IX. Read the text below to identify the difference contained in some of the existing views on intelligence. Express your own opinion.

Use the following expressions: in my opinion..., as for me..., I can't agree that...

 

One of the most influential schools of psychology abroad is that Jean Piaget, a most prolific writer. More and more psychologists and educators call him "Mr. Child Psychologist". His theory affirms the development of new cognitive structures in a series of age-related stages. There are: the period of preoccupational thought (2-7 years) characterized by the development of language and concept-development, the period of concrete operations (7-11 years), and the period of formal operations (11-15 years) in which the individual's cognitive structures are most highly developed to apply logic to abstract as well as con­crete thinking.

Though Piaget does believe the role of the environment in developing is strategic, he assumes that the child's intellectual potential is determined biolog­ically. In other words, certain functions must mature and development must reach a certain stage before the school begin teaching knowledge and skills effectively.

According to Vygotsky, the mental development of the human being contin­ues right through his education and rearing as a universal form of assimilating the socio-historical abilities of his time. Vygotsky believed that school learning contributes something qualitatively new to the child's development that it stim­ulates processes of development which would not occur without it. Vygotsky believed that what the child can do with help today, he will be able to do inde­pendently tomorrow. In the matter of the relationship between learning and development Vygotsky differed from other learning theorists in that he believed that development "results" from learning.

 

Unit 6

How Do Psychologists Study the Mind?

Цель – формирование представлений студентов об изучении психологами мозговой деятельности, использование знания иностранного языка в профессиональной деятельности и профессиональной коммуникации.

Key words

 

1. complex 2. unique 3. field of study 4. puzzle 5. humankind 6. source 7. interaction 8. determine 9. extremely 10. sophisticated 11. autopsy 12. surgical 13. gray matter 14. brain 15. cognition 16. perception 17. skin 18. rash 19. heart defect 20. approach 21. devise 22. confirm 23. disprove 24. expectation 25. evidence 26. at least 27. observe 28. directly 29. virtually 30. influence 31. raw data 32. enormous

сложный уникальный область исследований головоломка, загадка человечество источник взаимодействие определять, устанавливать чрезвычайно, крайне сложно устроенный, утончённый аутопсия (вскрытие) хирургический серое вещество мозга мозг познание, узнавание, распознавание восприятие кожа сыпь порок сердца подход разрабатывать, изобретать подтверждать опровергать ожидание доказательство, подтверждение, свидетельство по крайней мере наблюдать, следить (за чем-л.) прямо, непосредственно фактически, практически влияние, влиять необработанные данные, исходные данные громадный, огромный

Text

Psychology is the science of the mind and behaviour. The human mind is perhaps the most complex and unique field of study, and has been a puzzle to humankind for hundreds of years. The human mind is the source of all thought, behaviour, emotions, interactions, and it determines how we conduct ourselves in society.

The mind is highly complex and enigmatic. Many wonder how psychologists can study such an abstract and extremely sophisticated thing. Even if scientists look inside the brain, as in an autopsy or during a surgical operation, all they see is gray matter (the brain). Thoughts, cognition, emotions, memories, dreams, perceptions, etc. cannot be seen physically, like a skin rash or heart defect.

Experts say that the approach to psychology is not that different to other sciences. As in other sciences, experiments are devised to confirm or disprove theories or expectations. For a psychologist, human behaviour is used as evidence - or at least an indication - of how the mind functions. We are unable to observe the mind directly; however, virtually all our actions, feelings and thoughts are influenced by the functioning of our minds. That is why human behaviour is used as raw data for testing psychological theories on how the mind functions.

German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental psychology labs in the late 1800s. Since that time we have learned an enormous amount about the relationship between brain, mind, memory and behaviour.

 

EXERCISES