In daily life, when it comes to psychology, most people always feel a little mysterious. As the saying goes, "it is difficult to draw a tiger's skin, but it is difficult to draw a bone." However, psychology can know all the "hearts" that everyone thinks are unknowable. There must be special doorways and secrets. Some people think that psychology is a great mind-reading, but others think that psychology is as incredible as astrology and divination, and more people may be skeptical. These views are produced on the basis of not understanding scientific psychology, and it is inevitable that they are biased. In fact, the human heart is measurable and unpredictable.
The human heart can be measured.
People's psychology is invisible, inaudible and intangible, so people often compare it to a "black box". What methods can be used to detect this "black box" as a psychology to explore the mysteries of the soul?
The first way is to detect people's psychology through words and deeds. Personal words and deeds are always dominated by their psychology. We can understand people's psychology according to their words and deeds. "Poetry expresses ambition", we can understand a person's ambition through his poems. For another example, whether a student does well in the exam usually produces different psychological changes, which are manifested in his behavior: those who do well in the exam feel elated, while those who do badly in the exam feel depressed. Through students' emotional changes, we can roughly perceive their psychological changes.
The second way is to detect people's psychological activities through physiological changes. Any psychological activity will have clues to physiological changes. Some are easy to observe, such as sweating when people are nervous and blushing when they are shy, but more psychological activities need to be detected with the help of sophisticated physiological instruments. For example, some people say that they never dream when they sleep. How to test whether they dream during sleep and whether they have psychological activities? An instrument called electroencephalograph can be used to record their brain waves during sleep. If you wake up those people who say they never dream when their EEG has a fast wave, they will vividly recall the dream they just had. This shows that the use of sophisticated physiological instruments can detect whether people dream or have psychological activities during sleep.
The third way is to test people's psychology through the inference of researchers. As mentioned above, students' test scores may be reflected in their words and deeds. If we further understand that this student is a consistent hard-working student, we can generally infer that a good exam will further enhance his enthusiasm and confidence in learning, and a bad exam will inspire him to redouble his efforts; However, if we know that the student has been doing badly, we can infer that if he does well in this exam, he may be complacent, and if he doesn't do well in this exam, he may be more desperate. We often make inferences like this.
A person's mind is unpredictable.
It is only one aspect of the problem to say that people's hearts can be measured. On the other hand, people's hearts are really unpredictable, because there are many factors that affect people's hearts. First of all, the relationship between human heart and words and deeds is not specific, but polysemy. For example, if someone smiles, it may represent complacency, or it may show affection for you, or it may laugh at your stupidity, or it may even hide a knife in the smile and intend to harm you. For another example, people's hearts are contradictory. This ambivalence is difficult to be found even in behavior, and it is also difficult to be measured by physiological instruments. In Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions, Baoyu dismissed Xiangyun's advice that she should pay attention to "economic knowledge" and said, "Sister Lin doesn't talk such nonsense. If she says so, I will be separated from her. " Daiyu was pleasantly surprised, sad and sighing. The person I like really has a good eye. I know him as a confidant, and he is really a confidant. To my surprise, he praised me for being selfish in front of others, and he was very affectionate and did not avoid suspicion. Sighing person, since you are my confidant, naturally I can also be your confidant; Since you and I are bosom friends, why should there be a golden jade theory? There is a golden jade theory, you and I should have it, so why come to Baochai! Sad people, parents died young, although there are unforgettable words, but no one advocates for me. In recent days, I feel trance every time, my condition is getting worse, and the doctor is even more weak in qi and blood, which may lead to fatigue and fear. Although you and I are bosom friends, we are afraid that we can't stay long; You are my bosom friend, but I am unfortunate! I can't help crying when I think about this. (Chapter 32 of A Dream of Red Mansions) Although Daiyu's tears at this time are the same as or similar to those of sadness, sorrow, regret and sorrow, her inner psychological contradictions are quite different. Therefore, it is often inaccurate to make a linear test of people's psychology only by words, deeds or expressions. Secondly, it is difficult to detect the mystery of psychology by physiological methods. As mentioned earlier, today we can use EEG to detect whether people are dreaming during sleep, but we can't detect what people are dreaming. Even if science and technology are developed in the future, advanced instruments can be used to detect the physiological reactions of dreams with different contents, as well as the different physiological reactions of image thinking and abstract thinking, but thinking consciousness is not equal to physiological reactions after all. As Engels said: "One day we can' boil down' our thinking to molecular and chemical movements in our brains by experimental methods; But does this include the essence of thinking? " (Engels: Dialectics of Nature, People's Publishing House, 197 1, p. 226) Third, it is often wrong to infer people's thoughts from daily experience. Take the above example as an example. Although students' test scores will be reflected in their words and deeds, their behavior is influenced by many factors, not just whether they work hard at ordinary times. For example, according to psychological research, how he attributed the success or failure of this exam is a very influential factor. You just need to think about whether he attributed it to luck, and you will find that the result will be completely different. It is precisely because the factors that affect our psychology are very complicated and diverse that psychological performance can be very tortuous. We may often make mistakes when inferring people's psychology.