Chapter 1 - Introduction Flashcards
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)
Changed the idea that the scientific method guaranteed objectivity and that science produced information in a steady, progressive way by showing science to be a highly subjective enterprise.
Introduced the concepts of Paradigms, which is a widely accepted viewpoint, and its reinforced through the process of normal science (the “mopping-up” operation) and likened normal science to puzzle solving which involve little creativity
Karl Popper (1902-1994)
Saw scientific method as having three components: problems, proposed solutions to the problems (theories), and criticisms of the proposed solutions. Because all scientific theories will eventually be found to be false, the highest status any scientific theory can attain is not yet disconfirmed
Created the idea of principle of falsifiability and risky predictions
Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994)
Seen as an anarchist, believes that philosophers of science who claim that scientists follow no prescribed set of rules, and whatever rules do exist must be broken in order for scientific progress to occur
He believed that taking an anarchist approach to science as without paying attention to idiosyncrasies of person and circumstances, what precisely it was that led to progress in the past, and nobody can say what moves will succeed in the future
Successful research does not obey general standards; it relies now on one trick, now on another, and the moves that advance it are not always known to the movers
active mind
Rationalist idea, mechanism that interacts with data from experience transforming it; the mechanism by which physical reality is organized, pondered, understood or valued
Anomalies
A persistent observation that a currently accepted paradigm cannot explain, Kuhn explained that a scientist or group of scientists then will propose an alternative viewpoint that accounts for most of the phenomena that the prevailing paradigm accounts for and explains
biological determinism
The idea that physical and mental characteristics are determined at conception by hereditary factors passed from the partents to the offspring. For example, evolutionary psychologists claim that much of human behavior, as well as that of nonhuman animals, reflects dispositions inherited from our long evolutionary past
causal law
Specifies how events are causally related, for example, if we knew the causes of a disease, we could predict and control that disease— as preventing the causes of a disease from occurring prevents the disease from occurring. Allows us to predict and control, more powerful than correlational laws and generally far more desirable
confirmable propositions
Part of the scientific theory, an assertion or theory that is able to be verified or disproved by trial and error processes
correspondence theory of truth
What guided scientific activity until Thomas Kuhun, the notion that the goal, when evaluating scientific laws or theories, is to determine whether or not they correspond to an external, mind-independent world
correlational law
How classes of events vary together in some systematic way. For example, exercise tends to indicate positive health.With such information, only prediction is possible.That is, if we knew a person’s level of exercise, we could predict his or her health, and vice versa
Determinism
Philosophical doctrine, The assumption that what is being studied can be understood in terms of causal laws
Assumes that everything that occurs is a function of a finite number of causes and that, if these causes were known, an event could be predicted with complete accuracy
Double aspectism
A person cannot be divided into a mind and a body but is a unity that simultaneously experiences events physiologically and mentally
Dualist
The belief that there are physical events and mental events
Eclectic approach
Using whatever method seems best able to illuminate an aspect of the history of psychology
Emergentism
Mental states emerge from physical brain states. A common analogy is how the unique qualities of water (its wetness, its boiling point, its density, etc.) emerge when hydrogen and oxygen combine— elements without those qualities. The emergent properties of water then are analogous to mind, as something that arises from the right sort of physical substrate (brain)
One kind, advocated by Roger Sperry, claims that once mental events emerge from brain activity, the mental events can influence subsequent brain activity and thus behavior
Empirical observation
The direct observation of nature, first step of the scientific theory
Empiricism
Contrast to rationalism, the source of knowledge is always based on sensory observation
Environmental determinism
Stresses the importance of environmental stimuli as determinants of behavior
Epiphenomenalism
The brain causes mental events, but mental events cannot cause behavior. In this view, mental events are simply by-products of brain processes with no ability to exert any influence
Epistemology
The study of knowledge
Asks such questions as what can we know, what are the limits of knowledge, and how is knowledge attained?
Great-person approach
Emphasizing the works of individuals such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Darwin, or Freud
Historical development approach
Showing how various individuals or events contributed to changes in an idea or concept through the years. For example, one could focus on how the idea of mental illness has changed throughout history
Historicism
Contrast to Stockings presentism, the study of the past for its own sake without attempting to relate the past and present
Historiography
The study of the proper way to write history
Idealist
Contrast to monists, the belief that even our so-called physical reality results from perceived ideas but share with the monists idea that they attempt to explain everything in terms of consciousness
Indeterminism
A viewpoint in the umbrella of Werner Karl Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the belief that there are specific causes of behavior but that they cannot be accurately known
Interactionism
A form of dualism, claims that the mind and body interact.That is, the mind influences the body, and the body influences the mind
Irrationalism
Contrast to rationalism, the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung claim that the true causes of behavior are unconscious and as such cannot be experienced rationally
Materialist
The belief that matter is the only reality, and therefore, everything in the universe, including the cognitions and behavior of organisms, must be explained in terms of matter, even so-called mental events are ultimately just physics and chemistry
Mechanism
The behavior of all organisms, including humans, can be explained in the same way that the behavior of any machine can be—in terms of its parts and the laws governing those part
Monist
Another term for materialists, the belief that explains everything in terms of one type of reality—matter
Naive realism
What we experience mentally is the same as what is present physically
Nativist
Contrast to empiricist, emphasizes the role of inheritance in his or her explanation of the origins of various human attributes
Nondeterminism
Because of free will and individuals ability to freely choose their own courses of actions, he or she alone is responsible for them
Normal science
According to Kuhn, the research activities performed by scientists as they explore the implications of a paradigm
Occasionalism
The belief that the relationship between the mind and body is mediated by God
Paradigm
Kuhn term to the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by the members of a given [scientific] community
Paradigmatic stage
Kuhn’s stage in the development of a paradigm during which the puzzle-solving activity called normal science occurs
Passive mind
Records physical experiences as mental images, recollections, and associations
Physical determinism
Forms of things such as genes, environmental stimuli and cultural customs that are all accessible and quantifiable
Stresses the importance of mental events of which we are conscious and those, like Freud, who stress the importance of mental events of which we are not conscious
Postdiction
Explaining phenomena after they have already occurred, a flaw in psychological theories such as Freud’s and Adler’s
Preestablished harmony
A belief by some dualist that two types of events are different and separate but are coordinated by some external agent—for example, God
Preparadigmatic stage
The stage before the development of a paradigm, in which a number of competing viewpoints exist and rival camps or schools compete for dominance of the field
Presentism
Contrast to historicism, a term coined by Stocking, understanding the past in terms of contemporary knowledge and standards
Principle of falsifiability
Karl Popper’s idea that helps distinguishes scientific theory form a non scientific theory as scientific theory must be refutable
Psychical determinism
Contrast to physical determinism, emphasize the importance of cognitive and emotional experience in their explanation of human behavior, the most important determinants of human behavior are subjective and include a person’s beliefs, emotions, sensations, perceptions, ideas, values, and goals
Psychophysical parallelism
Environmental experience causes both mental events and bodily responses simultaneously but that the two are totally independent of each other
Public observation
All scientific claims must be verifiable by any interested person. In science, there is no secret knowledge available only to qualified authorities
Puzzle solving
Part of Kuhn’s process for determining a paradigm, related to normal science, the problems worked on are specified by a paradigm, the problems have guaranteed solutions, and certain rules must be followed in arriving at those solutions
Rationalism
Contrast to Irrationalism, the philosophical belief that knowledge can be attained only by engaging in some type of systematic mental activity
Reification
The belief that abstractions for which we have names have an existence independent of their names
Relativism
The belief that because all experience must be filtered through individual and group perspectives, the search for universal truths that exist independently of human experience must be in vain. For the relativist, there is no one truth, only truths
Revolutionary stage
According to Kuhn, the stage of scientific development during which an existing paradigm is displaced by a new one. Once the displacement is complete, the new paradigm generates normal science and continues doing so until it too is eventually displaced by a new paradigm
Risky predictions
According to Popper, predictions derived from a scientific theory that run a real chance of showing the theory to be false. For example, if a meteorological theory predicts that it will rain at a specific place at a specific time, then it must do so or the theory will be shown to be incorrect
Science
Traditionally, the systematic attempt to rationally categorize or explain empirical observations. Popper described science as a way of rigorously testing proposed solutions to problems, and Kuhn emphasized the importance of paradigms that guide the research activities of scientists. Feyerabend believed it is impossible to give a generalized conception of science or scientific method
Scientific law
A consistently observed relationship between classes of empirical events
Scientific theory
Traditionally, a proposed explanation of a number of empirical observations; according to Popper, a proposed solution to a problem
Sociocultural determinism
The type of environmental determinism that stresses cultural or societal rules, customs, regulations, or expectations as the causes of behavior
Universalism
The belief that there are universal truths about ourselves and about the physical world in general that can be discovered by anyone using the proper methods of inquiry
Vitalism
The belief that life cannot be explained in terms of inanimate processes. Life requires a force that is more than the material objects or inanimate processes in which it manifests itself. For there to be life, there must be a vital force present
Zeitgeist
The spirit of the times
Compare and contrast Stocking’s (1965) notions of presentism and historicism, and discuss the relative merits of each approach
Presentism looks at history by tracing people, ideas and events that happened and following the string to what is important now. Historicism, on the other hand, focuses on studying the past without attempting to relate the past and present.
What considerations are involved in deciding what to include in a history of psychology?
Typically when considering the history of psychology we use contemporary psychology by a guide. The problem comes with psychology ideas often not being the result of a sole individual’s ideas but often coming from influence from others and those individuals were influenced by others and so on. Thus, when determining what to include in the history of psychology we use the “great” individuals who are known as great due to them synthesizing existing ideas into a clear, forceful viewpoint, (Darwin being a prime example as he wasn’t the first to formulate evolutionary theory but he substantiated it and popularized it).
Define a Zeitgeist, and explain its relationship to historical accounts.
Zeitgeist or a ‘spirit of the time’ is the idea that when looking at historical ideas oftentimes a discovery is made due to the fact it was the right time. For example, Ogburn and Thomas found two people who independently made essentially the same discovery at the same time, which suggests that the time was right for that discovery to be made.
Define both the great-person approach to history and the historical development approach. What approach did Henley elect to use?
The great-person approach emphasizes the works of individuals while the historical development approach which looks at changes to an idea or concept by showing the various individuals and factors through the years. Ralph Waldo Emerson supported the great–person approach saying that history “resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons,” while E.G. Boring stressed the importance of the historical development approach by pointing out how a new idea won’t be tolerated if not for it arising in an environment that can assimilate it.
Henley elects to use an eclectic approach, this emphasizes that sometimes the spirit of the times produces great individuals and other times individuals shape the spirit of the time. At other historical moments, we will see how both great individuals and the spirit of the times evolve to change the meaning of an idea or a concept.
