We mentioned in class that psychology is a combination of two other schools of learning; physiology, the study of how living things work, and philosophy, the theories behind why living things behave the way they do.
When I was in highschool, we had a section of our writing philosophy class dedicated to the idea of determinism. In the theory of determinism, every action and decision man makes is determined by his past, determined by every event that has influenced or shaped him in some way. In this theory, everything from why one would want to go to law-school to why one has a strong desire for hot cocoa on stormy nights is determined by past events that have shaped him to “choose” things the way he does. For example, I want to become a physician’s assistant. This is not a random choice, nor is it random in any way, shape, or form according to determinism. I am choosing to become a physician’s assistant for various reasons, all of which have been meshed together in my subconscious and influenced me to make this decision. Maybe it is because my father is a doctor, maybe it is because I get positive reinforcement from my peers when I come to their aid, maybe it is because I have been raised to think I should help others, or because people in medicine are regarded highly. Of these reasons I am not sure, but my choice is not the result of my free will, it is a result of my previous experiences.
This theory was immediately brought to the forefront of my mind when we discussed the theories of psychoanalysis and behaviorism. In the theory of psychoanalysis, early childhood experiences and trauma are believed to influence how a man behaves later on in life, influencing his personality. In the theory of behaviorism, an individual is shaped by how he is nurtured. External stimuli lead the individual to behave in a certain way. Both of these theories strongly relate to determinism. As a strong determinist, I am intrigued by these theories, and believe strongly in both of them. There are many aspects of my current life and of my personality that I can strongly trace back to childhood events and certain definite shaping events of my life. For example, I was a very fat child and got teased and chastised for it. Now, as an adult who is still on the larger side, I can trace a lot of the elements about how I feel about my appearance, how I judge appearance, and how I behave in regards to physical activity and diet back to the events that occurred during my childhood.
Just as play-dough can never return to its original shape once moulded, just as it is constantly changed, shaped, and turned, so too are our minds. Shaped by the past, these mouldings are outwardly projected as our behavior. As predicted by determinism, and as observed and studied in behaviorism and psychoanalysis, our past truly does determine our future.
I like the connection you made between determinism and psychoanalysis/behaviorism. There are some striking similarities between the two, and it really highlights the philosophical side of psychology. However, I think you left one thing out of your definition of psychoanalysis that might change how you link it to determinism.
Psychoanalysis focuses on the unconscious part of the brain. It believes that events one can not readily recall has affected their life. Being bullied because you were overweight (as also happened to me growing up) is definitely a painful childhood memory that has shaped your life, but since it is not unconscious, it would not fall under the category for psychoanalysis.
Determinism definitely applies aspects of both psychoanalysis and behaviorism, but I think behaviorism is the stronger link. Psychoanalysis isn’t as supported by research, while behaviorism has a bevy of experiments to back up its claims.
I really liked how you connected philosophy to psychology, but what really caught my attention and held it was the play-dough analogy. I think it’s a great analogy for showing the effects of the past on the events of the present and future. Although, I also feel that maybe the analogy could be more in-depth. I feel like living through life is sort of like having bits and pieces added to you. I feel like a better one could be that people are like canvases. We start out blank and as we go through life, we’re sprayed and splattered with paint. Eventually, the paint that we’ve acquired finally shows a picture of what we’ve gone through.