Developmental psychology.pdf

Psychology in Our Times
Name Age Stature Manner
Clyde
Joseph
Leon
70
58
35
tall
medium
tall
quiet
ineffectual
smiling
frivolous
earnest
dignified
Years in
Hospital
17
20
5
Typical
Expression
"I didn t know
that!"
"I'm going back
to England."
"That's my
belief, sir."
Figure 1.1
Characteristics of the Three
Christs. The names are
pseudonyms.
NATURE OF SCIENCE
The French satirist and historian Francois Voltaire once described a deranged man
who believed he was Jesus Christ, and this man was confined by chance with another
man who considered himself the eternal Father. So struck was this first person by the
folly of his companion that he saw the truth of his own condition and recovered his
senses, at least temporarily (Voltaire, 1819). A similar confrontation, this one between
two women both claiming to be the Mother of God, also allegedly led to recovery
(Lindner, 1958). However, in neither case did the account include any significant details
about the change in delusional thinking or about the process of recovery.
It was partly for this reason that psychologists in Michigan conducted a survey
of the thousands of residents of mental institutions of that state. Among the false identities,
they found one Cinderella, one Mrs. God, several members of the Ford and Morgan
families, and the three Christs. These three men came from different backgrounds
and differed sharply from one another (Figure 1.1).
The three Christs were transferred to the Ypsilanti State Hospital for the purposes
of scientific research and hopefully a therapeutic outcome. But what is science?
Assumptions of Science
The term science means knowing or knowledge; more specifically, it means that certain
procedures have been followed in obtaining knowledge. Science does not refer to any
particular field of study; rather, it refers to a system for making discoveries, one which
is based on certain assumptions and follows a certain approach.
Orderliness in Nature Implicitly or explicitly, scientists assume that there is a
discoverable order in nature. This assumption, an orderliness in nature means that
relations among events are considered to be lawful, even though it may be impossible
to discover all the details of these relationships. Indeed, if nature is assumed to be
chaotic rather than orderly, there is little value in attempting to find out about things.
Outcomes will not be constant. Instead, they will vary from one moment to the next.
Orderliness does not imply fatalism, however. Fatalism is the belief that behavior
is determined by some outside force or deity. The notion of orderliness simply
indicates that there is a consistency in nature, regardless of whether the elements of
control are presumed to lie inside or outside the individual.
This assumption is most readily made with respect to the physical world, in
which the lawfulness is perceived by laypeople as well as scientists. Objects fall downward;
oil always floats on water; and light travels faster than sound. There is also an
orderliness in the social world, but it is not so readily evident. The very young and the
elderly generally are more religious than persons of intermediate age. The upper classes