First Three Waves of Psychology
The first three waves of psychology were formed in a short amount of time but contribute to the rich history of thought and desire for understanding psychology was founded with. As early as ancient recorded times as man started to reason signs can be seen of man attempting to work out its existence and its ability to reason. Aristotle’s philosophy contributed significantly to the ideals which led to the formation of psychology (Kandel, Schwartz, Jessell, Siegelbaum, & Hudspeth, 2013). The first three waves of psychology are; psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and a fractured group of smaller movements which have been labeled HTE. These three waves set the stage for what is understood about the human psyche, understanding of the person and available treatments to help those in need. The history of psychology is short but far from over as young psychologists take the stage deepening and moving forward with these first three waves of enlightened thought.
Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud credited as the father of psychology specifically fathered psychoanalysis with his work with the mentally ill. Freud sought to understand and treat those plagued with hysteria. Freud originally a neurologist worked to understand the human psyche and the deep motivation behind human action (Hothersall, 2004). Freud’s work drew attention to the study of the mind and unlike previous approaches to assume witchcraft Freud’s work promoted the ability to treat or at least understand mental illness.
Psychoanalysis is a treatment by which a psychiatrist walks the patient through the unconscious seeking to understand the person’s raw desires, dreams and past events. Freud believed dreams are the road to the unconscious (Kinfemichael, Raju, 2017) and the unconscious is the road to understanding a person’s actions (Hothersall, 2004). Freud believed the simplest slip of the tongue was a result of raw desire expressing itself from one’s unconscious. Freud was not a Christian or a particularly God-fearing man but his understanding of what the Scriptures call an overflow of the heart (Luke 6:45, James 3), Freud’s understanding of the outward expression of what is inside are in agreement.
As Freud’s work continued in the direction of understanding the motivation behind actions and unconscious possibly one of Freud’s greatest accomplishments was his work demonstrating people are motivated primarily by factors which they have little to know awareness of (Feist, Feist, & Winkler-Herman, 2013). Freud’s work opened the minds of psychologists to the understanding of the key players within raw design. Many of Freud’s findings have been confirmed by neurosurgeons or supported in part over the years (Feist, Feist, & Winkler-Herman, 2013). Freud described the unconscious as raw desire with three main players; the Id, Ego and Superego. The Id is raw desire and psychic energy which pushes the Ego to express behaviors in conscious life while the Superego is a moral influence which pushes to suppress the Ego. The Ego being the part of the psyche which interacts with conscious life (Feist, Feist, & Winkler-Herman, 2013; Hothersall, 2004).
Clearly Freud’s largest contribution to psychology and psychoanalysis is not his understanding of the forces within the unconscious and conscious. Freud’s largest contribution to the world was his pleasure principle. Freud’s pleasure principle cut deep to the root of action and reaction influencing the work of many disciplines of psychology and medicine including the second wave of psychology Behaviorism. The pleasure principle states, living organisms seek pleasure and avoid pain (Freud & Hubback, 1922; Feist, Feist, & Winkler-Herman, 2013; Hothersall, 2004).
Freud’s work of understanding the unconscious and how it expresses to the conscious was the result from and foundation behind psychoanalysis. As Freud or another therapist worked through the unconscious and dreams of a patient the goal was to uncover the raw desire which was expressing and address it. Psychoanalysis has played a great role in the understanding and treatment of the human mind, but it is only as beneficial as the therapist is good at working through a patient’s issues. Freud was not the strongest believer in the benefits of psychoanalysis, but he did use his work to understand the psyche which results have led to the development of many more treatment options.
The negative of psychoanalysis if taken to its logical conclusion psychoanalysis removes the responsibility of actions from the subject as it turns the subject into a victim of raw desire and or an event in the subject’s past.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism while a separate discipline from psychoanalysis is at its founding and core the continuation of Freud’s work with application of understanding the unconscious and outward action or behavior. There are three primary names synonymous with behaviorism. John Watson, Ivan Pavlov and B. F. Skinner. The first two are associated with what is known as classic conditioning while the last is known for what he called radical behaviorism.
Ivan Pavlov and John Watson conducted their work around the same time but time frame with Pavlov being a few years ahead of Watson. Pavlov’s work was conducted in the vacuum of the USSR and was not well known until shortly before Watson became the father of behaviorism with his publication Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It (Green, 2009). Pavlov’s work proved behavior can be conditioned apart from the mind. His famous experiment using dogs and their salivary glands conditioned the dogs to salivate when a bell was rung no matter if food was present (Hergenhahn, 2009). Pavlov’s work not only proved responses can be conditioned but he repeated it in a scientific manor. His work has been utilized in almost every field of science and certainly in every field related to human care.
Pavlov’s work was ground breaking, but it was not conducted with human subjects. Watson believing, he could condition any healthy child to be a proper person conducted what is known as the little albert experiment (Digdon, Powell & Harris, 2014; Mcleod, 2013). The experiment was conducted on a baby at the hospital Watson practiced. Watson and his assistant would place a white lab mouse on the bed with the baby. The baby had no reason to fear the mouse and did not react in a negative manor however the baby did dislike loud noises. Watson preceded to condition the child by making a loud noise behind the child each time the white lab mouse was introduced. Each time the noise accord child reacted in a negative manor. Eventually, the mouse was introduced without the loud noise and the child reacted in a negative manor. Watson had proven he could condition a human child. By associating the mouse with a loud noise, the child was conditioned and reacted to the mouse as if it was the loud noise.
Watson also pushed for behaviorism to be considered a separate entity from psychology. Due to Freud’s methods psychology was not considered a serious science and Watson sought to establish behaviorism as a legitimate science (Watson, 1913). Watson worked to establish behaviorism as an independent discipline but was unsuccessful as much of behaviorism is based on and is the application of Freud’s work. Also, Watson fell out of grace within the academic and scientific communities before he could have completed this task. Watson continued to prove his work indirectly working for an advertisement agency using his behaviorism in marketing (Hothersall, 2004).
B. F. Skinner is a behaviorist who thought he knew better than those who came before him. Skinner took a different direction from Watson by focusing on verbal behavior (Moore, 2011). Skinner called his version of behaviorism radical behaviorism (Hothersall, 2004; Clark, 2004). Using positive rewards Skinner’s work summarizes as providing incentives for proper behavior. Skinner is possibly the most popular psychologist in American history as a public personality often appearing on public television and news broadcasts. It could be argued Skinner has played the most significant role in the societal processes which are used to educate children in the United States of America.
Although they are considered in separate camps of thought Watson and Skinner’s understanding of behaviorism are similar with the key distinction of Watson using negative reinforcement while Skinner preferred positive reinforcement. While Watson would likely have associated negative behavior with a loud noise or something a child does not like while Skinner would have likely provided the child with a cookie for the behavior he desired.
HTE
HTE represents; humanistic, transpersonal, and existential psychology. In reality these three movements could and should be all understood as humanistic psychology. However, due to divides amongst psychologists and the direction humanistic psychology has taken a need for distinction has emerged. The core of HTE and humanism is the realization and focus that the subject is a human and is able to experience events. The goal of humanistic psychology is to view the person as a whole (Aanstoos, 2000). Looking at Freud, Watson and Pavlov’s work there is a general lack of appreciation of the subject’s experience or for that matter existence. As such, humanistic psychology was formed.
Humanistic psychology also called humanism was founded with a root principle of acknowledging the person and accepting experience as empirical data. However, this has led to a serious issue with humanistic psychology as the discipline considers experience empirical data and a proof of truth the discipline changes with the wind of the social political times. The humanistic approach to understanding could be considered more lacking scientific foundation than Freud’s work. As humanistic psychology developed it progressed from being focused on the person’s experience and morphed into a social political movement with a transformation to feminism (Taylor & Martin, 2015). Humanistic psychology is often used as a proof in the progressive social order of our current day charged social political environment.
Due to humanistic psychology’s inconsistency and drastic philosophical changes transpersonal and existential psychology emerged (Taylor & Martin, 2015; Aanstoos, 2000). Transpersonal continued the experiential approach of humanistic psychology developing therapeutic methods. Taylor & Martin (2015) state the original humanists who have been alienated by the changes in humanism are still at work calling themselves transpersonalists. As humanism has taken a hostile approach to faith existential psychology considers spiritual experiences a superior state than non-spiritual experiences (Taylor & Martin, 2015).
As HTE consists of three disciplines which all fall under the initial principles of humanistic psychology modern humanism can be considered the social political arm, transpersonal the experiential arm and existential the spiritual arm of humanistic psychology. These three disciplines although all founded under the same principles are now distinct in thought as their new principles significantly conflict with each other. Specifically, one discipline being hostile toward faith while another believing spiritual states are superior these two disciplines are unable to find common ground. In general, humanistic psychology as it relies on experience of the person seems to be more accurately understood as a philosophy rather than a psychology.
Conclusion
Psychology may have a relatively short history, but the history is rich with discovery, understanding and debate. The first three waves of psychology include psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanism. These three disciplines have challenged and enriched humanity as they have challenged how the human psyche is understood and interacted with. From Freud’s foundational work to Watson’s application of Freud’s work to remembering the subject is a person and experiences the first three waves of psychology are far from becoming irrelevant. Each discipline standing on its own, while building on the previous discipline making psychology unique as a new discipline does not obsolete the previous. Freud’s work continues to have meaning and usefulness apart from behaviorism while behaviorism continues to influence the science of medicine influencing how medical professionals interact with patients. The history of formal psychology is short but far from limited as the founders started a deep discussion of the human psyche and young psychologists take the stage deepening and moving forward with the debate of these first three waves of enlightened thought known as psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanism.
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