Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Chapter 3 - Ancient Psychological Thought A History of Psychology: Ideas and Context (4 th edition) D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, and William Douglas Woody This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Early Chinese Psychologies Early psychological thought in China was anchored to the number five. –There existed five basic elements (wood, fire, metal, earth, and water), five senses, five emotions, and five basic human relationships. –Confucius was a great humanistic philosopher who investigated human relationships among other topics. Hsün Tzu was a naturalist –He emphasized the orderliness of nature. Yin and Yang are both opposite and complementary forces. –Yang is associated with force, hardness, heat, dryness, and masculinity. –Yin is associated with weakness, softness, cold, moistness, and femininity. –Equilibrium between Yin and Yang is essential to health. The Chinese connected mental processes and the physical body.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Babylon and Egypt Babylonia influenced traditions of the Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, and Arabs. Egyptian psychology was connected to polytheism and life after death. –Egyptians most often viewed the heart as the seat of mental life. –Women attained greater status among Egyptians than among most other ancient peoples. Other Eastern philosophies existed. –Thinkers in India and Pakistan investigated knowledge and desire, among many other topics.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Hebrew Philosophy Hebrew philosophy and psychology reflects radical monotheism. –Humans a biological, self-serving side and a spiritual side capable of serving the larger community. –The Hebrews’ notions of mental disorders were attributed to the anger of God or human disobedience.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Persian Psychology Persia was the birthplace of the Zoroastrian religion. –Zoroastrianism was based on the teachings of Zarathustra and the holy book Avesta. –Human beings were the testing grounds of good and evil. –Mental and physical disorders were viewed as the work of devils Diagnoses and treatments reflected these views.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Greek Cosmologists The Greek Cosmologists were interested in the nature and the origin of the universe. Thales argued that water is the primal substance of the world. Anaximander suggested that the basic material of the universe was apeiron, “without boundary.” –Anaximander was an early evolutionary theorist. Anaximenes, who was also a student of Thales, believed the primal substance of the world to be air.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Greek Cosmologists Pythagoras first coined the term philosophy, “love of wisdom.” –The Pythagorean school emphasized the eternal and unchanging aspects of number. –His wife Theana played a critical role in the educational activities of the society. –His daughter Myia provided early advice on moderation and balance in the care of infants. Xenophanes was an active skeptic who argued for monotheism. –Xenophanes was one of the first to distinguish between knowledge and opinion.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Greek Cosmologists Parmenides was a rationalist who emphasized reason over experience and a philosophy of being. Zeno used his famous paradoxes to argue that motion is incompatible with reason. Heraclitus argued that only change exists. His empirical approach led him to a pluralistic world of becoming. Leucippus and Democritus accepted a reductionistic and materialistic atomism.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Greek Medicine Greek conceptions of mental and physical illness slowly transitioned from supernatural to natural. –Aesculapius was a mythical figure who inspired physicians across Greece. –Alcmaeon was one of the first to argue for an empirical approach. –Empedocles argued that four basic elements (fire, earth, air, and water) are born out of two first principles of attraction and repulsion (love and strife) to make up the world. Empedocles suggested an early evolutionary theory based in natural selection.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Greek Medicine Hippocrates was the most famous of the Greek physicians –He maintained that balance of the four humors (black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm) was essential for health. –He was the first to classify mental disorders.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Greek Relativism Relativism was a theory of truth argued by Protagoras, a sophist. –Relativism argued that humans are the measure of all things. –These views provided a foil for Socrates.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 The Golden Age of Greece The Golden Age of Greece is characterized in the work of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Socrates argued against relativism; He claimed that through reason we can discern objective truths. Knowledge is virtue for Socrates –Ignorance results from evil.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Plato Plato was a student of Socrates before forming the Academy. –Plato argued that senses provide only illusion and that reason can provide true knowledge. –Plato reconciled the assertions of Parmenides and Heraclitus in his theory of forms. We perceive the temporal and changing world of becoming. This world derives its meaning from a world of being and from forms that are timeless, immutable, and unextended.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Plato Plato speaks of a tripartite mind including the appetitive soul, the affective soul, and the rational soul. For Plato, learning is the remembering of the knowledge of forms from before our birth. Plato discussed sensory function and perception and emphasized pleasure and pain in the motivations of humans. Plato argued that mental illnesses may be associated with irrational drives, discord among parts of the soul, or ignorance. Love can take several forms for Plato, ranging in a hierarchy from erotic love to love of knowledge through philosophy.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Aristotle Aristotle was a student of Plato who founded his own school, the Lyceum. Aristotle was an empiricist who approached the problem of causality in four ways. Aristotle argued for hylomorphism. –The mind and the body as interdependent. Aristotle attributes to the soul nutritive function, sensitive and movement functions, and, in humans, reason.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Aristotle Aristotle separated memory, a passive process, and recollection, which is active. He provided an associationist view of memory. Aristotle maintained that sense objects cause sensations with a different medium for each sense. Thinking is rooted in perception, but thinking may be flawed. Imagination does not have the corrective influence of the external world and allows greater freedom in thought. Aristotle advocated a naturalistic approach to dreams.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Aristotle Aristotle recognized the importance of pleasure and pain in human motivation, –but he advocated a “golden mean” of action between the extremes. He recognized four factors that affected human ability to achieve the good. –individual differences, –habit, –social supports, and –freedom of choice.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 After Aristotle Psychological thought changed after Aristotle. Thought transitioned from a pursuit of knowledge to a pursuit of gratification and the good life.