History of Theories in Psychology (PSYC 493)

Carl Jung has many ideas related to religion and its role in individuality. I really enjoyed what Carl Jung said in his video about if you believe in a God, or in God, you then know that there is a God. Because, once you believe something it becomes your reality and truth. Therefore once something is a belief of yours, it is something you know, it is a fact according to Carl Jung. I would have to classify this as a part of the new creation. It is almost like living in your own new reality, once you have become a Christian and you have embraced that lifestyle.

One reason I would classify this as a new creation is that once you have a belief or know something, it cannot be unproven or taken away from you. This is similar to the new creation, that we are living in as Christians as well.

I think behaviorism can be put under the category of redemption. I think so because of how the way psychologists have applied the practice to certain disorders. For instance the way that it can be used for children with autism to change their behaviors. It is cool that it can help remedy a disorder that is hard to help with alternative methods.  And also how this practice can be applied to depressive disorders as well is really cool to me because it can help tremendously when other things cannot. The idea that we can change old habits by the way we act regardless of how we were born is one of the main reasons why this practice should be placed under this category. Creating new habits by learning is something that shows how we can evolve from our not so great ways to be better.  Positive Reinforced behavior is one that will more likely be repeated. I don’t believe that all behavior is learned but I think that most of what we do can be changed for the better. The idea that we can change by living the way Jesus wanted us is why I think that this is so applicable.

I think Clark Leonard Hull informs us mostly about the fall and creation.  His life circumstances alone are enough to inform us of the fall, additionally though his work informs us on his thoughts of mankind and human concepts of learning.  Hull was born to “an uneducated father and quiet mother” (412).  When he was younger, he contracted typhoid fever and felt that his memory suffered as a result.  Not much later in life, at the age of 24, Hull contracted poliomyelitis, which left him forever partially paralyzed.  He had to walk with crutches or a cane the remainder of his life.  As far as physical conditions go, Hull also suffered two heart attacks in his lifetime, one which resulted in his death.  A lot of Hull’s life circumstances remind me of down falls of humans — our imperfections, weaknesses, and our inability to control all that is around us.  I find it interesting also that at first Hull was uninterested in psychology.  He explains why he chose the field:

[I wanted] an occupation in a field allied to philosophy in the sense of involving theory: one which was new enough to permit rapid growth so that a young man would not need to wait for his predecessors to die before his work could find recognition, and one which would provide an opportunity to design and work with automatic apparatus. Psychology seemed to satisfy this unique set of requirements.

Hull’s life and career remind me of how fragile and needy the human is.  Hull had physical impairments that affected his entire life and function.  He was raised by uneducated parents.  He wanted recognition and attention.  He wanted to enter into a field that gave him control, power, and the opportunity to make a lasting differences.  This reminds me so much of the fall because although Hull was examining human functioning in an effort to better understand people, it seems to me that he was completing this kind of work for attention and out of selfish desires.

The reason I also see Hull as a man who informs us about creation is because much of his work was focused on learning processes and the creation of machines that could learn and think (413).  Hull’s focus on more systematically and mechanically identifying behavior helps me understand his perspective on humans and the way we were created.  He believed that the adaptive behaviors in humans could be explained in terms of mechanistic principles.  Hull has sprinkles of Darwinian tradition as he believes that the mechanistic principles (drive of a human) and adaptive behaviors are contributors to an organism’s survival (413).  An interesting comment about his more mechanical approach to human behavior is that it worked for Hull.  He had a desire to be known and enter into a field that would give him recognition.  And recognition he did find.  In 1936 he served as the 44th president of the APA (413).  Hull’s Principles of Behavior were referenced 105 times between 1949 and 1952 in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.  The next most commonly cited work had only 25 references.  In 1945 Hull was also awarded the Warren Medal by the Society of Experimental Psychologists.  Hull also had many well-known disciples and students that continued making extensions and modifications on Hull’s theory (415-416).

I think that Freud fits with creation because he focuses on the aspect of our unconscious and the stages that we go through in life. His main focus is on the five different stages that we go through in our lives. This includes oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. Also, Freud focuses a lot on the id, ego, and superego. He is very concerned with how we act based on things that we do not think about. He really focuses on childhood and how we have developed. I think that this fits with creation because he focuses on how we are when we are kids and how it affects us when we are adults.

I think that Freud has to do with creation because he really focuses on who we are when we are created. He says that our childhood defines us and I believe that is why he has to do with creation. We are made the way we are, and we cannot change it. God made us a certain way and according to Freud we do not change. Our childhood defines us. Creation is important to Freud because who we are is based on what we were born as. It does not matter how much we change, who we were as children defines our actions as adults. I believe this is why creation is an important aspect to Freud. Creation is an important aspect to Freud because our childhood affects our future and what we become. I believe that creation is fits with Freud because God created us the way we are and it defines us as an adult.

Behaviorism at its most basic level is about creation. It seeks to explain how we came to be the way we are.  You can see this theme in the work of all the major behaviorists including Pavlov, Watson and Skinner. However, behaviorism also seems to have a very different perspective on how our own personal creations happen. They do not see human personality shaped by a god or anything like that but instead see it, at least in Skinner’s view, as people who are shaped purely through their experience. He believes that every single quirk or thing that can be observed in a person has behavioral roots. Some experience caused it. Behaviorism also is concerned with creation in the sense that in use during therapy it can be used to create new behaviors as a way to change old less functional behaviors or habits.  Skinner liked to show how using his methods he could create behaviors in pidgeons such as teaching them to turn in circles or made  pidgeons with gambling addictions. He believed that these lessons could and should also be used on humans. This may cause some ethical problems but even so does not negate the fact that it has often proved to be an extremely effective way to do therapy in many cases.

William McDougall brought about a new idea to psychology. The idea of purposive behavior, this type of behavior was different from reflexive behavior which many psychologists before him had been studying. This type of behavior focused on variety, spontaneity and improvement through practice. Essentially the type of behavior that McDougall was talking about is behavior that is very specifically thought out before it is produced. McDougall talks a lot about the importance of having a goal, and that there is something within every person that causes them to strive towards a goal, there is an internal drive that keeps them going. Because of this, I believe that McDougall’s ideas best align with Creation. He believes that people are capable of more than just mindless reactions, he believes that there is always a goal in behavior. If there is no creator, than there would be no reason for actions and behaviors that are purposefully thought out. So by saying that behaviors are thoughtful, intricate processes, McDougall supports the idea that a creator had to put these ideas within the human brain. Mcdougall then goes on to speak about the importance of instincts, he believes that instincts will interact in specific ways to cause motivation, in a very intricate process. There is no way that this intricate process could just arise, it was very specific and thought out by a creator who made man for a specific purpose. McDougall’s ideas about the intricacies of behavior and motivational tendencies truly lead one to believe that he is in support of an all mighty creator.

Modeling is a learning theory that learning occurs by observing the behaviors of others. People, especially children learn behaviors simply by watching and imitating others. In this basic form of learning, the model plays an important role. The model can be an actual individual in daily life, such as parents or teachers, or can be a real or fictional character in media programs. The model can also be a verbal instruction to describe a behavior. People are naturally apt to engage in observational learning. Therefore, modeling can be unintentionally, and it can also occur on purpose by the model trying to teach a particular behavior. Both desirable and undesirable behaviors will be learned through modeling in either way.

As we live in a fallen world, people may easily learn undesirable behaviors by poor modeling. In the famous Bobo doll experiment, which was conducted by Albert Bandura, we are surprised to see the little children hit the Bobo doll so aggressively after observing the violent actions of an adult model. Due to the undesirable behaviors learned by modeling, I want to put it under the category of Fall. Here I am thinking of a specific example-the contagion of suicide. Suicide is a sin, for the giving and taking of human life should remain in God’s hands. Researches have reveals that one suicide case can be a model for anther suicidal act. People, especially teenagers, are more likely to kill themselves when they observe or hear of the other person’s suicide. The cases of suicides by celebrities or other highly publicized cases will bring about imitators and trigger more similar suicides. Even an educative video about suicides may have the contagion effect. Suicides by familiar people, such as friends, classmates or colleagues can also be a model for another tragedy.

One of my favorite quotes by Jung is from the video we watched in classes in which he said that he didn’t think one should believe.  If you have the facts then you know, otherwise you have no reason to believe.  I like this quote because it describes perfectly how so many in our society think, and how I used to think.

During some of the lower points in my faith I relied heavily on logic and science.  That is part of why I would definitely categorize Jung with the fall. A big part of faith in Christ in my opinion,  is not knowing. God didn’t give us all the answers, and that gives us a need to lean on him at times instead of on science and our knowledge. However with that being said, I don’t think that everything Jung had to say was worthless, I think he had a lot of really great input to the field and to life in general.

I believe that Freud could be placed under the fall. His work on the unconscious and behavior shows what seems to be a darker side of peoples behavior. To think that sex is the main drive in human behavior avoids the point of morals and things that are not personal. I feel that this limits mans ability to sacrifice his own needs to help others. I also feel that he goes under the fall because of how little research he actually did. If he cannot prove his own works yet be so influential to the field of psychology then he should be placed under the fall. I also feel that his work on the unconscious limits mans ability to control his actions leading to the lack of free will which should be placed under the fall. Although some of his views could be placed under different categories I feel that the fall best fits freud.

Carl Jung believed in personal unconscious. The personal unconscious consists of experiences that had either been repressed or simply forgotten. It it the information from one’s life that for one reason or another has been forgotten. Some of this information is easy to retrieve and some of it is not. I think the idea of the unconscious can go into the category of restoration. The ability to forget things can be and usually is frustrating. However, repressing memories into the unconscious can be a good thing. The concept of restoration is bringing the world back to a more ideal way of life. This is the same way the personal unconscious works. One’s mind has the ability to remove the things that it does not like or that it finds not pleasant. When thinking about creation/fall/redemption/restoration there is an understanding of a continuous working progress. That is how our mind is. It is continuously changing and shaping. The conscious mind goes through all of the stages, and I think that the unconscious fits into the restoration part of the mind. In restoring your mind and world to a point of pleasure your mind places things into your personal unconscious so it can begin to restore your world into what your mind thinks it should be. Jung had ideas of reaching meaning in you life, and I think this comes with having a personal unconscious.