Psychology Blind Man and the Elephant

The Blind Men and The Elephant Task 1. The poem “the blind men and the elephant” teaches us that there are different approaches in psychology. Each blind man creates his own version of reality from that limited experience and perspective. So even though the men are all touching the same elephant, they are only experiencing a certain part of the elephant not as a whole and as a result they’re all left with different descriptions because they are only approaching the elephant from one perspective. 2. The word psychology means the study of the mind. It comes from two Greek words ‘psyche’ and ‘ology’. 3. The subject of psychology has been developing since over the last century where different ideas have been developed to explain how the mind works.

Time line :

Social approach
Late 20th century
1960’s onwards
Cognitive approach
20th century onwards
1060’s onward
Learning approach
Late 20th century
1920-60
Psychodynamic approach
20th century

Biological approach
18th-19th century

5. Definitions: * Neurotransmitter: A chemical that is released from a nerve cell which thereby transmits an impulse from a nerve cell to another nerve, muscle, organ, or other tissue. A neurotransmitter is a messenger of neurologic information from one cell to another. * Schizophrenia: A long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation * The Unconscious Mind: that part of the mind wherein psychic activity takes place of which the person is unaware. * Cognition: The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. * Discrimination: The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, esp. on the