PSYCHOLOGY

Evaluation of Three Psychological Matters in Human Beings

Evaluation of Three Psychological Matters in Human Beings

Introduction

Psychology deals with a wide range of subject matters; while simultaneously looks into the patterns of human behaviour and mental progression from the cultural stage to the neural stage. Psychologists analyze all matters relating to human psychological issues that start right from the birth and persist till the death of an individual. Right from the start, the study of psychology has come across a number of complicated questions. The primary question of how is psychology described recognized it as a separate science, detached from physiology and philosophy (Wrightsman, 2001, p.116). In addition to this, other questions that psychologists came across all through the history of the subject were:

What topics and issues should the subject matter of psychology tackle with?

What research methods should be utilized when studying the subject of psychology?

Should research be utilized so as to influence public policy, education and other aspects of human behaviour?

And the most important question: Is psychology a science?

Although psychology did not in actuality appeared as a separate science till the latter half of the nineteenth century, its early history can be mapped out right back to the early Greeks. During the 1600's, Rene Descartes, the well known French philosopher introduced the idea of dualism, which emphasized on the fact the mind and the body were on the whole two different entities that interrelated to shape the normal human experience.

The earliest attempts to explain natural events date back to a time when our ancestors struggled for survival amidst powerful natural forces. Our early primitive predecessors who lived on earth hundreds of thousands of years ago were subordinated by natural forces and dependent on the mercy of nature for their subsistence. Abundance or disaster depended upon environmental conditions such as storm, blizzard, drought, flood, and other natural incidents. Some explanations had to be given as to how nature acted to cause its effects upon human beings (Clark, 2008, p.331). This forced primitive people to project human attributes onto nature, thinking that all natural phenomena are alive and possess some kind of animated forces. Looking at all of nature as though it were alive is called animism, and the projection of human traits onto nature is called anthropomorphism. There were also other early attempts to explain natural phenomena; however, most of the explanations were supernatural beliefs not much different from animism and anthropomorphism, like work of magic, superstitious worship, and mystical assumptions. Animism and anthropomorphism existed all through history and still exist among some primitive societies in some secluded parts of the world. With the attempts to explain nature there were also attempts to explain one' own mind and behaviour. Some primitive people believe that there is a spirit or soul dwelling inside the body that animates the body and leaves it at death. Because one stops breathing at death, some people believed that the soul is a form of vapour which escapes the body after death. At death one no longer casts ...