Task 1. [individually, then in groups of 3-4]

This is the most essential of all reading skills. It involves reading a text thoroughly in order to comprehend the ideas and arguments it contains. This implies a careful decoding of the writer’s text, usually with the aim of understanding not only the literal meaning of the text, but also the writer’s deeper purpose, his position, and other possible textual subtleties.

Approaches to defining psychology

their shortcomings

1.

2. a dictionary approach

3. a literal approach

4.

5.

E

5

Demystifying Psychology

In this regular feature examiners and teachers will explore baffling₁ or taken-for-granted concepts and topics to give you clarity and insight into their meaning and their significance

What is psychology?

1. What part of speech is ‘baffling’? What does it mean here? Hint: baffle (v) = to be too difficult or strange for sb to understand or explain

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145

From the person on the street to the professor of anthropology, everybody thinks they know what psychology is and yet within the discipline itself there is an almost complete lack of consensus₂. In this article we examine what some of the key problems in generating an acceptable definition are, and to what extent they can be overcome.

The first psychology book I ever read was a Penguin paperback₃ written by an American psychologist, George Miller, entitled Psychology - The Science of Mental Life. We will return to the significance of the title₄ shortly. Miller begins his book in the following way:

Several years ago a professor who teaches psychology at a large university had to ask his assistant, a young man of great intelligence but little experience, to take over₅ the introductory psychology course for a short time. The assistant was challenged by the opportunity and planned an ambitious series of lectures. But he made a mistake. He decided to open with a short definition of his subject₆. When the professor got back to his classroom two weeks later he found his conscientious assistant still struggling to define psychology.

Let us speculate₇ on some of the approaches the conscientious assistant may have taken and why they proved so problematic.

Everybody knows what psychology is. Don’t they?

Miller₈ follows his opening paragraph₉ by writing 'An alternative approach [to the one taken by the conscientious assistant] is to assume at the very outset that everybody knows, more or less, what psychology is all about.' He then offers the classic definition given by the first great American psychologist William James way back in 1890 when the subject₁₀ had only been established as a laboratory-based discipline for a mere 11 years: 'Psychology is the science of mental life.' (Hence my reference₁₁ to the importance of the title of Miller's book, above.) In my view, there are three key shortcomings₁₂ to the approach:

• Notwithstanding the eminence of Professor Miller, it seems something of a cheat to 'dodge'₁₃ the issue of at least endeavouring to construct a definition.

• Just the most cursory inspection of the things psychologists write to each other (for example in the British Psychology Society periodical The Psychologist) shows that psychologists – especially those from different branches of the discipline such as biological, social, cognitive₁₄ – tend to have very different views on what psychology is (or should be!) about.

• The specific definition given – from William James – was rendered almost wholly redundant₁₅ by the behavioural revolution (Watson 1913), which₁₆ in turn was overturned by the cognitive revolution in the late 1950s. The point is that all definitions have a finite shelf life₁₇. As with everything else, times change and psychology moves with them.

Let's try another approach.

Let’s consult the dictionary

OK, you could just get out your English dictionary and look up psychology there. But we like you to use psychology-specific books for your psychology. (Sorry if that's blatantly₁₈ obvious.) I can hear you saying, 'Ah but what if we use a psychology dictionary.' Significantly better, but remember that the writers of these books have to work to very strict word limits and must inevitably produce definitions which are 'safe' and have to skirt around₁₉ a lot of the controversy. And the next₂₀?

A literal approach

A rather extreme version of the previous approach is to examine the roots of the word and take that₂₁ as its meaning. The word psychology has Greek components (although it was never used during the Ancient Greek period). A literal interpretation would be psyche = mind; logos = study of. So, we're really back to James' definition₂₂ and have moved no further forward.

A historical approach

In his book The Beginnings of Modern Psychology, W. M. O'Neil (1968) tells us that the term psychology 'was created in the fifteenth century to refer to one aspect of the study of spiritual being. The whole study was called pneumatology₂₃ and psychology was the part concerned with the human soul.' It was not until 1732 that it was first used in a secular₂₄ (non-religious) way, by Christian von Wolff, 'to denote the... philosophical analysis and interpretation of mental phenomena'

Although I would be the first to acknowledge that it is impossible to understand the psychologies of the present without a good understanding of the psychologies of the past, I feel we need much more than this₂₅ to understand what psychology in 2001 is.

Before we move on, however, let me mention an excellent new book on the history of psychology by Thorne and Henley (see 'References and further reading'). Do follow this up if you get the opportunity, it's a fascinating read.

Dodge the first principles and let’s get practical

Notwithstanding what I said earlier about the problems of dodging definitions, this does carry some appeal. What many authors do is to argue that it is impossible to define psychology in a way that will keep everybody happy but that we can get past this by looking at the 'fields of psychology'. By using this approach₂₆ we can examine what we might call the 'sub-domains' of psychology. I mentioned earlier that bio-psychologists, social psychologists and cognitive psychologists (for example) have very different perceptions about what this thing called psychology should be about. Psychology is certainly a very 'broad church'₂₇ (to borrow a phrase from our Prime Minister). Can you just imagine how different the working day of a psychologist studying the neurology of the brain and its₂₈ impact on behavioural patterns would be from a Freudian therapist! But both₂₉ are psychologists.

However, before we abandon our efforts to establish any definition of psychology at all, let's try one final approach. How about:

What is it that psychologists do? And what do they produce?

Let me introduce two terms that you may not be familiar with, epistemology₃₀ and ontology₃₁. For our purposes here we can define epistemology as the way in which knowledge is generated within a particular discipline. In practical terms this will relate to the methodologies used, although this is underpinned by the assumptions which justify the use of those methods. So, for example, many psychologists have a preference for using the experimental method (often the laboratory experiment) because this enables us to manipulate variables, control and standardise the environments in which we do our work. It further enables us – if we have done everything properly – to identify cause and effect relationships between certain factors. Ontology, on the other hand, can be taken to refer to what it is we find out. To put it simply, it is the findings (knowledge) we generate by our epistemological activities.

Psychologists generate an enormous amount of knowledge (ontology) through their work with a wide range of methodologies (epistemology). Let us then say that that is what psychology is. Not a reductionist₃₂ couple of lines or a paragraph in a dictionary, but all of the things we do and all of the journals and books that result from this. Perhaps this is the only way to define psychology.

References and further reading

Thorne, B. M. and Henley, T. B. (2001) Connections in the History and Systems of Psychology (2nd edn), Houghton Mifflin.

Miller, B. A. (1966) Psychology: The Science of Mental Life, Penguin Books. O'Neil, W. M. (1968) The Beginnings of Modern Psychology, Penguin Books.

Paul Humphreys is Principal Examiner for a major examining board, a Senior Lecturer at University College Worcester and an Editor of psychology review

2. Is there a word like ‘consensus’ in your mother tongue? What does it mean?

3. What does ‘a Penguin paperback’ refer to?

4. What does ‘the title’ refer to?

5. Do you need to know the exact meaning of ‘take over’ here? Use the context to guess its approximate meaning.

6. What does ‘his subject’ refer to?

7. ’Speculate’ – true cognate or false friend?

What does it mean in this context?

8. Who is Miller?

9. ‘his opening paragraph’ of what?

10. What does ‘subject’ refer to?

11. What does ‘my reference’ refer to?

12. ‘shortcomings’ – strong or weak points?

13. ‘dodge’= avoid or try?

14. What do ‘biological, social, cognitive’ refer to?

15. ‘redundant’ – without a job or not needed/ not useful?

16. What does ‘which’ refer to?

17. Consider the whole paragraph to understand ‘shelf life’ of definitions. Literally shelf life = the length of time that food, etc. can be kept before it is too old to be sold

18. blatant = so easy to notice that it shocks you, so ‘blatantly’?

19. ’skirt around’ – avoid or produce?

20. What does ‘the next’ refer to?

21. What does ‘that’ refer to?

22. Do you still remember what ‘James’ definition’ is?

23. Use the previous sentence to understand ‘pneumotology’. What does it refer to?

24. What is ‘secular’? Hint: word in brackets

25. What does ‘this’ refer to?

26. What ‘approach’?

27. How do you understand ‘broad church’ in this context?

28. What does ‘its’ refer to?

29. ‘Both’ who?

30. How is ‘epistemology’ defined here? Hint: Consider the whole paragraph

31. What does ‘ontology’ mean? Hint: two sentences are enough to consider

32. Does ‘reductionist’ resemble any word in your mother tongue or any other language? Does it help you work out the meaning?

You can make use of different dictionaries, which could be:

• bilingual (English – Russian, Russian - English);

• monolingual (English - English);

• electronic;

• paper.

Dictionaries can be helpful but they are difficult to use well. The skills needed to use a dictionary well will depend on your purpose. Do you want to use your dictionary to help you to understand an oral (listening) or written (reading) text? Or do you want to use your dictionary to help you produce language (speaking and writing)?

Understanding (listening & reading)

If you want to use your dictionary for understanding spoken or written texts, you will mainly be interested in looking up the meanings of words. It is important to remember, though, that the dictionary can never know the exact context in which the word is being used, so you will have to use your knowledge of the language as well. You will need to:

1. use your knowledge of the language to get information about the grammar of the word you want to look up;

2. guess the general meaning of the word in the context;

3. find the word in the dictionary;

4. choose the correct entry in the dictionary, making sure that the meaning given by the dictionary fits in the context.

Production (speaking and writing)

If you want to use your dictionary to help you produce spoken or written texts, you will need much more information. You may need:

B.d.

M.d.

pronunciation

- how to pronounce the word

spelling

- how to spell the word

grammatical patterns

- whether the word is a noun, verb, adjective etc and which patterns it occurs in

collocations

- which other words it typically occurs with

frequency

- how common the word is

register

- which type of language the word is used in, letters or reports, spoken or written biology or business etc?

meaning

- what the word means

translation

formation

- how the word is made up e.g. what other words or affixes are part of the word, which other words is it related to

connotations

- what other meanings a word has, as well as its main meaning e.g. is it a positive or negative word?

example sentences

Sometimes a bilingual dictionary entry contains enough information for you to be able to identify the correct translation. But when this is not the case, you can try a double search:

• look up a word in a bilingual dictionary; the dictionary may give several possibilities in English;

• look up each of those possibilities in a monolingual dictionary to see which meaning fits in the context.

word

transcription

definition

translation

noun

E 73

1. approach [C]

[+ to ]

1. a method of doing sth or dealing with a problem

2. movement nearer to sb/sth in distance or time

D1

2. area [C]

[+ of ]

[in +]

1. a particular part of a country, city etc.

2. a particular subject or activity, or an aspect of it

E

136

3. cause [C]

[+ of ]

a person, event or thing that makes sth happen

E 4

4. concept [C]

[+ of ]

an idea of how sth is, or how sth should be done

E72

5. controversy [C,U]

[+ over/ about / surrounding ]

a serious argument or disagreement among many people over a plan, decision etc., over a long period of time

C9,

E9

6. discipline

[U]

1. the practice of training people to obey rules and orders and punishing them if they do not; the controlled behaviour or situation that results from this training

[C]

2. an area of knowledge; a subject that people study or are taught, especially in a university

C14

7. domain [C]

[in / within +]

[outside + ]

[+ of]

formal

an area of knowledge or activity; especially one that sb is responsible for

A(f)

E21

8. experience

[U]

1. the knowledge and skill that you have gained through doing sth for a period of time

[U]

2. the process of gaining knowledge and skills

[C]

[+ of ]

3. sth that happens to sb, or an event that sb is involved in

[U]

4. direct personal awareness of or contact with a particular thing

[U]

5. the sum total of the things that have happened to an individual and of his or her past thoughts and feelings

[U]

6. knowledge acquired through the senses rather than through abstract reasoning

E107

9. field

1.an area of land in the country used for growing crops or keeping animals in, usually surrounded by a fence, etc

2. a particular subject or activity that sb works in or is interested in

E78, 91

10. interpretation [C,U]

the particular way in which sth is understood or explained

E46

11. issue [C]

1. a problem or subject that people discuss

2. one of a regular series of magazines or newspapers

A (f)

12. nature [U]

1. all the plants, animals and things that exist in the universe that are not made by people

[C, U]

[by + ]

2. the usual way that a person or an animal behaves that is part of their character

[C, U]

[by + ]

[+ of ]

3. the basic qualities of a thing

A (c),

C6,

E16

13. science [U]

1. the study of the physical world and its manifestations, especially by using systematic observation and experiment (often used before a noun )

[U]

2. the study of science

[U,C]

3. a particular branch of science

[sing.]

[+ of ]

4. any systematically organized body of knowledge about a specific subject

A (a)

14. study

[C]

1. a piece of work that is done to find out more about a particular subject or problem, and usually includes a written report

[U]

2. a particular type of subject that people learn about and study, esp. a science

studies [plural]

3. subjects that people study, esp. several related subjects

[U]

4. the activity of studying for school, college etc

adjectives

A (d)

15. human

of or connected with people rather than animals, machines or gods

E11

16. key

very important and necessary for success or to understand sth

E73

17. literal

1. being the basic or usual meaning of a word or phrase

2. that follows the original words exactly

C13

18. major

1. very large or important

2. related to sb's main subject of study in college

verbs

E

105

19. argue [I,T]

[+ for / against sth]

[that]

1.to state, giving clear reasons, that sth is true, should be done etc.

[I]

[+ with]

[+ about / over]

2. to disagree with sb in words, often in an angry way

E35

20. assume [T] [that]

to think or accept that sth is true but without having proof of it

D1, E 105

21. define [T]

[+ sth as sth]

1. to explain the exact meaning of a particular word or idea

2. to describe or show sth accurately

F62

22. emerge [I]

[+ as sth]

to start to exist; to appear or become known

E39, 118

23. establish [T]

1. to start or create an organization, a system, etc. that is meant to last for a long time

2. to start having a relationship, esp. a formal one, with another person, group or country

3. to cause sth / sb to become generally accepted or recognized

4. to discover facts that will prove that sth is true

E

136

24. identify [T] [sth

[+ sb/sth as sb/sth]

1. to recognize sb/sth and be able to say who or what they are

2. to find or discover sb/sth

D6

25. observe [T]

1. to see or notice sb/sth

2. to watch sb/sth carefully, especially to learn more about them

formal

3. to make a remark

E85

26. refer

referred, referring

refer to [T]

PHRASAL VERB

1. to mention or speak about sb/sth

[+ to ]

2. to describe or be connected to sb/sth

3. to look at sth or ask a person for information; CONSULT

[+ sb/sth to sb/sth]

4. to send sb/sth to sb/sth for help, advice or a decision

C11

27. state [T]

to formally write or say sth, especially in a careful and clear way

A(h)

28. underlie [T]

underlay, underlain

formal

to be the basis or cause of sth

Some words, like analysis, analyze and analytical share the same origin and belong to the same FAMILY: they all have the same ROOT (basic part of the word) and their meaning is related. Learning to recognize root words and understand the relationship between different members of a family is one of the best ways to improve your vocabulary and understanding of new words. If you know just one word in a family, you will be able to wok out the function and meaning of other members of that family.

noun

noun-building suffix

verb

verb-building suffix

adjective

adjectivebuilding suffix

1. approach

–

подходить

approach

–

достижимый

approachable

-able

2. cause

вызывать

причинный

3. concept

концептуализировать, осмыслять

понятийный, концептуальный

4. controversy

–

спорный

5. experience

испытывать

опытный

6. interpretation

интерпретировать

толковательный

7. science

ученый

–

научный

8. study

изучать

–

9. человек

–

human

10. аргумент

аргументация

argue

Спорный / доказательный

любящий поспорить

11. предположение

assume

предполагаемый

12. определение

define

определимый

13. образование,

учреждение

establish

установленный; принятый

14. наблюдение

наблюдаемость

наблюдатель

observe

видимый, поддающийся наблюдению

15. касательство, ссылка, упоминание

refer

могущий быть приписанным

16. утверждение

state

–

17. –

underlie

лежащий в основе

humankind (n)

humanity (n)

people in general

1. people in general

…

2. the state of being a person rather than a god, an animal or a machine

…

3. (the) humanities the subjects of study that are concerned with the way people think and behave, for example literature, language, history and philosophy

человечество

…

human

Humane (adj)

humanism (n)

humanitarian (adj)

showing kindness towards people and animals by making sure that they do not suffer more than is necessary

a system of thought that considers that solving human problems with the help of reason is more important than religious beliefs. It emphasizes the fact that the basic nature of human beings is good

concerned with reducing suffering and improving the conditions that people live in

…

…

…

humanely (adv)

humanist (n)

humanitarian (n)

…

…

…

humanity (n)

humanistic (adj)

humanitarianism(n)

…

…

…

humanize (v)

…

Collocation is the way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing. For example, in English you say strong wind but heavy rain. It would not be normal to say *heavy wind or *strong rain. And whilst you, being an intermediate learner, can recognize all four of these words, it takes a greater degree of competence with the language to combine them correctly in productive use. To a native-speaker these combinations are highly predictable; to you they are anything but.

Collocation runs through the whole of the English language. No piece of natural spoken or written English is totally free of collocation. For you, choosing the right collocation will make your speech and writing sound much more natural, more native-speaker-like, even when basic intelligibility does not seem to be at issue. If you say *strong rain, you may make yourself understood, but possibly not without provoking a smile or a correction, which may or may not matter.

But, perhaps even more importantly than this, language that is collocationally rich is also more precise. This is because most single words in the English language – especially the more common words - embrace a whole range of meanings, some quite distinct, and some that shade into each other by degrees. The precise meaning in any context is determined by that context: by the words that surround and combine with the core word - by collocation. A student who chooses the best collocation will express himself much more clearly and be able to convey not just a general meaning, but something quite precise. Compare, for example, the following two sentences:

This is a good book and contains a lot of interesting details.

This is a fascinating book and contains a wealth of historical detail.

Both sentences are perfectly 'correct' in terms of grammar and vocabulary, but which communicates more (both about the book under discussion and the person discussing it)?

All good dictionaries now include examples of common collocations but they do it in different ways: sometimes they are in bold print after the definition; sometimes in italics after the definition; and sometimes in the definition and examples.

Still the power of normal dictionaries is limited when it comes to constructing texts, since they include only some collocations. So, if you need more collocation you should consult a collocations dictionary.

continued / continuing /

long-standing / prolonged

big / burning / central /crucial / important / key / major / vital

bitter / fierce / violent

minor / side

fresh / new

basic / fundamental

considerable / great / major

…

real

…

public

contentious / controversial

academic / scholarly

difficult / thorny

complex

live / unresolved

psychological

central / core / essential

fundamental / important / key

basic / simple

careful / clear

broad / general / wider

exact / precise

entire / whole

comprehensive

clear / precise

adequate / satisfactory/ acceptable

ambiguous / vague

broad / wide / loose

complex / difficult

…

narrow / strict / rigid

…

abstract / theoretical

official

underlying

conventional / standard

useful

alternative

modern / new

working

old-fashioned / traditional

dictionary

scientific

psychological

…

…

…

…

create / generate /

produce / construct /

give

include

raise

debate / discuss

address / consider / deal with

touch on

settle

avoid

arise

underlie

cause / provoke /

create

arise

exist

center on

define / formulate

introduce

develop