Download Lec.1 Psychology

LECTURE N 1
For the II-nd year students
taking the course in medical psychology
Topic: "THE SUBJECT, METHODS AND TASKS OF GENERAL AND
MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGY: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF
PSYCHODYAGNOSTICS AND PSYCHOHYGIENE. THE DEVELOPMENT
OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGIC SERVICES IN UKRAINE
AND IN THE WORLD".
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY, as you've already known, is the science that deals
with the behavior and mental processes of living beings - consciousness,
sensation, thinking, memory, etc. There are several formal definitions of
psychology. For example, it can be called a scientific study of the
regularities of the living creatures' mental
life,
behavior,
manifestations and creations (R. Konechny and M. Boukhal, 1983).
The authors of this definition speak of the living creatures because
one branch of psychology deals with the animals' behavior.
Behavior is the means by which organisms adjust
to
their
environment, their actions.
By "manifestations" of mental life they mean gestures, facial
expression, body posture, etc. that can help to understand mental
processes if they are correctly interpreted.
Creations are not only individual or collective works of art, books
buildings, etc. produced by people, but also nests built by animals.
They can tell us a lot about the inner life of their creators.
Naturally, in most cases we deal with human psychology. General
psychology is divided into theoretical and applied parts.
APPLIED psychology aims at the utilization of all knowledge,
existing in the field of psychology and sciences related to it
(sociology, etc.), in order to achieve optimal effectiveness in any
field of activities. Applied psychology is ordinarily subdivided according
to the area of its application; e.g. business psychology, ducational
psychology, industrial psychology.
MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGY is a branch of
medicine.
applied
psychology
related
to
This branch of psychology borders upon psychiatry and other
clinical disciplines, because it concerns the changes that occur in
the patients' mentality, caused by different diseases. But psychiatry
deals with the symptoms and syndromes of mental disorders, reasons of
their development, their treatment (mostly using chemical medicines)
and prevention, whereas medical psychology compares normal
and
pathological mental functioning, and speaking of treatment, uses only
different kinds of psychotherapy and not medicines.
Its PURPOSES and TASKS are as follows:
- to investigate psychological factors that influence the course
of the diseases, their prevention and treatment;
- to explore the impact of different factors on the mentality;
- to study the development of the mentality and its disturbances;
- to investigate the relationships of the patients with the
medical personnel and the hospital environment;
- to work out and use psychological testing and other methods of
investigation in the clinical practice; and
- to develop the principles of psycho- hygiene and psychoprophylaxis;
- to create and apply the methods of psychotherapy.
The SUBJECT of medical psychology is usually an individual - an
infant, a teenager athlete, a student adjusting to life in a dormitory,
a man in a mid-life crisis, a grandmother coping with the stress on handling
of the baby of her unmarried, adolescent daughter.
Different METHODS OF INVESTIGATION are used in psychology. They are:
1. Method of direct observation
a) of the individual's own mental life (introspection) and
b) direct observation of the behavior, manifestations and
creativity in others (extraspection);
2. Methods of controlled observation
a) natural experiment - purposeful experimental observation in the
natural conditions;
b) laboratory experiment - in a laboratory, using special
equipment.
3. The controlled conversation (psychological interview); and
4. psychometric methods.
The most well known of them are psychometric
methods
or
psychological testing. It is necessary to note, that in the Ukrainian
native literature the term "psychological diagnostics" is used more
often than "psychometrics" and their meanings are similar. The term
"psychometrics" has a wider meaning than "psychological testing". As The
field of psychometrics works out how to make the observations best,
classify them, and go from the empiric categories themselves to
quantitative data. In
general
psychological measurement,
psychometrics, concentrates on the ways of treatment of the observations data,
rather than upon instrumentation for the actual gathering of the data.
Psychometrics is usually divided into three subfields: scaling, test
theory, and factor analysis.
There is a great number of different psychological tests. They are used to
assess separate mental functions, such as memory, attention, thinking,
motivation, etc. More complicated tests are designed to investigate
intelligence and personality. Every test consists in some task that a patient
is offered to do, for example to memorize a number of words, figures or
sentences; to find missing details on pictures; to make up a picture story;
or to fill in a questionnaire. There are verbal and nonverbal tests. At
every class while learning about different mental functions, you will
also learn about the tests designed for their investigation.
TIES to OTHER DISCIPLINES.
Psychology is unique because of its ties
with
so
many
different
areas of knowledge. It is a social science, a brain science, a
cognitive science and also a health science. As one of the social
sciences, psychology is connected with economics,
political
science,
sociology, and cultural anthropology. Because it
systematically
analyzes behaviour along with its causes and consequences, psychology
is a behavioral science. Psychologists share many interests with
researches in biological sciences, especially with those who study
brain processes and the biochemical bases of behavior - anatomy,
physiology, etc. As the part of the emergent field of cognitive science,
psychologists' questions about how the human mind works are related to
research and theory in computer science, artificial intelligence, and
applied mathematics. As a health science - related to medicine,
education, law and environmental studies - psychology aims to improve
the quality of our individual and collective well-being. Psychology
also retains ties to philosophy and fields of the humanities and the arts,
such as literature, drama, and religion.
A PSYCHOLOGIST is a person trained as a professional in the science
of psychology. A CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST usually holds a doctor's degree as he
has passed the course of an accredited training programme. Whether working
individually or in a clinical (treatment) team, a clinical psychologist
applies psychologic principles to the
therapeutic treatment of the
mental, emotional, and behavioural disorders and malformation of
individual and group development. In addition a clinical psychologist is
skilled in psychological testing and other kinds of research and has assumed
increasing importance in evaluating the effectiveness of mental health services
and in planning of clinical programs. PSYCHOANALYSTS are therapists, either
psychiatrists or clinical psychologists, with additional specialized training
in the principles of psychoanalysis developed by Sigmund Freud and his
followers.
Most psychologists in the whole world work at academic institutions
(universities, colleges and medical
schools).
Nearly one-fourth of
psychologists work at various public institutions, such as hospitals,
clinics, and mental health and counselling centers.
PROFESSIONAL ROLES. In the Western countries clinical psychologists
tackle not only mental illness, but also juvenile delinquency, drug
addiction, criminal behavior, mental retardation and family conflict.
Counselling psychologists are tained as clinical psychologists, but
they often work on problems of less significant nature, and the treatment
they provide is usually shorter in duration. Community psychologists
work in community institutions delivering social and
psychological
services to the poor, minorities, immigrants or homeless people.
In Ukraine psychologists are trained at the psychologic faculties of the
universities or pedagogical institutes. They get their diplomas in general
psychology. As many Western psychological schools were forbidden to be studied
in the former Soviet Union, the training in this field was rather limited.
Now this profession has became more popular and is in the process of its
active development.
Psychologists who work in mental hospitals carry out psychological
testing and consult the psychiatrists as to the patients' state and
the best approach to psychotherapy. They also take part in forensic
expert examinations of offenders. Few psychologists trained
at
universities are skilled in psychotherapy. Psychotherapeutists in
country must have medical education and specialization in psychiatry.
As it was mentioned before, medical psychology has several purposes
and tasks. Thus, it includes a number of BRANCHES. Here are some of
our
them.
MENTAL HYGIENE is the science and practice of maintaining mental
health and efficiency - raising two purposes: the first, to develop
optimal modes of personal and social conduct in order to produce the
happiest utilization of inborn endowments and capacities; and the second
to prevent mental disorders.
PROPHYLAXIS, as you've already known, is a branch of medical science
that has to do with protection against the onset of a disease or
disorder. For example, in psychiatry the treatment of a person showing
marked schizoidism is an effort, termed prophylaxis, to prevent the
development of schizophrenia.
PREVENTION of mental disorders can be: PRIMARY - promotion of
mental health and prevention of psychosocial disorders; SECONDARY early case-finding; and TERTIARY (rehabilitation) - the return of the
identified patient to his peak potential of functioning.
PSYCHOTHERAPY is a form of treatment for mental
illness,
behavioral disorder and/or other that is assumed to be of emotional
nature, in which a trained person deliberately establishes
a
professional relationship with a patient for the purpose of removing,
modifying or retarding existing symptoms, improving the existing
disturbed patterns of behaviour and of promoting positive personality
development.
There are numerous forms of psychotherapy - ranging from guidance,
counselling, persuasion and hypnosis to reeducation and psychoanalytic
reconstructive therapy - and many possible application for each form including somatic symptoms, interpersonal conflicts, neuroses and many other
mental problems. But in general it may be said that all forms of psychotherapy
in all their applications use the relationship between the patient and the
therapist to influence the patient and help him to change his old maladaptive
response patterns to better ones.
PSYCHOLOGY HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS
"Psychology has a long past, yet its real history is short", wrote
one of the first psychologists- experimentalists Herman Ebbinghaus (1908).
He went on to note that psychology's long past had stretched back for
thousands of years, but it was characterized by little progress or
systematic development.
Although forms of psychology existed in ancient Indian Yogic
traditions, the roots of modern psychology lie in ancient Greece. In
the fourth and fifth century B.C., the classical
philosophers
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle began rational dialogues about how the
mind worked, the nature of free will, and the relationship of
individual citizens to their community state. While these philosophers
and their followers posed fundamental questions about what it meant to
be a rational, sensitive, responsible human being, the proof for their
answers was limited to the power of logic and persuasion.
The formal start of modern psychology can be refered to last century ago. In
1879, in Leipzig, Germany, Wilhelm Wundt, who was probably the first person
to refer to himself as a psychologist, founded the first laboratory in
experimental psychology.
In the late 1880s German physicists, and philosophers began to
challenge the notion that the human organism was special in the great chain
of being, demonstrating that natural laws determined human actions.
Herman von Helmholtz, trained as a physicist, conducted simple but
exhibiting experiments on perception and the nervous system. He was the first
to measure the speed of nervous impulse. At about the same time another German,
Gustav Fechner, began to study how physical stimuli were turned into
sensations to be taken for psychologically. Like Wundt, von Helmoltz and
Fechner operated on the assumption that psychological processes could be
studied objectively by using experimental methods adapted from natural
sciences, such as physics and physiology. They believed in determinism,
the doctrine that physical, behavioral, and mental events are
determined by specific causal factors. Among Wundt's disciples was Edward
Titchner, who with his new laboratory at Cornell University, became one of
the first American psychologists. William James, a Harvard professor,
developed a unique American psychological school. In 1890 he published a
two-volume book "The Principles of Psychology".
STRUCTURALISM: THE CONTENTS OF THE MIND. When psychology became a
laboratory science
organized
around
experiments,its
unique
contribution to knowledge was recognized and established. In Wundt's
laboratory executives made simple responses (saying yes or no, pressing
the button) to stimuli they perceived under conditions varied by
laboratory instruments. An emphasis on experimental methods, a concern
for precise measurement and statistical analysis of data characterized
Wundt's psychological tradition.
Titchener's approach in psychology is known as STRUCTURALISM, the
study of the structure of mind and behaviour. The method of choice at
that time was introspection, a systemic examination of one's own
thoughts and feelings. Structuralism was based on the presumption that
all human mental experience could be understood as the combination of
simple events or elements. The goal of this approach was to reveal the
underlying structure of the human mind by analyzing all the basic
elements of sensations and other experience that
formed
an
individual's mental life.
Many psychologists attacked structuralism on three fronts: (a) it
was reductionistic because it reduced all complex human experience to
simple sensations; (b) it was elemental because it sought to combine
parts into a whole rather than study the variety of behaviours
directly; and (c) it was mentalistic because it studied only verbal
reports of human consciousness, ignoring the study of subjects
who could not describe their introspections, including animals,
children and the insane people.
FUNCTIONALISM: MINDS MAKING A CERTAIN PURPOSE. For William James, one of
the greatest American psychologists, the study of consciousness was not
reduced to elements, contents and structures. Instead, consciousness
was an ongoing stream , a property of mind in continual interaction
with environment; thus the acts and functions of mental processes were
of significance, not the contents of the mind. FUNCTIONALISM gave
primary importance to learned habits that enabled organisms to adapt
to their environment and to function effectively. For functionalists
the key question to be answered by research was "What is the function
or purpose of any behavioural act?" The founder of the school of
functionalism was American philosopher John Dewey. It emphasized
adaptation to the environment and the practical utility of action
through study of an intact, functioning organism, interacting with its
environment. Functionalists rejected the structuralist notion that the
mind should be analyzed in terms of its contents; they thought instead
to discover its functions, utilities and purposes.
Although James believed in the importance of careful observation,
he put little value on the rigorous methods of Wundt. In James'
psychology there was a place for emotions, self, values, and even
religious and mystical experience. His "warmblooded"
psychology
recognized a uniqueness in each individual that could not be reduced
to formulae or numbers from test results. For James, explanation
rather than experimental control was the goal of psychology.
EVOLUTIONISM: NATURAL SELECTION OF SPECIES. Evolutionism perceives
all species as ever changing branching lineages. Darwin's theory
pushed humans out of the centre spotlight of existence by giving them
a common ancestry with other animals.
Many psychologists have attempted to distinguish the contributions
to human behavior and traits of NATURE, or hereditary influences, from
the contributions of NURTURE, or environmental influences. From an
evolutionary viewpoint, this distinction seems odd. Nature and nuture
are intertwined - our evolved, inherited nature determines how and why
environmental influences will effect us throughout our lifetime. With
this insight, evolutionary theory recently has started to influence
our understanding of human cognition and motivation through the field
of EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY. Evolutionary theory continues to play a
fundamental role in comparative psychology, the study of behavior
across different animal species.
CURRENT PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES.
Each perspective - biological,
psychological,
behavioristic,
cognitive, humanistic, and evolutionary - defines a different area
that is important in the study of psychology.
The level of analysis may range from micro to macro. The level of
analysis also varies in its temporal focus, concentrating on either
the past, present or future. Some psychologists look to the past
experiences to explain present behavior, and some focus on the
present, for example, studying the emotions. Still others study the
future events, investigating the goal setting will influence the
educational performance of underachieving students.
The six conceptual approaches can also be understood as wide
conceptual models - simplified ways of thinking about the basic
components and relationships among phenomena in a field of
knowledge. A MODEL represents a pattern of relationships found in data
or in nature and attempts to duplicate or imitate that pattern in some
way.
The BIOLOGICAL APPROACH guides psychologists who search for the
causes of behavior in the functioning of genes, the brain, the nervous
system, and the endocrine system (controlling hormones). According to
this biologically based model, an organism's functioning is explained
in terms of underlying physical structures and biochemical processes.
The four assumptions of this approach are that (a) psychological
and social phenomena can be understood in terms of biochemical
processes; (b) complex phenomena can be understood by analysis, or
reduction into even smaller, more specific units; (c) all behavior or behavior potential - is determined by physical structures and
largely hereditary processes; and (d) experience can modify behavior
by altering these underlying biological structures and processes. The
task of researchers is to understand behavior at the most precise
micro and molecular levels of analysis. In the past this approach was
called physiological psychology, and now with greater focus on
unlocking the secrets of brain functioning these researchers refer to
themselves as neuroscientists.
According to the PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH, behavior is driven, or
motivated, by powerful inner forces. In this view, human actions stem
from inherited instincts, biological drives, and attempts to resolve
conflicts between personal needs and society's demands to
act
appropriately - action is the product of inner tension, but the main
purpose of our actions is to reduce tension. Motivation is the key
concept of the psychodynamic model. Deprivation states, physiological
arousal, conflicts and frustrations provide the power for behavior
just as coal fuels the steam locomotive. In this model the organism
stops reacting when its needs are satisfied and its drives reduced.
Psychodynamic principles were most fully developed by Sigmund
Freud, who was one of the most well-known psychologists of the late
nineteenth - early twentieth centuries. We shall speak more about his
theory at one of the following lectures.
Those who follow the BEHAVIORISTIC APPROACH are interested in overt
behaviors that can be objectively recorded. They are not concerned
with biochemical processes or inner motivations that are inferred
"psychic" phenomena. Behaviorally oriented psychologists look to
specific, measurable responses - blinking an eye, pressing a lever,
saying yes following an definite stimulus (a bell or a light) for their data.
BEHAVIORISM - this term was coined by John B. Watson in 1913 to indicate
that all habits might be explained in terms of conditioned endocrine and
motor reaction. Watson was influenced by the work of
Russian
physiologist I.P. Pavlov, who's primary interest was in the physiology
of the learned relationship, known as conditioned. Behaviorism as a
psychological school holds that the subject matter of human psychology
is the behavior or the activities of the human being. Classical
behaviorism stated that all behaviour was to be understood in term of
the stimulus- response formula; the organism, thus, was essentially
passive and could only react to stimulation. Modern behaviorism, for
example Skinner's operant behaviorism, avoids a mechanistic view of
human nature, but from Skinner's point of view psychology could be
described as scientific only if it restricted itself to the study of
behavior in the environment and its changes according to the results of
its influence.
The centerpiece of COGNITIVE APPROACH is human thought and all the
processes of knowing - attending, thinking, remembering, expecting,
solving problems, fantasy and consciousness. From the cognitive psychology
point of view people act because they think, and people think because they
are living beings uniquely adapted to do so due to nature's design of
our brain.
In the seventeenth century, the French philosopher Rene Descartes
declared, "I think, therefore I am." Personal thoughts give meaning to
all experiences and shape perceptions and responses to the world.
According to cognitive psychologists, the process of information
receiving about a stimulus is at least as important in determining
behavior as is the stimulus input itself. These psychologists also
assert that humans are not simply reactive creatures in this process
but are also active in choosing and creating individual stimuli
environment. An individual responds to reality not as it is in the
objective world of matter, but as it is in the subjective reality of
the individual's inner world of thoughts and imagination.
In the cognitive model, behavior is only partly determined by
preceding stimuli events and past behavioural consequences,
as
behaviorists believe. Some of the most significant behaviour forms emerge
as a result of new ways of thinking, and not as a result of predictable ways
used in the past. Cognitive psychologists study thought process on both
molecular and macro levels. Psychologist Herbert Simon won a Nobel
Prize for his research how people make decisions under the conditions
of uncertainty, that is without all the relevant information. Albert
Bandura incorporates cognitive events in his explanations of social
learning, cognitively based psychotherapy and even in the analysis of
terrorism.
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY appeared i the 1950s. It is an orientation
that rejects both the quantitative reductionism of behaviorism and the
psychoanalytic emphasis on unconscious forces in favour of a view of
man as uniquely created and controlled by his own values and choices.
Through experimental means, each person can develop his greatest
potential, or self-actualization. Humanistic psychology is related to
human potential movement and its encounter groups, growth centers,
sensitivity training, etc.
According to the followers of the humanistic approach people are
active creatures who are innately good and capable of choice. The main
task of human beings is to strive for growth and development of their
potential. The humanistic psychologist studies behavior, but not by
reducing it to components, elements and variables in laboratory
experiments. Instead, psychologists look for patterns in
life
histories of people. In contrast with behaviorists they focus on the
subjective world experienced by the individual.
Humanistic psychologists deal with the whole person, practicing the
holistic approach to psychology. Three important contributors to this
approach were Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and Abraham Maslow. Carl Rogers
emphasized the individual's natural tendency towards psychological
growth and health and the importance of a positive self-concept in
this process. Rollo May was one of the first psychologists to explore
phenomena such as anxiety from the perspective of the individual. May
also integrated aspects of existential philosophy into this new
psychological approach. Abraham Maslow postulated the need
for
selfactualization and studied the characteristics of people he judged
to be self- actualized.
The concept of behavioural and mental adaptation is the basis of
the EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH. Evolutionary psychology differs from other
perspectives most fundamentally in its temporal focus on the extremely
long process of evolution as a central explanatory principle. Evolved
psychological adaptions cannot really be characterized as good or evil
- they are only designs that happened to have been selected in
particular environments.
Table 1.
COMPARISON OF SIX APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
-----------T-------------T------------T------------T-----------------¿
³Approach ³View of Human³Determinants³Focus of
³Primary
³
³
³Nature
³of Behavior ³study
³Research
³
³
³
³
³
³Approach
³
³
³
³
³
³studies
³
+----------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------------+
³Biological³Passive
³Heredity
³Brain and
³Biochemical
³
³
³Mechanistic ³Biochemical ³nervous
³basis of behavior³
³
³
³ processes ³system
³and mental
³
³
³
³
³processes
³processes
³
+----------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------------+
³Psycho³Instinct³Heredity
³Unconscious ³Behavior as overt³
³ dynamic ³
driven
³Early
³ drives
³expression of un-³
³
³
³ experiences³Conflicts
³conscious motives³
+----------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------------+
³Behavio- ³Reactive to ³Environment ³Specific
³Behavior and its ³
³ ristic
³ stimulation ³Stimulus
³overt
³stimulus causes ³
³
³Modifiable
³ conditions ³responces
³and consequences ³
+----------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------------+
³Cognitive ³Creatively
³Stimulus
³Mental
³Inferred mental ³
³
³ active
³ conditions ³ processes ³processes through³
³
³Stimulus
³Mental
³Language
³behavioral
³
³
³ reactive
³ processes ³
³indicators
³
+----------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------------+
³Humanistic³Active
³Potentially ³Human exspe-³Life pattern
³
³
³Unlimited in ³ self³ rience and ³Values
³
³
³ potential
³ directed ³ potentials ³Goals
³
+----------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------------+
³Evolu³Adapted to
³Adaptations ³Evolved
³Mental mechanisms³
³tionary
³solving prob-³and environ-³psychologi- ³in terms of
³
³
³lems of the ³mental cues ³cal adap³evolved adaptive ³
³
³Pleistocene ³for survival³tations
³functions
³
³
³era
³
³
³
³
L----------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------------THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY IN UKRAINE.
An important cultural, scientific and educational centre in Ukraine
was the Kiev Mogilyanskaya Academy (1589 - 1812). Several well-known
historical figures had graduated from it, for instance G. Skovoroda,
the worldwide known philosopher, psychologist and writer,
F. Prokopovitch, the ideologist of the state reforms, carried out by
Peter the I, and many others. One of the tasks of this educational
institution was to prepare students for the Medical Surgical Academy
in St. Petersburg.
In the psychological scientific works prepared by the teachers of
the Kiev Mogilyanskaya Academy (most of these works remained as
manuscripts) the authors synthesized the
antique
(especially
Aristotle's) ideas with ideas of patristics and enlightenment. They
developed concepts concerning the essence of the soul (psyche) in
general, the role of growth and reproduction, as well as the body
sensitivity in the forming of mental qualities, studied the essence of
intellect and freedom of will. Focus was made on the issue of
motivation of human behaviour and actions.
As it was mentioned, psychology became an independent science in
the middle of the XIX century. In 1862 in the Kiev Spiritual Academy
the department of psychology was opened and in some years M. Troitsky
founded a psychological laboratory (you remember, that officially the
beginning of scientific psychology is attributed to 1879, when the
German psychologist Wundt opened his experimental
psychological
laboratory in Leipzig).
Later Troitsky was invited to work in St. Petersburg. His colleague
P. Yurkevitch, who's main work was "The Heart and Its Role in the
Human Spiritual Life", and who was one of the outstanding theorists of
the pedagogical thought in the XIX century in Russia, also left Kiev
to work in Moscow.
It should be noted that most psychologists after their first
scientific successes left their native cities and worked in big
Russian centers - Moscow and St. Petersberg. This can be easily
understood because in the biggest cities the laboratories were better
equipped, there were better libraries and more contacts
with
outstanding scientists. Therefore a specialist who had good references
in his home city went to the center. This was also promoted by the
governmental policy of centralization of all the cultural
and
scientific life.
The next stage of development of psychology was represented by
professors I. Sikorsky and G. Chelpanov. Sikorsky is the author of a
unique work
"Illustrated General Psychology with Physiognomics". This
monograph was the summary of the scientist's activities. At the beginning
of his career he carried out experimental investigations of mental processes.
The results of his studies were summed up in his monograph "On the Phenomena
of Fatigue in Mental Work in School Children". Sikorsky stressed the importance
of psychological culture in the mental health service. He promoted the
dissemination of the idea that psychiatrists should have a deep
knowledge
of psychology. He developed the issues of pathologic psychology
too, and therefore is considered one of the founders of pathologic
psychology in our country.
I. Sikorsky was well known abroad. His book "On the Phenomena of
Fatigue ..." was translated and published in Belgium and France the
same year it was published in Russia, and the following year it was
issued in England. His other books, "A Child's Mind", "On Stuttering"
and some others were published abroad too. They were used as textbooks
in Germany. I. Sikorsky also left Kiev and worked for some time in St.
Petersburg, but later he came back.
Before the October Socialist Revolution in Ukraine psychology
developed as an integral part of the world psychology. By the
beginning of the XX century in Ukraine well known scientific schools
had developed: in Kiev (G. Chelpanov, I. Sikorsky, S. Ananyin), in
Odessa (I. Sechenov, I. Mechnikov, M. Lange, S. Rubinshtein). As early
as that time psychology developed not only as an academical science
that studied the soul, but also as a practical part of social life:
psychologists solved problems on how to create best conditions for
optimal development of the human personality.
In 1920-s - 1930-s one of the largest centers of experimental
psychology was situated in Kharkov, the city that for some time was
the capital of the Soviet Ukraine. The well-known psychologist
L. Vigotsky started his career there.
By 1930s a group of talented scientists in the field
of
experimental psychology has been formed and worked in Ukraine (O. Leontyev,
O. Zaporozhets, O. Luria, I. Sokolyansky, V. Protopopov, L. Zaluzhny,
P. Zinchenko, L. Bozhovitch, P. Galperin and others). Most of them
worked in Kharkov and planned to make the Kharkov University their
intellectual centre. The conditions for research work at that period
in Ukraine were optimal, but later owing to the tendency to the
centralization of authority the material base of science
and
successful scientists were concentrated in Moscow. This was a kind of
artificial "brain drain" from the periphery into the centre.
Thus, the Ukrainian psychology has made a substantial contribution
to the world psychological science. But beginning with 1930s certain
political processes happening in the Soviet Union hampered the further
development of psychology. The resolutions issued by the Soviet
government in 1933 and 1936 stopped the research work in some branches
of psychology and resulted in staff losses among research workers. The
leading approach in psychology was I. Pavlov's reflexology (biological
and behavioristic approaches according to the modern classification)
and all the other approaches (for instance, psychoanalysis) were
practically prohibited. This situation lasted for several decades
until Ukraine became independent and the result was that psychology in
the former Soviet Union (including Ukraine) was limited and one-sided.
In psychotherapy, for example, suggestive
methods
(hypnosis,
suggestion, self-suggestion), rational psychotherapy and few other
techniques prevailed, whereas Freud's psychoanalysis together with
other psychodynamic methods, and later the humanistic therapy were not
known and not used at all. The situation was even worse in theoretical
psychology.
During the years that have passed after the former Soviet Union had
collapsed psychological science and services in Ukraine have developed
very quickly. Several books by the well-known foreign psychologists
were translated and published in Ukraine, as well as many native
monographs. Specialists try to make up for the lost time. The
training programs at the universities were reformed. New psychological
and therapeutic services were opened.
At present several psychological services work in Ukrainian cities.
Some of them are governmental and some private.
There
are
psychological laboratories and consulting rooms in the structure of
mental health institutions. Clinical psychologists work at general hospitals
too. Several private therapeutic and counselling services work already and
are opened every day. Psychology and therapy became popular in Ukraine, but
there is still much work to be done to improve the quality of psychological
services and the training of specialists.
LITERATURE
1. Psychology in Medicine. R. Konechny, M. Boukhal. Praha, 1983
(translated to Russ.)
2. Medical Psychology. B.D.Karvasarsky. Moscow, "Medicina", 1982
(Russ)
3. Dictionary-Reference book on Psychological Diagnosing.
L.F. Burlachuk, S.M. Morozov.
4. Modern Synopsis of Psychiatry. A.M. Freedman, H.I. Kaplan,
B.J. Sadock, USA 1982.
5. Psychiatric Dictionary. Fifth edition. R.J. Campbell. 1981
6. Zimbardo Ph. G. Psychology and Life. 1991. USA.
7. Walter Mischel. Introduction to Personality (fourth eddition).
1986. USA.