The Handy Psychology Answer Book. Lisa J. Cohen

addresses the basic human questions about life. Why do we act the way we do? Why do we feel what we do? Why do we suffer? Why do we love? Why do we desire what we desire? Modern psychology is unique in that it investigates these primordial questions through the lens of the scientific method. Nonetheless, throughout history and across cultures, people have grappled with these questions and come up with their own answers.

      This speaker’s chair from Papua New Guinea is believed to contain the spirit of the village. When a member of the village wants to announce something to the rest of the village, the speaker will stand beside the chair and hit it with a brush to call out the spirit of the village. This kind of communion between the spirit and the natural world is typical of shamanism.

      How is shamanism relevant to psychology?

      Shamans are individuals from traditional, pre-modern societies who interface between their community and the world of the spirits. In order to travel to the domain of the spirits they enter a trance-like state, often by dancing, music, or the use of a psychoactive plant. Shamanism is a widely spread practice, ranging from the Mongolian steppes to indigenous people of the Americas. While shamanistic practices will vary across cultures, in all shamanistic societies, it is presumed that the world is peopled by spirits and that proper ceremonial communion with these spirits will heal mental and physical illness, bring favorable weather conditions, regulate social harmony, etc. There is an emphasis on the ecstatic trance state as a condition of personal transformation. Moreover, an individual’s internal mental states are seen to be caused by—or at least subject to—outside forces, such as the spirits of ancestors, animals, or aspects of nature.

      Do Eastern religions have concepts about psychology?

      By Eastern religions, we generally are referring to the cultures of Asia. There are a number of religious traditions in Asia, many going back thousands of years. Buddhism and Hinduism are the largest and best known of the Eastern religions. These religious traditions have well developed ideas about human mental life that have had significant influence on modern Western psychology.

      What tenets of Buddhism are relevant to psychology?

      One of the primary tenets in Buddhism is that suffering comes from the illusion that our selves are separate, individual, and complete. This is an illusion because in truth we are all part of an infinite, all-encompassing reality. People who are emotionally attached to what Westerners might call the ego, or to the idea of the self as self-contained and isolated, are bound to suffer. Happiness or bliss can only be found by giving up our attachment to the limited and mortal self in favor of the infinite reality of which we are all a part. Meditation and other contemplative practices are the best ways to access this spiritual knowledge, which lies within all of us.

      How do the three major monotheistic religions address psychological questions?

      While there are major differences between the three monotheistic religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—they all believe in a single God who is the source of all truth, morality, and happiness. Thus in all three religions, human psychology is defined and shaped by the relationship to God. Happiness is found by getting close to God, by submitting to or obeying Him and living according to His dictates. Likewise, suffering comes from distance from God. Christianity has a well-developed concept of sin, which reflects a rejection of God’s path. Christianity also speaks of the devil, to whom much destructive and socially unacceptable behavior is attributed. Finally, truth is revealed by God, either through the central religious texts or through prayer. There may be variation in the interpretation of God’s truth, but His truth is absolute; there is no truth outside of it.

      What aspects of Hinduism are relevant to psychology?

      Hinduism is an ancient religion whose beginnings date back 6,000 years. Although there is tremendous variation in Hinduism, there are some consistent strains. As with Buddhism, which originally derived from Hinduism, there is an emphasis on an all-encompassing, multi-dimensional spiritual unity to which we all belong. The many deities in Hinduism are simply manifestations of this cosmic divinity. Suffering comes from ignorance and enlightenment comes from knowledge of the oneness of all reality and of the illusory nature of separateness and individuality. Contemplative practices are also important in the Hindu religion.

      How do the tenets of Eastern religions relate to modern Western psychology?

      Eastern ideas about the self and self-transcendence have been embraced by many Western psychologists. These ideas are consistent with Western psychological theories about narcissism, which involves an excessive attachment to and over-valuing of the ego. Contemplative practices have also been explicitly integrated into contemporary psychotherapies, such as Mindfulness Training and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.

      HISTORY AND PIONEERS

      What was the scientific climate at the birth of psychology?

      By the time psychology came into its own as an independent discipline, the scientific revolution was two centuries old. Much more was known about the nervous system, the brain, and the chemical and electrical processes in the body than could have been dreamed of by the earlier philosophers. The scientific method had continued to evolve and technology allowed for sophisticated instruments of measurement. Thus when psychology burst on the scene in the late 1800s, its proponents were eager to prove this new field as worthy a science as any other discipline.

      What is the scientific method and how is it relevant to the history of psychology?

      Without the scientific method, the discipline of psychology could not exist. Although the questions of psychology are as old as human beings themselves, what distinguishes the field of psychology from these older traditions is the use of the scientific method to answer these questions. The scientific method involves 1) a systematic study of nature, 2) the use of mathematics to interpret the information gleaned from this study, and 3) the commitment to change one’s theories to fit the data. This last component is extremely important. In science, theories are always conditional. If the data unmistakably contradicts the theory, the theory has to change.

      Why is Wilhelm Wundt considered the father of psychology?

      Although Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) was not the first to address psychological questions with scientific means, he was the first to establish a scientific laboratory devoted specifically to psychology in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. Ernst Weber (1795–1878), Hermann Helmholtz (1821–1894), and Gustav Fechner (1801–1887) had all made important contributions to our understanding of sensation and perception prior to Wundt, but none of them considered himself a psychologist per se. Wundt, in contrast, was specifically focused upon establishing psychology as a science.

      Interested in the nature of sensation, he combined objective measures with rigorously trained introspection. Researchers were taught to carefully monitor their own perceptual and sensory experience. Wundt’s focus was on mapping the mechanics of sensation with mathematical precision. He also taught hundreds of students and was responsible for training many of the major figures in the first few decades of the field. His focus on identifying the components of the mind was termed structuralism.

      What is phrenology?

      Not all of the early forays into psychology were based on solid science. Phrenology was founded by Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Gall believed that specific psychological traits could be localized to specific parts of the brain. When any of these individual traits were prominent, that part of the brain would grow larger relative to the rest of the brain and would push outward against the skull. These enlarged brain areas would then cause bumps in the