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Fordetails, contact: DK PublishingSpecial Markets, 375 Hudson Street,New York, New York 10014 orSpecialSales@dk.com.First American Edition 2012Published in the United States byDK Publishing375 Hudson StreetNew York, New York 100142 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1001—181320—Feb/2012Copyright © 2012Dorling Kindersley LimitedAll rights reserved.Without limiting the rights under thecopyright reserved above, no part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in or introduced into a retrievalsystem, or transmitted, in any form orby any means (electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise),without the prior written permission ofboth the copyright owner and theabove publisher of this book.Published in Great Britainby Dorling Kindersley Limited.A catalog record for this book isavailable from the Library of Congress.ISBN:978-0-7566-8970-4Printed and bound in Chinaby Leo Paper Products LtdDiscover more atwww.dk.comLONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE,MUNICH, AND DELHI CATHERINE COLLINA clinical psychologist, our consultant CatherineCollin is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer inPsychological Therapies) at the University of Plymouthin England. Catherine’s interests lie in primary caremental health and cognitive behavior therapy.NIGEL BENSONA lecturer in philosophy and psychology, Nigel Bensonhas written several bestselling books on the subject ofpsychology, including Psychology for Beginners andIntroducing Psychiatry.JOANNAH GINSBURGA clinical psychologist and journalist, JoannahGinsburg works in community treatment centers inNew York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Dallas, andregularly contributes to psychology publications. Sheis joint author of This Book has Issues: Adventures inPopular Psychology.VOULA GRANDAs a business psychologist, Voula Grand consults forinternational corporations on leadership and executiveperformance. Her first novel is Honor’s Shadow. She iscurrently writing the sequel, Honor’s Ghost.MERRIN LAZYANA writer, editor, and classical singer, Merrin Lazyanstudied psychology at Harvard University and hasworked on several fiction and nonfiction books,spanning a broad range of topics.MARCUS WEEKSA writer and musician, Marcus Weeks studiedphilosophy and worked as a teacher before embarkingon a career as an author. He has contributed to manybooks on the arts and popular sciences.CONTRIBUTORS 10 INTRODUCTIONPHILOSOPHICALROOTSPSYCHOLOGY IN THE MAKING18 The four temperamentsof personalityGalen20 There is a reasoningsoul in this machineDescartes22 Dormez! Abbé Faria24 Concepts become forceswhen they resist oneanotherJohann Friedrich Herbart26 Be that self which onetruly is Søren Kierkegaard28 Personality is composedof nature and nurtureFrancis Galton30 The laws of hysteriaare universalJean-Martin Charcot31 A peculiar destruction ofthe internal connectionsof the psycheEmil Kraepelin32 The beginnings of themental life date fromthe beginnings of lifeWilhelm WundtBEHAVIORISMRESPONDING TO OURENVIRONMENT60 The sight of tasty foodmakes a hungry man’smouth water Ivan Pavlov62 Profitless acts arestamped outEdward Thorndike66 Anyone, regardless oftheir nature, can betrained to be anythingJohn B. Watson72 That great God-givenmaze which is our humanworld Edward Tolman74 Once a rat has visited ourgrain sack we can plan onits return Edwin Guthrie75 Nothing is more naturalthan for the cat to “love”the rat Zing-Yang Kuo76 Learning is just notpossible Karl Lashley77 Imprinting cannot beforgotten! Konrad Lorenz78 Behavior is shaped bypositive and negativereinforcement B.F. Skinner86 Stop imagining the sceneand relaxJoseph Wolpe38 We know the meaningof “consciousness” solong as no one asks usto define itWilliam James46 Adolescence isa new birthG. Stanley Hall48 24 hours after learningsomething, we forgettwo-thirds of itHermann Ebbinghaus50 The intelligence ofan individual is nota fixed quantityAlfred Binet54 The unconscious sees themen behind the curtainsPierre JanetCONTENTS PSYCHOTHERAPYTHE UNCONSCIOUSDETERMIINES BEHAVIOR92 The unconscious is thetrue psychical realitySigmund Freud100 The neurotic carries afeeling of inferiority withhim constantlyAlfred Adler102 The collective unconsciousis made up of archetypesCarl Jung108 The struggle between thelife and death instinctspersists throughout lifeMelanie Klein110 The tyranny of the“shoulds” Karen Horney111 The superego becomesclear only when itconfronts the ego withhostility Anna Freud112 Truth can be toleratedonly if you discover ityourself Fritz Perls118 It is notoriouslyinadequate to take anadopted child into one’shome and love himDonald Winnicott122 The unconscious is thediscourse of the OtherJacques Lacan124 Man’s main task is togive birth to himselfErich FrommCOGNITIVEPSYCHOLOGYTHE CALCULATING BRAIN160 Instinct is a dynamicpattern Wolfgang Köhler162 Interruption of a taskgreatly improves itschances of beingrememberedBluma Zeigarnik163 When a baby hearsfootsteps, an assemblyis excitedDonald Hebb164 Knowing is a processnot a productJerome Bruner166 A man with convictionis a hard man to changeLeon Festinger168 The magical number 7,plus or minus 2George Armitage Miller174 There’s more to thesurface than meetsthe eyeAaron Beck178 We can listen to only onevoice at onceDonald Broadbent186 Time’s arrow is bentinto a loopEndel Tulving192 Perception is externallyguided hallucinationRoger N. Shepard130 The good life is a processnot a state of beingCarl Rogers138 What a man can be,he must beAbraham Maslow140 Suffering ceases to besuffering at the momentit finds a meaningViktor Frankl141 One does not become fullyhuman painlesslyRollo May142 Rational beliefs createhealthy emotionalconsequencesAlbert Ellis146 The family is the“factory” where peopleare madeVirginia Satir148 Turn on, tune in, drop outTimothy Leary149 Insight may causeblindnessPaul Watzlawick150 Madness need not be allbreakdown. It may also bebreak-throughR.D. Laing152 Our history does notdetermine our destinyBoris Cyrulnik154 Only good people getdepressed Dorothy Rowe155 Fathers are subject toa rule of silenceGuy Corneau SOCIALPSYCHOLOGYBEING IN A WORLDOF OTHERS218 You cannot understanda system until you tryto change itKurt Lewin224 How strong is theurge toward socialconformity?Solomon Asch228 Life is a dramaticallyenacted thingErving Goffman230 The more you see it,the more you like itRobert Zajonc236 Who likes competentwomen?Janet Taylor Spence237 Flashbulb memoriesare fired by eventsof high emotionalityRoger Brown238 The goal is not to advanceknowledge, but to bein the know Serge Moscovici240 We are, by nature, socialbeings William Glasser242 We believe people getwhat they deserveMelvin Lerner244 People who do crazythings are notnecessarily crazyElliot Aronson246 People do what theyare told to doStanley Milgram254 What happens whenyou put good peoplein an evil place?Philip Zimbardo256 Trauma must beunderstood in termsof the relationshipbetween the individualand societyIgnacio Martín-Baró193 We are constantly onthe lookout for causalconnectionsDaniel Kahneman194 Events and emotion arestored in memory togetherGordon H. Bower196 Emotions are a runawaytrain Paul Ekman198 Ecstasy is a step intoan alternative realityMihály Csíkszentmihályi200 Happy people areextremely socialMartin Seligman202 What we believe withall our hearts is notnecessarily the truthElizabeth Loftus208 The seven sins of memoryDaniel Schacter210 One is not one’s thoughtsJon Kabat-Zinn211 The fear is that biologywill debunk all that wehold sacredSteven Pinker212 Compulsive behaviorrituals are attempts tocontrol intrusive thoughtsPaul Salkovskis DEVELOPMENTALPHILOSOPHYFROM INFANT TO ADULT262 The goal of education is tocreate men and womenwho are capable of doingnew things Jean Piaget270 We become ourselvesthrough othersLev Vygotsky271 A child is not beholden toany particular parentBruno Bettelheim272 Anything that growshas a ground planErik Erikson274 Early emotional bonds arean integral part of humannature John Bowlby278 Contact comfortis overwhelminglyimportant Harry Harlow279 We prepare children fora life about whose coursewe know nothingFrançoise Dolto280 A sensitive mothercreates a secureattachment Mary Ainsworth282 Who teaches a child tohate and fear a memberof another race?Kenneth Clark284 Girls get bettergrades than boysEleanor E. Maccoby286 Most human behavioris learned throughmodelingAlbert Bandura292 Morality develops insix stagesLawrence Kohlberg294 The language organgrows like any otherbody organNoam Chomsky298 Autism is an extremeform of the male brainSimon Baron-CohenPSYCHOLOGY OFDIFFERENCEPERSONALITY ANDINTELLIGENCE304 Name as many usesas you can think offor a toothpickJ.P. Guilford306 Did Robinson Crusoe lackpersonality traits beforethe advent of Friday?Gordon Allport314 General intelligenceconsists of both fluid andcrystallized intelligenceRaymond Cattell316 There is an associationbetween insanity andgenius Hans J. Eysenck322 Three key motivationsdrive performanceDavid C. McClelland324 Emotion is an essentiallyunconscious processNico Frijda326 Behavior withoutenvironmental cueswould be absurdly chaoticWalter Mischel328 We cannot distinguishthe sane from the insanein psychiatric hospitalsDavid Rosenhan330 The three faces of EveThigpen & Cleckley332 DIRECTORY340 GLOSSARY344 INDEX351 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10Among all the sciences,psychology is perhaps themost mysterious to thegeneral public, and the most proneto misconceptions. Even though itslanguage and ideas have infiltratedeveryday culture, most people haveonly a hazy idea of what the subjectis about, and what psychologistsactually do. For some, psychologyconjures up images of people inwhite coats, either staffing aninstitution for mental disorders orconducting laboratory experimentson rats. Others may imagine a manwith a middle-European accentpsychoanalyzing a patient on acouch or, if film scripts are to bebelieved, plotting to exercise someform of mind control.Although these stereotypesare an exaggeration, some truthlies beneath them. It is perhapsthe huge range of subjects that fallunder the umbrella of psychology(and the bewildering array of termsbeginning with the prefix “psych-”)that creates confusion over whatpsychology entails; psychologiststhemselves are unlikely to agreeon a single definition of the word.“Psychology” comes from theancient Greek psyche, meaning“soul” or “mind,” and logia, a“study” or “account,” which seemsto sum up the broad scope of thesubject, but today the word mostaccurately describes “the scienceof mind and behavior.”The new sciencePsychology can also be seen as abridge between philosophy andphysiology. Where physiologydescribes and explains the physicalmake-up of the brain and nervoussystem, psychology examines themental processes that take placewithin them and how these aremanifested in our thoughts, speech,and behavior. Where philosophy isconcerned with thoughts and ideas,psychology studies how we cometo have them and what they tell usabout the workings of our minds.All the sciences evolved fromphilosophy, by applying scientificmethods to philosophical questions,but the intangible nature ofsubjects such as consciousness,perception, and memory meant thatpsychology was slow in makingthe transition from philosophicalspeculation to scientific practice.In some universities, particularly inthe US, psychology departmentsstarted out as branches of thephilosophy department, while inothers, notably those in Germany,they were established in the sciencefaculties. But it was not until thelate 19th century that psychologybecame established as a scientificdiscipline in its own right.The founding of the world’sfirst laboratory of experimentalpsychology by Wilhelm Wundtat the University of Leipzig in1879 marked the recognition ofpsychology as a truly scientificsubject, and as one that wasbreaking new ground in previouslyunexplored areas of research.In the course of the 20th century,psychology blossomed; all of itsmajor branches and movementsevolved. As with all sciences, itshistory is built upon the theoriesand discoveries of successivegenerations, with many of the oldertheories remaining relevant tocontemporary psychologists. Someareas of research have been thesubject of study from psychology’sINTRODUCTIONPsychology has a long past,but only a short history.Hermann Ebbinghaus 11earliest days, undergoing differentinterpretations by the variousschools of thought, while othershave fallen in and out of favor,but each time they have exerteda significant influence onsubsequent thinking, and haveoccasionally spawned completelynew fields for exploration.The simplest way to approachthe vast subject of psychology forthe first time is to take a look atsome of its main movements, aswe do in this book. These occurredin roughly chronological order, fromits roots in philosophy, throughbehaviorism, psychotherapy, andthe study of cognitive, social, anddevelopmental psychology, to thepsychology of difference.Two approachesEven in its earliest days, psychologymeant different things to differentpeople. In the US, its roots lay inphilosophy, so the approach takenwas speculative and theoretical,dealing with concepts such asconsciousness and the self. InEurope, the study was rooted in thesciences, so the emphasis was onexamining mental processes suchas sensory perception and memoryunder controlled laboratoryconditions. However, even theresearch of these more scientificallyoriented psychologists was limitedby the introspective nature of theirmethods: pioneers such as HermannEbbinghaus became the subject oftheir own investigations, effectivelyrestricting the range of topics tothose that could be observed inthemselves. Although they usedscientific methods and theirtheories laid the foundations forthe new science, many in the nextgeneration of psychologists foundtheir processes too subjective, andbegan to look for a more objectivemethodology.In the 1890s, the Russianphysiologist Ivan Pavlov conductedexperiments that were to provecritical to the development ofpsychology in both Europe andthe US. He proved that animalscould be conditioned to producea response, an idea that developedinto a new movement known asbehaviorism. The behaviorists feltthat it was impossible to studymental processes objectively, butfound it relatively easy to observeand measure behavior: amanifestation of those processes.They began to design experimentsthat could be conducted undercontrolled conditions, at first onanimals, to gain an insight intohuman psychology, and later onhumans.The behaviorists’ studiesconcentrated almost exclusivelyon how behavior is shaped byinteraction with the environment;this “stimulus–response” theorybecame well known through thework of John Watson. New learningtheories began to spring up inEurope and the US, and attractedthe interest of the general public.However, at much the same timeas behaviorism began to emerge inthe US, a young neurologistin Vienna started to develop atheory of mind that was to overturncontemporary thinking and inspirea very different approach. Basedon observation of patients and casehistories rather than laboratoryexperiments, Sigmund Freud’spsychoanalytic theory marked ❯❯INTRODUCTIONThe first fact for us then, aspsychologists, is that thinkingof some sort goes on.William James 12a return to the study of subjectiveexperience. He was interested inmemories, childhood development,and interpersonal relationships,and emphasized the importanceof the unconscious in determiningbehavior. Although his ideas wererevolutionary at the time, theywere quickly and widely adopted,and the notion of a “talking cure”continues within the various formsof psychotherapy today.New fields of studyIn the mid-20th century, bothbehaviorism and psychoanalysisfell out of favor, with a return to thescientific study of mentalprocesses. This marked thebeginning of cognitive psychology,a movement with its roots in theholistic approach of the Gestaltpsychologists, who were interestedin studying perception. Their workbegan to emerge in the US in theyears following World War II; by thelate 1950s, cognitive psychologyhad become the predominantapproach. The rapidly growingfields of communications andcomputer science providedpsychologists with a usefulanalogy; they used the model ofinformation processing to developtheories to explain our methods ofattention, perception, memory andforgetting, language and languageacquisition, problem-solving anddecision-making, and motivation.Even psychotherapy, whichmushroomed in myriad formsfrom the original “talking cure,”was influenced by the cognitiveapproach. Cognitive therapy andcognitive-behavioral therapyemerged as alternatives topsychoanalysis, leading tomovements such as humanistpsychology, which focused on thequalities unique to human life.These therapists turned theirattention from healing the sick toguiding healthy people towardliving more meaningful lives.While psychology in its earlystages had concentrated largelyon the mind and behavior ofindividuals, there was now anincreasing interest in the way weinteract with our environment andother people; this became the fieldof social psychology. Like cognitivepsychology, it owed much to theGestalt psychologists, especiallyKurt Lewin, who had fled from NaziGermany to the US in the 1930s.Social psychology gathered paceduring the latter half of the 20thcentury, when research revealedintriguing new facts about ourattitudes and prejudices, ourtendencies toward obedience andconformity, and our reasons foraggression or altruism, all of whichwere increasingly relevant in themodern world of urban life andever-improving communications.Freud’s continuing influencewas felt mainly through the newfield of developmental psychology.Initially concerned only withchildhood development, study inthis area expanded to includechange throughout life, frominfancy to old age. Researcherscharted methods of social, cultural,and moral learning, and the ways inwhich we form attachments. Thecontribution of developmentalpsychology to education andtraining has been significant but,less obviously, it has influencedINTRODUCTIONIf the 19th century wasthe age of the editorial chair,ours is the century of thepsychiatrist’s couch.Marshall McLuhan 13thinking about the relationshipbetween childhood developmentand attitudes to race and gender.Almost every psychologicalschool has touched upon the subjectof human uniqueness, but in thelate 20th century this area wasrecognized as a field in its ownright in the psychology of difference.As well as attempting to identifyand measure personality traits andthe various factors that make upintelligence, psychologists in thisgrowing field examine definitionsand measures of normality andabnormality, and look at how muchour individual differences are aproduct of our environment or theresult of genetic inheritance.An influential scienceThe many branches of psychologythat exist today cover the wholespectrum of mental life and humanand animal behavior. The overallscope has extended to overlap withmany other disciplines, includingmedicine, physiology, neuroscience,computer science, education,sociology, anthropology, and evenpolitics, economics, and the law.Psychology has become perhapsthe most diverse of sciences.Psychology continues toinfluence and be influenced by theother sciences, especially in areassuch as neuroscience and genetics.In particular, the nature versusnurture argument that dates backto Francis Galton’s ideas of the1920s continues to this day;recently, evolutionary psychologyhas contributed to the debate byexploring psychological traits asinnate and biological phenomena,which are subject to the laws ofgenetics and natural selection.Psychology is a huge subject,and its findings concern every oneof us. In one form or another itinforms many decisions made ingovernment, business and industry,advertising, and the mass media.It affects us as groups and asindividuals, contributing as muchto public debate about the ways oursocieties are or might be structuredas it does to diagnosing andtreating mental disorders.The ideas and theories ofpsychologists have become part ofour everyday culture, to the extentthat many of their findings aboutbehavior and mental processes arenow viewed simply as “commonsense.” However, while some of theideas explored in psychologyconfirm our instinctive feelings,just as many make us think again;psychologists have often shockedand outraged the public when theirfindings have shaken conventional,long-standing beliefs.In its short history, psychologyhas given us many ideas that havechanged our ways of thinking,and that have also helped us tounderstand ourselves, other people,and the world we live in. It hasquestioned deeply held beliefs,unearthed unsettling truths, andprovided startling insights andsolutions to complex questions.Its increasing popularity as auniversity course is a sign notonly of psychology’s relevance inthe modern world, but also of theenjoyment and stimulation that canbe had from exploring the richnessand diversity of a subject thatcontinues to examine the mysteriousworld of the human mind.INTRODUCTIONThe purpose of psychologyis to give us a completelydifferent idea of thethings we know best.Paul Valéry PHILOSOROOTSPSYCHOLOGYIN THE MAKING