Carl Rogers also emphasized the potential for human good. He used client-centered therapy to help patients deal with the issues that brought them into therapy in the first place. He felt that the therapist needed to be genuine, have unconditional positive regard, and empathy. With these things, he felt that the patient was fully capable of working through their interpersonal issues. Humanism lead psychologists to an increased focus on the whole individual as a selfaware person. Because of advances in other areas of science, there was more attention paid to the field of cognitive psychology. The first textbook on the subject was published in 1967. Noam Chomsky was one of the major influences on this movement toward cognitive psychology. It combined the fields of linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and computer science in the understanding of human cognition.
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Modern psychology or contemporary psychology has certainly been influenced by history. In today s time, the largest professional organization of psychologists in the world is the APA or the American Psychological Association. There are 56 separate divisions of the APA that represent the different areas of applied psychology. The APS or Association for Psychological Science was developed in 1988 and focuses on the scientific aspects of psychology. There are many other contemporary associations related to the advancement of psychology. There are several branches of modern-day psychology that will be discussed throughout this course. We have already discussed biopsychology, which looks at the biological influences on human behavior. Later on, we will talk about the different aspects of the nervous system—each of which becomes important in the study of human behavior. The issues that are dealt with include neurodevelopment, biological basis of psychological diseases, sleep, and drug abuse. Evolutionary psychology is related to this field. It looks at the impact of genetics on human behavior. It is difficult, however, to determine whether or not a behavior or trait is naturally selected by evolution. For this reason, while it is believed that behavior has
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