HIN K LIK T E A S CIEN T IST WHY DO WE bEHAVE LIKE THAT CHAPTER 1 SOCIAL ROOTS To undERstAnd indiViduAls And tHEiR RElAtion scientific method to gather information and ships within a society social scientists use the examine what is found just as natural scientists such as biologists and physicists do social scientists ask questions and try to answer them with proof since ancient times people have been fascinated with the brain and how it affects behavior A Greek doctor named Galen who lived in the second century a d used his work on wounded gladiators and dissections of animals to hypothesize how the brain functioned From his experi ments on ox pig and primate brains he was able to show that the control center was in the head not the heart as earlier thinkers had believed Galen’s book On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul’s Passion discussed how to cure mental problems by having the afflicted person talk to an older male about their secrets and desires Galen’s Social scientists learn about human interactions by studying historical figures brain theories influenced scientists for more than 1,000 years 7
SOCIAL ROOTS The practice of lying on a couch below while talking to a psychologist began with Sigmund Freud opposite During the late 1800s scientists began to use more experimental methods to develop theories for human behavior In 1879 German physician Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology lab at the University of Leipzig in Germany That event is often cited as mark ing the official beginning of psychology as a scientific field and Wundt became the first person to call himself a psychologist In the early days of psychology the focus was on conscious hu man thought and behavior But in the early 1900s Austrian physi cian Sigmund Freud developed the theory of personality which looked at a patient’s unconscious mind for insight into the way that person behaved From his clinical work with hysteria patients Freud hypothesized that the experiences of childhood shaped an adult’s personality He theorized their neurosis had its roots in a forgotten past traumatic experience While undergoing Freud’s treatment of psycho analysis a patient talked about his problems with an analyst and addressed unconscious thoughts from dreams and fantasies The past trauma would be emotionally and intellectually confronted and then theoretically the problem would disappear In his book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life Freud gives examples of how a person’s unconscious thinking reveals itself through dreams and unintentional speech now known as Freudian slips Freud believed people developed mental disorders when the conflicts in their unconscious became too much to handle Although he wanted to help others with their mental issues he had problems of his own such as phobias abnormal fears about travel as well as a cigar addiction Though controversial his theories profoundly in fluenced the field of psychology and became the topics of art films and books 9
