commit to user 13
the phenomena presented within the characterization in Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies, therefore this research can be included in the third category of the
literary theory employment within literary research, the application of psychological theory within literary work. And as explained within this definition;
Psychology, the scientific study of behavior and the mind, Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005, the research will focus on the feature of behaviour
and mind which usually represented within the characterization of the characters.
B. General Psychology
“Psychology, the scientific study of behavior and the mind.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005. The points conveyed by the definition clearly
limit the field that the psychology conveys. The first is that psychology is a scientific enterprise that obtains knowledge through systematic and objective
methods of observation and experimentation. Second is that psychologists study behaviour, which refers to any action or reaction that can be measured or
observed —such as the blink of an eye, an increase in heart rate, or the unruly
violence that often erupts in a mob. Third is that psychologists study the mind, which refers to both conscious and unconscious mental states. These states cannot
actually be seen, only inferred from observable behaviour. Though psychology is considered as one of the youngest sciences, its root
had emerged since the era of the Greek philosopher. Even from about 600 to 300 BC, Greek philosophers inquired about a wide range of psychological topics.
Their interests of such kind of topic were formerly conducted within the branch of philosophy known as epistemology. Epistemology itself mainly discuss about the
commit to user 14
nature of knowledge and how human beings come to know the world, and interact within each own perception. Further, the early philosophers such as Socrates,
Aristotle, and Plato wrote about pleasure and pain, knowledge, beauty, desire, free will, motivation, common sense, rationality, memory, and the subjective nature of
perception, which even though on the most parts are only subjectively definable, but its existence is undeniable. Yet, they also argue whether the traits of human
are innate or the product of experience. After centuries of thought and theories, psychology finally achieved its
predicate as a formal discipline of science in the late 19s century. The modern psychology was firstly triggered by some findings within the older root of science;
physiology and philosophy, findings which discover the relation between mental illness and the physical one.
“Some of the early pioneer of modern psychology were; “James McKeen Cattell, one of the first psychologists to study individual differences through the
administration of “mental tests”; Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist who postulated a physical cause for mental illnesses and in 1883 published the first
classification system for mental disorders; and Hugo Münsterberg, the first to apply psychology to industry and the law, and physiologist Wilhelm Wundt who
established the first laboratory dedicated to the scientific study of the mind. Wundt’s laboratory soon attracted leading scientists and students from Europe and
the United States. He was extraordinarily productive over the course of his career. He supervised a total of 186 doctoral dissertations, taught thousands of students,
founded the first scholarly psychological journal, and published innumerable
commit to user 15
scientific studies. His goal, which he stated in the preface of a book he wrote, was “to mark out a new domain of science.” Adapted from Microsoft Encarta
Reference Library 2005 And among great developments of modern psychology, there was
Sigmund Freud who brought modern psychology into a new level of formal science with his theory of Psychoanalysis.
C. Freudian Psychoanalysis Theory
