Psychological Aims

• All psychology is done for a reason – ask particular questions, in particular ways. Whatever knowledge we produce is a product of certain aims. Question of all the things we might study, why are we studying this?
• Psychology as a science: Aim, how it's achieved, and what this limits

  Aim: To provide reliable and valid knowledge about mind and behaviour. Done by coming up with measurements and definitions of objects, via scientific methods.

  These limit the kinds of questions we can ask and the answers that we can get.
• Theory -> hypothesis -> data -> analysis -> result (numerical form)
• Quantitative approach in psychology:

  Quantitative methods/data in psychology -> statistics.

  Quantitative approach is not the best way to test/examine certain things in psychology.
• Secondary aim of psychology:

  Aim: Not just doing science, but aim is for the discipline to be seen as scientific.
• Scientific Methods in Psychology:

  Quantitative, experimental, correlational some methods are seen as more scientific than others.

  Experimental allows you to make almost concrete claims about cause and effect, whereas correlational won’t allow you to make these claims to the same degree of certainty.
• Theoretical scientific frameworks:

  esp. biological evolutionary theory. Ask psychological questions within this framework, e.g. emotions as biological -> fits into scientific framework.

  Boundary-work: debunking ‘pseudo-science’ psychic phenomena, construct yourself as scientific by saying/comparing yourself to something else “pseudo-science" vs real science.

  #hateonfreud
• Psychology as a career, why psychologists chose particular jobs:

  Aim: making a living, or a profit, or a difference

  Academic post: what gets funded, published, taught? Competitive to get jobs, publication in journals etc., have to play the game.

  What is in demand (from those who will pay for it)?

  Making a difference often means changing minds (and behaviour)
• Psychology as applied knowledge:

  Aim: to provide knowledge that is useful to others

  Applied Psychology?: is an interaction between scientific psychology and the real world: work in lab being applied to real world situations.

  Psychological knowledge:

  Designed to satisfy demands/concerns of education, business, government, others etc.

  Reflects views of wider society
• Psychology and Education were the first areas where psychological knowledge was applied.
• Why was psychological knowledge applied to education:

  Mass education in the early 1900s was compulsory, with standard syllabi and exams to test the students. As there were so many students who required teaching, protocols had to change
• GS Hall, a psychologist, founded the first psychological lab in the US in 1910.
• The Child Study Movement, founded by GS Hall, studied the minds of children, using questionnaires etc.
• Mental testing, early versions of IQ tests, were used in the 1910s to predict performance, guide selection, and determine if children could cope in the new French Education System.
• Educational Psychology, founded by GS Hall, aimed to be efficient and improve results, not research on the minds of children, but worked on the efficiency of teaching methods. Research was driven by practical concerns.
• Psychology and Business:

  Mass production (c.1900): businesses seek greater efficiency and profits

  Psychology of advertising: based on suggestion (derived from hypnosis), testing of adverts (seeing how people respond to different adverts), creating ‘wants and solutions’ (create a want in the consumer public, and create a solution to the problem that the public don’t think they have), etc.

  Industrial Psychology: to increase productivity

  Psychological Corporation (1921): to serve industry -> JM Cattell.

  Research driven by concerns of business
• Psychology and Government:

  Modern industrial nations (c.1900): competing interests, domestic concerns, war

  Psychology, c.1910

  Propaganda: to sway public opinion (entry into WWI), by creating hate and xenophobia for alleged enemy.

  War effort: mental tests, personnel selection, treatment

  Also: education, the workplace, (mental) health, etc.

  Knowledge to satisfy demands of others (certain people), and for psychology to demonstrate it’s utility in the real world.

   
• Psychology reflects wider society: sexism and misogyny


  Aims: based on assumptions about what needs to be explained/changed

  c.1900: women less rational, hysteria prone, etc

  Reflected in psychological science -> variability hypothesis, men have a greater variety in their mental traits than women = men are evolutionary better.

  This is challenged by a few women in Psychology: Mary Calkins 1900. Comes up with evidence to show that it is not true:

  Greater focus on social factors (gender differences as is later known) cf. biological differences
• Psychology reflects wider society: racism

  c. 1900:‘lower races’ less evolved, lower intellect, etc Condescending views about non-white races.

  Reflected in psychological science (e.g. eugenics)

  c. 1920: study of ‘racism’ as a social problem, changing views, racism as a term arrives now.

  Greater focus on social factors cf. biological differences

  Kenneth and Mamie Clark 1940, show that racial segregation in schools is having a damaging effect on all children, but particularly black children.

  Psychology reflects assumptions/aims of people, and can change them
• Psychology reflects wider societal views, by reinforcing existing prejudices and supporting growing challenges to these.