Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy based on psychoanalytic theory. This theory states that human behavior is controlled by unconscious forces such as instinct and that there is no such thing as free will. Many ideas found in the Psychoanalytic theory can be traced back to the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud. Freud believed mental disorders are a result of repressed memories and emotions from childhood; psychoanalysis is designed to search for these hidden memories and emotions and bring them to the patient's attention. Techniques such as hypnosis are used to tap into the unconscious mind with the hopes that the source of the disturbance is found. Freud also believed dreams had hidden meanings, and often asked patients to record their dreams for analysis. Because of the lack of scientific evidence supporting most Freudian ideas, psychoanalysis is rarely used by clinical psychologists and has been replaced by more effective forms of therapy.
Behavior therapy is based on the theory of behaviorism, which states that all human behavior is a result of a stimulus and reinforcement. Famous behaviorists include James Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Joseph Wolpe. The goal of this therapy is to increase one's positive or socially reinforcing behavior. Behavior therapy can be broken down into three areas:
Humanistic therapy is a method taken from Carl Rogers, which aims to focus on a client as a human rather than the problem that they have. A therapist can adjust the environment and mood of a session in a way that mimics normal conversation. This often helps the patient realize the issues they have, and share them with the therapist more successfully than in a traditional counseling session. Humanistic therapy creates an effective means of getting to the source of a problem and treating it properly.
Roger's own term was "client-centered therapy", which has the idea that the therapist is helping the client to become a genuine psychological adult.
John B. Watson
John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878–September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist. He established the psychological school of behaviorism, after doing research on animal behavior. This school was extremely influential in the middle of the 20th century, when B.F. Skinner developed it further.
Watson was forced to resign his chair at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, because his affair with a graduate student became a public scandal. After this, Watson worked for many years for J. Walter Thompson, a leading American advertising agency. He is credited with popularizing the "coffee break" during an ad campaign for Maxwell House coffee.
Watson founded behaviorism in the spring of 1913 with his paper "Psychology as the behaviorist views it". In this article, Watson outlined the major features of his new philosophy of psychology, called "behaviorism". The first paragraph of the article concisely described his position:
Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme of investigation.
In 1913, Watson viewed Ivan Pavlov's conditioned reflex as primarily a physiological mechanism controlling glandular secretions. He had already rejected Edward Thorndike's "Law of Effect" (a precursor to B.F. Skinner's principle of reinforcement) because of what Watson believed were 'unnecessary subjective elements'. The article is also notable for its strong defense of the objective scientific status of applied psychology, which at the time was considered to be much inferior to the established experimental psychology.
With his behaviorism, Watson put the emphasis on external behavior of people and their reactions on given situations, rather than the internal, mental state of those people. In his opinion, the analysis of behaviors and reactions was the only objective method to get insight in the human actions. This outlook was thought to be extreme or radical behaviorism.
Watson wrote the book "Psychological care of infant and child" in 1928, with help from his mistress, turned wife, Rosalie Rayner. Rosalie later entitled a self-penned article "I am a mother of behaviorist sons". In the book, Watson explained that behaviorists were starting to believe psychological care and analysis was required for infants and children.
His slogan was "not more babies but better brought up babies". Watson argued for the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate, claiming that the world would benefit from extinguishing pregnancies for twenty years while enough data was gathered to ensure an efficient child-rearing process. Watsons’ description of a "happy child" was rather detached. It included ideas such as that the child can occupy himself through his problem-solving abilities, should only cry when in physical pain, and that the child stray from asking questions. Behavior analysis of child development as a field may have begun with the writings of Watson.
Watson carried out controversial science experiments known as the "Little Albert experiments"; in these experiments, Watson studied fear in infants.
Watson's views and life have been the subject of a number of works.
Indian English
Indian English or South Asian English is several dialects or varieties of English. It is spoken mainly in India, and by first-generation members of the Indian diaspora.
The dialect evolved during and after the British colonial rule of India. English is the co-official language of India, with about 90 million speakers, but with fewer than quarter of a million calling it a first language.
In 19th century India, Britain first faced the need to teach English to a body of people who were important to Britain.
There were a number of schools which taught and used English in India. They were mostly run by missionaries. Many taught European and Eurasian children and orphans. The products of these schools provided the first generation of teachers.
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (14 September 1849 – 27 February 1936) was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for research about the digestive system. Pavlov is widely known for first describing classical conditioning.
The son of a priest, and a theology student, Pavlov turned to science after being influenced by progressive ideas. He took natural sciences at the University of St Petersburg, and got a doctorate in 1878.
In the 1890s, Pavlov was investigating the gastric function of dogs by externalizing a salivary gland so he could collect, measure, and analyze the saliva and what response it had to food under different conditions. He noticed that the dogs tended to salivate before food was actually delivered to their mouths, and set out to investigate this "psychic secretion", as he called it. Pavlov performed and directed experiments on digestion, eventually publishing "The work of the digestive glands" in 1897, after 12 years of research. His experiments earned him the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
The concept for which Pavlov is famous is the "conditioned reflex" he developed with his assistant Ivan Tolochinov in 1901.
As Pavlov's work became known in the West, particularly through the writings of John B. Watson, the idea of "conditioning" as an automatic form of learning became a key concept in the developing specialism of comparative psychology, and the general approach to psychology called behaviourism.