1.1 Psychology’s Roots: The Path to a Science of Mind

Question 1

What is the definition of Psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of mind and behavior

Question 2

What is the definition of the mind?

Answer 2

The private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings

Question 3

What is the definition of Behaviour?

Answer 3

Observable actions of human beings and non-human animals

Question 4

Who were the two earliest philosophers who pondered on how the brain works?

Answer 4

Greek philosophers Plato (428–347 BCE) and Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

Question 5

What is Nativism, and which early Greek philosopher argued in favour of it?

Answer 5

The philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are “innate” or “inborn”.

Favoured by Plato

Question 6

What is Philosophical Empiricism, and which early Greek philosopher favoured it?

Answer 6

The view that all knowledge is acquired through “experience”.

Favoured by Aristotle

Question 7

What’s a “tabula rasa”

Answer 7

A “blank slate”

Question 8

What can be considered the cornerstone of the scientific approach and the basis for reaching conclusions in modern psychology?

Answer 8

The ability to test a theory

Question 9

Which French philosopher argued that body and mind are different things—that the body is made of a “material substance”, whereas the mind (or soul) is made of an “immaterial” or “spiritual substance”

Answer 9

René Descartes (1596-1650)

Question 10

Define “dualism”

Answer 10

The position that mind and body are in some categorical way separate from each other, and that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical in nature

Endorsed by Descartes

Question 11

What did British philosopher Thomas Hobbes argue in regards to the mind and the body?

Answer 11

He claimed that the mind and the body aren’t different things, and that the mind IS what the brain DOES.

Question 12

What was philosopher Franz Gall famous for?

Answer 12

He came up with the concept of Phrenology (which is now discredited)

He observed that there is a correlation between brain size in animals, human adults, human babies, and mental ability.

He believed that bigger brains resulted in bigger mental ability, and vice versa.

Question 13

What is Phrenology, and who came up with the concept?

Answer 13

Phrenology is the theory that specific mental abilities and characteristics, ranging from memory to the capacity for happiness, are localized in specific regions of the brain.

Franz Gall came up with this concept, and went too far/extreme with it.

Question 14

What was the major flaw with Phrenology?

Answer 14

The exterior of the skull has nothing to do with the composition of the brain. Feeling peoples skulls for bumps and indents can’t reveal anything about the shape of someones brain.

Question 15

Who was the first to prove that a change in brain composition results in a change in behaviour?

Answer 15

Marie Jean Pierre Flourens

He surgically removed parts of animals brains, and found that those animals behaved differently than untouched animals (surprise surprise)

Question 16

Who was Paul Broca?

Answer 16

He was a surgeon who had a patient that had suffered severe damage to the left side of their brain (now known as Broca’s area), resulting in them only being able to say the word “Tan”.

Broca’s patient and research helped develop and support the idea that the mind is grounded in material substance, which is the brain.

Question 17

Who was Hermann von Helmholtz? Why is he famous?

Answer 17

German physiologists who developed a method for measuring the speed of nerve impulses in a frog’s leg…. that he then adapted to the study of human beings

Question 18

What’s a “stimulus”?

Answer 18

A sensory input from the environment

Question 19

What’s a “reaction time”?

Answer 19

The amount of time it takes to respond to a specific stimulus

Question 20

Who opened the first Psychology lab in history?

Answer 20

Wilhelm Wundt

In 1879, at the University of Leipzig, Wundt opened the first laboratory exclusively devoted to psychological studies, an event that marked the official birth of psychology as an independent field of study

Question 21

What is “consciousness”?

Answer 21

A persons subjective experience of the world and mind

Question 22

What did Wundt want scientific Psychology to focus on?

Answer 22

Consciousness

Question 23

Define “Structuralism”

Answer 23

The analysis of the basic elements which constitute the mind

Question 24

Who came up with Structuralism?

Answer 24

Wilhelm Wundt’s students, with Edward Titchener being the most eminent.

Question 25

What is “Introspection”?

Answer 25

The subjective observation of one’s own experience

Question 26

What were the differences between Wundt’s approach and Titchener’s?

Answer 26

While Wundt emphasized the relationship between elements of consciousness, Titchener focused on identifying the basic elements themselves, relying on a less replicable form of introspection than Wundt used.

Question 27

What was the main flaw with Structuralism?

Answer 27

Introspection is a difficult experimental method to control, since observers, unless they are very highly trained, can provide conflicting views about their conscious experiences

Question 28

What is Functionalism, and who came up with it?

Answer 28

William James

Functionalism is the study of how mental processes enable people to adapt to their environments.

Question 29

What is the principle of “Natural Selection”?

Answer 29

The features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent generations

Question 30

Who was William James largely influenced by when he came up with Structuralism?

Answer 30

Charles Darwin, who had recently published his book on biological evolution, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”

Question 31

Who was G. Stanley Hall, and what did his work focus on?

Answer 31

He focused on development and education and was strongly influenced by evolutionary thinking. Hall was a colleague of Wundt and James.

Hall believed that as children develop, they pass through stages that repeat the evolutionary history of the human race. Thus, the mental capacities of a young child resemble those of our ancient ancestors, and children grow over a lifetime in the same way that a species evolves over eons.

Question 32

Who was James Mark Baldwin, and how did he contribute to Psychology?

Answer 32

He established the first psychology lab at U of T.

His work involved the study of infant development, influenced by his daughters.

Question 33

Who are considered to be the first two Developmental Psychologists?

Answer 33

Baldwin

Hall

Question 34

Who wrote “The Principles of Psychology?”

Answer 34

William James

Question 35

Who founded The American Journal of Psychology?

Answer 35

G. Stanley Hall