Chapter 1 - Psychology's Roots: The Path to a Science of Mind Flashcards
What was Plato’s contribution?
Nativism
Nativism
a philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn
What was Aristotle’s Contribution?
Philosophical Empiricism. A child’s mind was tabula rasa.
Tabula Rasa
blank slate - related to Aristotle and John Locke
What was John Locke best known for?
Tabula Rasa
Philosophical Empiricism
The view that all knowledge is acquired through experience.
What is the current debate between nativism and empiricism known as?
Nature vs. Nurture
What is Rene Descartes best known for?
- Dualism
- Mind and Body are separate
Dualism
How mental activity can be reconciled and coordinated with physical behaviour. Mind and Brain are separated but work together.
What is the percentage to which behaviour is nurture and to which it is nature?
It is agreed that the percentage that each contributes is 50%.
What is Thomas Hobbes best known for?
He was the first to link the mind to the brain.
What is Franz Joesph Gall best known for?
Phrenology - oserved brain size and damage in relation to intelligence and disease.
Phrenology
a now descredited theory that specific mental abilities/characteristics are localized in specific regionsof the brain.
What is Marie Jean Pierre Flourens best known for?
A physican who surgically removed specific parts of the brain and noted behavioural differences
What is Paul Broca best known for?
Realized damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific function
Broca’s Area
Small part on left side of motor cortex responsible for speech
Structuralism
Started in Germany as the first school of psychology.
The analysis of the basic elements that constitue the mind not concerned with brain structure
How is structuralism connected to Chemistry and Physics?
All trying to break complex compounds into similar elements
What is Herman Helmholtz best known for?
Work with reaction times to measure the mind. Hypothesized about nerve fibres.
Mass Action
Brain operates as a whole and cannot be seperated into different parts
What is Carl Ashley known for?
Mass Action
What is Wilhelm Wundt known for?
Structualism and introspection
-Started first Psychology lab
Introspection
the subjective observation of one’s own experience
What is Edward Titchner known for?
Forcussed on elemental qualities of consciousness. Student of Wundt’s.
What is William James known for?
Functionalism. Inspired by Darwin.
Functionalism
Study of how mental processes enable people to adapt. What is the brain “good for”?
What is G. Stanley Hall known for?
Focussed on development and education with influences from evolutionary thinking. Children devlope through stages that repeat humanity’s evolutionary history.
What is James Mark Baldwin known for?
Focussed on infant development. Establish psychology lab in Canada
Why did Structuralism fail?
Methods didn’t produce replicable observations
