Chapter 1

Question 1

Who is credited with coining the term ‘psyche’?

Answer 1

Aristotle

Question 2

What did Aristotle believe was the role of the brain?

Answer 2

to cool the blood
(thought memories were stored in the heart)

believed the mind was outside the body and that it couldn’t be studied when a person died; the mind lived on after a person dies

Question 3

What did Rene Descartes believe about the mind?

Answer 3

• idea of a non-material mind
• that the mind is so complex that it can’t be contained within the body or brain (dualism)
• that the brain has some role in bodily functions and in basic thoughts

Believed the brain to be involved in basic behaviour and thought

Question 4

What is dualism?

Answer 4

dualism is the position that the mind and the body constitute two separate realms or substances

Question 5

What were the beliefs of Immanuel Kant?

Answer 5

• Critique of Pure Reason
• He felt that all human experience was drawn from the structure of the mind.
• He didn’t really define what that structure was, but felt that all people had the same structure - commonalities in thinking and reasoning.
• He envisioned a world where you could come to some sort of consensus on certain issues - ex. perpetual peace was possible because people shared the same structure of their mind, but didn’t define what that structure was.

Question 6

What were the beliefs of the mind of John Stuart Mill?

Answer 6

1800s
He believed in utilitarianism

Utilitarianism; idea that people will pursue behaviours that will benefit them over the long-term, that end up in positive results and they will try to avoid thoughts and behaviours that result in negative outcomes.

What makes him different - he felt that he could prove this. You could show this by collecting evidence subjectively using the scientific method.
Promoted idea that if we want to understand human psychology, it has to follow some sort of rigorous scientific method.

Question 7

Who wrote “On the Origin of Species”?

Answer 7

Charles Darwin

Question 8

How did Charles Darwin contribute to the origins of psychology?

Answer 8

• He was a biologist and naturalist
• Believed that abilities and behaviour could be viewed within a biological framework, and an evolutionary framework.
• Studied species of finches - beaks
• Advantageous physical traits passed on to future generations
• Thought and behaviour rooted in biology - natural selection of physical traits and mental traits

Question 9

What is the question of nature vs. nurture?

Answer 9

Idea of how much thought and behaviour is a result of genetics vs. how much thought and behaviour is a result of experience and learning

Question 10

What was the first movement to move psychology out of the philosophical realm and more into the scientific realm?

Answer 10

Structuralists

Question 11

Who led the start of Structuralism and what was the goal?

Answer 11

Goal: to legitimize the study of psychology

Led by: Wilhelm Wundt
- he is credited with starting the first experimental psychology lab

Question 12

What technique did Wilhelm Wundt and the structuralists use?

Answer 12

used introspection technique
- hard scientific experiments were used (psychophysics experiments)

Question 13

What type of experiments were used by Structuralists to measure human sensations?

Answer 13

psychophysics experiments

measured human sensations and how people perceived their sensations

Question 14

What did structuralists notice from the psychophysics experiments? Disconnect between what?

Answer 14

Noticed that there was a disconnect between how people perceived something and how it really was.

Question 15

What is an absolute threshold? How does this relate to Structuralism?

Answer 15

Structuralists measured how people actually perceived different kinds of stimuli and came up with thresholds.
One of the things they studied was an absolute threshold.

Absolute threshold
- When you can detect something from nothing
- Ex. faintest light or softest sound
- Give stimulus so faint that it cannot be recognized, then show much stronger and lower stimuli.
- Lowest detection = absolute threshold for stimulus

Question 16

What is a difference threshold?

Answer 16

• A change in the stimulus
• Ex. how much sugar could you add to a cup of coffee before a person could recognize the change in taste?
• Difference threshold also seen when you go to the optometrist - when adjust the lens and say “better or worse”. Looking for difference threshold.
• “Just noticeable difference”
  ○ law of perception that is still used today

Question 17

Who is Edward Titchener and why is he important to structuralism?

Answer 17

Structuralism was centered in Europe and then migrated to North America.

Edward Titchener opened up the first psychology lab in North America at Cornell University.
- His goal was to determine the “basic elements” of the mind
- He saw what he referred to as sensations - ex. presented with apple and allow you to define it in as many ways as you could - ex. shiny, red, juicy, tart
○ Break down thought into its most basic elements

Question 18

Who helped to popularize the growing field of psychology?

Answer 18

William James

Question 19

What was the main idea of functionalism and who was the main proponent?

Answer 19

William James was interested in asking the question: WHY? What is the function of these elements?

Rooted in Darwinian concepts of evolution and adaptation

Question 20

Did functionalists do a lot of the actual studies?

Answer 20

No, for example William James didn’t do his own studies - he left that to the Structuralists and wrote about experiments written by others

Question 21

What was the big contribution of William James?

Answer 21

writing the first general psychology textbook - “The Principles of Psychology”

Question 22

What is the importance of Mary Whiton Calkins?

Answer 22

The first woman to set up an experimental psychology laboratory in a man’s world

Did experimental work on dreams and memory

Question 23

What was the main limitation of structuralists?

Answer 23

Introspection: a method of measurement that asks a person what they were sensing

Put a lot of the responsibility on the person being experimented on, and sometimes people were not always accurate - not necessarily untruthful, but not always knowledgeable about what they were thinking or feeling

Question 24

What were the limitations of early psychologists?

Answer 24

• Introspection used as measure
• did not address complexity of human thought
• limited level of analysis (more at individual differences level)

Question 25

What are the levels of analysis?

Answer 25

Modern psychologists can analyze thought and behaviour from multiple levels:
Ex. music

Biological level = can understand what parts of brain are active when a person is listening to music, neurotransmitters active when listening, genes associated with listening or understanding

Individual level = how people perceive differs between people

Social = how music is exchanged between people, how people perceive it from a group perspective

Cultural = how music differs between different societies or cultures for example

Question 26

Does modern technology believe in nature or nurture?

Answer 26

it recognizes the interaction of both!