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Science and Developmental Theory
The development of psychology as a science is rooted in early philosophical ideas (Lefrançois, 2012). Philosophers emphasized that every important phenomenon finds its reflection in the human mind. Moreover, they said that everything that people comprehend is the reflection of something they already know (Lefrançois, 2012).
Thinking of science becomes easier when it is regarded not as a body of knowledge but as an attitude (Lefrançois, 2012). The rules of the scientific method play a rather significant role in the evolution of psychology. Their importance lies in the possibility of lessening the ambiguity. Also, these rules are employed in the pursuit of knowledge. There are five most common rules of the scientific method:
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ask a question;
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establishing a hypothesis;
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assembling pertinent observations;
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testing the hypothesis;
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finding and sharing a conclusion (Lefrançois, 2012).
Following each of these rules in an orderly sequence allows scientists to make contributions to the development of psychology.
Another productive way of making advancements in psychological study is doing experiments. These are the most reliable tools for establishing the hypothesis validity (Lefrançois, 2012). By experimenting, a researcher tests some feature of the environment (called a variable) to check the consequence of doing so. There are two kinds of variables: independent and dependent. The first one is represented by the manipulated constituent, and the second one reflects the outcomes of manipulation. The first phase of any experiment is constituting operational definitions (Lefrançois, 2012). The next step is choosing participants for the experiment. The participants are divided into two groups experimental and control. The first group undergoes some unusual treatment while the second groups name speaks for itself it is used to control the results or compare them with the experimental group.
A crucial aspect of an experiment is that participants should be chosen randomly. This feature is what creates the scientific effect of the experiment.
Guthrie, Pavlov, and Watson
Guthries law of one-shot learning has undergone a lot of criticism, but it is still one of the most well-known psychological theories. Guthrie based his approach on the idea that what someone has done in the last situation will be repeated in the following similar cases (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2014). The psychologist built his theory on the combination of a stimulus and response (Lefrançois, 2012).
There was a teacher at my high school who used a similar approach. He taught us history, and at the end of every lesson, we recollected the dates and events that we had been discussing. In the first lesson, the teacher told us to close our eyes before recollecting the dates so that we could concentrate better. At the next lesson and further, the teacher did not remind us to close our eyes but we did so because we knew that it would help us to focus and recollect the dates better.
Unlike Guthrie, Pavlov and Watson based their theories on the combination of two stimuli rather than a stimulus and a response (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2014). Watson believed that it is our behavior that constitutes the subject matter of psychology (Lefrançois, 2012). Pavlovs concept of classical conditioning defended lies in making the object respond to some created condition and thus develop a certain behaviorist position. An example from the real-life to demonstrate classical conditioning is the way I feed my fish. The first few times I used to tap on the aquarium when I gave them food. Then, whenever I tapped the glass, they came because they expected to be fed.
References
Hergenhahn, B. R., & Henley, T. B. (2014). An introduction to the history of psychology (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: WADSWORTH Cengage Learning.
Lefrançois, G. R. (2012). Theories of human learning: What the professor said (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: WADSWORTH Cengage Learning.
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