Bonnie R. Strickland – The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (Second edition)

Автор: Bonnie R. Strickland
Название книги: The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (Second edition)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Психология
Страницы: 710
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

Psychology is one of the most fascinating fields of
study. Almost everyone seems interested in understanding
his or her own behavior, as well as the actions of others.
Psychology is, by far, the most popular of the social
and behavioral sciences and one of the most attractive to
those who are interested in knowing more about people
and their behavior. In college and universities, psychology
has been one of the most popular majors for over
three decades, and students are more likely to take an
elective course in psychology than one from any other
field. Not surprisingly, psychology has also become a
popular high school offering.
Initially, psychology courses at the secondary school
level tried to meet the needs of rapidly maturing adolescents
who were interested in the changes they were experiencing
in themselves and in their relationships with others—
family, friends, the world of adults. We are living in
times of dramatic social change. Each of us continually
faces new challenges about how we will make our place in
the world. As the discipline of psychology matured, adjustment
courses gave way to substantive content courses
that offered not just psychology’s latest findings about developmental
and identity issues, but also featured those
more traditional areas of cognitive, experimental, physiological,
and social psychology. These courses were joined
by newly developed offerings such as neuropsychology
and psycholinguistics. The advances in the scientific side
of psychology were paralleled by the remarkable growth
of counseling, clinical, and school psychology.
To keep up with the rapidly expanding field, the
newly revised second edition of the Gale Encyclopedia
of Psychology has added about a third more entries and
biographies. Coverage includes the key concepts on
which the science is built, as well as major theoretical
advances in psychology. Clinical information is broadly
covered, noting the various psychological theories and
techniques currently in use and the scientific evidence
that supports then. Biographical profiles of major figures
in the field of psychology are included, ranging from the
earliest historical pioneers to current clinicians.
Psychology is one of our youngest sciences. People
first looked at the stars to predict and control their destiny
and the science of astronomy was born. Mathematics
was necessary to count and measure, and eventually
the physical sciences, such as physics, chemistry, and biology,
emerged. The study of human psychology, however,
developed later. It has only been a bit over a century
since scientists and philosophers turned their eyes
from the planets to people and tried to understand human
behavior in a systematic, scientific way. In the late l9th
century, philosophers and physiologists began to examine
the ways people perceive and interact with the world
around them. How do individuals use their senses of
sight, hearing, and touch to make sense of the world?
How do people remember what has happened to them or
know how to plan for the future?
In the late second half of the 1800s, a number of
young North American men and a few women traveled
to Germany to study with Wilhelm Wundt, who had established
a laboratory and the first graduate program of
study in psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
They returned to teach psychology and train other
students in the major universities of this country with the
intent of quantifying individual differences and important
elements of human perception and memory.
About the same time (1896), Lightner Witmer established
a Psychological Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania
to help children who were having difficulty in
school.
Being a psychologist, he assumed that his new profession—
dedicated to learning and memory—would
help him assist children who were having trouble reading,
writing, spelling, and remembering information.
Unfortunately, Witmer could find no help from the complex,
theoretical notions within the experimental laboratories,
and he turned to schoolteachers and social workers
for practical advice.
Thus began the long struggle between the scientific
study and practice of psychology, theory and action. Sci-
entists want to know that the data that they gather in their
experiments are valid and replicable (that is, others pursuing
the same questions with appropriate methods
would find the same results). They sometimes feel that
clinicians, for example, use psychotherapy techniques
that have not been proven to be useful and may even be
harmful. Practitioners, on the other hand, faced with
pressing and immediate problems of clients who are anxious,
depressed, or psychotic, need immediate treatments
to relieve suffering and may use methods that have not
have been fully proven in the laboratories.
The earliest psychologists worked primarily with children,
usually those who were delinquent or having trouble
in school. They were particularly taken with assessing intelligence
and translated a test developed by a Frenchman,
Alfred Binet, to quantify “mental age.” Unfortunately, they
moved well beyond the limitations of the test that had been
designed to identify children who were having trouble in
school. They began testing soldiers recruited for the First
World War and immigrants who wanted to come to this
country. According to their tests, they found almost half of
the young, white male recruits and some 80% of Eastern
European immigrants to be “morons.” This led them to rethink
the uses of intelligence tests, especially because of
opinions like that of journalist Walter Lippman, who recommended
that the “intelligence testers and their tests
should be sunk without warning in the… sea.” But serious
harm had been done. Some six million immigrants were
denied entrance into this country, and intelligence testing
laid the base for human eugenics laws that allowed individuals
who were found “intellectually unfit” to be sterilized.
Nonetheless, psychology became something of a national
mania in the 1920s. With the introduction of psychoanalysis
into this country, people wanted to “adjust”
through self-examination and the probing of the unconscious.
The scientific psychologists were dismayed at the
excesses of pseudopsychologists, whose ranks included
mind readers and charlatans. Psychological clinicians
were concerned as well and took steps to develop a standard
of ethics and ways of identifying appropriately
trained psychologists.
With the advent of the Second World War, psychologists
joined the military effort and were surprised themselves
by how much they had to offer. Human factors psychologists
designed airplane cockpits and the lighting on
runways that we still use today. Gestalt psychologists
taught American citizens how to identify enemy planes
should they fly overhead. B.F. Skinner taught pigeons to
guide missiles toward enemy targets. Psychologists
worked for the Office of Strategic Services (which eventually
became the CIA) to develop propaganda and disinformation.
This group also developed assessments to determine
who might be good officers (or spies). On the battlefield,
clinicians were helping troops who were experiencing
“traumatic neurosis, ” originally called “shell shock”
in the First World War and now known as post-traumatic
stress disorder. When the soldiers returned home, they led
therapy groups for wounded military personnel.
At the end of the Second World War, the National Research
Council urged the American Psychological Association
(APA) to heal the schism between scientists and
clinicians and reorganize with full membership benefits
for all doctoral psychologists. The Veteran’s Hospitals, in
particular, needed well-trained personnel to provide mental
health services for their patients. A major 1949 conference
held in Boulder, Colorado established standards of
education and training for clinical psychologists. Their
recommendations were that clinical psychologists should
be trained as generalists who were both scientists and clinicians.
Doctoral students would complete at least a year of
internship and receive the Ph. D. (doctor of philosophy)
degree. These standards are still in place today, although
newer of training are available for students who want to
place more emphasis on practice and less on doing research.
In addition to university graduate programs, a
large number of professional schools have been established,
often offering a Psy. D (doctor of psychology) degree.
Currently, some 4,000 students graduate each year
with a doctoral degree in psychology and perhaps three
times that many receive a master’s degree. The overwhelming
majority of these graduates go into clinical or
applied work, although changing conditions in the health
fields, such as the growth of HMOs, have raised concerns
about job opportunities for clinical psychologists.
A field as broad as psychology, which stretches from
the study of brain cells to that of prison cells, is an active,
argumentative, and exciting adventure that offers opportunities
in science, practice, and social policy. Most of the
pressing economic and social issues of our generation,
such as the environment, health needs, poverty, and violence,
will only be alleviated if we understand the ways in
which people create or creatively solve the problems that
we bring upon ourselves. The student who is interested in
unraveling the secrets of the human brain to see the mind
at work, who is fascinated about how children grow up
and become competent adults, who is dedicated to bringing
people together to resolve conflict, who is committed
to helping people with physical, emotional, or behavioral
difficulties, or who is challenged by the desire to develop
social policy in the public interest is welcomed in psychology.
We hope this encyclopedia will provide useful
information that will help students and others understand
this fascinating field and its opportunities.
Bonnie R. Strickland, Ph.D.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, Second Edition
includes over 650 entries on people and subjects important
to the study of psychology. This number represents
one-third more entries than the first edition. The
book has been designed so the reader can easily find and
access the information needed.
• Entries are alphabetically arranged.
• Length of entries ranges from brief explanations of
a concept in one or two paragraphs to longer, more
detailed entries on more complex topics. Almost
65% of the entries are entirely new or updated
from the first edition.
• A brief definition of the entry term appears between
the entry title and the full text of the entry.
• Over 175 photos, illustrations, and tables accompany
the text and enhance the reader’s understanding
of the subject covered.
• Bolded cross-references direct the reader to entries
on terms mentioned in the text of other entries.
• See also references at the end of entries point the
reader to related entries.
• Further Reading and Further Information sections
follow entries, directing the reader to other sources
of information on the topic.
• A new and improved glossary of over 350 essential
terms is included to help the reader understand key
concepts.
• An updated appendix lists psychological organizations
that the reader may contact for further inquiries.
• An updated and expanded general subject index
points the reader to concepts and people covered in
the encyclopedia.