fish, can be seen in several aspects of their behavior. For
instance, experiments have shown that individual fish removed from a
school will have a higher respiratory rate than those found in the
school. This effect has been partly attributed to stress, although
hydrodynamic factors were considered more important in this particular
study.
The calming effect of being with conspecifics may thus provide a social
motivation for remaining in an aggregation. Herring, for instance, will
become very agitated if they are isolated from conspecifics.
Fish schools have also been proposed to serve a reproductive function
since they provide increased access to potential mates. Some scientists
have provided disadvantages to mating in aggregations by using robotic
male crabs; a female is at a higher risk approaching a cluster, has the
ability of comparing males, increasing mate competition.
Several anti-predator functions of animal aggregations have been proposed. One potential method by which fish schools or bird flocks may thwart predators is the ‘predator confusion effect’ proposed and demonstrated by Milinski and Heller (1978).
This theory is based on the idea that it becomes difficult for
predators to pick out individual prey from groups because the many
moving targets create a sensory overload of the predator's visual
channel. Milinski and Heller's findings have been corroborated both in
experiment and computer simulations.
A second potential anti-predator effect of animal aggregations is
the "many eyes" hypothesis. This theory states that as the size of the
group increases, the task of scanning the environment for predators can
be spread out over many individuals. Not only does this mass collaboration presumably provide a higher level of vigilance, it could also allow more time for individual feeding.
A third hypothesis for an anti-predatory effect of animal aggregation is the "encounter dilution"
effect. Hamilton, for instance, proposed that the aggregation of
animals was due to a "selfish" avoidance of a predator and was thus a
form of cover-seeking. Another formulation of the theory was given by Turner and Pitcher and
was viewed as a combination of detection and attack probabilities.
In the detection component of the theory, it was suggested that
potential prey might benefit by living together since a predator is less
likely to chance upon a single group than a scattered distribution. In
the attack component, it was thought that an attacking predator is less
likely to eat a particular animal when a greater number of individuals
are present. In sum, an individual has an advantage if it is in the
larger of two groups, assuming that the probability of detection and
attack does not increase disproportionately with the size of the group.
Enhanced foraging
A
third proposed benefit of animal groups is that of enhanced foraging.
This ability was demonstrated by Pitcher and others in their study of
foraging behavior in shoaling cyprinids.
In this study, the time it took for groups of minnows and goldfish to
find a patch of food was quantified. The number of fishes in the groups
was varied, and a statistically significant decrease in the amount of
time necessary for larger groups to find food was established. Further
support for an enhanced foraging capability of schools is seen in the
structure of schools of predatory fish. Partridge and others analyzed
the school structure of Atlantic bluefin tuna from aerial photographs
and found that the school assumed a parabolic shape, a fact that was
suggestive of cooperative hunting in this species (Partridge et al.,
1983).
Increased locomotion efficiency
This
theory states that groups of animals moving in a fluid environment may
save energy when swimming or flying together, much in the way that
bicyclists may draft one another in a peloton. Geese flying in a Vee formation are also thought to save energy by flying in the updraft of the wingtip vortex generated by the previous animal in the formation. Ducklings have also been shown to save energy by swimming in a line. Increased efficiencies in swimming in groups have also been proposed for schools of fish and Antarctic krill.
Another example can be seen in homing pigeons. When a homing
pigeon is released with other individuals from its roost, these pigeon
groups showed increased efficiency and decision making to shorten the
distance of the route taken to return home, thus saving energy when
flying between locations.
Costs of group living
Ectoparasitism and disease
Animals
that form colonies form a cost of living in groups. These colonies
exhibit a system with close physical proximity and increased contact
between individuals, thus increasing transmission of disease and
ectoparasites; a universal hazard of animals living in groups.
For example, cliff swallows that are commonly parasitized by
swallow bugs incur a cost when forming colonies, as these parasitic bugs
increase the mortality rates of cliff swallow nestlings.
A study shows that the number of swallow bugs found in cliff swallow
nests increased with the increase of cliff swallow colony size, thus
reducing overall success of these colonies.
Larger groups of animals tend to harbour an increased number of pathogens and are at a higher risk of epidemics.
This is particularly due to the large amount of waste material produced
by larger groups, allowing for a favourable environment for pathogens
to thrive.
Intraspecific competition
Another
cost to group living is the competition over food resources. As
individuals group together, there is an increased nutritional
requirement of the larger group compared to smaller groups. This causes
an increased energetic cost as individuals now travel farther to visit
resource patches.
An example of intraspecific competition can be seen within groups
of whales and dolphins. Female bottle-nose dolphins with similar home
ranges tend to have varied foraging habits in an effort to reduce and
negate the intraspecific competition of resources.
Benefits of group living on defence from predators is very evident in
nature, however in locations of high resource competition poses an
effect on the mortality of certain individuals. This can be seen in
species of shoaling fish, where the initial aggregation of individuals
to a group initially allowed for the protection from predators, however
the limiting resources available changes over time, and mortality rates
of these fish begin to increase,
showing that resource competition is an important regulator of reef
fish groups after the initial benefits of refuge grouping and predatory
protection.
Interesting contrasts to the benefit of increased group size on
foraging efficiency can be seen in nature particularly due to
intraspecific interactions. A study conducted on the Alaskan moose shows
that with increasing group size, there is a decrease in foraging
efficiency.
This is result of increased social aggression in the groups, as the
individuals of the group spent most of its time in alert-alarm postures,
thus spending less time foraging and feeding, reducing its foraging
efficiency.
Reproduction and development
With
increasing colony size and competition of resources within individuals
of a group, reproductive rates and development of offspring may vary due
to reduced resource availability. For example, a study conducted on
groups of leaf monkeys show that infant monkeys in larger group sizes
developed slower than those in smaller group sizes.
This staggered infant development in the larger groups were closely
related to the reduced energetic gain of mothers with reduced available
nutrition, thus negatively affecting infant developmental rates. It was
also shown that females within the larger groups reproduced more slowly
compared to females in smaller groups.
The Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is an example of a
species that incur a cost of group living on the successful reproductive
rates. Females present in larger groups of badgers have an increased
reproductive failure rate compared to solitary badgers. This is a result
of increased reproductive competition within the female individuals in
the group.
Stress
Another
cost to group living is stress levels within individuals of a group.
Stress levels within group living varies dependent on the size of the
colony or group. A large group of animals may suffer larger levels of
stress arising from intraspecific food competition. In contrast, smaller
groups may have increased stress levels arising from the lack of
adequate defense from predators as well as a reduced foraging
efficiency.
An example can be seen in a study conducted on a species of ring-tail lemurs (Lemur catta).
This study found that an optimum group size of around 10-20 individuals
produces the lowest level of cortisol (an indicator of stress), while
groups with smaller or larger than 10-20 individuals showed an increased
level of cortisol production, thus an increased level of stress within
the individuals of the larger and smaller groups.
Inbreeding
Another
proposed cost to group living is the cost incurred to avoid inbreeding.
Individuals may it be male or females in groups may disperse in an
effort to avoid inbreeding.
This poses a more detrimental effect on smaller, isolated groups of
individuals, as they are at a greater risk of inbreeding and thus
suppressing the group’s overall fitness.
Group structure
The
structure of large animal groups has been difficult to study because of
the large number of animals involved. The experimental approach is
therefore often complemented by mathematical modeling of animal
aggregations.
Experimental approach
The
purpose of experiments investigating the structure of animal
aggregations is to determine the 3D position of each animal within a
volume at each point in time. It is important to know the internal
structure of the group because that structure can be related to the
proposed motivations for animal grouping. This capability requires the
use of multiple cameras trained on the same volume in space, a technique
known as stereophotogrammetry. When hundreds or thousands of animals occupy the study volume, it becomes difficult to identify each individual.
In addition, animals may block one another in the camera views, a
problem known as occlusion. Once the location of each animal at each
point in time is known, various parameters describing the animal group
can be extracted.
These parameters include:
Density: The density of an animal aggregation is
the number of animals divided by the volume (or area) occupied by the
aggregation. Density may not be a constant throughout the group. For
instance, starling flocks have been shown to maintain higher densities
on the edges than in the middle of the flock, a feature that is
presumably related to defense from predators.
Polarity: The group polarity describes if the group
animals are all pointing in the same direction or not. In order to
determine this parameter, the average orientation of all animals in the
group is determined. For each animal, the angular difference between its
orientation and the group orientation is then found. The group polarity
is then the average of these differences (Viscido 2004).
Nearest Neighbor Distance: The nearest neighbor
distance (NND) describes the distance between the centroid of one animal
(the focal animal) and the centroid of the animal nearest to the focal
animal. This parameter can be found for each animal in an aggregation
and then averaged. Care must be taken to account for the animals located
at the edge of an animal aggregation. These animals have no neighbor in
one direction.
Nearest Neighbor Position: In a polar coordinate
system, the nearest neighbor position describes the angle and distance
of the nearest neighbor to a focal animal.
Packing Fraction: Packing fraction
is a parameter borrowed from physics to define the organization (or
state i.e. solid, liquid, or gas) of 3D animal groups. It is an
alternative measure to density. In this parameter, the aggregation is
idealized as an ensemble of solid spheres, with each animal at the
center of a sphere. The packing fraction is defined as the ratio of the
total volume occupied by all individual spheres divided by the global
volume of the aggregation (Cavagna 2008). Values range from zero to one,
where a small packing fraction represents a dilute system like a gas.
Cavagna found that the packing fraction for groups of starlings was
0.012.
Integrated Conditional Density: This parameter
measures the density at various length scales and therefore describes
the homogeneity of density throughout an animal group.
Pair Distribution Function:
This parameter is usually used in physics to characterize the degree of
spatial order in a system of particles. It also describes the density,
but this measures describes the density at a distance away from a given
point. Cavagna et al. found that flocks of starlings exhibited more
structure than a gas but less than a liquid.
Modeling approach
The simplest mathematical models of animal aggregations generally instruct the individual animals to follow three rules:
Move in the same direction as your neighbor
Remain close to your neighbors
Avoid collisions with your neighbors
A diagram illustrating the difference between 'metric distance' and 'topological distance' in reference to fish schools
Two examples of this simulation are the Boids program created by Craig Reynolds in 1986 and the Self Propelled Particle
model. Many current models use variations on these rules. For instance,
many models implement these three rules through layered zones around
each animal. In the zone of repulsion very close to the animal, the
focal animal will seek to distance itself from its neighbors in order to
avoid a collision. In the slightly further away zone of alignment, a
focal animal will align its direction of motion with its neighbors. In
the outmost zone of attraction, extending the largest distance from the
focal animal as it is able to sense, the focal animal will move towards a
neighbor. The shape of these zones is affected by the sensory
capabilities of the animal. For example, the visual field of a bird does
not extend behind its body. Fish, on the other hand, rely on both
vision and on hydrodynamic signals relayed through its lateral line. Antarctic krill rely on vision and on hydrodynamic signals relayed through its antennae.
Recent studies of starling flocks have shown, however, that each
bird modifies its position relative to the six or seven animals directly
surrounding it, no matter how close or how far away those animals are.
Interactions between flocking starlings are thus based on a topological
rule rather than a metric rule. It remains to be seen whether the same
rule can be applied to other animals. Another recent study, based on an
analysis of high speed camera footage of flocks above Rome and assuming
minimal behavioural rules, has convincingly simulated a number of
aspects of flock behaviour.
Collective decision making
Aggregations
of animals are faced with decisions which they must make if they are to
remain together. For a school of fish, an example of a typical decision
might be which direction to swim when confronted by a predator. Social insects such as ants and bees must collectively decide where to build a new nest.
A herd of elephants must decide when and where to migrate. How are
these decisions made? Do stronger or more experienced 'leaders' exert
more influence than other group members, or does the group make a
decision by consensus? The answer probably depends on the species. While
the role of a leading matriarch in an elephant herd is well known,
studies have shown that some animal species use a consensus approach in
their collective decision-making process.
A recent investigation showed that small groups of fish used
consensus decision-making when deciding which fish model to follow. The
fish did this by a simple quorum rule such that individuals watched the
decisions of others before making their own decisions. This technique
generally resulted in the 'correct' decision but occasionally cascaded
into the 'incorrect' decision. In addition, as the group size increased,
the fish made more accurate decisions in following the more attractive
fish model. Consensus decision-making, a form of collective intelligence, thus effectively uses information from multiple sources to generally reach the correct conclusion.
Some simulations of collective decision-making use the Condorcet method to model the way groups of animals come to consensus.
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both conscious and unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feelings, and motives. Psychology is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Biological psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups.
A professional practitioner or researcher involved in the discipline is called a psychologist. Some psychologists can also be classified as behavioral or cognitive scientists. Some psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior. Others explore the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie cognitive functions and behaviors.
While psychological knowledge is often applied to the assessment
and treatment of mental health problems, it is also directed towards
understanding and solving problems in several spheres of human activity.
By many accounts, psychology ultimately aims to benefit society.Many psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing psychotherapy in clinical, counseling, or school
settings. Other psychologists conduct scientific research on a wide
range of topics related to mental processes and behavior. Typically the
latter group of psychologists work in academic settings (e.g.,
universities, medical schools, or hospitals). Another group of
psychologists is employed in industrial and organizational settings. Yet others are involved in work on human development, aging, sports, health, forensic science, education, and the media.
Etymology and definitions
The word psychology derives from the Greek word psyche, for spirit or soul. The latter part of the word psychology derives from -λογία -logia, which means "study" or "research". The word psychology was first used in the Renaissance. In its Latin form psychiologia, it was first employed by the Croatianhumanist and LatinistMarko Marulić in his book Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae (Psychology, on the Nature of the Human Soul) in the decade 1510–1520 The earliest known reference to the word psychology in English was by Steven Blankaart in 1694 in The Physical Dictionary. The dictionary refers to "Anatomy, which treats the Body, and Psychology, which treats of the Soul."
Ψ (psi), the first letter of the Greek word psyche from which the term psychology is derived, is commonly associated with the field of psychology.
In 1890, William James defined psychology as "the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and their conditions." This definition enjoyed widespread currency for decades. However, this meaning was contested, notably by John B. Watson, who in 1913 asserted the methodological behaviorist view of psychology as a purely objective experimental branch of natural science, the theoretical goal of which "is the prediction and control of behavior." Since James defined "psychology", the term more strongly implicates scientific experimentation. Folk psychology is the understanding of the mental states and behaviors of people held by ordinary people, as contrasted with psychology professionals' understanding.
The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Persia
all engaged in the philosophical study of psychology. In Ancient Egypt
the Ebers Papyrus mentioned depression and thought disorders. Historians note that Greek philosophers, including Thales, Plato, and Aristotle (especially in his De Anima treatise), addressed the workings of the mind. As early as the 4th century BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders had physical rather than supernatural causes.
In 387 BCE, Plato suggested that the brain is where mental processes
take place, and in 335 BCE Aristotle suggested that it was the heart.
In China, psychological understanding grew from the philosophical works of Laozi and Confucius, and later from the doctrines of Buddhism.
This body of knowledge involves insights drawn from introspection and
observation, as well as techniques for focused thinking and acting. It
frames the universe in term of a division of physical reality and mental
reality as well as the interaction between the physical and the mental. Chinese philosophy also emphasized purifying the mind in order to increase virtue and power. An ancient text known as The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine identifies the brain as the nexus of wisdom and sensation, includes theories of personality based on yin–yang
balance, and analyzes mental disorder in terms of physiological and
social disequilibria. Chinese scholarship that focused on the brain
advanced during the Qing dynasty with the work of Western-educated Fang Yizhi (1611–1671), Liu Zhi
(1660–1730), and Wang Qingren (1768–1831). Wang Qingren emphasized the
importance of the brain as the center of the nervous system, linked
mental disorder with brain diseases, investigated the causes of dreams
and insomnia, and advanced a theory of hemispheric lateralization in brain function.
Influenced by Hinduism, Indian philosophy explored distinctions in types of awareness. A central idea of the Upanishads and other Vedic texts that formed the foundations of Hinduism was the distinction between a person's transient mundane self and their eternal, unchanging soul. Divergent Hindu doctrines and Buddhism have challenged this hierarchy of selves, but have all emphasized the importance of reaching higher awareness. Yoga encompasses a range of techniques used in pursuit of this goal. Theosophy, a religion established by Russian-American philosopher Helena Blavatsky, drew inspiration from these doctrines during her time in British India.
Psychology was of interest to Enlightenment thinkers in Europe. In Germany, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
(1646–1716) applied his principles of calculus to the mind, arguing
that mental activity took place on an indivisible continuum. He
suggested that the difference between conscious and unconscious
awareness is only a matter of degree. Christian Wolff identified psychology as its own science, writing Psychologia Empirica in 1732 and Psychologia Rationalis in 1734. Immanuel Kant advanced the idea of anthropology as a discipline, with psychology an important subdivision. Kant, however, explicitly rejected the idea of an experimental psychology,
writing that "the empirical doctrine of the soul can also never
approach chemistry even as a systematic art of analysis or experimental
doctrine, for in it the manifold of inner observation can be separated
only by mere division in thought, and cannot then be held separate and
recombined at will (but still less does another thinking subject suffer
himself to be experimented upon to suit our purpose), and even
observation by itself already changes and displaces the state of the
observed object."
In 1783, Ferdinand Ueberwasser (1752–1812) designated himself Professor of Empirical Psychology and Logic and gave lectures on scientific psychology, though these developments were soon overshadowed by the Napoleonic Wars. At the end of the Napoleonic era, Prussian authorities discontinued the Old University of Münster. Having consulted philosophers Hegel and Herbart, however, in 1825 the Prussian state established psychology as a mandatory discipline in its rapidly expanding and highly influential educational system. However, this discipline did not yet embrace experimentation. In England, early psychology involved phrenology and the response to social problems including alcoholism, violence, and the country's crowded "lunatic" asylums.
Beginning of experimental psychology
James McKeen Cattell, the first psychologist in the United StatesWilhelm Wundt (seated), a German psychologist, with colleagues in his psychological laboratory, the first of its kind, c. 1880One of the dogs used in Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov's experiment with a surgically implanted cannula to measure saliva, preserved in the Pavlov Museum in Ryazan, Russia
Philosopher John Stuart Mill believed that the human mind was open to scientific investigation, even if the science is in some ways inexact. Mill proposed a "mental chemistry" in which elementary thoughts could combine into ideas of greater complexity. Gustav Fechner began conducting psychophysics research in Leipzig in the 1830s. He articulated the principle that human perception of a stimulus varies logarithmically according to its intensity. The principle became known as the Weber–Fechner law. Fechner's 1860 Elements of Psychophysics challenged Kant's negative view with regard to conducting quantitative research on the mind.
Fechner's achievement was to show that "mental processes could not only
be given numerical magnitudes, but also that these could be measured by
experimental methods." In Heidelberg, Hermann von Helmholtz conducted parallel research on sensory perception, and trained physiologist Wilhelm Wundt.
Wundt, in turn, came to Leipzig University, where he established the
psychological laboratory that brought experimental psychology to the
world. Wundt focused on breaking down mental processes into the most
basic components, motivated in part by an analogy to recent advances in
chemistry, and its successful investigation of the elements and
structure of materials. Paul Flechsig and Emil Kraepelin soon created another influential laboratory at Leipzig, a psychology-related lab, that focused more on experimental psychiatry.
The German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, a researcher at the University of Berlin,
was a 19th-century contributor to the field. He pioneered the
experimental study of memory and developed quantitative models of
learning and forgetting. In the early 20th century, Wolfgang Kohler, Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Koffka co-founded the school of Gestalt psychology of Fritz Perls. The approach of Gestalt psychology is based upon the idea that individuals experience things as unified wholes. Rather than reducing
thoughts and behavior into smaller component elements, as in
structuralism, the Gestaltists maintained that whole of experience is
important, and differs from the sum of its parts.
Another student of Wundt, the Englishman Edward Titchener, created the psychology program at Cornell University and advanced "structuralist"
psychology. The idea behind structuralism was to analyze and classify
different aspects of the mind, primarily through the method of introspection. William James, John Dewey, and Harvey Carr advanced the idea of functionalism,
an expansive approach to psychology that underlined the Darwinian idea
of a behavior's usefulness to the individual. In 1890, James wrote an
influential book, The Principles of Psychology, which expanded on the structuralism. He memorably described "stream of consciousness." James's ideas interested many American students in the emerging discipline. Dewey integrated psychology with societal concerns, most notably by promoting progressive education, inculcating moral values in children, and assimilating immigrants.
A different strain of experimentalism, with a greater connection
to physiology, emerged in South America, under the leadership of Horacio
G. Piñero at the University of Buenos Aires. In Russia, too, researchers placed greater emphasis on the biological basis for psychology, beginning with Ivan Sechenov's 1873 essay, "Who Is to Develop Psychology and How?" Sechenov advanced the idea of brain reflexes and aggressively promoted a deterministic view of human behavior. The Russian-Soviet physiologistIvan Pavlov discovered in dogs a learning process that was later termed "classical conditioning" and applied the process to human beings.
Consolidation and funding
One of the earliest psychology societies was La Société de Psychologie Physiologique in France, which lasted from 1885 to 1893. The first meeting of the International Congress of Psychology sponsored by the International Union of Psychological Science took place in Paris, in August 1889, amidst the World's Fair celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution. William James was one of three Americans among the 400 attendees. The American Psychological Association
(APA) was founded soon after, in 1892. The International Congress
continued to be held at different locations in Europe and with wide
international participation. The Sixth Congress, held in Geneva in 1909,
included presentations in Russian, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as Esperanto.
After a hiatus for World War I, the Seventh Congress met in Oxford,
with substantially greater participation from the war-victorious
Anglo-Americans. In 1929, the Congress took place at Yale University in
New Haven, Connecticut, attended by hundreds of members of the APA.
Tokyo Imperial University led the way in bringing new psychology to the
East. New ideas about psychology diffused from Japan into China.
American psychology gained status upon the U.S.'s entry into World War I. A standing committee headed by Robert Yerkes administered mental tests ("Army Alpha" and "Army Beta") to almost 1.8 million soldiers. Subsequently, the Rockefeller family, via the Social Science Research Council, began to provide funding for behavioral research.
Rockefeller charities funded the National Committee on Mental Hygiene,
which disseminated the concept of mental illness and lobbied for
applying ideas from psychology to child rearing.Through the Bureau of Social Hygiene and later funding of Alfred Kinsey, Rockefeller foundations helped establish research on sexuality in the U.S. Under the influence of the Carnegie-funded Eugenics Record Office, the Draper-funded Pioneer Fund, and other institutions, the eugenics movement also influenced American psychology. In the 1910s and 1920s, eugenics became a standard topic in psychology classes.
In contrast to the US, in the UK psychology was met with antagonism by
the scientific and medical establishments, and up until 1939, there were
only six psychology chairs in universities in England.
During World War II and the Cold War, the U.S. military and
intelligence agencies established themselves as leading funders of
psychology by way of the armed forces and in the new Office of Strategic Services
intelligence agency. University of Michigan psychologist Dorwin
Cartwright reported that university researchers began large-scale
propaganda research in 1939–1941. He observed that "the last few months
of the war saw a social psychologist become chiefly responsible for
determining the week-by-week-propaganda policy for the United States
Government." Cartwright also wrote that psychologists had significant
roles in managing the domestic economy. The Army rolled out its new General Classification Test to assess the ability of millions of soldiers. The Army also engaged in large-scale psychological research of troop morale and mental health. In the 1950s, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to fund research on psychological warfare. In 1965, public controversy called attention to the Army's Project Camelot, the "Manhattan Project" of social science,
an effort which enlisted psychologists and anthropologists to analyze
the plans and policies of foreign countries for strategic purposes.
In Germany after World War I, psychology held institutional power
through the military, which was subsequently expanded along with the
rest of the military during Nazi Germany. Under the direction of Hermann Göring's cousin Matthias Göring, the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute was renamed the Göring Institute. Freudian psychoanalysts were expelled and persecuted under the anti-Jewish policies of the Nazi Party, and all psychologists had to distance themselves from Freud and Adler, founders of psychoanalysis who were also Jewish.
The Göring Institute was well-financed throughout the war with a
mandate to create a "New German Psychotherapy." This psychotherapy aimed
to align suitable Germans with the overall goals of the Reich. As
described by one physician, "Despite the importance of analysis,
spiritual guidance and the active cooperation of the patient represent
the best way to overcome individual mental problems and to subordinate
them to the requirements of the Volk and the Gemeinschaft." Psychologists were to provide Seelenführung [lit., soul guidance], the leadership of the mind, to integrate people into the new vision of a German community. Harald Schultz-Hencke
melded psychology with the Nazi theory of biology and racial origins,
criticizing psychoanalysis as a study of the weak and deformed. Johannes Heinrich Schultz, a German psychologist recognized for developing the technique of autogenic training,
prominently advocated sterilization and euthanasia of men considered
genetically undesirable, and devised techniques for facilitating this
process.
After the war, new institutions were created although some psychologists, because of their Nazi affiliation, were discredited. Alexander Mitscherlich founded a prominent applied psychoanalysis journal called Psyche.
With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, Mitscherlich established
the first clinical psychosomatic medicine division at Heidelberg
University. In 1970, psychology was integrated into the required studies
of medical students.
After the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks
promoted psychology as a way to engineer the "New Man" of socialism.
Consequently, university psychology departments trained large numbers of
students in psychology. At the completion of training, positions were
made available for those students at schools, workplaces, cultural
institutions, and in the military. The Russian state emphasized pedology and the study of child development. Lev Vygotsky became prominent in the field of child development. The Bolsheviks also promoted free love and embraced the doctrine of psychoanalysis as an antidote to sexual repression.Although pedology and intelligence testing fell out of favor in 1936,
psychology maintained its privileged position as an instrument of the
Soviet Union. Stalinist purges took a heavy toll and instilled a climate of fear in the profession, as elsewhere in Soviet society. Following World War II, Jewish psychologists past and present, including Lev Vygotsky, A.R. Luria,
and Aron Zalkind, were denounced; Ivan Pavlov (posthumously) and Stalin
himself were celebrated as heroes of Soviet psychology. Soviet academics experienced a degree of liberalization during the Khrushchev Thaw. The topics of cybernetics, linguistics, and genetics became acceptable again. The new field of engineering psychology
emerged. The field involved the study of the mental aspects of complex
jobs (such as pilot and cosmonaut). Interdisciplinary studies became
popular and scholars such as Georgy Shchedrovitsky developed systems theory approaches to human behavior.
Twentieth-century Chinese psychology originally modeled itself on
U.S. psychology, with translations from American authors like William
James, the establishment of university psychology departments and
journals, and the establishment of groups including the Chinese
Association of Psychological Testing (1930) and the Chinese Psychological Society
(1937). Chinese psychologists were encouraged to focus on education and
language learning. Chinese psychologists were drawn to the idea that
education would enable modernization. John Dewey, who lectured to
Chinese audiences between 1919 and 1921, had a significant influence on
psychology in China. Chancellor T'sai Yuan-p'ei introduced him at Peking University as a greater thinker than Confucius. Kuo Zing-yang who received a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, became President of Zhejiang University and popularized behaviorism. After the Chinese Communist Party gained control of the country, the Stalinist Soviet Union became the major influence, with Marxism–Leninism
the leading social doctrine and Pavlovian conditioning the approved
means of behavior change. Chinese psychologists elaborated on Lenin's
model of a "reflective" consciousness, envisioning an "active
consciousness" (pinyin: tzu-chueh neng-tung-li) able to transcend material conditions through hard work and ideological struggle. They developed a concept of "recognition" (pinyin: jen-shih)
which referred to the interface between individual perceptions and the
socially accepted worldview; failure to correspond with party doctrine
was "incorrect recognition." Psychology education was centralized under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, supervised by the State Council.
In 1951, the academy created a Psychology Research Office, which in
1956 became the Institute of Psychology. Because most leading
psychologists were educated in the United States, the first concern of
the academy was the re-education of these psychologists in the Soviet
doctrines. Child psychology and pedagogy for the purpose of a nationally
cohesive education remained a central goal of the discipline.
Women in psychology
1900–1949
Women in the early 1900s started to make key findings within the world of psychology. In 1923, Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud, built on her father's work using different defense mechanisms (denial, repression, and suppression) to psychoanalyze children. She believed that once a child reached the latency period, child analysis could be used as a mode of therapy. She stated it is important focus on the child's environment, support their development, and prevent neurosis.
She believed a child should be recognized as their own person with
their own right and have each session catered to the child's specific
needs. She encouraged drawing, moving freely, and expressing themselves
in any way. This helped build a strong therapeutic alliance with child
patients, which allows psychologists to observe their normal behavior.
She continued her research on the impact of children after family
separation, children with socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds,
and all stages of child development from infancy to adolescence.
Functional periodicity, the belief women are mentally and physically impaired during menstruation, impacted women's rights because employers were less likely to hire them due to the belief they would be incapable of working for 1 week a month. Leta Stetter Hollingworth wanted to prove this hypothesis and Edward L. Thorndike's theory, that women have lesser psychological and physical traits than men and were simply mediocre, incorrect. Hollingworth
worked to prove differences were not from male genetic superiority, but
from culture. She also included the concept of women's impairment
during menstruation
in her research. She recorded both women and men performances on tasks
(cognitive, perceptual, and motor) for three months. No evidence was
found of decreased performance due to a woman's menstrual cycle.
She also challenged the belief intelligence is inherited and women here
are intellectually inferior to men. She stated that women do not reach
positions of power due to the societal norms
and roles they are assigned. As she states in her article, "Variability
as related to sex differences in achievement: A Critique",
the largest problem women have is the social order that was built due
to the assumption women have less interests and abilities than men. To
further prove her point, she completed another experiment with infants
who have not been influenced by the environment of social norms, like
the adult male getting more opportunities than women. She found no
difference between infants besides size. After this research proved the
original hypothesis wrong, Hollingworth
was able to show there is no difference between the physiological and
psychological traits of men and women, and women are not impaired during
menstruation.
Women in the second half of the 20th century continued to do research that had large-scale impacts on the field of psychology. Mary Ainsworth's work centered around attachment theory. Building off fellow psychologist John Bowlby, Ainsworth spent years doing fieldwork
to understand the development of mother-infant relationships. In doing
this field research, Ainsworth developed the Strange Situation
Procedure, a laboratory procedure meant to study attachment style by
separating and uniting a child with their mother several different times
under different circumstances. These field studies are also where she
developed her attachment theory and the order of attachment styles, which was a landmark for developmental psychology.Because of her work, Ainsworth became one of the most cited psychologists of all time. Mamie Phipps Clark
was another woman in psychology that changed the field with her
research. She was one of the first African-Americans to receive a
doctoral degree in psychology from Columbia University, along with her husband, Kenneth Clark. Her master's thesis, "The Development of Consciousness in Negro Pre-School Children," argued that black children's self-esteem was negatively impacted by racial discrimination. She and her husband conduced research building off her thesis throughout the 1940s. These tests, called the doll tests,
asked young children to choose between identical dolls whose only
difference was race, and they found that the majority of the children
preferred the white dolls and attributed positive traits to them.
Repeated over and over again, these tests helped to determine the
negative effects of racial discrimination and segregation on black children's self-image and development. In 1954, this research would help decide the landmark Brown v. Board of Education
decision, leading to the end of legal segregation across the nation.
Clark went on to be an influential figure in psychology, her work
continuing to focus on minority youth.
As the field of psychology developed throughout the latter half
of the 20th century, women in the field advocated for their voices to be
heard and their perspectives to be valued. Second-wave feminism did not miss psychology. An outspoken feminist in psychology was Naomi Weisstein, who was an accomplished researcher in psychology and neuroscience,
and is perhaps best known for her paper, "Kirche, Kuche, Kinder as
Scientific Law: Psychology Constructs the Female." Psychology Constructs
the Female criticized the field of psychology for centering men and
using biology too much to explain gender differences without taking into
account social factors. Her work set the stage for further research to be done in social psychology, especially in gender construction. Other women in the field also continued advocating for women in psychology, creating the Association for Women in Psychology to criticize how the field treated women. E. Kitsch Child, Phyllis Chesler, and Dorothy Riddle were some of the founding members of the organization in 1969.
The latter half of the 20th century further diversified the field
of psychology, with women of color reaching new milestones. In 1962, Martha Bernal became the first Latina woman to get a Ph.D. in psychology. In 1969, Marigold Linton, the first Native American woman to get a Ph.D. in psychology, founded the National Indian Education Association. She was also a founding member of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. In 1971, The Network of Indian Psychologists was established by Carolyn Attneave. Harriet McAdoo was appointed to the White House Conference on Families in 1979.
21st century
In the 21st century, women have gained greater prominence in
psychology, contributing significantly to a wide range of subfields.
Many have taken on leadership roles, directed influential research labs,
and guided the next generation of psychologists. However, gender
disparities remain, especially when it comes to equal pay and
representation in senior academic positions.
The number of women pursuing education and training in psychological
science has reached a record high. In the United States, estimates
suggest that women make up about 78% of undergraduate students and 71%
of graduate students in psychology.
In 1920, Édouard Claparède and Pierre Bovet
created a new applied psychology organization called the International
Congress of Psychotechnics Applied to Vocational Guidance, later called
the International Congress of Psychotechnics and then the International Association of Applied Psychology. The IAAP is considered the oldest international psychology association. Today, at least 65 international groups deal with specialized aspects of psychology.
In response to male predominance in the field, female psychologists in
the U.S. formed the National Council of Women Psychologists in 1941.
This organization became the International Council of Women
Psychologists after World War II and the International Council of
Psychologists in 1959. Several associations including the Association of Black Psychologists
and the Asian American Psychological Association have arisen to promote
the inclusion of non-European racial groups in the profession.
The International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) is the world federation of national psychological societies. The IUPsyS was founded in 1951 under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO). Psychology departments have since proliferated around the world, based primarily on the Euro-American model. Since 1966, the Union has published the International Journal of Psychology. IAAP and IUPsyS agreed in 1976 each to hold a congress every four years, on a staggered basis.
IUPsyS recognizes 66 national psychology associations and at least 15 others exist. The American Psychological Association is the oldest and largest. Its membership has increased from 5,000 in 1945 to 100,000 in the present day. The APA includes 54 divisions, which since 1960 have steadily proliferated to include more specialties. Some of these divisions, such as the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the American Psychology–Law Society, began as autonomous groups.
The Interamerican Psychological Society,
founded in 1951, aspires to promote psychology across the Western
Hemisphere. It holds the Interamerican Congress of Psychology and had
1,000 members in year 2000. The European Federation of Professional
Psychology Associations, founded in 1981, represents 30 national
associations with a total of 100,000 individual members. At least 30
other international organizations represent psychologists in different
regions.
In some places, governments legally regulate who can provide psychological services or represent themselves as a "psychologist." The APA defines a psychologist as someone with a doctoral degree in psychology.
Boundaries
Early practitioners of experimental psychology distinguished themselves from parapsychology,
which in the late nineteenth century enjoyed popularity (including the
interest of scholars such as William James). Some people considered
parapsychology to be part of "psychology". Parapsychology, hypnotism, and psychism
were major topics at the early International Congresses. But students
of these fields were eventually ostracized, and more or less banished
from the Congress in 1900–1905. Parapsychology persisted for a time at Imperial University in Japan, with publications such as Clairvoyance and Thoughtography by Tomokichi Fukurai, but it was mostly shunned by 1913.
As a discipline, psychology has long sought to fend off accusations that it is a "soft" science. Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn's
1962 critique implied psychology overall was in a pre-paradigm state,
lacking agreement on the type of overarching theory found in mature hard
sciences such as chemistry and physics. Because some areas of psychology rely on research methods such as self-reports in surveys and questionnaires, critics asserted that psychology is not an objective
science. Skeptics have suggested that personality, thinking, and
emotion cannot be directly measured and are often inferred from
subjective self-reports, which may be problematic. Experimental
psychologists have devised a variety of ways to indirectly measure these
elusive phenomenological entities.
Divisions still exist within the field, with some psychologists
more oriented towards the unique experiences of individual humans, which
cannot be understood only as data points within a larger population.
Critics inside and outside the field have argued that mainstream
psychology has become increasingly dominated by a "cult of empiricism",
which limits the scope of research because investigators restrict
themselves to methods derived from the physical sciences.
Feminist critiques have argued that claims to scientific objectivity
obscure the values and agenda of (historically) mostly male researchers. Jean Grimshaw, for example, argues that mainstream psychological research has advanced a patriarchal agenda through its efforts to control behavior.
False-color representations of cerebral fiber pathways affected, per Van Horn et al.
Psychologists generally consider biology the substrate of thought and
feeling, and therefore an important area of study. Behaviorial
neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, involves the
application of biological principles to the study of physiological and
genetic mechanisms underlying behavior in humans and other animals. The
allied field of comparative psychology is the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals. A leading question in behavioral neuroscience has been whether and how mental functions are localized in the brain. From Phineas Gage to H.M. and Clive Wearing, individual people with mental deficits traceable to physical brain damage have inspired new discoveries in this area. Modern behavioral neuroscience could be said to originate in the 1870s, when in France Paul Broca
traced production of speech to the left frontal gyrus, thereby also
demonstrating hemispheric lateralization of brain function. Soon after, Carl Wernicke identified a related area necessary for the understanding of speech.
The contemporary field of behavioral neuroscience
focuses on the physical basis of behavior. Behaviorial neuroscientists
use animal models, often relying on rats, to study the neural, genetic,
and cellular mechanisms that underlie behaviors involved in learning,
memory, and fear responses. Cognitive neuroscientists, by using neural imaging tools, investigate the neural correlates of psychological processes in humans. Neuropsychologists conduct psychological assessments to determine how an individual's behavior and cognition are related to the brain. The biopsychosocial model
is a cross-disciplinary, holistic model that concerns the ways in which
interrelationships of biological, psychological, and
socio-environmental factors affect health and behavior.
Evolutionary psychology approaches thought and behavior from a modern evolutionary
perspective. This perspective suggests that psychological adaptations
evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments.
Evolutionary psychologists attempt to find out how human psychological
traits are evolved adaptations, the results of natural selection or sexual selection over the course of human evolution.
The history of the biological foundations of psychology includes
evidence of racism. The idea of white supremacy and indeed the modern
concept of race itself arose during the process of world conquest by
Europeans. Carl von Linnaeus's
four-fold classification of humans classifies Europeans as intelligent
and severe, Americans as contented and free, Asians as ritualistic, and
Africans as lazy and capricious. Race was also used to justify the
construction of socially specific mental disorders such as drapetomania and dysaesthesia aethiopica—the behavior of uncooperative African slaves.
After the creation of experimental psychology, "ethnical psychology"
emerged as a subdiscipline, based on the assumption that studying
primitive races would provide an important link between animal behavior
and the psychology of more evolved humans.
A tenet of behavioral research is that a large part of both human and
lower-animal behavior is learned. A principle associated with
behavioral research is that the mechanisms involved in learning apply to
humans and non-human animals. Behavioral researchers have developed a
treatment known as behavior modification, which is used to help individuals replace undesirable behaviors with desirable ones.
Early behavioral researchers studied stimulus–response pairings, now known as classical conditioning.
They demonstrated that when a biologically potent stimulus (e.g., food
that elicits salivation) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus
(e.g., a bell) over several learning trials, the neutral stimulus by
itself can come to elicit the response the biologically potent stimulus
elicits. Ivan Pavlov—known
best for inducing dogs to salivate in the presence of a stimulus
previously linked with food—became a leading figure in the Soviet Union
and inspired followers to use his methods on humans. In the United States, Edward Lee Thorndike initiated "connectionist"
studies by trapping animals in "puzzle boxes" and rewarding them for
escaping. Thorndike wrote in 1911, "There can be no moral warrant for
studying man's nature unless the study will enable us to control his
acts." From 1910 to 1913 the American Psychological Association went through a sea change of opinion, away from mentalism and towards "behavioralism." In 1913, John B. Watson coined the term behaviorism for this school of thought. Watson's famous Little Albert experiment in 1920 was at first thought to demonstrate that repeated use of upsetting loud noises could instill phobias (aversions to other stimuli) in an infant human,although such a conclusion was likely an exaggeration. Karl Lashley, a close collaborator with Watson, examined biological manifestations of learning in the brain.
Clark L. Hull, Edwin Guthrie, and others did much to help behaviorism become a widely used paradigm. A new method of "instrumental" or "operant" conditioning added the concepts of reinforcement and punishment to the model of behavior change. Radical behaviorists
avoided discussing the inner workings of the mind, especially the
unconscious mind, which they considered impossible to assess
scientifically. Operant conditioning was first described by Miller and Kanorski and popularized in the U.S. by B.F. Skinner, who emerged as a leading intellectual of the behaviorist movement.
Noam Chomsky
published an influential critique of radical behaviorism on the grounds
that behaviorist principles could not adequately explain the complex
mental process of language acquisition and language use. The review, which was scathing, did much to reduce the status of behaviorism within psychology. Martin Seligman and his colleagues discovered that they could condition in dogs a state of "learned helplessness", which was not predicted by the behaviorist approach to psychology.Edward C. Tolman advanced a hybrid "cognitive behavioral" model, most notably with his 1948 publication discussing the cognitive maps used by rats to guess at the location of food at the end of a maze. Skinner's behaviorism did not die, in part because it generated successful practical applications.
The Association for Behavior Analysis International was founded in 1974 and by 2003 had members from 42 countries. The field has gained a foothold in Latin America and Japan. Applied behavior analysis
is the term used for the application of the principles of operant
conditioning to change socially significant behavior (it supersedes the
term, "behavior modification").
Cognitive psychology involves the study of mental processes, including perception, attention, language comprehension and production, memory, and problem solving. Researchers in the field of cognitive psychology are sometimes called cognitivists. They rely on an information processing model of mental functioning. Cognitivist research is informed by functionalism and experimental psychology.
Starting in the 1950s, the experimental techniques developed by
Wundt, James, Ebbinghaus, and others re-emerged as experimental
psychology became increasingly cognitivist and, eventually, constituted a
part of the wider, interdisciplinary cognitive science. Some called this development the cognitive revolution because it rejected the anti-mentalist dogma of behaviorism as well as the strictures of psychoanalysis.
Albert Bandura helped along the transition in psychology from behaviorism to cognitive psychology. Bandura and other social learning theorists
advanced the idea of vicarious learning. In other words, they advanced
the view that a child can learn by observing the immediate social
environment and not necessarily from having been reinforced for enacting
a behavior, although they did not rule out the influence of
reinforcement on learning a behavior.
Technological advances also renewed interest in mental states and mental representations. English neuroscientist Charles Sherrington and Canadian psychologist Donald O. Hebb
used experimental methods to link psychological phenomena to the
structure and function of the brain. The rise of computer science, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence underlined the value of comparing information processing in humans and machines.
A popular and representative topic in this area is cognitive bias, or irrational thought. Psychologists (and economists) have classified and described a sizeable catalog of biases which recur frequently in human thought. The availability heuristic, for example, is the tendency to overestimate the importance of something which happens to come readily to mind.
Elements of behaviorism and cognitive psychology were synthesized to form cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of psychotherapy modified from techniques developed by American psychologist Albert Ellis and American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck.
On a broader level, cognitive science is an interdisciplinary
enterprise involving cognitive psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists,
linguists, and researchers in artificial intelligence, human–computer
interaction, and computational neuroscience.
The discipline of cognitive science covers cognitive psychology as well
as philosophy of mind, computer science, and neuroscience. Computer simulations are sometimes used to model phenomena of interest.
Social psychology is concerned with how behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and the social environment influence human interactions. Social psychologists study such topics as the influence of others on an individual's behavior (e.g. conformity, persuasion) and the formation of beliefs, attitudes, and stereotypes about other people. Social cognition
fuses elements of social and cognitive psychology for the purpose of
understanding how people process, remember, or distort social
information. The study of group dynamics
involves research on the nature of leadership, organizational
communication, and related phenomena. In recent years, social
psychologists have become interested in implicit measures, mediational models, and the interaction of person and social factors in accounting for behavior. Some concepts that sociologists
have applied to the study of psychiatric disorders, concepts such as
the social role, sick role, social class, life events, culture,
migration, and total institution, have influenced social psychologists.
Psychoanalysis is a collection of theories and therapeutic techniques
intended to analyze the unconscious mind and its impact on everyday
life. These theories and techniques inform treatments for mental
disorders. Psychoanalysis originated in the 1890s, most prominently with the work of Sigmund Freud. Freud's psychoanalytic theory was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection, and clinical observation. It became very well known, largely because it tackled subjects such as sexuality, repression, and the unconscious. Freud pioneered the methods of free association and dream interpretation.
Psychologists such as Hans Eysenck and philosophers including Karl Popper sharply criticized psychoanalysis. Popper argued that psychoanalysis was not falsifiable (no claim it made could be proven wrong) and therefore inherently not a scientific discipline,
whereas Eysenck advanced the view that psychoanalytic tenets had been
contradicted by experimental data. By the end of the 20th century,
psychology departments in American universities mostly had marginalized Freudian theory, dismissing it as a "desiccated and dead" historical artifact. Researchers such as António Damásio, Oliver Sacks, and Joseph LeDoux; and individuals in the emerging field of neuro-psychoanalysis have defended some of Freud's ideas on scientific grounds.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow
in 1943 posited that humans have a hierarchy of needs, and it makes
sense to fulfill the basic needs first before higher-order needs can be
met.
Humanistic psychology, which has been influenced by existentialism and phenomenology, stresses free will and self-actualization. It emerged in the 1950s as a movement within academic psychology, in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. The humanistic approach seeks to view the whole person, not just fragmented parts of the personality or isolated cognitions. Humanistic psychology also focuses on personal growth, self-identity,
death, aloneness, and freedom. It emphasizes subjective meaning, the
rejection of determinism, and concern for positive growth rather than
pathology. Some founders of the humanistic school of thought were
American psychologists Abraham Maslow, who formulated a hierarchy of human needs, and Carl Rogers, who created and developed client-centered therapy.
Later, positive psychology
opened up humanistic themes to scientific study. Positive psychology is
the study of factors which contribute to human happiness and
well-being, focusing more on people who are currently healthy. In 2010, Clinical Psychological Review published a special issue devoted to positive psychological interventions, such as gratitude journaling
and the physical expression of gratitude. It is, however, far from
clear that positive psychology is effective in making people happier. Positive psychological interventions have been limited in scope, but their effects are thought to be somewhat better than placebo effects.
The American Association for Humanistic Psychology, formed in 1963, declared:
Humanistic psychology is primarily
an orientation toward the whole of psychology rather than a distinct
area or school. It stands for respect for the worth of persons, respect
for differences of approach, open-mindedness as to acceptable methods,
and interest in exploration of new aspects of human behavior. As a
"third force" in contemporary psychology, it is concerned with topics
having little place in existing theories and systems: e.g., love,
creativity, self, growth, organism, basic need-gratification,
self-actualization, higher values, being, becoming, spontaneity, play,
humor, affection, naturalness, warmth, ego-transcendence, objectivity,
autonomy, responsibility, meaning, fair-play, transcendental experience,
peak experience, courage, and related concepts.
Existential psychology emphasizes the need to understand a client's
total orientation towards the world. Existential psychology is opposed
to reductionism, behaviorism, and other methods that objectify the
individual. In the 1950s and 1960s, influenced by philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger, psychoanalytically trained American psychologist Rollo May helped to develop existential psychology. Existential psychotherapy,
which follows from existential psychology, is a therapeutic approach
that is based on the idea that a person's inner conflict arises from
that individual's confrontation with the givens of existence. Swiss
psychoanalyst Ludwig Binswanger and American psychologist George Kelly may also be said to belong to the existential school.
Existential psychologists tend to differ from more "humanistic"
psychologists in the former's relatively neutral view of human nature
and relatively positive assessment of anxiety.Existential psychologists emphasized the humanistic themes of death,
free will, and meaning, suggesting that meaning can be shaped by myths
and narratives; meaning can be deepened by the acceptance of free will,
which is requisite to living an authentic life, albeit often with anxiety with regard to death.
Austrian existential psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl drew evidence of meaning's therapeutic power from reflections upon his own internment. He created a variation of existential psychotherapy called logotherapy, a type of existentialist analysis that focuses on a will to meaning (in one's life), as opposed to Adler's Nietzschean doctrine of will to power or Freud's will to pleasure.
Personality psychology is concerned with enduring patterns of
behavior, thought, and emotion. Theories of personality vary across
different psychological schools of thought. Each theory carries
different assumptions about such features as the role of the unconscious
and the importance of childhood experience. According to Freud,
personality is based on the dynamic interactions of the id, ego, and super-ego. By contrast, trait theorists
have developed taxonomies of personality constructs in describing
personality in terms of key traits. Trait theorists have often employed
statistical data-reduction methods, such as factor analysis. Although the number of proposed traits has varied widely, Hans Eysenck's early biologically based model suggests at least three major trait constructs are necessary to describe human personality, extraversion–introversion, neuroticism-stability, and psychoticism-normality. Raymond Cattell empirically derived a theory of 16 personality factors at the primary-factor level and up to eight broader second-stratum factors.
Since the 1980s, the Big Five (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) emerged as an important trait theory of personality.
Dimensional models of personality are receiving increasing support, and
a version of dimensional assessment has been included in the DSM-V.
However, despite a plethora of research into the various versions of
the "Big Five" personality dimensions, it appears necessary to move on
from static conceptualizations of personality structure to a more
dynamic orientation, acknowledging that personality constructs are
subject to learning and change over the lifespan.
Study of the unconscious mind, a part of the psyche outside the
individual's awareness but that is believed to influence conscious
thought and behavior, was a hallmark of early psychology. In one of the
first psychology experiments conducted in the United States, C.S. Peirce and Joseph Jastrow
found in 1884 that research subjects could choose the minutely heavier
of two weights even if consciously uncertain of the difference.
Freud popularized the concept of the unconscious mind, particularly
when he referred to an uncensored intrusion of unconscious thought into
one's speech (a Freudian slip) or to his efforts to interpret dreams. His 1901 book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life catalogs hundreds of everyday events that Freud explains in terms of unconscious influence. Pierre Janet
advanced the idea of a subconscious mind, which could contain
autonomous mental elements unavailable to the direct scrutiny of the
subject.
The concept of unconscious processes has remained important in
psychology. Cognitive psychologists have used a "filter" model of
attention. According to the model, much information processing takes
place below the threshold of consciousness, and only certain stimuli,
limited by their nature and number, make their way through the filter.
Much research has shown that subconscious priming of certain ideas can covertly influence thoughts and behavior.
Because of the unreliability of self-reporting, a major hurdle in this
type of research involves demonstrating that a subject's conscious mind
has not perceived a target stimulus. For this reason, some psychologists
prefer to distinguish between implicit and explicit memory. In another approach, one can also describe a subliminal stimulus as meeting an objective but not a subjective threshold.
Some psychologists study motivation or the subject of why people or
lower animals initiate a behavior at a particular time. It also involves
the study of why humans and lower animals continue or terminate a
behavior. Psychologists such as William James initially used the term motivation to refer to intention, in a sense similar to the concept of will
in European philosophy. With the steady rise of Darwinian and Freudian
thinking, instinct also came to be seen as a primary source of
motivation. According to drive theory,
the forces of instinct combine into a single source of energy which
exerts a constant influence. Psychoanalysis, like biology, regarded
these forces as demands originating in the nervous system.
Psychoanalysts believed that these forces, especially the sexual
instincts, could become entangled and transmuted within the psyche.
Classical psychoanalysis conceives of a struggle between the pleasure
principle and the reality principle, roughly corresponding to id and ego. Later, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud introduced the concept of the death drive, a compulsion towards aggression, destruction, and psychic repetition of traumatic events.
Meanwhile, behaviorist researchers used simple dichotomous models
(pleasure/pain, reward/punishment) and well-established principles such
as the idea that a thirsty creature will take pleasure in drinking. Clark Hull formalized the latter idea with his drive reduction model.
Hunger, thirst, fear, sexual desire, and thermoregulation constitute fundamental motivations in animals.
Humans seem to exhibit a more complex set of motivations—though
theoretically these could be explained as resulting from desires for
belonging, positive self-image, self-consistency, truth, love, and
control.
Motivation can be modulated or manipulated in many different ways. Researchers have found that eating, for example, depends not only on the organism's fundamental need for homeostasis—an
important factor causing the experience of hunger—but also on circadian
rhythms, food availability, food palatability, and cost. Abstract motivations are also malleable, as evidenced by such phenomena as goal contagion: the adoption of goals, sometimes unconsciously, based on inferences about the goals of others. Vohs and Baumeister
suggest that contrary to the need-desire-fulfillment cycle of animal
instincts, human motivations sometimes obey a "getting begets wanting"
rule: the more you get a reward such as self-esteem, love, drugs, or
money, the more you want it. They suggest that this principle can even
apply to food, drink, sex, and sleep.
Developmental
psychologists engage a child with a book and then make observations
based on how the child interacts with the object.
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why the
thought processes, emotions, and behaviors of humans change over the
course of their lives.
Some credit Charles Darwin with conducting the first systematic study
within the rubric of developmental psychology, having published in 1877 a
short paper detailing the development of innate forms of communication
based on his observations of his infant son. The main origins of the discipline, however, are found in the work of Jean Piaget.
Like Piaget, developmental psychologists originally focused primarily
on the development of cognition from infancy to adolescence. Later,
developmental psychology extended itself to the study cognition over the
life span. In addition to studying cognition, developmental
psychologists have also come to focus on affective, behavioral, moral,
social, and neural development.
Developmental psychologists who study children use a number of
research methods. For example, they make observations of children in
natural settings such as preschools and engage them in experimental tasks.
Such tasks often resemble specially designed games and activities that
are both enjoyable for the child and scientifically useful.
Developmental researchers have even devised clever methods to study the
mental processes of infants.
In addition to studying children, developmental psychologists also
study aging and processes throughout the life span, including old age. These psychologists draw on the full range of psychological theories to inform their research.
All researched psychological traits are influenced by both genes and environment, to varying degrees.
These two sources of influence are often confounded in observational
research of individuals and families. An example of this confounding can
be shown in the transmission of depression
from a depressed mother to her offspring. A theory based on
environmental transmission would hold that an offspring, by virtue of
their having a problematic rearing environment managed by a depressed
mother, is at risk for developing depression. On the other hand, a
hereditarian theory would hold that depression risk in an offspring is
influenced to some extent by genes passed to the child from the mother.
Genes and environment in these simple transmission models are completely
confounded. A depressed mother may both carry genes that contribute to
depression in her offspring and also create a rearing environment that
increases the risk of depression in her child.
Behavioral genetics researchers have employed methodologies that
help to disentangle this confound and understand the nature and origins
of individual differences in behavior. Traditionally the research has involved twin studies and adoption studies,
two designs where genetic and environmental influences can be partially
un-confounded. More recently, gene-focused research has contributed to
understanding genetic contributions to the development of psychological
traits.
The availability of microarraymolecular genetic or genome sequencing
technologies allows researchers to measure participant DNA variation
directly, and test whether individual genetic variants within genes are
associated with psychological traits and psychopathology through methods including genome-wide association studies. One goal of such research is similar to that in positional cloning and its success in Huntington's:
once a causal gene is discovered biological research can be conducted
to understand how that gene influences the phenotype. One major result
of genetic association studies is the general finding that psychological
traits and psychopathology, as well as complex medical diseases, are
highly polygenic, where a large number (on the order of hundreds to thousands) of genetic
variants, each of small effect, contribute to individual differences in
the behavioral trait or propensity to the disorder. Active research
continues to work toward understanding the genetic and environmental
bases of behavior and their interaction.
Francis Galton, a pioneer of the experimental psychology field
Psychological testing has ancient origins, dating as far back as 2200 BC, in the examinations for the Chinese civil service. Written exams began during the Han dynasty
(202 BC – AD 220). By 1370, the Chinese system required a stratified
series of tests, involving essay writing and knowledge of diverse
topics. The system was ended in 1906. In Europe, mental assessment took a different approach, with theories of physiognomy—judgment
of character based on the face—described by Aristotle in 4th century BC
Greece. Physiognomy remained current through the Enlightenment, and
added the doctrine of phrenology: a study of mind and intelligence based
on simple assessment of neuroanatomy.
When experimental psychology came to Britain, Francis Galton was a
leading practitioner. By virtue of his procedures for measuring
reaction time and sensation, he is considered an inventor of modern
mental testing (also known as psychometrics).
James McKeen Cattell, a student of Wundt and Galton, brought the idea
of psychological testing to the United States, and in fact coined the
term "mental test". In 1901, Cattell's student Clark Wissler
published discouraging results, suggesting that mental testing of
Columbia and Barnard students failed to predict academic performance. In response to 1904 orders from the Minister of Public Instruction,
One example of an observational study was run by Arthur Bandura. This
observational study focused on children who were exposed to an adult
exhibiting aggressive behaviors and their reaction to toys versus other
children who were not exposed to these stimuli. The result shows that
children who had seen the adult acting aggressively towards a toy, in
turn, were aggressive towards their own toy when put in a situation that
frustrated them. psychologists Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon
developed and elaborated a new test of intelligence in 1905–1911. They
used a range of questions diverse in their nature and difficulty. Binet
and Simon introduced the concept of mental age and referred to the lowest scorers on their test as idiots. Henry H. Goddard put the Binet-Simon scale to work and introduced classifications of mental level such as imbecile and feebleminded. In 1916, (after Binet's death), Stanford professor Lewis M. Terman modified the Binet-Simon scale (renamed the Stanford–Binet scale) and introduced the intelligence quotient as a score report.
Based on his test findings, and reflecting the racism common to that
era, Terman concluded that intellectual disability "represents the level
of intelligence which is very, very common among Spanish-Indians and
Mexican families of the Southwest and also among negroes. Their dullness
seems to be racial."
Following the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests, which was developed by psychologist Robert Yerkes
in 1917 and then used in World War 1 by industrial and organizational
psychologists for large-scale employee testing and selection of military
personnel.
Mental testing also became popular in the U.S., where it was applied to
schoolchildren. The federally created National Intelligence Test was
administered to 7 million children in the 1920s. In 1926, the College Entrance Examination Board created the Scholastic Aptitude Test to standardize college admissions.
The results of intelligence tests were used to argue for segregated
schools and economic functions, including the preferential training of
Black Americans for manual labor. These practices were criticized by
Black intellectuals such a Horace Mann Bond and Allison Davis.
Eugenicists used mental testing to justify and organize compulsory
sterilization of individuals classified as mentally retarded (now
referred to as intellectual disability).
In the United States, tens of thousands of men and women were
sterilized. Setting a precedent that has never been overturned, the U.S.
Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of this practice in the
1927 case Buck v. Bell.
Today mental testing is a routine phenomenon for people of all ages in Western societies. Modern testing aspires to criteria including standardization of procedure, consistency of results, output of an interpretable score, statistical norms describing population outcomes, and, ideally, effective prediction of behavior and life outcomes outside of testing situations. Psychological testing is regularly used in forensic contexts to aid legal judgments and decisions. Developments in psychometrics include work on test and scale reliability and validity. Developments in item-response theory, structural equation modeling, and bifactor analysis have helped in strengthening test and scale construction.
The provision of psychological health services is generally called
clinical psychology in the U.S. Sometimes, however, members of the
school psychology and counseling psychology professions engage in
practices that resemble that of clinical psychologists. Clinical
psychologists typically include people who have graduated from doctoral
programs in clinical psychology. In Canada, some of the members of the
abovementioned groups usually fall within the larger category of professional psychology.
In Canada and the U.S., practitioners get bachelor's degrees and
doctorates; doctoral students in clinical psychology usually spend one
year in a predoctoral internship and one year in postdoctoral
internship. In Mexico and most other Latin American and European
countries, psychologists do not get bachelor's and doctoral degrees;
instead, they take a three-year professional course following high
school. Clinical psychology is at present the largest specialization within psychology.
It includes the study and application of psychology for the purpose of
understanding, preventing, and relieving psychological distress,
dysfunction, and/or mental illness.
Clinical psychologists also try to promote subjective well-being and
personal growth. Central to the practice of clinical psychology are
psychological assessment and psychotherapy although clinical
psychologists may also engage in research, teaching, consultation,
forensic testimony, and program development and administration.
Credit for the first psychology clinic in the United States typically goes to Lightner Witmer, who established his practice in Philadelphia in 1896. Another modern psychotherapist was Morton Prince, an early advocate for the establishment of psychology as a clinical and academic discipline.
In the first part of the twentieth century, most mental health care in
the United States was performed by psychiatrists, who are medical
doctors. Psychology entered the field with its refinements of mental
testing, which promised to improve the diagnosis of mental problems. For
their part, some psychiatrists became interested in using psychoanalysis and other forms of psychodynamic psychotherapy to understand and treat the mentally ill.
Psychotherapy as conducted by psychiatrists blurred the
distinction between psychiatry and psychology, and this trend continued
with the rise of community mental health facilities. Some in the clinical psychology community adopted behavioral therapy,
a thoroughly non-psychodynamic model that used behaviorist learning
theory to change the actions of patients. A key aspect of behavior
therapy is empirical evaluation of the treatment's effectiveness. In the
1970s, cognitive-behavior therapy emerged with the work of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
Although there are similarities between behavior therapy and
cognitive-behavior therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy required the
application of cognitive constructs. Since the 1970s, the popularity of
cognitive-behavior therapy among clinical psychologists increased. A key
practice in behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy is
exposing patients to things they fear, based on the premise that their
responses (fear, panic, anxiety) can be deconditioned.
Mental health care today involves psychologists and social
workers in increasing numbers. In 1977, National Institute of Mental
Health director Bertram Brown described this shift as a source of "intense competition and role confusion."
Graduate programs issuing doctorates in clinical psychology emerged in
the 1950s and underwent rapid increase through the 1980s. The PhD degree
is intended to train practitioners who could also conduct scientific
research. The PsyD degree is more exclusively designed to train
practitioners.
Some clinical psychologists focus on the clinical management of patients with brain injury. This subspecialty is known as clinical neuropsychology. In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession. The emerging field of disaster psychology (see crisis intervention) involves professionals who respond to large-scale traumatic events.
The work performed by clinical psychologists tends to be
influenced by various therapeutic approaches, all of which involve a
formal relationship between professional and client (usually an
individual, couple, family, or small group). Typically, these approaches
encourage new ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving. Four major
theoretical perspectives are psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral,
existential–humanistic, and systems or family therapy. There has been a
growing movement to integrate the various therapeutic approaches,
especially with an increased understanding of issues regarding culture,
gender, spirituality, and sexual orientation. With the advent of more
robust research findings regarding psychotherapy, there is evidence that
most of the major therapies have equal effectiveness, with the key
common element being a strong therapeutic alliance. Because of this, more training programs and psychologists are now adopting an eclectic therapeutic orientation.
Diagnosis in clinical psychology usually follows the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The study of mental illnesses is called abnormal psychology.
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in
educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions,
the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as
organizations. Educational psychologists can be found in preschools,
schools of all levels including post secondary institutions, community
organizations and learning centers, Government or private research
firms, and independent or private consultant. The work of developmental psychologists such as Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, and Jerome Bruner
has been influential in creating teaching methods and educational
practices. Educational psychology is often included in teacher education
programs in places such as North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
School psychology combines principles from educational psychology
and clinical psychology to understand and treat students with learning
disabilities; to foster the intellectual growth of gifted students; to facilitate prosocial behaviors
in adolescents; and otherwise to promote safe, supportive, and
effective learning environments. School psychologists are trained in
educational and behavioral assessment, intervention, prevention, and
consultation, and many have extensive training in research.
Industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology involves research and
practices that apply psychological theories and principles to
organizations and individuals' work-lives. In the field's beginnings, industrialists brought the nascent field of psychology to bear on the study of scientific management techniques for improving workplace efficiency. The field was at first called economic psychology or business psychology; later, industrial psychology, employment psychology, or psychotechnology.
An influential early study examined workers at Western Electric's
Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Illinois from 1924 to 1932. Western Electric
experimented on factory workers to assess their responses to changes in
illumination, breaks, food, and wages. The researchers came to focus on
workers' responses to observation itself, and the term Hawthorne effect is now used to describe the fact that people's behavior can change when they think they are being observed. Although the Hawthorne research can be found in psychology textbooks, the research and its findings were weak at best.
The name industrial and organizational psychology emerged in the 1960s. In 1973, it became enshrined in the name of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Division 14 of the American Psychological Association.
One goal of the discipline is to optimize human potential in the
workplace. Personnel psychology is a subfield of I/O psychology.
Personnel psychologists apply the methods and principles of psychology
in selecting and evaluating workers. Another subfield, organizational psychology, examines the effects of work environments and management styles on worker motivation, job satisfaction, and productivity. Most I/O psychologists work outside of academia, for private and public organizations and as consultants.
A psychology consultant working in business today might expect to
provide executives with information and ideas about their industry,
their target markets, and the organization of their company.
Organizational behavior (OB) is an allied field involved in the study of human behavior within organizations.
One way to differentiate I/O psychology from OB is that I/O
psychologists train in university psychology departments and OB
specialists, in business schools.
Military and intelligence
One role for psychologists in the military
has been to evaluate and counsel soldiers and other personnel. In the
U.S., this function began during World War I, when Robert Yerkes
established the School of Military Psychology at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia. The school provided psychological training for military staff. Today, U.S. Army psychologists perform psychological screening, clinical psychotherapy, suicide prevention, and treatment for post-traumatic stress, as well as provide prevention-related services, for example, smoking cessation.
The United States Army's Mental Health Advisory Teams implement
psychological interventions to help combat troops experiencing mental
problems.
Psychologists may also work on a diverse set of campaigns known
broadly as psychological warfare. Psychological warfare chiefly involves
the use of propaganda to influence enemy soldiers and civilians. This
so-called black propaganda is designed to seem as if it originates from a
source other than the Army. The CIA's MKULTRA program involved more individualized efforts at mind control, involving techniques such as hypnosis, torture, and covert involuntary administration of LSD. The U.S. military used the name Psychological Operations (PSYOP) until 2010, when these activities were reclassified as Military Information Support Operations (MISO), part of Information Operations (IO).
Psychologists have sometimes been involved in assisting the
interrogation and torture of suspects, staining the records of the
psychologists involved.
An example of the contribution of psychologists to social change involves the research of Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark.
These two African American psychologists studied segregation's adverse
psychological impact on Black children. Their research findings played a
role in the desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
The impact of psychology on social change includes the
discipline's broad influence on teaching and learning. Research has
shown that compared to the "whole word" or "whole language" approach,
the phonics approach to reading instruction is more efficacious.
Medical applications
Medical facilities increasingly employ psychologists to perform various roles. One aspect of health psychology is the psychoeducation
of patients: instructing them in how to follow a medical regimen.
Health psychologists can also educate doctors and conduct research on
patient compliance.Psychologists in the field of public health use a wide variety of
interventions to influence human behavior. These range from public
relations campaigns and outreach to governmental laws and policies.
Psychologists study the composite influence of all these different tools
in an effort to influence whole populations of people.
Worker health, safety and wellbeing
Psychologists work with organizations to apply findings from
psychological research to improve the health and well-being of
employees. Some work as external consultants hired by organizations to
solve specific problems, whereas others are full-time employees of the
organization. Applications include conducting surveys to identify issues
and designing interventions to make work healthier. Some of the
specific health areas include:
Accidents and injuries: A major contribution is the concept of safety climate,
which is employee shared perceptions of the behaviors that are
encouraged (e.g., wearing safety gear) and discouraged (not following
safety rules) at work. Organizations with strong safety climates have fewer work accidents and injuries.
Mental health: Exposure to occupational stress is associated with mental health disorder.
Musculoskeletal disorder:
These are injuries in bones, nerves and tendons due to overexertion and
repetitive strain. They have been linked to job satisfaction and
workplace stress.
Physical health symptoms: Occupational stress has been linked to physical symptoms such as digestive distress and headache.
Workplace violence: Violence prevention climate is related to being physically assaulted and psychologically mistreated at work.
Interventions that improve climates are a way to address accidents
and violence. Interventions that reduce stress at work or provide
employees with tools to better manage it can help in areas where stress
is an important component.
Industrial psychology became interested in worker fatigue during
World War I, when government ministers in Britain were concerned about
the impact of fatigue on workers in munitions factories but not other
types of factories. In the U. K. some interest in worker well-being emerged with the efforts of Charles Samuel Myers and his National Institute of Industrial Psychology (NIIP) during the inter-War years. In the U. S. during the mid-twentieth century industrial psychologist Arthur Kornhauser
pioneered the study of occupational mental health, linking industrial
working conditions to mental health as well as the spillover of an
unsatisfying job into a worker's personal life.
Zickar accumulated evidence to show that "no other industrial
psychologist of his era was as devoted to advocating management and
labor practices that would improve the lives of working people."
Occupational health psychology
As interest in the worker health expanded toward the end of the twentieth century, the field of occupational health psychology (OHP) emerged. OHP is a branch of psychology that is interdisciplinary. OHP is concerned with the health and safety of workers.
OHP addresses topic areas such as the impact of occupational stressors
on physical and mental health, mistreatment of workers (e.g., bullying
and violence), work-family balance, the impact of involuntary unemployment
on physical and mental health, the influence of psychosocial factors on
safety and accidents, and interventions designed to improve/protect
worker health. OHP grew out of health psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and occupational medicine. OHP has also been informed by disciplines outside psychology, including industrial engineering, sociology, and economics.
Although this type of psychological research is much less abundant than quantitative research, some psychologists conduct qualitative research. This type of research can involve interviews, questionnaires, and first-hand observation.
While hypothesis testing is rare, virtually impossible, in qualitative
research, qualitative studies can be helpful in theory and hypothesis
generation, interpreting seemingly contradictory quantitative findings,
and understanding why some interventions fail and others succeed.
Flowchart
of the four phases, enrollment, intervention allocation, follow-up, and
data analysis, of a parallel randomized trial of two groups modified
from the CONSORT 2010 StatementThe
experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the subject of the experiment,
to give what the latter believes are painful electric shocks to a
learner (L), who is actually an actor and confederate.
The subject believes that for each wrong answer, the learner was
receiving actual electric shocks, though in reality there were no such
punishments. Being separated from the subject, the confederate set up a
tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played
pre-recorded sounds for each shock level etc.
A true experiment
with random assignment of research participants (sometimes called
subjects) to rival conditions allows researchers to make strong
inferences about causal relationships. When there are large numbers of
research participants, the random assignment (also called random
allocation) of those participants to rival conditions ensures that the
individuals in those conditions will, on average, be similar on most
characteristics, including characteristics that went unmeasured. In an
experiment, the researcher alters one or more variables of influence,
called independent variables, and measures resulting changes in the factors of interest, called dependent variables. Prototypical experimental research is conducted in a laboratory with a carefully controlled environment.
A quasi-experiment
is a situation in which different conditions are being studied, but
random assignment to the different conditions is not possible.
Investigators must work with preexisting groups of people. Researchers
can use common sense to consider how much the nonrandom assignment
threatens the study's validity.
For example, in research on the best way to affect reading achievement
in the first three grades of school, school administrators may not
permit educational psychologists to randomly assign children to phonics
and whole language classrooms, in which case the psychologists must work
with preexisting classroom assignments. Psychologists will compare the
achievement of children attending phonics and whole language classes
and, perhaps, statistically adjust for any initial differences in
reading level.
Experimental researchers typically use a statistical hypothesis testing
model which involves making predictions before conducting the
experiment, then assessing how well the data collected are consistent
with the predictions. These predictions are likely to originate from one
or more abstract scientific hypotheses about how the phenomenon under study actually works.
Surveys are used in psychology for the purpose of measuring attitudes and traits, monitoring changes in mood,
and checking the validity of experimental manipulations (checking
research participants' perception of the condition they were assigned
to). Psychologists have commonly used paper-and-pencil surveys. However,
surveys are also conducted over the phone or through e-mail. Web-based
surveys are increasingly used to conveniently reach many subjects.
Observational studies are commonly conducted in psychology. In cross-sectional
observational studies, psychologists collect data at a single point in
time. The goal of many cross-sectional studies is the assess the extent
factors are correlated with each other. By contrast, in longitudinal studies
psychologists collect data on the same sample at two or more points in
time. Sometimes the purpose of longitudinal research is to study trends
across time such as the stability of traits or age-related changes in
behavior. Because some studies involve endpoints that psychologists
cannot ethically study from an experimental standpoint, such as
identifying the causes of depression, they conduct longitudinal studies a
large group of depression-free people, periodically assessing what is
happening in the individuals' lives. In this way psychologists have an
opportunity to test causal hypotheses regarding conditions that commonly
arise in people's lives that put them at risk for depression. Problems
that affect longitudinal studies include selective attrition, the type of problem in which bias is introduced when a certain type of research participant disproportionately leaves a study.
One example of an observational study was run by Arthur Bandura.
This observational study focused on children who were exposed to an
adult exhibiting aggressive behaviors and their reaction to toys versus
other children who were not exposed to these stimuli. The result shows
that children who had seen the adult acting aggressively towards a toy,
in turn, were aggressive towards their own toy when put in a situation
that frustrated them.[184]
Exploratory data analysis
includes a variety of practices that researchers use to reduce a great
many variables to a small number overarching factors. In Peirce's three modes of inference, exploratory data analysis corresponds to abduction.[254]Meta-analysis
is the technique research psychologists use to integrate results from
many studies of the same variables and arriving at a grand average of
the findings.[255]
Direct brain observation/manipulation
An EEG recording setupArtificial neural network with two layers, an interconnected group of nodes, akin to the vast network of neurons in the human brain
A classic and popular tool used to relate mental and neural activity is the electroencephalogram (EEG), a technique using amplified electrodes on a person's scalp to measure voltage changes in different parts of the brain. Hans Berger,
the first researcher to use EEG on an unopened skull, quickly found
that brains exhibit signature "brain waves": electric oscillations which
correspond to different states of consciousness. Researchers
subsequently refined statistical methods for synthesizing the electrode
data, and identified unique brain wave patterns such as the delta wave observed during non-REM sleep.
Newer functional neuroimaging techniques include functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography,
both of which track the flow of blood through the brain. These
technologies provide more localized information about activity in the
brain and create representations of the brain with widespread appeal.
They also provide insight which avoids the classic problems of
subjective self-reporting. It remains challenging to draw hard
conclusions about where in the brain specific thoughts originate—or even
how usefully such localization corresponds with reality. However,
neuroimaging has delivered unmistakable results showing the existence of
correlations between mind and brain. Some of these draw on a systemic neural network model rather than a localized function model.
Computational modeling is a tool used in mathematical psychology and cognitive psychology to simulate behavior.
This method has several advantages. Since modern computers process
information quickly, simulations can be run in a short time, allowing
for high statistical power. Modeling also allows psychologists to
visualize hypotheses about the functional organization of mental events
that could not be directly observed in a human. Computational
neuroscience uses mathematical models to simulate the brain. Another
method is symbolic modeling, which represents many mental objects using
variables and rules. Other types of modeling include dynamic systems and stochastic modeling.
Animal experiments aid in investigating many aspects of human
psychology, including perception, emotion, learning, memory, and
thought, to name a few. In the 1890s, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov
famously used dogs to demonstrate classical conditioning. Non-human
primates, cats, dogs, pigeons, and rats and other rodents are often used
in psychological experiments. Ideally, controlled experiments introduce
only one independent variable at a time, in order to ascertain its
unique effects upon dependent variables. These conditions are
approximated best in laboratory settings. In contrast, human
environments and genetic backgrounds vary so widely, and depend upon so
many factors, that it is difficult to control important variables for human subjects. There are pitfalls, however, in generalizing findings from animal studies to humans through animal models.[261]
Comparative psychology is the scientific study of the behavior
and mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to
the phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of
behavior. Research in this area explores the behavior of many species,
from insects to primates. It is closely related to other disciplines
that study animal behavior such as ethology.[262]
Research in comparative psychology sometimes appears to shed light on
human behavior, but some attempts to connect the two have been quite
controversial, for example the Sociobiology of E.O. Wilson.[263] Animal models are often used to study neural processes related to human behavior, e.g. in cognitive neuroscience.
Qualitative research
Phineas P. Gage
survived an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely
through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, but
the injury altered his personality and behavior.
Qualitative research is often designed to answer questions about the
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals. Qualitative research
involving first-hand observation can help describe events as they occur,
with the goal of capturing the richness of everyday behavior and with
the hope of discovering and understanding phenomena that might have been
missed if only more cursory examinations are made.
Qualitative psychological research
methods include interviews, first-hand observation, and participant
observation. Creswell (2003) identified five main possibilities for
qualitative research, including narrative, phenomenology, ethnography, case study, and grounded theory. Qualitative researchers sometimes aim to enrich our understanding of symbols, subjective experiences, or social structures. Sometimes hermeneutic and critical aims can give rise to quantitative research, as in Erich Fromm's application of psychological and sociological theories, in his book Escape from Freedom, to understanding why many ordinary Germans supported Hitler.
Just as Jane Goodall studied chimpanzee social and family life by careful observation of chimpanzee behavior in the field, psychologists conduct naturalistic observation
of ongoing human social, professional, and family life. Sometimes the
participants are aware they are being observed, and other times the
participants do not know they are being observed. Strict ethical
guidelines must be followed when covert observation is being carried
out.
Program evaluation
Program evaluation
involves the systematic collection, analysis, and application of
information to answer questions about projects, policies and programs,
particularly about their effectiveness.
In both the public and private sectors, stakeholders often want to know
the extent which the programs they are funding, implementing, voting
for, receiving, or objecting to are producing the intended effects.
While program evaluation first focuses on effectiveness, important
considerations often include how much the program costs per participant,
how the program could be improved, whether the program is worthwhile,
whether there are better alternatives, if there are unintended outcomes,
and whether the program goals are appropriate and useful.
Contemporary issues
Metascience
Metascience involves the application of scientific methodology to study science itself. The field of metascience has revealed problems in psychological research. Some psychological research has suffered from bias, problematic reproducibility, and misuse of statistics. These findings have led to calls for reform from within and from outside the scientific community.
Confirmation bias
In 1959, statistician Theodore Sterling examined the results of
psychological studies and discovered that 97% of them supported their
initial hypotheses, implying possible publication bias.Similarly, Fanelli (2010)
found that 91.5% of psychiatry/psychology studies confirmed the effects
they were looking for, and concluded that the odds of this happening (a
positive result) was around five times higher than in fields such as space science or geosciences.
Fanelli argued that this is because researchers in "softer" sciences
have fewer constraints to their conscious and unconscious biases.
A replication crisis
in psychology has emerged. Many notable findings in the field have not
been replicated. Some researchers were even accused of publishing
fraudulent results.[278][279][280] Systematic efforts, including efforts by the Reproducibility Project of the Center for Open Science,
to assess the extent of the problem found that as many as two-thirds of
highly publicized findings in psychology failed to be replicated. Reproducibility has generally been stronger in cognitive psychology (in studies and journals) than social psychology and subfields of differential psychology. Other subfields of psychology have also been implicated in the replication crisis, including clinical psychology, developmental psychology,and a field closely related to psychology, educational research.
Focus on the replication crisis has led to other renewed efforts in the discipline to re-test important findings. In response to concerns about publication bias and data dredging
(conducting a large number of statistical tests on a great many
variables but restricting reporting to the results that were
statistically significant), 295 psychology and medical journals have
adopted result-blind peer review
where studies are accepted not on the basis of their findings and after
the studies are completed, but before the studies are conducted and
upon the basis of the methodological rigor of their experimental designs
and the theoretical justifications for their proposed statistical
analysis before data collection or analysis is conducted.
In addition, large-scale collaborations among researchers working in
multiple labs in different countries have taken place. The collaborators
regularly make their data openly available for different researchers to
assess. Allen and Mehler estimated that 61 per cent of result-blind studies have yielded null results, in contrast to an estimated 5 to 20 per cent in traditional research.
Some critics view statistical hypothesis testing as misplaced. Psychologist and statistician Jacob Cohen
wrote in 1994 that psychologists routinely confuse statistical
significance with practical importance, enthusiastically reporting great
certainty in unimportant facts. Some psychologists have responded with an increased use of effect size statistics, rather than sole reliance on p-values.
In 2008, Arnett pointed out that most articles in American
Psychological Association journals were about U.S. populations when U.S.
citizens are only 5% of the world's population. He complained that
psychologists had no basis for assuming psychological processes to be
universal and generalizing research findings to the rest of the global
population. In 2010, Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan reported a bias in conducting psychology studies with participants from "WEIRD" ("Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic") societies.
Henrich et al. found that "96% of psychological samples come from
countries with only 12% of the world's population" (p. 63). The article
gave examples of results that differ significantly between people from
WEIRD and tribal cultures, including the Müller-Lyer illusion. Arnett (2008), Altmaier
and Hall (2008) and Morgan-Consoli et al. (2018) view the Western bias
in research and theory as a serious problem considering psychologists
are increasingly applying psychological principles developed in WEIRD
regions in their research, clinical work, and consultation with
populations around the world. In 2018, Rad, Martingano, and Ginges showed that nearly a decade after
Henrich et al.'s paper, over 80% of the samples used in studies
published in the journal Psychological Science
employed WEIRD samples. Moreover, their analysis showed that several
studies did not fully disclose the origin of their samples; the authors
offered a set of recommendations to editors and reviewers to reduce
WEIRD bias.
STRANGE bias
Similar to the WEIRD
bias, starting in 2020, researchers of non-human behavior have started
to emphasize the need to document the possibility of the STRANGE (Social
background, Trappability and self-selection, Rearing history,
Acclimation and habituation, Natural changes in responsiveness, Genetic
makeup, and Experience) bias in study conclusions.
Unscientific mental health training
Some observers perceive a gap between scientific theory and its
application—in particular, the application of unsupported or unsound
clinical practices.[310]
Critics say there has been an increase in the number of mental health
training programs that do not instill scientific competence. Practices such as "facilitated communication for infantile autism"; memory-recovery techniques including body work; and other therapies, such as rebirthing and reparenting, may be dubious or even dangerous, despite their popularity. These practices, however, are outside the mainstream practices taught in clinical psychology doctoral programs.
Ethics
Ethical standards in the discipline have changed over time. Some
famous past studies are today considered unethical and in violation of established codes (e.g., the Canadian Code of Conduct for Research Involving Humans, and the Belmont Report). The American Psychological Association has advanced a set of ethical principles and a code of conduct for the profession.
The ethics code of the American Psychological Association
originated in 1951 as "Ethical Standards of Psychologists." This code
has guided the formation of licensing laws in most American states. It
has changed multiple times over the decades since its adoption, and
contains both aspirational principles and binding ethical standards.
The APA's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct
consists of five General Principles, which are meant to guide
psychologists to higher ethical practice where a particular standard
does not apply. Those principles are:
A. Beneficence and Nonmaleficence - meaning the
psychologists must work to benefit those they work with and "do no
harm." This includes awareness of indirect benefits and harms their work
might have on others due to personal, social, political, or other
factors.
B. Fidelity and Responsibility - an awareness of public
trust in the profession and adherence to ethical standards and
clarification of roles to preserve that trust. This includes managing
conflicts of interest, as well as committing some portion of a
psychologist's professional time to low-cost or pro bono work.
C. Integrity - upholding honesty and accuracy in all
psychological practices, including avoiding misrepresentations and
fraud. In situations where psychologists would use deception (i.e.,
certain research), psychologists must consider the necessity, benefits,
and harms, and mitigate any harms where possible.
D. Justice - an understanding that psychology must be for
everyone's benefit, and that psychologists take special care to avoid
unjust practices as a result of biases or limitations of expertise.
E. Respect for People's Rights and Dignity - the
preservation of people's rights when working with psychologists,
including confidentially, privacy, and autonomy. Psychologists should
consider a multitude of factors, including a need for special safeguards
for protected populations (e.g., minors, incarcerated individuals) and
awareness of differences based on numerous factors, including culture,
race, age, gender, and socioeconomic status.
In 1989, the APA revised its policies on advertising and referral
fees to negotiate the end of an investigation by the Federal Trade
Commission. The 1992 incarnation was the first to distinguish between
"aspirational" ethical standards and "enforceable" ones. The APA code
was further revised in 2010 to prevent the use of the code to justify
violating human rights, which was in response to the participation of
APA members in interrogations under the administration of United States
President George W. Bush.
Members of the public have a five-year window to file ethics complaints
about APA members with the APA ethics committee; members of the APA
have a three-year window.
The Canadian Psychological Association used the APA code until
1986, when it developed its own code drawing from four similar
principles: 1) Respect for the Dignity of Persons and Peoples, 2)
Responsible Caring, 3) Integrity in Relationships, 4) Responsibility to
Society.
The European Federation of Psychologist's Associations, have adopted a
model code using the principles of the Canadian Code, while also drawing
from the APA code.
Universities have ethics committees dedicated to protecting the
rights (e.g., voluntary nature of participation in the research,
privacy) and well-being (e.g., minimizing distress) of research
participants. University ethics committees evaluate proposed research to
ensure that researchers protect the rights and well-being of
participants; an investigator's research project cannot be conducted
unless approved by such an ethics committee.
The field of psychology also identifies certain categories of
people that require additional or special protection due to particular
vulnerabilities, unequal power dynamics, or diminished capacity for
informed consent. This list often includes, but is not limited to,
children, incarcerated individuals, pregnant women, human fetuses and
neonates, institutionalized persons, those with physical or mental
disabilities, and the educationally or economically disadvantaged.
Some of the ethical issues considered most important are the
requirement to practice only within the area of competence, to maintain
confidentiality with the patients, and to avoid sexual relations with
them. Another important principle is informed consent, the idea that a patient or research subject must understand and freely choose a procedure they are undergoing. Some of the most common complaints against clinical psychologists include sexual misconduct and breaches in confidentiality or privacy.
Psychology ethics apply to all types of human contact in a
psychologist's professional capacity, including therapy, assessment,
teaching, training, work with research subjects, testimony in courts and
before government bodies, consulting, and statements to the public or
media pertaining to matters of psychology.
Ethics with other animals
Research on other animals is governed by university ethics
committees. Research on nonhuman animals cannot proceed without
permission of the ethics committee, of the researcher's home
institution. Ethical guidelines state that using non-human animals for
scientific purposes is only acceptable when the harm (physical or
psychological) done to animals is outweighed by the benefits of the
research. Psychologists can use certain research techniques on animals that could not be used on humans.
Comparative psychologist Harry Harlow drew moral condemnation for isolation experiments on rhesus macaque monkeys at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1970s. The aim of the research was to produce an animal model of clinical depression. Harlow also devised what he called a "rape rack", to which the female isolates were tied in normal monkey mating posture. In 1974, American literary critic Wayne C. Booth
wrote that, "Harry Harlow and his colleagues go on torturing their
nonhuman primates decade after decade, invariably proving what we all
knew in advance—that social creatures can be destroyed by destroying
their social ties." He writes that Harlow made no mention of the
criticism of the morality of his work.
Animal research is influential in psychology, while still being
debated among academics. The testing of animals for research has led to
medical breakthroughs in human medicine. Many psychologists argue animal
experimentation is essential for human advancement, but must be
regulated by the government to ensure ethicality.
