Sigmund Freud is the founder of modern psychology. The root of psychology is in ancient Egypt, India, China and America. Freud developed psychanalysis, which is the treatment of psychopathology (mental disorders) through a private conversation with a psychologist and his patient which is known today as therapy. Freud developed a dream theory that influenced the world throughout most of the first half of the twentieth century. Freud represented dream interpretation as “the royal road to understanding the unconscious activities of the mind.” In his view, the unconscious is made up of both innate information that had never entered consciousness as well as experiences of thoughts that had been shunted off to the unconscious and remained repressed because they were memories, wishes, or fears that were unacceptable. Despite the fact that most of his theories have been disproven, his developed concepts are still used in psychology research today. These include free association and repression. Free association occurs when someone is presented with words or images and asked to express their immediate reaction. The aim of free association is to reveal an automatic expression of the unconscious – the part of our mind we aren’t aware of, but that influences our behavior. Through free association individuals are sometimes able to access “repressed” memories, or memories that have been blocked out of their memory because of their association with high levels of stress or trauma. The brain structure consisted of
Frontal lobe:
- Motor control (premotor cortex)
- Problem solving (prefrontal area)
- Speech production (Broca’s area)
Parietal lobe:
- Touch perception (somatosensory cortex)
- Body orientation and sensory discrimination
Occipital lobe:
- Sight (visual cortex)
- Visual reception and visual interpretation
Pons:
- Balance and coordination
Brainstem:
- Involuntary responses
Thalamus – Amygdala – Hippocampus:
Thalamus is a gateway for sensory information and helps direct our attention;
Amygdala is at the core of our emotional system directing the fight or flight response;
Hippocampus is essential in memory formation. However, imagine you are someone confined in isolation where all you have is your thoughts and memory. As a result of trauma your mind might repress memory of domestic violence, child abuse, or memory of family or a friend being killed in your presented-or your conviction.
The study of psychology is helpful for brightening certain processes that take place outside of the brain or mind. Sometimes when we are confined in isolation we struggle with our emotions, while other parts of our bodies are activated in response, especially our nervous system. However, our personality and behavior are the result of our social environment in solitary confinement and general population which constitute both nature and nurture. Nonetheless, prison environment might shape behavior, especially when it comes to traits like aggression, persistence, and conformity. In fact, many studies have revealed that our behaviors change when we are assigned “roles” to fulfill. Some of these studies have been carried out in prison simulations where the roles of prison are circulated around regulations for guards, inmates and staff to follow. This can drastically change people’s behavior, (especially if they are genetically predisposed to behave in certain ways that align with their role), there’s that nature – nurture again coming into play. The special management unit, secure residential treatment unit, etc. here in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections adopted Ivan Pavlov’s studies on conditioning in the 1890’s using his dog. Pavlov found that every time he put food in front of his dog, the dog would begin to drool (salivate). Salivation is a natural response to a food stimulus. Pavlov believed to pair the food with another stimulus in order to create an association between the two. To do so, Pavlov began to ring a bell every time he fed his dog. After some time, the dog began to associate the ringing of the bell with food. Metaphorically speaking, inmates are considered as the dog. This is why in solitary confinement inmates are escorted around with a dog leash behind the back attached to some handcuffs and placed in dog cages outside in the yard. Inmates are rewarded every time they stay misconduct free, provide information to security, or show good performance at work. This will encourage inmates to continue this behavior. And C.O.’s are shouting every time inmates aren’t following orders or placing them in solitary confinement for rule violations. In that way, it discourages negative behavior.
The key difference between classical operant conditioning is that classical conditioning links involuntary behavior (e.g. salivating, panting) with a stimulus (e.g. loud noise, bright light) while operant conditioning links voluntary action (e.g. urinating inside, fetching a stick) with a consequence (e.g. shouting, treats). So, another example of classical conditioning might be a dog getting excited, for example, jumping around and panting every time he sees a leash, because he has associated the sight of a leash (the stimulus) with going for a walk. Going for a walk makes him very excited which is the involuntary behavior. For example, in solitary inmates are very excited to receive commissary food items after completing 180 days sanction or are very excited when seeing the leash coming toward their cells to be escorted to the yard after being deprived yard for two months. These studies for psychology experiments, unlike other sciences like chemistry or physics, uses human subjects. They must be studied carefully in order to avoid mental or physical harm. For this reason, all psychology studies using human subjects must be approved by ethics boards before the study begins. An example is the American Psychological Association’s ethics guidelines.
There are five principles that these guidelines outline:
Beneficence and nonmaleficence
Fidelity and responsibility
Integrity
Justice
Respect for people’s rights and dignity
In many cases psychologists will study the psyches (minds) of animals, such as rats or moles, because the ethical guidelines working with rodents are less strict than those involving humans. In the 1930’s rodents were recognized as being extremely valuable to the study of psychology.
John Watson, a famous psychologist created a theory about placing a rat into a maze where psychologists would be able to better understand human psychology. Here is a quote from John Watson: “I would rather see the behavior of one white rat observed carefully from the moment of birth until death than to see a large volume of accurate statistical data on how 2,000 rats learned to open a puzzle box.”
Matthew Wilson and his team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started experimenting with rats because they believed that it would be more productive than involving humans and they would gain greater results. Wilson and his team trained rats to travel a maze in search of chocolate flavored food rewards. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections state correctional institutions architecture is designed like a maze where inmates can’t break free but be repeatedly experimented on. However, inmates are captives inside the maze for the duration of their sentence. Inmates are operant conditioned to chicken sales and bake sales, or the ringing of a bell in the morning and afternoon that warn them that it is count, mealtime, or yard. Another example of operant conditioning is when an inmates lit cell light indicates an intention to participate in outdoor recreation in the restricted housing unit. Now, if the inmates cell light is off, or the light is covered with paper, he would be denied yard. The PA DOC weaponizes statute laws where it benefits their control mechanism…operant conditioning. Many prisoners litigated in civil court for the right of 1.) yard, 2.) shower, 3.) television, 4.) books/newspapers, 5.) law library, 6.) religious service and diets, 7.) adequate mental health and medical care, 8.) visitation, etc. The PA DOC misinforms young inmates when having them believe that the DOC had remorse and empathy when approving the above rights which they called privilege.
The animal studies originally arrived from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology and was later adopted within Darwin theory which has been proven to be incorrect science. Animal forms were commonly used to characterize and symbolize the sacred and is referred to as anthropomorphism. Watson and Wilson experimented on rodent rats. The rodent/rats were understood in anthropomorphic terms and Watson’s theory of placing rats in a maze was used to be able to better understand human psychology. This just meant the adoration of human beings in theriomorphic (“animal form”) terms was a late development in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Thus, Watson and Wilson do not have a true knowledge of themselves, and they are no closer to a true knowledge of self when it comes to a Brown or Black man or woman. That’s because to overstand human psychology you need a greater understanding of civilization without dismissing the root of civilization.
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