Psychologists
TEXT
Psychologists are concerned with a wide variety of problems. Some are of broad concern: what child-rearing (воспитание детей) methods produce happy and effective adults (взрослый); how can mental illnesses be prevented, and the like. Others are more specific: How can people be persuaded (убеждать) to give up smoking? What is the most effective method for teaching children to read? What area of the brain (мозг) controls speech?
Basically, we are interested in finding out «Why people act as they do?» Any action a person takes can be explained from several different points of view.
Just as there are different ways of describing any act of behaviour, there are also different approaches to psychology. The analysis of psychological phenomena can be approached from several viewpoints. One approach to the study of human beings attempts to relate their actions to events taking place inside the body, particularly within the brain and the nervous system. This approach specifies the neurobiological processes that underlie behaviour and mental events.
The view that behaviour should be the sole subject-matter of psychology was first advanced by the American psychologist John B.Watson in the early 1900s. He believed that, although man may be at times an active agent in his own development and behaviour, he is still basically what his environment makes him. Therefore, the basic problem is to find out how man behaves or responds as a result of changes or improvements in the environment or stimuli. This view focuses on the observable behaviours of man; that is, those factors that influence him in his environment and his reactions to these forces. This approach is often referred to as stimulus-response or S-R psychology. Perhaps the spirit of behaviourism is best seen in Watson's belief that he could take any healthy infant at random (наугад) and, given his own specified world to bring him up in, bring him up to be anything he wished - doctor, prince, lawyer, criminal and so forth.
Another approach to the study of man is psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud. Freud concluded, that personality and our degrees of mental health depend on the actions of three major (основной) forces: the id -our unconscious instincts, the ego — our conscious self or intellect - and superego, the conditional reflexes of social rules and internalised values (ценности). The ego, or self, is often under strain to withstand the pleasure forces from the id, pressured (оказывать давление) by the reality forces of the environment and the moral forces of our upbringing (superego). The ego and the superego are the mere tips of the id. It is what is underneath that really counts. For Freudists what is hidden is more important and real than what we feel and do.
The humanistic school view is that man becomes what he makes of himself by his own actions and thoughts. It is concerned with the topics having little place in existing theories and systems: e.g. love, creativity (творчество), self-actualization, higher values, humour, affection (привязанность), courage and so on. These are exactly characteristics that describe our human nature. Humanists believe that man is born basically good, and that conscious forces are more important than unconscious forces.
Russian psychology was inseparably linked with the development of research into psycho-physiology in the works of I. Pavlov, V. Bekhterev, L. Orbeli and others. The theoretical and experimental study of the basic problems of psychology was carried out by A. Luria, A. Leontyev, B. Teplov, S. Rubinstein and others.
Present-day psychology is a complex and differentiated research system extending throughout general, social, developmental, pedagogical, child, medical, engineering psychology.
Notes:
John B. Watson (1878-1958) - the founder of radical behaviourism.
Sigmund Freud [sigmund froid]
(1956-1939) - the founder of psychoanalysis.
1900s—nineteen hundreds
the sole subject-matter of psychology – единственный предмет психологии
Tasks
1. Give Russian equivalents of the following:
man is an active agent in his own development
some problems are of broad concern to psychologists
act of behavior
this view focuses on some phenomena
observable behavior
at random
basically
internalized values
higher values
area of the brain
2. Find English equivalents in the text:
психологи занимаются
широкий круг проблем
предотвратить заболевание
и тому подобное
в основном
объяснять с разных точек зрения
лежать в основе
предмет психологии
выдвинуть точку зрения
в результате изменений
влиять на что-либо
другой подход к изучению
зависеть от действия основных сил
противостоять силам удовольствия
психологи полагают
быть неразрывно связанным с чем-либо
ученые утверждают - scientists state
3. Fit the meaning and the word:
1) Give the name or details environment
of a particular person/thing
2) Knowing clearly what assert
is happening around
3) A person who is fully grown improve
(over the age 18)
4) Easily seen or understood apparent
5) Careful examination of some research
subject to find out new facts
6) Give a close idea; show reflect
7) Become or make better conscious
8) The central or most important specify
surroundings, people, way of life,
circumstances in which a person
lives
9) Feeling of worry or trouble essence
10) Make something which is new concern
11) Say very firmly adult
12) The central or most important create
part of anything
4. Make up 10 questions of all types to the text.
5. Find 5 sentences containing the verbs in the passive voice and translate them.
6. Determine the main idea of the text.
Контрольная включает несколько заданий. Задания по английскому языку довольно сложные.
