Since the beginning of the development of humanity, man has been concerned ever know their world wide and deep, with a view to dominate and transform it. No phenomenon escapes interest, including himself.
Knowledge about the man himself turns out to be an extremely complicated process, because it is facing a phenomenon whose manifestations reach a level of organization that it requires, without losing sight of the human being as a whole, their particular treatment, being delimited fields or ls knowledge systems on different facets or manifestations of the human being. For example, human physiology, anthropology, sociology, among others.
In the universe of human manifestations that occur in the process of interaction between man and his world, it has always been a source of interest group issues: How the human being can know the world around him? How can you know yourself? Why the same circumstances or events causing states and different responses in people? How to explain that the human being succeed in creating something new? What drives him to act? The list of questions would be virtually endless, because the human being from the beginning, these questions are formulated and addressed possible solutions to them. At the same time it was raising new concerns about their spiritual world.
Deepening and broadening the horizons of knowledge in this sphere of knowledge incited and led to a growing progress in the study of this important aspect of human existence: his psyche.
When we refer to what humans feel, perceive, remember, think, imagine, fears, desires, hopes, etc .., we are placing in the treatment of the phenomena of the human psyche.
The branch of knowledge that deals with everything related to the phenomena of the psyche is the psychology.
Psychological knowledge is as old as man himself (the first system of psychological knowledge is found in antiquity in the treaty and Aristotle "On the Soul"), but psychology did not become independent science until the second half of the century XIX.
Before psychology as an independent science established, it was regarded as a philosophical discipline, although the accumulation of psychological knowledge took place in many fields of intellectual work of humanity
The roots of psychology are not only in philosophy but also in the natural sciences (especially in biology) as well as in medicine, pedagogy and sociology.
Why it sets. Psychology as an independent science at that time ?. The explanation to this question is found in two main factors: economic / social and logical / scientific.
ECONOMIC / SOCIAL FACTORS
The achievements of psychology in all ages have been directly dependent on the needs of social practice. His own transformation into independent science was stimulated by the practical needs of capitalist production, which required the most effective use of the "human factor". With the flourishing of capitalism, with a view to improving the preparation of skilled labor that demanded the new level reached by production. They were imposed, therefore tasks that could not be resolved without developing the study of the human being in all its aspects, including psychological.
For all this it is that the objective conditions of economic / social driving the development of psychological knowledge to the required level to lay the foundation are given in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the level of development of capitalist production, construction of psychology as a system of psychological knowledge.
The analysis of the economic / social factors shows that while science actively breaks into the life of the social and modifies its forms, does not constitute in any way a force situated above society; On the contrary, engendered by it, it reflects the needs and trends of social development. This is evident in the emergence and development of psychological science and is equally true for all sciences.
FACTORS LOGICAL / SCIENTISTS
Although the emergence and development of all sciences (including psychology) are subjected to the action of economic / social factors, they do not exhaust themselves explaining the emergence and development of scientific disciplines.
Without divorcing the specific historical / social conditions, development of science also obeys its own laws, is subject to logical factors / scientists who have a decisive influence character.
No scientific discipline can exist in isolation. The development of a science trucaría sise kept outside the contributions of the other sciences. This is most significant when it comes to the emergence of a new science, which can not become such from itself by its insufficient development and therefore it is essential to draw on the most significant contributions in other fields of scientific knowledge that their proximity object and method may provide support him for their own development.
Psychology as a science is established from a number of scientific facts in other sciences that influenced greatly in its development, facts that constituted the scientific / natural premises of psychology.
These premises were produced in five main lines of development of scientific works: works of experimental physiology; Sechenov work; creation of evolutionary theory of Darwin; Galton studies on individual differences and studies on psychic reality, by the French psiconeorólogos.
EXPERIMENTAL WORKS PHYSIOLOGY
The development of the work of experimental physiology (physiology of the sense organs) was driven by naturalists physiologists Helmholtz (1821-1894), Weber (1795-1878), Fechner (1801-1887) and Donders (1818-1889 ), among others.
The independence of psychology as a science is closely linked to the work of naturalists physiologists.
The experimental physiology, which was developed at an increasing rate, faced with phenomena being produced by organs of the body, belonged to a class that could properly be regarded as physiological.
The truly comprehensive study of the sense organs could not be limited to analysis of their anatomical constitution or the processes of excitation in nerve fibers, but had to cover the result of the activity of these organs: the feelings and perceptions.
The proper development of research on the sense organs forced the physiologist to move towards a new land where the methods and pure representations of physiology no use to him to solve the problem of the new phenomenon that sought to analyze, simply because the nature of this phenomenon (the psyche) could not be reduced to the physiological.
Physiologist was faced with the task of operating with a kind of phenomenon that bore no resemblance to its subject of study usual. I could not see in the microscope and analyze it by operating the scalpel; not describe it and explain it with categorial system own physiology.
In order to attain knowledge about these phenomena that were imposed by their reality, emerged the need for a qualitative transformation of investigative thinking, both at the level of analysis and creation of a system of categories, and the level of development of methods suitable research, consistent with the nature of the phenomena that became an object of study.
This qualitative transformation was what led to the definition of psychology as an independent science with its own system of categories and research methods.
This breakthrough occurred in the research work done in laboratories and not in the speculative sphere, which was precisely what had maintained until then psychology as an "appendix" of philosophy. Thus understood the immense role played by the development of work in experimental physiology, in the transition from pre-scientific to scientific knowledge in psychology.
The experimental guidance in scientific research made me realize the impossibility of knowing the true nature of the psychic exclusively from those categories and methods of physiology. Wherever the researcher faced with the peculiar nature of the psychic, the impossibility became evident.
Physiologists were forced to start trading with new categories such as image and action, which were not physiological categories. When operating with them, unintentionally or by profession or by title, but by the very nature of their work with this new object of study, with this new realm of reality that is the psyche, they became psychologists.
The scientific / concrete facts of psychological research showed that these could be objectively studied with scientific rigor, even before being able to uncover its physiological substrate. In fact, the intervention of the physiological factors that are taken for granted, but in the elaborate conclusions about the manifestations of the psyche studied not any data on such physiological factors found.
The emerging science of psychology is delimited by relying on advances in physiology necessarily having close relations with the latter, but acquired its independence and scientific dignity, possessing as an object of study a different reality of physiology, with categories and research methods.
WORK I. M. Sechenov
An important source of scientific facts of psychology nurtured to become independent science is found in the work carried out by the Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov (1829-1905), considered the father of Russian physiology.
By studying the gas exchange in the blood and other body processes called "vegetative acts", the physiologist found a mechanism that enabled the stability of the organism in relation to an unstable environment: the self-regulatory mechanism. In the explanation to this issue it gained importance the idea that in the body the physical / chemical reactions can be kept stably to a certain level and in particular system, that said body has special regulators automatically maintain the stability of the internal environment , ie, the balance between what goes in and what is consumed. If income increases substance regulators increase the destruction process and if otherwise, substance deficit occurs, encourage your search.
The explanation of this regulatory mechanism by which the constancy of the internal environment of the organism is achieved homeostasis theory would be called.
This theory not only introduce changes in biological ideas, but also in the psyche as a system able to maintain its constant automatically vary the actions in line with changing conditions, ie, the body is able to regulate itself. Self-regulation can not occur without feedback by correction occurs during the reaction of the organism to achieve the necessary effect.
S {echenov, based on their research on the exchange of blood gases, created new ideas that served as guidance in the task of understanding the self-regulation of behavior of the organism in the external environment.
This scientist sought a causal explanation of behavior adjusted to changing circumstances and nature of object images. According to him, the body adapts to the environment is not consciousness, but a mechanism similar to homeostatic. The agency receives information about the changing nature of the environment through sensory systems, send the bodies on these modifications and organs signals automatically, orient towards the target muscles.
According to Sechenov, muscular sensations must correlate with external conditions to which the body and does not fit with the latter. The signals sent by muscle reproduce the relations linked to the fundamental forms of existence in the world (space, time and movement). The body was not only as an organ of action, but also as a body of knowledge.
Thus, the image and the action began to be considered as components of a single whole, since the image regulates the action and this {last involved in the elaboration of the image.
Another important contribution of Sechenov was his work on the inhibitory role of the nerve centers. The significance of this contribution was not in the frames of physiology, but included psychology, since inhibition is a factor that organizes the action, since the latter will accommodate external conditions. It also is a factor inhibiting the action organized as enables the latter fits external conditions. Likewise, inhibition enables explain the operation of those actions in which the body's ability to express resistance to external and internal stimuli and not react to them, which is one of the manifestations of the will.
The significance were the work of Sechenov for the creation and establishment of scientific psychology as an independent science is clearly expressed through his work Reflexes of the Brain (1863), who and how it is to develop psychology (1873) and elements pensas (1878). All these works were exponents of a new system of views not only about the nervous activity, but also about psychic activity.
CREATION BY DARWIN evolutionary theory
Another very important role in the consolidation process of psychological science natural scientist premise is the work of the great English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Before Darwin had considered that the body was linked to the average level of physical / chemical molecular or energy processes. From Darwin's discoveries a new level and type of link between organism and environment was established.
The great historical significance of Darwin's theory is not alone in its evolutionary approach, but that changed the conception of the nature of the causal relations between organism and environment, revealing himself as relations of a special type that could not be reduced the laws of mechanics or energetic interaction.
He began considering the body as conditioned by the history of the species, as a training adapted to the conditions of their habitat due to natural selection training. The latter eliminates everything that does not serve the adjustment and therefore ,, psychic functions were also considered as a means of survival, as an important factor of evolution.
The particularities of individual adaptation, was explained by the principle of adaptation to the environment. The body changes behavior, acquires new forms of reactions, bound by the influence of the medium. But the latter is not a single factor that induces the body to action. This factor together with other acts in the body itself, special forces, instincts.
The issue of instincts is approached by Darwin in a special chapter of his work On the Origin of Species (1859). Although at that time he could not say anything about the physiological mechanism of instincts, opened the way to his experimental research as a psychic phenomenon and not just biological instinct as were the driver of behavior aspect.
When Darwin analyzed the problem of the origin of man, his conclusions about the relationship between humans and the animal world were also extended to the realm of the psychic.
The incursion of Darwin's work in the field of psychology is seen in his research on the expression of emotions in humans and animals, where an interesting study of expressive movements that accompany emotional states ago. Another example was his biographical outline of a small child, work published in 1877.
From Darwin, the evolutionary principle penetration in psychology was very important for the development of science consequences. On the one hand it introduced a new point of view not relate the psychic and its evolution only with the physiological mechanisms, but also with the development of organisms in the process of adaptation to the environment.
Mental functions were understood now as phenomena of adaptation, splitting the role played in the life of the organism. Although later the limitation of this approach was demonstrated, as wing leading biologization of the human psyche, there is no doubt that in its historical moment was a breakthrough step for psychology.
Moreover the evolutionary pricipio led to the formation of developmental psychology or evolution, mainly in animal psychology. The progress of work on animal psychology contributed much to the knowledge of the stages of evolution of the psychic above the level of human psychology (phylogenetic study of the psyche), which contributed significantly to clarify the nature of the psyche of l human being when compared with the different levels of the psyche in the animal world.
Besides the evolutionary principle of psychology was the driver of research on the development of the human psyche (ontogenetic study of the psyche) own engine. Proof of this was the development of work on child psychology, which continues to increase in contemporary psychology.
STUDIES ON INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES GALTON
Also the work of the English Francis Galton (1822-1911), had considerable importance for the development of psychology. Based on the study of great personalities, Galton argued that the talent of the people was determined hereditarily, despising the value of the factors of social and educational. That is, the cognitive abilities which are determined by the genetic factor. This is seen in his work Hereditary Genius (1869).
The reactionary character of this Galtonian conception of capacities obvious, because with it is justified that the great personalities studied by Galtion, which always belonged to the ruling class, were predetermined naturally and not by the conditions of discrimination and exploitation inherent society divided into antagonistic classes. In this type of society, only members of the ruling classes have full access to the hstórico / social experience accumulated by mankind, which is the basis and premise for the development of skills and personality in general; while members of the dominated classes that do not have free and full access to the necessary conditions (educational, cultural, etc.) to achieve high level capacity building.
However, in Galton found a positive approach from a new problem at the time, the genetics of behavior, and the development of several methods for their experimental and mathematical research aspect. He was leaning on anthropology, determination and measurement of the differences in the physical constitution of the human organism. Galton went from the physical to the psychological parameter and devised several devices for measurement. Confronting the indexes of physical and psychological properties of a given subject, he elaborated a "picture" of the physical / mental organization of the subject studied, which allowed him to differentiate it from others.
Experiments performed had character test or short duration. The results that were achieved were evaluated and compared with the rates of other subjects. Similarly as can be determined to certain bodily characteristics of a subject compared with others, so they proceeded in relation to the psychological characteristics.
Despite the cardinal deficiency Galton pretending to explain individual psychological differences exclusively from hereditary factors and were indifferent to the problem of the evolution of the psychic properties, development and transformation in the course of life, the fact that focus attention on the individual as a whole, as a combination of various bodily and mental, measurable and correlated with each other variables, did necessarily reflect in their research an aspect of psychic reality as is individual, personal, peculiarity of the psyche, which is a distinctive and important feature of the human psyche.
STUDY ON THE PSYCHIC REALITY BY THE FRENCH PSICONEURÓLOGOS
In the psychoneurology we find another source of development knowledge of psychic reality that contributed to the rise of psychology at the scientific level.
One of the contributions of psiconeurólogos in the scientific study of psychic reality is found in the demonstration of the strength of motivation. For Pierre Janet (1859-1947) the guiding principle of the subject's behavior was the concept of psychic energy, which was conditioned by heredity and by external circumstances simultaneously. When the subject can not mobilize that psychic energy is to face the difficulties of life, it becomes a source of disease.
In these studies we speak of psychic energy that is, of an unknown factor of physiology and physics and therefore its location corresponded precisely in another field, that of psychology.
The importance that had the address the issue of the motivation for the development of psychology obvious in contemporary psychology, because in her category motivation is central.
The interiors psychoenergetic human resources were conceived as regulators of their behavior and not interpreted as a closed system in the body forces, as their increase or decrease correlated with the character of the relations of the subject with others.
The psiconeurólogos much of the study of hypnosis occupied. Precisely in hypnosis, the suggestion manifest, albeit in an unusual way, elements of the psycho / social relations. The effect of the cure is achieved by hypnotic suggestion is explained by the psychological action of a subject over another and not by other non-psychological causes (magnetism, fluids and other agents) as believed at the beginning of the studies on hypnotism . The influence of one subject over another implies that whoever receives it is willing to accept, that is, understand a certain motivation.
Similarly to what happened with motivation in the work of the psiconeurólogos, when it became clear the psycho / social relationship as a special aspect of psychic, discernable from other reality, are an important source for the development of a category that has become an important component of contemporary psychological science: communication.
From the influence of these scientific / natural premises, psychology was forming in the forms inherent to science: facts, methods, theories, categories, etc. Psychic reality opened to scientific research. Psychology was established as an independent science of philosophy and physiology, but without losing their indissoluble links with both.
For a long time had considered that to be devoted to the study of psychic activity were philosophers, as were those who had always dealt with the analysis of the soul and its functions. But when these functions began to be studied by own methods of natural science, experiments, clinical methods, applied mathematics and statistics, then gained speed the process by which psychology became independent of philosophy, which meant the triumph scientific / concrete focus on speculative approach, win needed for the conversion of psychology in science.
This triumph was prepared largely by naturalists through the application of physiological methods. So initially, the psychological experiment was generated in the laboratory of physiology. However, it was the object of study were not bodily phenomena but psychics, so that laboratory work was transformed in physiological psychological. The psychology not alone independent of philosophy, but also of physiology.
Therefore it is understood that the event marked the advent of psychology as a science was the creation of the psychology laboratory, which first occurred in 1879 in Leipzig by the work of German researcher Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
The first experimental works of Wundt and his students focused on elementary psicofisológicos processes, but soon the experiment, which practically was at the border of the physiological and psychological domains, was farther and farther in the latter, which deepened in the investigation of the most complex problems of the psyche.
After created Wundt's laboratory, they were emerging other psychology laboratories in different countries. Experimental work soon reached large dimensions. It is clinching psychology as an independent science based on the development of experimentation, gathering new facts, discovering new laws. Psychology methods were becoming more accurate time and created new ones, thereby progressively perfecting the investigation of the psyche and new steps stood on psychological science. Laboratories became the main means of consolidation of psychology as an independent science but were not the only means. Others were: increasing periodicals, such as scientific journals; the creation of associations and chairs of psychology; and the holding of international conferences.
Psychological science was developing towards new and higher levels theoretical, methodological and linkage with practice.
Requirements of scientific psychology:
For scientific level reached psychology he had to meet three essential requirements that every science must meet to be considered as such:
1. Possessing an object of study defined.
2. Possessing research methods
3. Possess a methodological basis
OBJECT OF STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Psychology studies the psyche, all made of the same ,, its manifestations, its regularities and laws.
The purpose of psychological science is to understand and interpret psychic reality and help transform it.
When methods to raise the intellectual development of human beings, train and develop new skills, abilities and habits are sought; when seeking to form in certain individual feelings and convictions, we face the task of leading the formation and development of manifestations of the human psyche.
Like any other science, the origin and purpose of psychology is practice. For the object of study of psychology it is first necessary to determine the nature of the psyche.
The psyche is a reflection of reality, ideal for its existence and subjective in form, with a target and source material content, by which regulates human interaction with reality. To understand the nature of the psyche is necessary to analyze how is this for its existence, its origin, its content and form.
The psyche for its existence is ideal as it in general is an image, a representation of the objective reality of the material world .. In its ideal character's psyche appears as something different, as opposed to the material. Not the same, the image of the thing, that same thing. This is true for any psychic phenomenon.
A clear example of this is the perception. When we see (in this case we refer to visual perception) an object, a person, or any natural or social event, are not they as such those in our head (that's impossible) but it comes a representation, an image, a phenomenon of ideal character (the perceptual image) by which reflect the object, person or event in question, which exists outside of us, although we do not put in relation to them. But with the recognition of the ideal character of the psychic not understanding their true nature is exhausted. While understanding the nature of the psyche is essential to recognize their ideal existence, as distinct from the material, absolutise this opposition is wrong.
The psyche but has an ideal existence, has a material origin. The material source of the psyche must be understood in a double sense. The psyche is material product, but not of all matter, but of matter with a special level of organization and development.
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