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Write an essay on the contributions of Sigmund Freud to the field of psychology. 

Intro to Basic Psychology

Most people I know have a certain idea in mind when they think about psychology. Before I provide a definition of psychology, I want you to take a few minutes to jot down some of your ideas on what psychology is.

“Why do we do what we do?” is the question beneath a lot of the other questions people ask psychologists. Whether you’re a professional psychologist, a researcher, or a layperson, this one simple question seems to be the root issue.

• Why did that shooting happen?
• Why can’t I stop feeling sad?
• Why did he/she break up with me?
• Why are people so mean?

These are examples of the motivating questions that drive the discipline of psychology. At a very basic level, psychology is a branch of knowledge. But this explanation just scratches the surface. The main topic of psychology is people, either as individuals or in groups.

To this point in the section, psychology is a discipline concerned with why people do what they do. Another fundamental question of psychology is the “how” question.

• How can I get a better grade on my final?
• How can I get my 2-year old to stop throwing tantrums.?
• How does the mind work?

Yet another question is the “what” question:

• What are emotions?
• What is mental illness?
• What is intelligence?

These why, how, and what questions comprise the intellectual and philosophical core of psychology. Therefore, psychology can be defined as the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. Psychology attempts to uncover what we do and why and how we do it.

Playing Armchair Psychologist

In a way, each of us is an amateur psychologist of sorts. Professional psychologists aren’t the only ones who try to figure people out. When I started taking psychology courses, I had my own ideas about people. Sometimes, I agreed with theories of Feud and others, and sometimes, I disagreed wholeheartedly. I’m sure that I’m not alone. Most of us seem to have our own ideas about what makes others tick.

One of the neatest things about psychology is that it covers a topic that we all have experience with – people. It’s pretty hard to say the same thing about chemistry and astronomy. Of course, we will all encounter chemicals every day, but I can’t remember the last time I asked, “How do they get that mouthwash to taste like mint?”

One of the best places to catch armchair psychologists in action is the local coffeehouse. The tables are filled with people sitting around and talking about the whys and the wherefores of other people’s behavior. “And then I said…” You should have told them…” It’s like being in a big group therapy session sometimes. We’re all hard at work figuring people out.

Psychologists sometimes call this armchair psychologizing folk psychology – a framework of principles used by ordinary people to understand, explain, and predict their own and other people’s behavior and mental state.

In practice, we use a variety of psychological notions or concepts to explain individuals’ mental states, personalities, or circumstances. Two concepts that are lot of use for this purpose are beliefs and desires. We all believe that people have beliefs and that they act on those beliefs. Why do people do what they do? Because of their beliefs.

When we practice folk psychology, we assume that people do what they do because of their thoughts and mental process- their beliefs and desires. Folk psychology isn’t the only tool that armchair psychologist use. It’s not unusual for people to explain other’s behavior in terms of luck, curses, blessings, karma, fate, destiny, or any other number of non-psychological terms.

I don’t want to make these explanations sound like a bad thing. It’s pretty hard to explain why someone wins the lottery from a psychological perspective. Explaining why someone continues to buy tickets even when they keep losing? Now that can be explained using psychology.

One Among The Sciences

A number of scholarly fields attempt to use their own perspective to answer the same core questions that psychology attempts to answer. In one way or another, physics, biology, chemistry, history, economics, political science, sociology, medicine, and anthropology all concern themselves with people.

The psychological perspective is just one voice among this chorus of disciplines that strives for validity based on the acceptance of the scientific method as the most valid and useful approach to understanding reality.

Psychology exists among and interacts with other disciplines. Just as each of us live in a community of knowledge, and it provides a unique contribution to that community. It’s a tool for understanding people. Sometimes, its theories and research are the right tools, and sometimes, they’re not. Not everything is reducible to a psychological understanding, but we need tools for understanding the chaos of human behavior and mental processes.

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of psychologists have come up with a basic set of metatheories or “grand theories” to guide our work. These theories are used to cast a framework on the whirling and bussing world of human behavior and mental processes in order to begin to understand it. One comment I get from students from time to time is, “What makes you think that psychology has all the answers?” My answer, “Psychologists are just trying to provide a piece of the puzzle, not all the answers.”

Framing With Metatheories

Each of the following grand theories provides an overarching framework within which most psychological research is conducted. (There are other perspectives that represent hybridized approaches, such as neuropsychology and cognitive science. But for now, I’m just sticking with the basics.)

Each of these metatheories has a different point of emphases when approaching the core psychological questions of why, how, and what. A lot of research and theory is based on one or more of these grand theories. When a psychologist finds behavior or mental process she’s interested in researching, she typically begins to work from within one of these theories.

BIOLOGICAL THEORY

Focuses on the biological underpinnings of behavior and the effects of evolution and genetics. The premise is that behavior and mental processes can be explained by understanding human physiology and anatomy. Biological psychologists focus mostly on the brain and the nervous system.

We’ve all seen people act differently when they’re under the influence of alcohol. Holiday office parties are good laboratories for applying the biological perspective. Imagine walking into a party and seeing Bob, the relatively quiet guy from accounting, burning up the cubicles like some kind of disco inferno that could make John Travolta sweat. He’s the lady’s man. He’s funny. He’s drunk. Do you think Bob will remember?

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

Sigmund Freud c.1921 (Photo by Max Halberstadt. Public Domain)

Emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes and early child-development issues as they relate to childish impulses, childish wishes, immature desires, and demands of the reality that we live in. Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis, and since then, hundreds of theorists have added to his work.

The newer theories are typically labeled psychodynamic because they emphasize the dynamic interplay between various components of personality. I once read an article on the significance of a child beating his or her parent at either a game or a sports activity. Should parents let their children win? Psychoanalysis largely believes that competition is inherent between parent and child and that eventual acceptance of that competition is essential to the child’s healthy psychological adjustments in life.

BEHAVIORIST THEORY

Emphasizes the role of previous learning experiences in shaping behavior. Behaviorists don’t traditionally focus on mental processes because they believe that mental processes are too difficult to observe and measure objectively.

One of the most powerful behavioral influences on our behavior comes from watching other people. Monkey see-Monkey do! Psychologists call this process observational learning. In recent years, a lot of controversies have arisen about the influence of television and videogame violence on children. The research has been consistent. Children who view violent television and play violent videogames are more likely to engage in violent behavior.

COGNITIVE THEORY

Focuses on the mental processing of information, including the specific functions of reasoning, problem-solving, and memory. Cognitive psychologists are interested in the mental plans and thoughts that guide and cause behavior.

Whenever someone tells me to look at the bright side, they’re coming from a cognitive perspective. When something bad happens to me, I can feel better if the problem gets solved or the issue is resolved. But how should I feel if nothing changes? If my circumstances don’t change, do I have to feel bad forever? Of course not- I can change the way I think about the situation. I can look on the bright side!

HUMANISTIC & EXISTENTIAL THEORY

Emphasizes the uniqueness of each individual person and our ability and responsibility to make choices in our lives. I’m not a victim of circumstance! I have choices in life. Humanists believe that a person’s free choice, free will, and understanding of the meaning of events and his or her life are the most important things to study.

Have you ever felt like just another nameless face in the crowd? Has your life ever seemed as if were controlled by the winds of chance? How did it feel? Probably not very good. Feeling like we have choices and making good choices give us a sense of true being and affirm our existence.

SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY

Focuses on the social and cultural factors that affect our behavior. Never underestimate the power of groups or culture in investing the why, how, and what of behavior and mental processes.

The tattoo phenomenon of the 1990s is a good example of this power. Before the ’90s people who got ink were seen as acting outside of the status quo, so “status quo” people weren’t lined up outside the tattoo parlor. Nowadays, tattoos are widely accepted, and even Mr. Status Quo may have a tat or two or three.

FEMINIST THEORY

Focuses on the political, economic, and social rights of women and how these forces influence both men’s and women’s behavior. The feminist perspective originated in the women’s movement of the 1960s.

One issue, in particular, has caught the attention of feminist researchers and clinicians- eating disorders. From their perspective, eating disorders in young women are largely the consequence of excessive pressures to be thin that mass media and culture place upon girls. Feminists draw attention to fashion magazines and female role models in popular culture.

POSTMODERNIST THEORY

Questions the very core of psychological science, challenging its approach to truth and its focus on the individual. Postmodernists propose, for example, that in order to understand human thinking and reason, we need to look at the social and communal processes involved in thinking and reason.

They make the argument that people in powerful positions have too much to say about what is “reality” and “truth” in psychology. They advocate a social constructionist view of reality, which states that the concept of “ reality” and “truth” are defined, or constructed, by society. These concepts have no meaning, apart from the meaning that society and its “experts assign them.

The Biopsychosocial Model

How does one begin to sort through and choose among the metatheories listed above? There is a simpler way to go about figuring people out. Over the years, each of these metatheories has enjoyed its day in the sun, only to be put on the shelf by the next big thing. One way of dealing with this revolving door of explanatory frameworks is to adopt an integrationist approach.

The biopsychosocial model of psychology represents a popular attempt at integration. The basic idea behind this model is that human behavior and mental processes are the products of biological, psychological, and social influences and how these influences interact. Any explanation of behavior and mental processes that don’t consider all three factors is relatively incomplete.

THE ROLE OF THE BODY

We are material beings. We’re made of flesh and bones. Any discussion of thoughts, feelings, or any other psychological concept that doesn’t consider the body, especially the brain and nervous system, ignores the facts of our existence. Take the “mind” for example. Most of us think we have a “mind” and that others (well, most others) have one too. But where does this “mind” exist? These days, psychologist accept that the “mind” exists in, or is synonymous with, the brain- that lump of flesh inside our skulls. The biological metatheory is integrated into the biopsychosocial model of this component.

THE ROLE OF THE MIND

I think most people have this aspect of the biopsychosocial model in mind (no pun intended) when they think psychology. Thoughts, feelings, desires, beliefs, and numerous other mental concepts are addressed through this aspect of the model, the role of the mind. What is this section was about botany? Would the biopsychosocial model still be useful? Only if you believed that plants had minds, and the “social” component of the model referred more to the ecological niche that plants exist within. In other words, it’d be a stretch!

This is a good illustration of the uniqueness of the biopsychosocial model of psychology. The mind is central to understanding human behavior and mental processes. Behaviorist neglect the mind. Biological psychologists study the mind as the brain. And social psychologists primarily focus on the third aspect if the biopsychosocial model.

THE ROLE OF THE PEOPLE

Our brains and minds would be pretty lonely without the third component of the model, the social aspect of human behavior and mental processes. Brains don’t work, and minds don’t think in a vacuum. Behavior and mental processes are embedded within a context that includes other people and the material environment around us.

The social aspect of the model also includes non-human aspects of our environment, such as nature and technology. It’s important not to underestimate the power of other people in shaping and determining our behavior and mental processes. Most of us are aware of the detrimental effects that negative social events or experiences, such as physical or sexual abuse, can have on us. To neglect the social is to neglect reality.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT CULTURE

Do behavior and mental processes vary across cultures? Let me put the question to you this way: If I conducted research with white, high school seniors, could I state that my results apply to all people? Definitely not. This subject has been a hot topic in psychology over the last 30 years or so. As technological advances help make our world a smaller place and different cultures come into contact with each other more often, understanding the role of culture in psychology becomes increasingly important.

Cultures influence needs to be addressed in psychology for at least two reasons, one is scientific, and the other is humanistic Science seeks objectivity and truth. All of us vulnerable to cultural bias; therefore, psychology should try to understand the influence of culture in order to provide the most objective and complete picture of reality as possible. If not, all we’ll have is a bunch of “regional psychologies” that are useless and inaccurate outside of the cultures they were developed in.

Finally, from a humanistic perspective, many people generally agree that it’s wrong to impose their culture’s brand of truth onto other cultures. What if my American research shows that using baby talk to communicate with infants stunts the growth of mature speech, and I go to another culture and design a public education program based in these findings? Although they hold true for the United States , these research results may not be applicable to the other culture. My education program would be imposing a “truth” that’ not really a “truth” onto that culture. We should always be careful to respect the relativity of truth across cultural boundaries.

Branching Off

There are three main types of psychologists:

• Experimental psychologists spend the majority of their time conducting research and they often work in academic settings. Experimental psychology covers a wide range of topics, but individual researchers typically have a specialty.
• Applied psychologists directly apply research findings and psychological theory to everyday settings and problems. Applied psychologist work in a wide variety of settings, such as business, government, education, even sports.
• Clinical psychologists study, diagnosis, and treat psychological problems. The American Psychological Association states that in order for an individual to be considered a psychologist, he or she must possess a doctoral degree (a Ph.D, PsyD, or EdD, for example). And nearly all states in the United States require the individual to obtain a license to practice psychology, which typically involves taking an intensive licensing exam.