American Functionalism

Question 1

Who coined the term ‘functional psychology’?

Answer 1

Titchener, ironically.

Question 2

Which schools of thought influenced functional psychology?

Answer 2

British empiricism - the Lockean tabula rasa model of men born equal and societies as organic units moving towards their own improvement; evolutionary theory (as an explanation of American progress)

Question 3

Functionalism in America may be viewed as a transitional stage between…

Answer 3

Structuralism and Behaviorism

Question 4

Pearson and Galton founded which statistical journal?

Answer 4

Biometrika, 1901

Question 5

Who applied Pearson’s statistical analyses to intelligence testing?

Answer 5

Charles Spearman

Question 6

Who first used factor analysis?

Answer 6

L.L. Thurstone

Question 7

Who developed the first widely used standardized intelligence test?

Answer 7

Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

Question 8

Who suggested the division of mental by chronological age to calculate IQ?

Answer 8

William Stern (1871-1938) - German psychologist

Question 9

What prompted the large scale use of intelligence testing in America?

Answer 9

WWI - a selection device for drafting youth in 1917

Question 10

Who was instrumental in founding the American Philosophical Society?

Answer 10

Benjamin Franklin, 1744

Question 11

Describe Pragmatism

Answer 11

From the Greek πρᾶγμα (pragma), “deed, act”. Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory.

Question 12

The three points of William James’ pragmatism.

Answer 12

1. Theoretical positions should be judged by their consequences.
2. A theory should be at least tentatively accepted if it asserts a useful, satisfying effect in organizing experience.
3. Experience is not reduce to either the elements of consciousness or the mechanical laws of matter. (it is a continuous flow of subjective events)

Question 13

The James-Lange theory of emotions

Answer 13

James (1884) & Lange (1885) - we experience emotion when we become aware of the automatic reflex actions with which our body has responded to emotional stimuli.

Question 14

Which pragmatist integrated diverse philosophies to produce an eclectic theory of consciousness?

Answer 14

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)

Question 15

Main influences on the writings of Peirce.

Answer 15

Kant - unifying sensory experience through a priori categories; and Bain - British associationism.

Question 16

Which German psychologist and philosopher wrote on the applications of psychology to social, commercial, and educational issues?

Answer 16

Hugo Muensterberg (1863-1916)

Question 17

Fist efforts in Forensic psychology.

Answer 17

Munsterberg, ‘On the Witness Stand’(1908); also developed the precursor of the polygraph in his lab.

Question 18

‘Hormic’ psychology

Answer 18

William McDougall (1871-1938) - psychological activity defined as behavior; based on “impulse”, instincts, urges. Behavior arising from inherited instincts can be modified by experiences, especially in higher animals. Also emphasized critical social variables that influence interactions within species, and how such behaviors are instinctually based and inherited. Congruent with contemporary ethology.

Question 19

Who succeeded in securing recognition for psychology as a profession?

Answer 19

G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

Question 20

G. Stanley Hall’s “firsts”:

Answer 20

• 1st American to work in Wundt’s laboratory in Leipzig
• started 1st legitimate psychology research laboratory in America (1883)
• started the first English language journal exclusively devoted to psychology (The American Journal of Psychology)
• organized the American Psychological Association and became its first president (1882)

Question 21

Where were the two centers of functional psychology?

Answer 21

University of Chicago & Columbia University

Question 22

The Chicago functionalists:

Answer 22

John Dewey (psychology + evolution as a means to a social vision; pre-Gestalt emphasis on the totality of movement)
James Angell (defined functional psychology as the acceptance of a biological approach to determine how the mind works in adjustments of the psychophysical person to the environment)
Harvey Carr (influential textbook "Psychology",1925, emphasized motor responses, adaptive activities, and motivation. Adaptive mental processes with purpose)

Question 23

The Columbia functionalists:

Answer 23

James McKeen Cattell (started his own company, The Psychological Corporation, to market psychological expertise and measurement instruments)
Edward Lee Thorndike
Robert S. Woodworth (influential textbook, ‘Experimental Psychology’, 1938,1954; a “dynamic” psychology, focusing on motivation.

Question 24

Women in early American psychology:

Answer 24

Mary Whiton Calkins (established a laboratory at Wellesley College, published an influential textbook, ‘A First Book in Psychology’ (1909), first woman president of the American Psychological Association (1905)
Christine Ladd-Franklin (theory of color vision, reconciling Helmholtz’s trichromatic and Hering & Mueller’s tetrachromatic theory)
Margaret Floy Washburn (first female Ph.D in psychology in America; pioneer in animal psychology, president of the APA in 1921; first female psychologists elected to the National Academy of Sciences)