PSY-402 Topic 1 DQ1

PSY-402 Topic 1 DQ1 Describe the emergence of cognitive psychology and neuroscience – what prompted the development of these fields, and what is significant about the shift from behaviorism to cognitive psychology and neuroscience? What can we understand about human behavior because of neuroscience that we could not have understood before? Class, The development of the neuroscience and cognitive psychology fields began with ideas that were either entirely rejected right from the get go like those of Thomas Willis concerning biological damage leading to behavioral damage until nearly a century later when they were readdressed by Franz Gall (Gazzaniga, Ivry & Mangum, 2013). Or, ideas like those of Marie Florens to experiment on animal to identify what regions of the brain were connected to which functions which helped to prove the ideas aforementioned, but the ideas did not take hold in the science community for some time and required tenacious persistence and passion for discovery by all those whose countless ideas and experiments added to the field that became neuroscience, the study of the brain and nervous system and cognitive psychology, the study of the minds information processing (Gazzaniga, Ivry & Mangum, 2013). The shift from behaviorism to cognitive psychology and neuroscience was the beginning of what we now know to be the biopsychosocial approach to looking at a human (Gazzaniga, Ivry & Mangum, 2013). All three components are necessary and the end of the belief that people were “blank slates” opened up opportunities to explore cognition and behavior and how the brain plays specific roles in these areas of developments (Gazzaniga, Ivry & Mangum, 2013). Not only this, these ideas were no longer abstract, but real and experimentally based allowing for validity in the science community. It’s impossible to list all of what has been learned because of neuroscience. The experiments done by scientists who were attempting to learn about the brain ended up creating so many fields of study including psychology, neuroscience, neuropathy and aided in allowing for surgeries on the brain without harming sensitive area of the brain or knowing which areas will cause what problems. The knowledge gained is invaluable and continues to grow all from the beginnings of people wanting to know more and pushing through all obstacles. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2013). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (4th ed.). New York, NY: Norton.